Other word formations 1 Flashcards
Linguistic signs
unison of form and meaning
if the form doesn’t change, the meaning does
Morphemic vs non morphemic
nm-morphemes are not basic building blocks, blog would be an example of this, there is no affixation going on, therse things resemble morphemes, not every constituent is a morpheme that is why they are nm,and morphemic is when we have affixation post-truth is an example of this both parts are morphemes and have something to do with morphology
Conversion
most commonly used, it is quite flexible, you dont have to make any marking, to walk- to go for a walk n to v v to n and so on, it changes class, it is also known as zero transposition- change i w class without anything being added or grammatical shift, no additional linguistic material involved, but these converted words can go through inflectional changes. There are also nonce words- npr saming that are only used for a certain purpose like a song or stg, they are context dependant.
The four criteria in determining what came first in conversion
- semantic complexity-conversion specialises the meaning,if one lexeme is more complex and depends on the other for interpretation, it is a result of
conversion eg to skin, to empty are complex and need nouns to figure out the meaning
2.frequency of occurence-use of corpora shows that converted forms tend to have less tokens than their base, one form more frequent than the other – a good
indication that it is the original base
3.history of use-converted words should have later first dates of use – specialized dictionaries and corpora
4.formal properties-the leas reliable of the four, the converted form undergoes regular inflection to ring, he ringed his eyes and not rung
Is conversion zero affixation?
It is still a questionable statement as conversion does not include adding marks or marking and affixation does,but when it comes to meaning x is x still aplies a spy and to spy is both related to spying
Eponymy
special type of conversion based on proper names, for example to Ted-out, these are usually nonce words that do not get lexicalized , but sometimes we do get common nouns from proper people for example:
galvanize, mach, teddy bear, sandwich, macadam, bobby, ferris wheel,wellies
-geo names: bikini, jeans, hamburger, china
-trademarks and company names:kleenex,google, band aid, dumpster
Semantic change
not a morphology process, but a semantic change, change in meaning and it is a diahcronic process which means it happens over time
1) width of context/widening and narrowing/
2) register/amelioration,pejoration/
widening
widening – increasing the domain of usage,
denoting a less specific context
this would be bird- it first meant young birds now it is all birds
and manage it used to be amanage a hprse and now it is manage any activity
narrowing
narrowing – words that used to have a wider
range of usage
for eg deer used to be any animal now it is a specific kind and another eg is knight that used to be a boy and now it is a form of a soldier
amelioration
from lower to higher register, it is more positive for eg: the word nice meant stupid and now it means smtg good or revelutionary meant the undiserable overthrowing of the status quo now means a desirable novelty.
This accompanies euphomisms (retarded)
pejoration
from higher register to lower register, this would be for eg awful which meant full of awe and now it is somethng that is horrible or mistress which used to be the chief of the house and now is a lover
Backformation
-processes of historical reanalysis, not very
productive
-removal of parts of words which resemble affixes to create new words (reverse affixation) eg. babysitter- babysit, editor-edit
there exists historical backformation- cherise-cherry the english thought that -se nastavak was in plural
folk etymology
reanalysis in which certain
words, usually borrowed from other languages(it can also be from the same language feg:straitjacket-straightjacket),
are reinterpreted on the basis of words that
already exist in the vocabulary:
bologna-baloney
cucaracha-cockroach
wuchak-woodchuck
