names of people with whom the scandal is connected or a geographical name
denoting the place where the scandal occurred.
The splinter «mobile» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word
«automobile» and is used to denote special types of automobiles, such as:
«artmobile», «bookmobile», «snowmobile», «tourmobile» etc.
The splinter «napper» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word
«kidnapper» and is used to denote different types of crimesters, such as :
«busnapper», «babynapper», «dognapper» etc. From such nouns the
corresponding verbs are formed by means of backformation, e.g. «to busnap»,
«to babynap», «to dognap».
The splinter «omat» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word
«automat» (a cafe in which meals are provided in slot-machines). The
meaning «self-service» is used in such words as «laundromat», «cashomat»
etc.
Another splinter «eteria» with the meaning «self-service» was formed by
clipping the beginning of the word «cafeteria». By means of the splinter
«eteria» the following words were formed: «groceteria», «booketeria»,
«booteteria» and many others.
The splinter «quake» is used to form new words with the meaning of
«shaking», «agitation». This splinter was formed by clipping the
beginning of the word «earthquake». Ther following words were formed with
the help of this splinter: «Marsquake», «Moonquake», «youthquake» etc.
The splinter «rama(ama)» is a clipping of the word «panorama» of Greek
origin where «pan» means «all» and «horama» means «view». In Modern
English the meaning «view» was lost and the splinter «rama» is used in
advertisements to denote objects of supreme quality, e.g. «autorama» means
«exhibition-sale of expensive cars», «trouserama» means «sale of trousers
of supreme quality» etc.
The splinter «scape» is a clipping of the word «landscape» and it is
used to form words denoting different types of landscapes, such as:
«moonscape», «streetscape», «townscape», «seascape» etc.
Another case of splinters is «tel» which is the result of clipping the
beginning of the word «hotel». It serves to form words denoting different
types of hotels, such as: «motel» (motor-car hotel), «boatel» (boat hotel),
«floatel» (a hotel on water, floating), «airtel» (airport hotel) etc.
The splinter «theque» is the result of clipping the beginning of the word
«apotheque» of Greek origin which means in Greek «a store house». In
Russian words: «áèáëèîòåêà», «êàðòîòåêà», «ôèëüìîòåêà» the element
«òåêà» corresponding to the English «theque» preserves the meaning of
storing something which is expressed by the first component of the word. In
English the splinter «theque» is used to denote a place for dancing, such
as: «discotheque», «jazzotheque».
The splinter «thon» is the result of clipping the beginning of the word
«marathon». «Marathon» primarily was the name of a battle-field in Greece,
forty miles from Athens, where there was a battle between the Greek and
the Persian. When the Greek won a victory a Greek runner was sent to Athens
to tell people about the victory. Later on the word «Marathon» was used
to denote long-distance competitions in running. The splinter
«thon(athon)» denotes «something continuing for a long time», «competition
in endurance» e.g. «dancathon», «telethon», «speakathon», «readathon»,
«walkathon», «moviethon», «swimathon», «talkathon», «swearthon» etc.
Splinters can be the result of clipping adjectives or substantivized
adjectives. The splinter «aholic» (holic) was formed by clipping the
beginning of the word «alcoholic» of Arabian origin where «al» denoted
«the», «koh’l» - «powder for staining lids». The splinter «(a)holic»
means «infatuated by the object expressed by the stem of the word» , e.g.
«bookaholic», «computerholic», «coffeeholic», «cheesaholic», «workaholic»
and many others.
The splinter «genic» formed by clipping the beginning of the word
«photogenic» denotes the notion «suitable for something denoted by the
stem», e.g. «allergenic», «cardiogenic», «mediagenic», «telegenic» etc.
As far as verbs are concerned it is not typical of them to be clipped
that is why there is only one splinter to be used for forming new verbs in
this way. It is the splinter «cast» formed by clipping the beginning of
the verb «broadcast». This splinter was used to form the verbs
«telecast» and «abroadcast».
Splinters can be called pseudomorphemes because they are neither roots
nor affixes, they are more or less artificial. In English there are words
which consist of two splinters, e.g. «telethon», therefore it is more
logical to call words with splinters in their structure «compound-
shortened words consisting of two clippings of words».
Splinters have only one function in English: they serve to change the
lexical meaning of the same part of speech, whereas prefixes and suffixes
can also change the part-of-speech meaning , e.g. the prefix «en-» and
its allomorph «em» can form verbs from noun and adjective stems («embody»,
«enable», «endanger»), «be-» can form verbs from noun and adjective stems
(«becloud», «benumb»), «post-» and «pre-» can form adjectives from noun
stems («pre-election campaign», «post-war events»). The main function of
suffixes is to form one part of speech from another part of speech, e.g. «-
er», «-ing», «-ment» form nouns from verbal stems («teacher», «dancing»,
«movement»), «-ness», «-ity» are used to form nouns from adjective stems
(«clannishnes», «marginality»).
According to the nature and the number of morphemes constituting a word
there are different structural types of words in English: simple,
derived, compound, compound-derived.
Simple words consist of one root morpheme and an inflexion (in many cases
the inflexion is zero), e.g. «seldom», «chairs», «longer», «asked».
Derived words consist of one root morpheme, one or several affixes and an
inlexion, e.g. «deristricted», «unemployed».
Compound words consist of two or more root morphemes and an inflexion,
e.g. «baby-moons», «wait-and-see (policy)».
Compound-derived words consist of two or more root morphemes, one or more
affixes and an inflexion, e.g. «middle-of-the-roaders», «job-hopper».
When speaking about the structure of words stems also should be
mentioned. The stem is the part of the word which remains unchanged
throughout the paradigm of the word, e.g. the stem «hop» can be found in
the words: «hop», «hops», «hopped», «hopping». The stem «hippie» can be
found in the words: «hippie», «hippies», «hippie’s», «hippies’». The stem
«job-hop» can be found in the words : «job-hop», «job-hops», «job-hopped»,
«job-hopping».
So stems, the same as words, can be simple, derived, compound and
compound-derived. Stems have not only the lexical meaning but also
grammatical (part-of-speech) meaning, they can be noun stems («girl» in the
adjective «girlish»), adjective stems («girlish» in the noun
«girlishness»), verb stems («expell» in the noun «expellee») etc. They
differ from words by the absence of inflexions in their structure, they
can be used only in the structure of words.
Sometimes it is rather difficult to distinguish between simple and
derived words, especially in the cases of phonetic borrowings from other
languages and of native words with blocked (unique) root morphemes, e.g.
«perestroika», «cranberry», «absence» etc.
As far as words with splinters are concerned it is difficult to
distinguish between derived words and compound-shortened words. If a
splinter is treated as an affix (or a semi-affix) the word can be called
derived , e.g.-, «telescreen», «maxi-taxi» , «shuttlegate», «cheeseburger».
But if the splinter is treated as a lexical shortening of one of the stems
, the word can be called compound-shortened word formed from a word
combination where one of the components was shortened, e.g. «busnapper»
was formed from « bus kidnapper», «minijet» from «miniature jet».
In the English language of the second half of the twentieth century there
developed so called block compounds, that is compound words which have a
uniting stress but a split spelling, such as «chat show», «pinguin suit»
etc. Such compound words can be easily mixed up with word-groups of the
type «stone wall», so called nominative binomials. Such linguistic units
serve to denote a notion which is more specific than the notion expressed
by the second component and consists of two nouns, the first of which is an
attribute to the second one. If we compare a nominative binomial with a
compound noun with the structure N+N we shall see that a nominative
binomial has no unity of stress. The change of the order of its components
will change its lexical meaning, e.g. «vid kid» is «a kid who is a video
fan» while «kid vid» means «a video-film for kids» or else «lamp oil»
means «oil for lamps» and «oil lamp» means «a lamp which uses oil for
burning».
Among language units we can also point out word combinations of
different structural types of idiomatic and non-idiomatic character, such
as «the first fiddle», «old salt» and «round table», «high road». There
are also sentences which are studied by grammarians.
Thus, we can draw the conclusion that in Modern English the following
language units can be mentioned: morphemes, splinters, words, nominative
binomials, non-idiomatic and idiomatic word-combinations, sentences.
WORDBUILDING
Word-building is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. There are
four main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation,
composition, conversion, abbreviation. There are also secondary ways of
word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation,
blends, back formation.
AFFIXATION
Ñòðàíèöû: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
