A course In Modern English Lexicology

1 See ‘ Word-Structure’, § 9, p. 100.
2 See, for instance, E. Kruisinga. A Handbook of Present-Day English, pt. I I , 1939.
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According to the available word-counts of prefixal derivatives l the greatest number are verbs — 42.4%, adjectives comprise 33,5% and nouns make up 22.4%. To give some examples.-
prefixal verbs: to enrich, to coexist, to disagree, to undergo, etc.; prefixal adjectives: anti-war, biannual, uneasy, super-human, etc.; prefixal nouns: ex-champion, co-author, disharmony, subcommittee, etc.
It is of interest to mention that the number of prefixal derivatives within a certain part of speech is in inverse proportion to the actual number of prefixes: 22 form verbs, 41 prefixes make adjectives and 42 —
nouns.
Proceeding from the three types of morphemes that the structural classification involves 2 two types of prefixes are to be distinguished: 1) those not correlated with any independent word (either notional or functional), e.g. un-, dis-, re-, pre-, post-, etc.; and 2) those correlated with functional words (prepositions or preposition like adverbs), e.g. out-, over-, up-, under-, etc.
Prefixes of the second type are qualified as s e m i b o u n d morp h e m e s , which implies that they occur in speech in various utterances both as independent words and as derivational affixes, e.g. ‘over one’s head’, ‘over the river’ (cf. to over lap, to over pass); ‘to run out’, ‘to take smb out’ (cf. to out grow, to out line); ‘ to look up’, ‘hands up’ (cf. up-stairs, to up set); ‘ under the same roof, ‘to go under’ (cf. to under estimate, under current), etc.
It should be mentioned that English prefixes of the second type essentially differ from the functional words they are correlated with: a) like any other derivational affixes they have a more generalised meaning in comparison with the more concrete meanings of the correlated words (see the examples given above); they are characterised by a unity of different denotational components of meaning — a generalised component common to a set of prefixes and individual semantic component distinguishing the given prefix within the set.
b) they are deprived of all grammatical features peculiar to the independent words they are correlated with;
c) they tend to develop a meaning not found in the correlated words; d) they form regular sets of words of the same semantic type.
Of late some new investigations into the problem of prefixation in English have yielded interesting results. It appears that the traditional opinion, current among linguists, that prefixes modify only the lexical meaning of words without changing the part of speech is not quite correct with regard to the English language. In English there are about 25 prefixes which can transfer words to a different part of speech in comparison with their original stems. Such prefixes should perhaps be called conversive prefixes, e.g.
to begulf (cf. gulf n), to debus (cf. bus n); to embronze (cf. bronze n), etc. If further investigation of English prefixation gives 1 The figures are borrowed from: К. В. Пиоттух. Система префиксации в современном английском языке. Канд. дисс. М., 1971.
2 See ‘Word-Structure’, § 3, р. 92.
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more proofs of the conversive ability of prefixes, it will then be possible to draw the conclusion that in this respect there is no functional difference between suffixes and prefixes, for suffixes in English are also both conversive (cf. hand — handless) and non-conversive (cf. father — father-hood, horseman — horsemanship, etc.).
Some recent investigations in the field of English affixation have revealed a close interdependence between the meanings of a polysemantic affix and the lexico-semantic group to which belongs the base it is affixed to, which results in the difference between structural and structural-semantic derivational patterns the prefix forms. A good illustration in point is the prefix en-.
When within the same structural pattern en -+n —> V, the prefix is combined with noun bases denoting articles of clothing, things of luxury, etc. it forms derived verbs expressing an action of putting or placing on, e.g. enrobe (cf. robe), enjewel (cf. jewel), enlace (cf. lace), etc.
When added to noun bases referring to various land forms, means of transportation, containers and notions of geometry it builds derived verbs denoting an action of putting or placing in or into, e.g. embed (cf. bed), entrap (cf. trap), embark (cf. bark), entrain (cf. train), encircle (cf. circle), etc.
In combination with noun bases denoting an agent or an abstract notion the prefix en- produces causative verbs, e.g. enslave (cf. slave), en-danger (cf. danger), encourage (cf. courage), etc.
Unlike suffixation, which is usually more
§ 8. Classification of Prefixes closely bound up with the paradigm of a certain part of speech, prefixation is considered to be more neutral in this respect.
It is significant that in linguistic literature derivational suffixes are always divided into noun-forming, adjective-forming, etc. Prefixes, however, are treated differently. They are described either in alphabetical order or subdivided into several classes in accordance with their origin, meaning or function and never according to the part of speech.
Prefixes may be classified on different principles. Diachronically distinction is made between prefixes of native and foreign origin.1 Synchronically prefixes may be classified:
1) according to the class of words they preferably form. Recent investigations, as has been mentioned above, allow one to classify prefixes according to this principle. It must be noted that most of the 51 prefixes of Modern English function in more than one part of speech forming different structural and structural-semantic patterns. A small group of 5 prefixes may be referred to exclusively verb-forming (en-, be-, un-, etc.).
The majority of prefixes (in their various denotational meanings) tend to function either in nominal parts of speech (41 patterns in adjectives, 42
in nouns) or in verbs (22 patterns);
2) as to the type of lexical-grammatical character of the base they are added to into: a) deverbal, e. g. rewrite, outstay, overdo, etc.; b) denominal, e.g. unbutton, detrain, ex-president, etc. and c) deadjectival, e.g.
1 See ‘Word-Formation’, § 14, p. 125.
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uneasy, biannual, etc. It is of interest to note that the most productive prefixal pattern for adjectives is the one made up of the prefix un- and the base built either on adjectival stems or present and past participle, e.g. unknown, unsmiling, unseen, etc.;
3) semantically prefixes fall into mono- and polysemantic 1; 4) as to the generic denotational meaning there are different groups that are distinguished in linguistic literature:
a) negative prefixes, such as: un1-, non-, in-, dis1-, a-, e.g. ungrateful (cf. grateful), unemployment (cf. employment), non-politician (cf. politician), non-scientific (cf. scientific), incorrect (cf. correct), disloyal (cf.
loyal), disadvantage (cf. advantage), amoral (cf. moral), asymmetry (cf.
symmetry), etc.
It may be mentioned in passing that the prefix in- occurs in different phonetic shapes depending on the initial sound of the base it is affixed to; in other words, the prefixal morpheme in question has several allom-porphs, namely il- (before [l]), im- (before [p, m],) ir- (before [r]), in- in all other cases, e.g. illegal, improbable, immaterial, irreligious, inac-tive, etc.;
b) reversative or privative prefixes, such as un2-, de-, dis2-, e.g. untie (cf. tie), unleash (cf. leash), decentralise (cf. centralise), disconnect (cf.
connect), etc.;
c) pejorative prefixes, such as mis-, mal-, pseudo-, e.g. miscalculate (cf. calculate), misinform (cf. inform), maltreat (cf. treat), pseudo-classicism (cf. classicism), pseudo-scientific (cf. scientific), etc.; d) prefixes of time and order, such as fore-, pre-, post-, ex-, e.g. fore-tell (cf. tell), foreknowledge (cf. knowledge), pre-war (cf. war), post-war (cf. war), post-classical (cf. classical), ex-president (cf. president); e) prefix of repetition re-, e.g. rebuild (cf. build), re-write (cf. write), etc;
f) locative prefixes, such as super-, sub-, inter-, trans-, e.g. superstructure (cf. structure), subway (cf. way), inter-continental (cf. continental), trans-atlantic (cf. Atlantic), etc. and some other groups; 5) when viewed from the angle of their stylistic reference English prefixes fall into those characterised by n e u t r a l s t y l i s t i c r e f e r e n c e and those p o s s e s s i n g q u i t e a d e f i n i t e s t y l i s t i c v a l u e . As no exhaustive lexico-stylistic classification of English prefixes has yet been suggested, a few examples can only be adduced here. There is no doubt, for instance, that prefixes like un1-, un2-, out-, over-, re-, under- and some others can be qualified as neutral prefixes, e.g., unnatural, unknown, unlace, outnumber, oversee, resell, underestimate, etc. On the other hand, one can hardly fail to perceive the literary-bookish character of such prefixes as pseudo-, super-, ultra-, uni-, bi- and some others, e.g. pseudo-classical, superstructure, ultra-violet, unilateral, bifocal, etc.
Sometimes one comes across pairs of prefixes one of which is neutral, the other is stylistically coloured/One example will suffice here: the 1 For more details see ‘Word-Formation’, § 11, p. 121. 18
pref i x over- occurs in all functional styles, the prefix super- is peculiar to the style of scientific prose.
6) prefixes may be also classified as to the degree of productivity into highly-productive, productive and non-productive.1
S u f f i x a t i o n is the formation of
§ 9. Suffixation. words with the help of suffixes. Suffixes Peculiarities of Some Suffixes usually modify the lexical meaning of the base and transfer words to a, different part of speech. There are suffixes however, which do not shift words from one part of speech into another; a suffix of this kind usually transfers a word into a different semantic group, e.g. a concrete noun becomes an abstract one, as is the case with child —
childhood, friend — friendship, etc.
Chains of suffixes occurring in derived words having two and more suffixal morphemes are sometimes referred to in lexicography as compound suffixes: -ably = -able + -ly (e.g. profitably, unreasonably); -
ically = - i c + -al + -ly (e.g. musically, critically); -ation = -ate + -ion (e.g. fascination, isolation) and some others. Compound suffixes do not always present a mere succession of two or more suffixes arising out of several consecutive stages of derivation. Some of them acquire a new qual i t y operating as a whole unit. Let us examine from this point of view the suffix -ation in words like fascination, translation, adaptation and the like. Adaptation looks at first sight like a parallel to fascination, translation. The latter however are first-degree derivatives built with the suffix -ion on the bases fascinate-, translate-. But there is no base adap-tate-, only the shorter base adapt-. Likewise damnation, condemnation, formation, information and many others are not matched by shorter bases ending in -ate, but only by still shorter ones damn-, condemn-, form-, inform-. Thus, the suffix -ation is a specific suffix of a composite nature. It consists of two suffixes -ate and -ion, but in many cases functions as a single unit in first-degree derivatives. It is referred to in linguistic literature as a coalescent suffix or a group suffix. Adaptation is then a derivative of the first degree of derivation built with the coalescent suffix on the base adapt-.
Of interest is also the group-suffix -manship consisting of the suffixes
-man 2 and -ship. It denotes a superior quality, ability of doing something to perfection, e.g. authormanship, quotemanship, Upmanship, etc. (cf.
statesmanship, or chairmanship built by adding the suffix -ship to the compound base statesman- and chairman- respectively).
It also seems appropriate to make several remarks about the morphological changes that sometimes accompany the process of combining derivational morphemes with bases. Although this problem has been so far insufficiently investigated, some observations have been made and some data collected. For instance, the noun-forming suffix -ess for names of female beings brings about a certain change in the phonetic shape of the correlative male noun provided the latter ends in -er, -or, e.g. actress 1 See ‘Word-Formation’, § 13, p. 123.
2 See ‘Word-Structure’, § 3, p. 92.
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(cf. actor), sculptress (cf. sculptor), tigress (cf. tiger), etc. It may be easily, observed that in such cases the sound [9] is contracted in the feminine nouns.
Further, there are suffixes due to which the primary stress is shifted to the syllable immediately preceding them, e.g. courageous (cf. courage), stability (cf. stable), investigation (cf. investigate), peculiarity (cf. peculiar), etc. When added to a base having the suffix -able/-ible as its component, the suffix -ity brings about a change in its phonetic shape, namely the vowel [i] is inserted between [b] and [1], e.g. possible — possibility, changeable — changeability, etc. Some suffixes attract the primary stress on to themselves, there is a secondary stress on the first syllable in words with such suffixes, e.g. èmployée (cf. em´ploy), `govern´mental (cf.
govern), `pictuŕesque (cf. picture).
There are different classifications of suffixes