Appunti Lingua Inglese II

VERBAL PREFIXATION

The process by which new verbs are created by simply adding a prefix. This process was very common in Old English, and has left us with words like 'to upset' or 'overthrow'. Starting from late Middle English, however, this word formation process has decreased, and its role has been taken over by phrasal verbs, such as 'to set up' or 'throw over'. This is a result of English changing from being an inflectional language to an analytic language.

Even though verbal prefixation has moved to a marginal position among word formation processes, it has never died out: a number of new words has been recorded even though at very low levels. In the XX century there has been an addition of numerous verbal prefixation words, as in 'upload' and 'upgrade': this suggests that this process is having a sort of comeback after centuries of decline.

Semantic taxonomy of prefixes:

• Pejorative: maltreat
• Degree or size:

miscalculate overconfident, mini-skirt, supernatural

Attitude Spatial relations (concrete and abstract)

pro-Obama, anti-war, counter-revolution intercultural, subnormal, transatlantic

Time and order Numerical value

postmodern, ex-president bilingual, multitasking

Repetition Reversal

rewrite, rebuild undo, unfasten

b) SUFFIXATION

Free morph + suffix

A bound lexical morph after a free lexical morph

Unlike prefixes, suffixes are class changing, they affect the grammatical category of the word to which they are added (-ful,-ly, -ify, -al). →1. ‘Beauty’ beauty-(i)fy (noun to verb)→2. ‘Happy’ happy(i)-ness (adjective to noun)→3. ‘Unhappy’ unhappy(i)-ness (adjective to noun)

There are also suffixes which are class maintaining (-ess, -let, -hood, -kind, -ship, -ism).

Suffixes affect meaning, but they also affect the orthography of the word (‘deny’ > ‘denial’).

They also produce a phonological change in the root, sometimes

affecting word stress ('reduce' 'reduction'; 'clear' >'clarity'). Semantic taxonomy of suffixes Diminutives Feminine suffixes princeling, piglet, daddy, hoodie actress, usherette, aviatrix, heroine Abstract suffixes Suffixes denoting people friendship, neighbourhood, hoodlumism librarian, Texan, Marxist, Londoner, Canadian Meaning nearly, not exactly Expressing resemblance greenish, coldish godly, sickly, lonely Grammatical taxonomy of suffixes Noun suffixes Verb suffixes -(a)tion, -dom, -ee, -ess, -ette, -hood, -ism, -ity, -let, -ness, - -ate, -en, -ify, -ise/ize ment, ship Adverb suffixes Adjective suffixes -ly, -wise -i/-able, -al/ial, -ar, -ary,-ed, -esque, -ful, -ic, -ish, -less, -like, -ly, -ous, -some, -y PRODUCTIVITY Some suffixes are very productive, such as -able, -er, -ist, -ism, -ize, -ic and -y. Among productive suffixes, there are some recent acquisitions: → (el)fie it's used in a spoken and informal context, and it

The word selfie refers to a picture or photo. Examples include nailfie and dogfie. The suffix -holic is derived from the word alcoholic and is used to reference addiction, such as in the word workaholic. The suffix -ish is often used in brand names and website names, such as Bookish and Ish Watch. The suffix -scape comes from the word landscape and is used in words like cityscape. The suffix -gate is commonly used in newspapers, as seen in words like Watergate and Cartergate. There are also suffixes with limited productivity, such as -ship and -hood, and unproductive suffixes like -th and -dom.

English affixes can be categorized into two categories based on their origins: native affixes and foreign affixes. Affixes have always been part of the language, while foreign affixes have been introduced from other languages.

Borrowed from external sources, along come from Old English with a word from a foreign language, from which they've later been separated prefixes un-, mis-, for(e), and suffixes -hood, -ship, -ful, -ly, -less. prefixes dis-, en-/in-, anti-, and suffixes -ment, -ess, -ous. There are also some hybrid derivatives. For example, a foreign root of a word can have merged with a native affix, giving birth to new words, such as 'priest-hood' and 'clear-ness' (from Latin) or 'un-button', 'faith-ful' and 'faith-less' (from French). Foreign affixes have also combined with native root of words, for example in god-ess, enlighten-ment, short-age. Some native suffixes were once independent lexemes in Old English, and have later been grammaticalized: they've lost their functions as independent words to become suffixes: -dom 'potere, dominio' -dom -had 'stato, condizione'

-hood→− scipe ‘stato, condizione’ -ship 2) ZERO-DERIVATION(or conversion or functional shift) Zero-derivation is a distinguishing word formation process of XX century English. It’s the result of a loss of inflectional endings in late Middle English and early Modern English (1100-1500). Recently, this process has become very productive, especially in advertising and social media. This process includes several subcategories: 1. Nouns which are turned into verbs (movie to movie) 2. Brand names turned into verbs (Hoover to hoover) 3. Adjectives turned into verbs (wet to wet) 4. Verbs turned into nouns (to doubt doubt) 5. Conjunctions turned into nouns, generally in the plural form (if/but the ifs/buts) 6. Suffixes which are lexicalised and turned into nouns, in the plural form (-ism the isms) Some scholars believe that zero-derivation is a sub-category within the process of derivation, by means of a zero-morph{Ø}, whichrealises the action of making something into an atom or using Skype. The morphemes that realise the meaning of the verb are realised by a single morph: a. 'atom' + 'ize' = 'to make something into an atom' b. 'Skype' + 'ize' = 'to use Skype'means: − − 'to do something using atoms' 'to do something using Skype' → → To bake baker To cook a cook {Ø} The verb transforms into the noun by adding the suffix -r, The noun is formed through the same process of which references: derivation, but it doesn't change its form from the verb it derives from. It accepts a new meaning which refers to the − 'somebody who bakes' verb: − 'somebody who cooks' The problem in discussing zero-derivation is in directionality: which is the original word and which is the converted one. There are different clues to distinguish the two words: a) SEMANTIC CLUES The converted word (the verb) includes the meaning of the original word (the noun). However, this theory has some limits, because some meanings are not included in the original word: → The verb 'to butter' should include the meaning of the noun 'butter' (= 'to smear or spread with

butter’) but we can use the verb ‘to butter’ referencing something other than butter, such as to butter with marmalade. we realise that ‘to butter’ does not mean ‘to spread with butter’.→ The verb ‘to garage’ should have the meaning ‘ to park a vehicle in the garage’, but we could also have ‘to garage the car in the shed’, which is not included in the meaning realised by this clue.

b) MORPHOLOGICAL CLUES

Other scholars believe that we can distinguish the original word and the converted one by relying on the morphological aspects of the word: the converted form follows regular productive inflection of the category it belongs to.→ ‘Highlight’ is both a noun and a verb. If the original word is a noun, the converted word, the verb, should follow a regular inflection (highlight – highlighted – highlighted = regular).→ The transitive verb ‘to ring’ means ‘to provide

with a circle’, and it follows a regular inflection (ring – ringed –ringed), so we can say that is converted from the original word, noun ‘ring’. However, the intransitive verb ‘toring’ as in ‘to call’ does not follow a regular inflection (ring – rang – rung), so it is not the result of a zero-derivation from a noun.

c) WORD HISTORY

Others think that we can distinguish the word is by focusing on the history of the words (which one was recorded firstin English). However, focusing on the data and the recorded history leaves out an enormous amount of words whichwere not recorded: sometimes words are used first in spoken language, but they become part of the written languagelater.

There are other subcategories of zero-derivation in English:

• WORD STRESS

It refers to a large set of converted forms, such as nouns which are converted from phrasal verbs: in the originalphrasal verb each unit receives its own stress, while in

verted into another subclass within the same category. For example, a noun can be converted into a verb or an adjective, or an adjective can be converted into a noun or a verb. This conversion often involves a change in the word's form or suffix:→ noun > verb = convert a noun into a verb (hammer > hammer, bottle > bottle)→ adjective > noun = convert an adjective into a noun (beautiful > beauty, strong > strength)→ verb > noun = convert a verb into a noun (run > run, sing > song)• DERIVATIONA word is derived from another word by adding a prefix or a suffix to it. This often changes the word's meaning or part of speech:→ prefix + word = add a prefix to a word (un + happy > unhappy, re + do > redo)→ word + suffix = add a suffix to a word (friend + ly > friendly, teach + er > teacher)