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.