Riassunto esame Lingua Inglese 2, docente Mochi, libro consigliato Word Formation in English I, Plag

CVV

VC

The templates are still somewhat simplistic because they ignore the possibility of consonant clusters or in

CVC or VC the possibility of long vowels or diphthongs. We can thus complement the templates in (a) by

introducing these optional addition elements in small capitals.

b. CcVvCc

CcVV

VvCc

If we include also consonant cluster or long vowels or diphthongs.

How the derived words is related to the basic word. With affixed words, this question is usually

straightforward because the base is an integral part of the derivative. With truncation, however, only parts

of the base survive derivation and the speakers, should have knowledge about which part can survive.

We can make the following generalizations. First, there are forms where the material to fill the template is



taken from the very first syllable (and sometimes some subsequent segments) as in Alonzo Al.

Second, there is a group of forms where a primarily stressed syllable provides the material for the



truncation (Adolphus Dolph) and third, there is a group of words where a secondarily stressed syllable

survives truncation.

In some of names, we find also a number of segmental changes on the way from the base to the truncation.

 

For example, /r/ is replaced by /l/ if it is the single coda consonant (Harry Hal /Sarah Sal). /r/ survives,

however if it occurs in the onset of a truncation and if it occurs as the first member of a coda cluster. The

behaviour of /Ɵ/ is also remarkable in that it is generally avoided and replaced hy/t.

To summarize, we have seen that the formation of truncated names is highly systematic and that it is

subject to strong prosodic restrictions. This also holds for –y diminutives to which we now turn.

We find 2 orthographic variants –y and –ie which, however are pronounced identically. If we look at the

base words, we find adjectives and, predominantly, proper and common nouns.

All diminutives are disyllabic with stress on the first syllable. Furthermore, the second syllable never shows

a complex onset, even if the base has compels onset in its second syllable. –y diminutives are trochaic

disyllables with second syllable consisting of a single consonant and the suffix.

To finish our discussion of truncation, let us turn to a class of forms that seem to be less coherent than

truncated names or –y diminutives.

Clipping, a term that in other publications is often used as an equivalent to “truncation”.



a. Ad advertisement



Condo condominium



Demo demonstration



Disco discotheque



Fax telefax



Lab laboratory



Phone telephone



Photo photography



Porn pornography



Prof Professor

They express familiarity, they are monosyllabic or bysillabic, they are based on the first place of

word.

Blends: blending differs from the processes discussed in the previous section in that it involves two or more

base words, but shared with truncations a massive loss of phonetic material. Treatments converge on a

definition of blends as words that combine two words into one, deleting material from one or both of the

source words.

Formed by existing compounds, the firs element modified the second:



a. Breath + analyser breathalyse



Motor + camp mocamp



Motor + hotel motel



Science + fiction sci-fi

They are blends in which the bases forming the compound are not attested as compounds in their full forms.

The properties denoted by the compounds refer to both constitutions.



b. Boar + hotel boatel



Boom + hoist boost



Breakfast + lunch brunch



Chanel + tunnel Chunnel



Compressor+ expander compander



Goat + sheep geep



Guess + estimate guesstimate



Modulator + demulator modem



Sheep + goat shoat



Smoke + fog smog



Spanish + English Spanglish



Stagnation + inflation stagflation

The first important formal generalization that can be drawn on the basis of the data in (b) is that it is always

the first part of the first element that is combined with the second part of the second element. This can be

formulated as a rule, with A, B, C and D, referring to the respective parts of the elements involved:



Blending rule: A) B+CD AD.

There is only one veritable exception to this pattern in the above data, namely modem, where the blend

has the structure AC instead of AD (modulator-demodulator).

The interesting question is, of course, where speakers set their cuts on the base words. As we will shortly

see, this is not arbitrary but constrained by prosodic categories. Two types of restrictions emerge. The fi rst

has to do with syllable structure, the second with size.

If we apply this structural model to the data above, we see that in the truncation process the constituents

of syllables are left intact. Only syllabic constituents as a whole can be deleted. Tak ing first only the

monosyllabic blends onto consideration, we see that they take either the onset of the first element and the

rime of the second element, or onset and nucleus of the first element and the coda of the second.

5.3 abbreviations and acronyms

Abbreviations are most commonly formed by taking initial letters of multi-word sequences to make up a

new word, as shown in a.



a. BA bachelor of arts



DC district of Columbia



EC European Community



FAQ frequently asked question

Apart from words composed of initial letters, one can also find abbreviations that incorporate non-initial

letters

b. BSc Bachelor of Science

Inc. Incorporated

Norf. Norfolk

Ont Ontario

kHz kilohertz

Formally, some abbreviations may come to resemble blends by combining larger sets of initial and non-

initial letters.

The spelling and pronunciation of abbreviations offer interesting perspectives on the formal properties of

these words. Consider the following abbreviations with regard to their spelling and pronunciation

differences.

They can be spelled with either capital or lower-case letters, and they can be pronounced either by naming

each individual letter (so-called initialism) as in USA [ju.ƐS.eI] or by applying regular reading rules. In the

latter case, the abbreviation is called an acronym.

EXERCISE page 129

6 – COMPOUNDING

We defined compounding the combination of two words to form a new word. This definition contains two

crucial assumption of the words to form a new word. This definition contains two crucial assumptions, the

first being that compounds consist of two (and not more) elements, the second being that these elements

are words.

There are compounds such as those in (a), which question the idea that compounding involves only two

elements.

a. Power source requirement

Engine communication error

Communication technology equipment

There are compounds with four, five, or even more members, it seems generally possible to analyse

polymorphemic words as hierarchical structures involving binary subelements.

b. [[[university [teaching award]] committee ] member]

N

N

N N

N N N N N

University teaching award committee member

Polysomic words have a hierarchical structure, which can be divided into binary elements.

Teaching award (award for teaching)

University (the teaching award for university)

Committee (the committee responsible for the university teaching award committee member training).

Having clarified that even longer compounds can be analysed as essentially binary structures, we can turn

to the question of what kinds of unit can be used to form compounds.

(3) a. Astrophysics

Biochemistry

Photoionize

b. Parks commissioner

Teeth marks

Systems analyst

c. Pipe-and-slipper husband

Off-the-rack dress

Over-the-fence gossip

d. *husband pipe-and-slipper

*dress off-the-rack

Gossip over the fence

A neoclassical elements, (bound root) + N

B plural noun + N

Csyntactic phrases + N

A compound is a word that consist of two elements, the first of whi ch is either a root, a word or a phrase,

the second of which is either a root or a word.

The vast majority of compounds in English are interpreted in such a way that the left-hand member

somehow modifies the right-hand member. Thus, a film society is a kind of society, a parks commissioner is

a commissioner occupied with parks.

We can thus say that such compounds exhibit what is called a modifier-head structure. The term head is

generally used to refer to the most important unit in complex linguistic structures. In compounds, it is the

head, which is modified by the other member of the compound. Semantically, this means that the set of

entities possibly denoted by the compound. Semantically, this means that the set of entities possibly

denoted by the compound is a subset of the entities possibly denoted by the compound is a subset of the

entities denoted by the head.

With regard to their head, compounds have a very important systematic property: their head usually occurs

on the right-hand side (right-hand head rule). The compound as a whole inherits most of its semantic and

syntactic information from its head, thus, if the head is a verb, the compound will be a count noun, if th e

head has feminine gender, the compound will have feminine gender. Another property of the compound

head is that if the compound is pluralized the plural marking occurs on the head, not on the non -head.

Thus, parks commissioner is not the plural of park commissioner only park commissioner can be the plural

from of park commissioner.

The inheritance of features from the head is also referred to as feature percolation.

Jake – in – the – box can take an article, can be modified by an adjective, and can be pluralized, hence it

behaves syntactically like any other noun with similar properties. However, and crucially, such multi -word

words do not have the usual internal structure of compounds, but have the internal structure of syntactic

phrases. Thus, they lack a right-hand head, and they do not consist of two elements that meet the criteria of

our above definition of compound.

While phrases tend to be stressed phrase-finally: on the last word, compounds tend to be stressed on the

firs element. This systematic difference is captured in the so-called compound stress rule.

There are also numerous exceptions to the rule:

a. Genealogist-astrónomer apple píe

Scholar-áctivist apricot crumble

Michigan hospital Madison Ávenue

Boston marathon Penny Láne

Summer night aluminium foil

May flowers silk tíe 

Such compounds are called copulative compounds stress on the right-member

Other meaning relationships typically accompanied by rightward stress are temporal or locative, or

causative, usually paraphrased as “made of” (as in aluminium foil, silk tíe), or “created by”. All street names

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