means of enriching the vocabulary Flashcards
MEANS OF ENRICHING VOCABULARY
A. INTERNAL
B. EXTERNAL
Internal means of enriching the vocabulary
I. Morphological
a. Major
b. Minor
II. Semantic
Polysemy
Change of meaning
External means of enriching the vocabulary
Borrowings
composition
Composition is a major means of forming new words by putting together two or more than two stems or roots
compound words
- no element can be inserted among the components of a compound
- a compound functions as a single word; there is one meaning, it denotes one single notion
- compounds need solid or hyphenated spelling (sometimes they have separate spelling); some linguists do not consider spelling to be reliable
- compounds can be: idiomatic and non-idiomatic
- compounds can be: endocentric and exocentric
some cases where hyphens are used:
a. to avoid doubling/tripling a vowel/consonant, e.g. fire-escape, still-life
b. in compounds using antonymic terms. e.g. cause-effect, yes-no
c. in reduplicative compounds, e.g. hocus-pocus
d. in compounds with numerals, e.g. first-class, sixty-six
e. in compounds using letters of the alphabet, e.g. V-day, H-bomb, e-mail
f. in compounds with words denoting colour, e.g. dark-green
g. in compounds denoting persons, titles, e.g. ex-FBI, actor-manager
h. in compounds with present/past participle as 2nd element, e.g. word-building
Idiomatic compounds
in compounds of this type, the meaning of each component is weakened/lost e.g. windbag (a person who talks a great deal in a boring way)
Non-idiomatic
in these compounds the meaning of each component is retained
e.g. bedroom, apple-tree
Endocentric
in compounds of this type we can identify a semantic head or centre; the compound is semantically equivalent to one or other of its parts, e.g. bedroom, footprint, film-star
Exocentric
we cannot identify a semantic head/ centre, e.g. scarecrow, pickpocket
- compound derivatives
– consist of a compound stem + suffix
e. g. compound stem + -er/-ing as in type-writter, house-keeping
e. g. compound stem + -ed as in blue-eyed, red-haired
Nobody
[ADV stem + N stem]
Outside
[ADV stem + N stem]
Broadcast
[ADV stem + VB stem]
Conversion is also called
- also called zero derivation or functional shift
- Conversion is
the most productive means of word-building through which a word is created by changing the word class (the morpho-syntactic category), without the addition of an affix
(e.g. swim is a noun and a verb, plastic can be a noun and an adjective, etc.)
a. Major morphological forms
- Affixation
2. Composition
3. Conversion
b. Minor morphological forms
- Abbreviation
- Clipping
- Change of morphological accent
- Reduplication
- Back-Formation
- Folk Etymology
- Corruption
- Words Derived from Proper Nouns
- Portmanteaux
- Nonce-Words
CLIPPING (also contraction, shortening)
- Aphaeresis or fore clipping
- Syncope or medial clipping
- Apocope or back clipping
- Fore-and-back clipping
Aphaeresis or fore clipping
the loss of elements at the beginning of the word.
Examples belonging to this type are: plane from airplane > plane; bus from omnibus; phone from telephone. This process is also met in proper names: Becky from Rebecca; Tony from Anthony.
Syncope or medial clipping
the loss of elements in medial position. This type is rather unproductive in English.
Examples belonging to this type are: fancy from fantasy; ma’am from madam; miss
from mistress; specs from spectacles. Some special poetical forms are: e’er (ever); ne’er (never); what’er (whatever); which’er (whichever)
Apocope or back clipping
the loss of elements in final position. This is a very productive type of clipping.
Examples of this type are: ad from advertisement; exam from examination; taxi from taximeter. Also, with personal names: Will from William.
Fore-and-back clipping
the loss of elements in front and final position, e.g. flu from influenza; tec from detective. Also, with personal names: Liz from Elisabeth.
Ellipsis
a particular form of clipping where a word that is usually used in a phrase is omitted
e.g. private from private soldier, superior from superior officer; heavy from heavy bomber; final from final examination.
pub from public house (public house – public – pub)
- ellipsis + apocope
granny/grannie from grandmother
movie from moving picture
- ellipsis + apocope + suffixation
examples from back-formation
the verb to burgle was back-formed from the noun burglar
the verb to edit from the noun editor
the verb to blood-transfuse from the noun blood-transfusion
the verb to housekeep from the noun housekeeping
the verb to sleepwalk from the noun sleepwalking
- A portmanteau word (blend, blend word)
is a word, phrase, or construction that is formed by combining/blending parts of two other words
FOLK-ETYMOLOGY (also popular etymology)
Folk etymology is the result of the misinterpretation of the etymon of a word (when speakers do not clearly understand the meaning of the etymon, they tend to replace it with what they have in mind, coining, in fact, a new word)
examples of folk-etymology
sparrow-grass (for asparagus, from Gr. asparagus; the plant has nothing in common with the bird);
crayfish (for crab, from the French etymon crevice, which was misinterpreted and thought to be a kind of fish)
penthouse
criss-cross, hanky-panky, helter-skelter, brain drain
The term reduplication refers to the process of doubling a word/word element/sound; the resulting words
are reduplicative compounds, e.g. sing-song, tip-top, pretty-pretty, ping-pong, chit-chat, mumbo-jumbo,
criss-cross, hanky-panky, helter-skelter, brain drain
ping-pong
both onomatopoetic words
ping and pong are rather pseudo-stems than stems.
Abbreviation
The term refers to the shortening of words and phrases (kilogram to kg);
the result of such shortening (MA for Master of Arts);
a shortened form of a word or phrase, standing for the whole
Abbreviation- the term is applied in three
different ways:
- Abbreviation to initial letters [aka initialism] UFO, NATO, BBC, PC, UK, USA, B&B, BYOB, ICU, MIA
- A written convention which is unpronounceable in its shortened form, e.g. DR, COL, MR, ST, FR, ETC,
KG, GK, MS - Clippings – ad, flu, phone
Acronyms
Acronyms are abbreviations formed from the first letters of a series of words and pronounced as one word: NATO, UNICEF, radar, laser.
conventions for writing abbreviations
- Capital letters and points (I.N.S.E.A.)
- Capital letters without points (BBC)
- Lower-case letters (with points-e.g. and without points-laser, radar)
- Mixed capitals and lower case-letters (MoMA)
- Internal capitals (CompuSex)
- Hybrid forms (B.Com.).
ALPHANUMERICS
A type of abbreviations very productive in SMS language and e-mail language
e.g. CUL8R (see you later)
