Topic Four: Word-Building in Modern English

1 Ways and types of English word-building

2 Morphological word-building
3 Syntactico-morphological word-building
4 Syntactical word-building:
5 Minor types of word-building

I Ways and Types of English Word-Building

The term word-building is of polysemantic nature. It is used to denote the
branch of the science of language which studies the patterns on which a language
forms lexical units. It is also used to denote the process of creating new words from
the material available in the word-stock according to certain structural and semantic
patterns specific for the given language [5: 23].
We have to distinguish between morphological, syntactico-morphological and
syntactical word-building in Modern English [6: 95].
Morphological word-building which is characterized by a change in
morphological structure includes the following types:
1 affixation (e.g. lucky – unlucky; happy – unhappy);
2 morphological compounding (e.g. speedometer, hogshead – большая
бочка);
3 shortening (e.g. fantasy – fancy, vacation – vac, MP, NIS);
4 sound-interchange (e.g. live– life, blood – bleed, sing – song);
5 stress-interchange (e.g.´present – pre´sent, ´conduct – con´duct);
6 back-formation (e.g. baby-sitter > baby-sit);
7 reduplication (e.g. murmur, bye-bye, blah-blah);
8 blending (e.g. blue + green > bleen, crazy + drunk > crunk).
Syntactico-morphological word-building is the one where both morphological
and syntactical features of the word are changed. It includes the following types:
 1 juxtapositional compounding (e.g. girl-friend, snow-white);
2 substantivation of adjectives (e.g. the poor, the rich);
3 lexicalization of the plural of nouns (e.g. lines = poetry, colours = banner);
4 conversion (water – to water, garden – to garden, wine – to wine).
Syntactical word-building is the one where a combination of words
semantically and structurally isolated is used to form a word without any changes in
the syntactico- semantic relations. It, in fact, includes syntactic compounding, e.g.
bread-and-butter, hook-and-ladder, Jack-of-all-trades, forget-me-not, melt-in-the-
mouth (cookies).
Various types of word-building in Mоdern English possess different degrees of
productivity. Some of them are highly-productive (affixation, compounding,
shortening, conversion, substantivation), others are semi-productive (back-formation,
reduplication, blending, lexicalization of the plural of nouns, sound-imitation) and
non-productive (sound-interchange, stress-interchange) [5: 23].
II Morphological word-building
1 Affixation or derivation
Affixation is commonly defined as the formation of words by adding
derivational affixes to stems. Affixation includes prefixation, i.e. forming new words
with the help of prefixes, and suffixation, i.e. forming new words with the help of
suffixes. Affixation, or derivation, has been productive at every period of
development of the English language and it has retained its productivity to this day.
However, this does not mean that the affixes remain unchanged all the time. In
the course of language development some affixes were replaced by others, some
changed their meanings. Thus, e.g. mis- and un- replaced wan- (wantrust – mistrust,
wantruth – untruth) [6: 97].
Modern English possesses a large stock of affixes which make a material for
coining new words. Affixes are derivational morphemes added directly to roots or to
stems. The role of the affix in the process of affixation is very important and therefore
it’s necessary to consider certain facts about the main types of affixes.
 (A) Suffixes
Suffixes may be classified proceeding from different criteria.
1) From the etymological point of view suffixes are classified into the same two
large groups as words: native and borrowed [1: 80]. Native (or Germanic) suffixes
are: -ness, -er, -hood, -dom, -ship, -ful, -less, -ish, -ly, -y, -en, -wards, -th. Most of
them go back to Old English but are still living suffixes in Modern English.
Borrowed affixes are numerous in the English vocabulary. They are of different
origin: (a) Romanic, such as: -tion /-ion, -ment, -ance /-ence, -ее, ess, -ette, -let,
-able/-ible, -al, -fy, -age. These were borrowed from Latin and French; (b) Greek,
such as: -ist, -ism, -ize, -ite, -ic. Most of borrowed suffixes are international. For
example, in many European languages there is the Greek suffix -ism denoting
philosophical doctrines and scientific theories, e.g. materialism, Darwinism, realism,
despotism, hypnotism, barbarism, colloquialism. The suffixes: -ist, -ite, -ant, -ent, -or,
-ssion and others are also international.
2) According to the part of speech classification suffixes fall into 4 groups:
(a) noun-forming suffixes: -age (marriage, coinage), -ance/-ence (distance,
defence), -ancy/-ency (constancy, tendency), -ant/-ent (assistant, student), -dom
(wisdom), -er (writer), -ess (actress), -hood (motherhood), -ing (building), -ion/-tion-
sion/-ation (rebellion, creation, tension, explanation), -ist (novelist), -ment
(government), -ness (tenderness), -ship (friendship).
(b) adjective-forming suffixes: -able/-ible (laughable, audible), -al (natural),
-ic (public), -ical (cubical), -ant/-ent (repentant, present), -ary (secondary), -ate/-ete
(accurate, complete), -ian (Arabian), -ish (childish), -ive (active), -ful (useful), -less
(useless), -ly (friendly), -ous/-ious (curious), -some (troublesome), -у (rainy).
(c) Adverb-forming suffixes: -ly (coldly, firmly), -ward(s) (northward), -wise
(likewise).
(d) Verb-forming suffixes: -ate (articulate), -er (twitter – щебетати), -en
(shorten), -(i)fy (vivify – оживляти), -ize (apologize), -ish (furnish).
3) According to the degree of productivity suffixes are commonly classified
into living or productive suffixes and dead or unproductive suffixes. Productive
suffixes are those which derive new words in Modern English, and unproductive
suffixes are those which do not give any new coinages. The following suffixes are the
most productive: (N) -er, -ing, -ness, -ism, -ist, -once; (A) -y, -ish, -ed, -able, -less;
(Adv.) -ly; (V) -ize, -ate. Non-productive suffixes: (N) -th, -ice, -hood; (A) -ly, -some,
-en, -ous; (Adv) -long; (V) -en.
4) Distinction should also be made between terminal and non-terminal
suffixes. Terminal suffixes take only the final position in a word, e.g. -al, -hood,
-ness, -ship, -kin, -let, -ling (refusal, brotherhood, tenderness, friendship, boykin,
booklet, princeling). Non-terminal suffixes can be followed by other suffixes. In such
cases a derivative is capable of further derivation, e.g. -er, -ly, -less, -ed (leadership,
loveliness, fearlessness, devotedness).
5) From the semantic point of view suffixes may be classified as follows:
Noun-forming suffixes denoting: (a) agent or doer of an action: -er /-or (writer,
actor, listener, speaker); political or scientific adherence: -ist (communist, socialist);
(b) the object of an action, the one to whom an act is done: -ее (addressee, refugee,
referee); (c) nationality: -ian, -ish (Belgian, Spanish); (d) abstract concepts: -ance/-
ence, -tion/-ion/-sion, -ment, -ness, -ing (significance, evolution, development,
tenderness, sitting); (e) the diminutive suffixes: -ling, -let/-et, -kin/-in, -ette (duckling,
gosling, kingling; booklet, eyelet, leaflet, droplet; boykin, catkin, wolfkin; novelette,
leaderette).
Adjective-forming suffixes denoting: (a) capacity, fitness or worthiness to be
acted upon, tending to, able to, liable to: -able/-ible (capable, eatable, audible); (b) a
certain degree of some quality: -ish (greenish, whitish, bluish); (c) the presence of
quality: -ful, -ous (beautiful, spacious); (d) the absence of quality: -less (fearless,
useless).
Adverb-forming suffixes denoting: (a) the manner of action: -ly (quickly,
slowly, readily, warmly); (b) course or direction to; motion or tendency toward:
-ward(s) (forwards, upwards, northward, southward, heavenwards).
(B) Prefixes
The classification of prefixes in any language offers more difficulties than we
have in classifying suffixes. The semantic motivation of many prefixes is not quite
apparent. A large number of prefixes are polysemantic.
1) From the etymological point of view, prefixes can be subdivided into native
and foreign prefixes. Native (or Germanic) prefixes are: un-, out-, mis-, over-,
under-, up-, with-, be-, fore- (unhappy, outlive, misunderstand, overeat, undereat,
upside, withdraw, behind, foretell). Foreign prefixes are: a-, anti-, arch-, bi-,
circum-, cis-, со-,contra-, counter-, de-, demi-, dis-, en-, epi-, ex-, extra-, hemi-,
hyper-, in-, inter-, intro-, mal-, meso-, meta-, mono-, поп-, pan-, pantro-, para-, peri-,
poly-, post-, pre-, pro-, proto-, re-, retro-, semi-, sub-, super-, sur-, syn-, trans-, tri-,
ultra-, uni-, vice- (abed, antechamber, archangel, biannual, circumscribe). Some of
them are borrowed from Greek (anti-, pro-, re-, de-) and some from Latin or French
(counter-, sub-, ex-, pre-).
2) Prefixes differ in their valency. Some of them can combine with the stems of
only one part of speech, others can combine with the stems of two or more parts of
speech, i.e. they are more productive in their functional use. The prefixes ex-, arch-,
ana-, dys-, per-, for instance, are used only with the stems of nouns (ex-chancellor,
archangel, anabranch, dysfunction, perspective); the prefixes be-, de-, en-, out- can
combine only with verbs (befall, declutch, enlarge, outgo); such prefixes as со-,
contra-, counter-, dis-, intra-, mis-, post-, pre-, sub-, trans-, over-, under-, are used
with the stems of verbs, nouns and adjectives. For instance: со-: coordinate (v),
coordination (n), cooperative (adj); contra-: contravene (v), contravention (n); dis-:
disarm (v), disarmament (n), disarming (adj).
3) From the semantic point of view prefixes can be divided into the following
groups of prefixes implying:
a) priority: ex-, fore-, pre- (ex-minister, forethought, predawn);
(b) negation: in-, un-, dis-, поп-, a- (inapt, unkind, disquiet, non-stop, amoral);
(c) counteraction, opposition: counter-, contra-, anti- (counterblow, contrabass,
antipole);
(d) locality: a-, en-, sub-, supra-, sur-, trans-, hypo-, circum-, epi-, under-
(abed, encage, sublunагу, supradental, surcoat, transoceanic, hypodermic,
circumlocution, epicentre, undersea);
(e) reversion: de-, dis-, un- (deform, discontinue, unstick);
(f) incompleteness: demi-, hemi-, dys- (demiofficial, hemisphere, dysfunction).
2 Compounding (or composition)
Compounding is the type of word-building in which new words are produced
by combining two or more stems which occur in the language as free forms [5: 28].
Compounding is not only one of the most ancient ways of enriching the word-stock
but it is also one of the three most productive types of word-building in Modern
English, the other two are affixation and conversion [1: 104].
Compound words represent one of the most typical and specific features of
English word-structure. Compounds are not always easy to distinguish from free
word-combinations. In Modern English linguists find it difficult to give criteria of
distinguishing between a compound and a word-group. It is still a topic of hot
dispute.
Let’s compare a compound a tallboy and a word-group a tall boy. The
following criteria may be offered. In this case the graphic criterion seems to be
sufficient (yet in many cases it cannot be wholly relied on). So, a compound is
characterized by one word (or hyphenated) spelling. In a word-group each word is
written separately.
In this case semantic criterion seems more reliable, for it points to the highest
degree of semantic cohesion in the compound word: tallboy does not denote a person,
but a piece of furniture. Moreover, the word-group a tall boy conveys two concepts,
whereas the word tallboy expresses one concept. (Yet the semantic criterion alone
cannot prove anything).
The phonetic criterion for compounds may be treated as that of a single
stress. So, a compound tallboy is characterized by one stress. In a word-group a tall
boy each element is stressed. (Yet this criterion does not work with compound
adjectives: blue-eyed, broad-shouldered, long-legged).
Morphological and syntactic criteria can also be applied to compounds in
order to distinguish them from word-groups. In the word-group each of the
constituents is independently open to grammatical changes, e.g. They were the tallest
boys in the form. Between the constituents other words can be inserted: a tall
handsome boy. The compound tallboy and, in fact, any other compound, is not
subject to such changes. The first component is grammatically invariable; the plural
form ending is added to the whole unit: tallboys. No word can be inserted between
the components [1: 113].
Therefore, in most cases, only several criteria (graphic, phonetic, semantic,
morphological, syntactic) can convincingly classify a lexical unit as either a
compound word or a word-group [1: 113].
So, compounds are characterized by: a) one word or hyphenated spelling; b)
one stress; c) semantic integrity; d) structural-syntactic unity.
Compounds may be classified proceeding from different criteria:
(a) according to the parts of speech to which they belong;
(b) according to the means of composition used to link their ICs;
(c) according to their semantic characteristics [5: 29].
(a) So, as parts of speech, compound words fall into 6 groups:
1) nouns (e.g. blueprint, eyelash, highball, joyride, lily-of-the-valley);
2) pronouns (e.g. everybody, somebody, nobody, whoever, whosesoever);
3) adjectives (e.g. two-fold, heavy-duty, cock-sure, snow-white, heart-
breaking);
4) verbs (e.g. overdo, underestimate, out-stay, side-step);
5) adverbs (e.g. posthaste, alongside, however, nevertheless, whenever,
wherein).
6) prepositions (e.g. into, onto, unto, upon);
7) conjunctions (e.g. wherever, whereas, whenever, nevertheless, whereupon).
Most compounds in English belong to nouns and adjectives. Compound verbs
are less frequent. Compound adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions and prepositions are
rather rare.
(b) The classification of compounds according to the means of joining their ICs
together distinguishes between the following structural types:
 1) Juxtapositional or neutral compounds whose ICs are merely placed one
after another [5: 29], e.g.: heartache, scarecrow, rainbow; level-headed, absent-
minded, blue-eyed, chicken-hearted; TV-set, H-bomb, T-shirt, H-bag, V-day. This
structural type is subdivided into 3 subtypes: a) simple neutral compounds (e.g.
heartache, bluebell); b) derivational compounds (e.g. absent-minded, hot-headed); c)
contracted compounds (e.g. V-day, T-shirt, H-bag).
Therefore, in neutral compounds the process of compounding is realized
without any linking elements, by a mere juxtaposition of two stems. It is, in fact,
syntactico- morphological way of word-building in Modern English.
2) Morphological compounds whose ICs are joined together with a vowel or
a consonant as a linking element [5: 29], e.g. Anglo-Saxon, Franco-Prussian, Russo-
Finnish, Serbo-Croatian, gasometer, electromotive, handicraft, statesman,
spokesman, herdsman, bridesmaid, crowsfeet, sportsman, saleswoman.
This type belongs to morphological way of word-building in Modern English.
3) Syntactic compounds which are the result of the process of semantic
isolation and structural integration of free word-groups [5: 29], i.e. these words are
formed from segments of speech preserving articles, prepositions, adverbs. E.g.:
forget-me-not, lily-of-the-valley, Jack-of-all-trades, good-for-nothing, man-of-war
(військовий корабель), pick-me-up, milk-and-water, tongue-in-cheek (нещирий),
mums-to-be, hit-or-miss (випадковий), stay-at-home, know-all, son-in-law, cool-to-
the-touch, melt-in-the-mouth. This type belongs to syntactical way of word-building
in English.
It should be mentioned that not all the structural types of compounds are
equally productive. The morphological compounds are the least productive while the
syntactic compounds are more active and the juxtapositional compounds seem to be
most productive of all. The morphological compounding is more typical of the
Russian and Ukrainian languages. Compare: Rus. паровоз, теплоход, землемер,
сталевар, бронепоезд, землепашец, тепловоз, пароход, электромобиль; Ukr.
водолікарня, пароплав, книгодрук, основоскладання, лісотундра, першодрук,
саморух, сонцепоклонник, птахолов, однодумець.
 (c) From the semantic point of view all compounds fall into two groups of
unequal size: idiomatic and non-idiomatic. The meaning of non-idiomatic
compounds is easily understood from the meanings of their ICs [5: 35], e.g.
bedroom, dining-room, bookshelf, raincoat, blood-pressure, plum-pudding, apple-
tree, sunlight, dancing-hall, sleeping-car, evening-gown. Non-idiomatic compounds
are numerous in Modern English. Idiomatic compounds are those in which the
meaning of the unit cannot be understood from the meaning of its IC-s [5: 35], i.e. the
key to the meaning of a compound seems to have been irretrievably lost, e.g.
buttercup (жовтець), chatter-box (балакун), ladybird (сонечко), tallboy (високий
комод), bluestocking (вчена жінка), fuss-pot (людина, що хвилюється через
дурниці), greenhorn (новачок), pickpocket (кішеньковий злодій), lady-killer
(серцеїд, ловелас), lazybones (ледар), killjoy (людина, що отруює іншим
задоволення), wildcat (неприборкана людина). Idiomatic compounds are not
numerous in Modern English. There are also many borderline cases.

3 Shortening
This way of word-building has existed in the English language since the 13th
century and achieved a high degree of productivity nowadays, especially in American
English. Shortened words are a considerable quantitative gain and as such are useful
and practical. The tendency towards shortness is a universal development and has
linguistic value of its own in various languages [1; 2; 7].
There exist two main ways of shortening: contraction (or clipping) and
abbreviation (or initial shortening) [5: 48].
A) Contraction (or clipping)
Contraction is the way of making a new word by means of clipping a full word
(or, in other words, making a new word from a syllable of the original word).
One should distinguish between 4 types of contraction.
1) Final clipping (back-clipping), or apocope, i.e. clipping, or omission, of
the final part of the word [5: 48], e.g.: doc (<doctor), lab (<laboratory), mag
(<magazine), prep (<preparation), veg (<vegetable), croc (<crocodile), vac
(<vacation), ad (<advertisement), cap (<captain), tick (<ticket), math
(<mathematics), ed (<editor), uni (<university), op (<operation), vet (<veteran),
Nick (<Nickolas), Ed (<Edward), Phil (<Philip), Al (<Albert). Final-clippings аге
most numerous in Modern English.
2) Initial clipping (or fore-clipping), or apheresis, i.e. clipping or omission of
the fore part of the word [5: 48], e.g. phone (<telephone), plane (<aeroplane), story
(<history), van (<caravan), drome (<airdrome), fence (<defence), plot (<complot),
bus (<omnibus), cycle (<bicycle), Bert (<Albert), Bess (<Elizabeth), Becky
(<Rebecca), Dora (<Theodora), Fred (Alfred). Fore-clippings are less numerous in
Modern English.
3) Medial clipping, or syncope, i.e. omission of the middle part of the word
[5: 48], e.g. maths (<mathematics), fancy (<fantasy), curtsy, curtsey – gesture of
respect made by women or girls – реверанс (<courtesy – courteous behaviour;
politeness), binocs (<binoculars), mart (<market), e’en (<even), ma’am (<madam),
e’er (<ever), ne’er (<never).
4) Mixed clipping, where the fore and the final pats of the word are clipped,
e.g. tec (<detective), flu (<influenza), fridge (<refrigerator), stach (<moustache), Liz
(<Elizabeth) [5: 48]. Here we can see a combination of two shortening devices:
apheresis and apocope. Clipped (or contracted) words do not differ from full words in
functioning; they take the plural number and that of the possessive case and make any
part of a sentence. New words may be derived from the stems of clipped words by
conversion (to jeep, to demob, to taxi, to perm) or by affixation, chiefly by adding the
suffix -y, -ie, deriving diminutives and pet-names (as, hanky – from handkerchief,
nighty (nightie) – from nightgown, unkie – from unkle, baccy – from tobacco, undies
– from underwear – белье, tellie – from television, Aussies – from Australians).
It has to be stressed that clipped words do not always coincide in meaning with
the original word, for instance: doc and doctor have the meaning ‘one who practices
medicine’, but doctor is also ‘the highest degree given by a university to a scholar or
scientist’ and ‘a person who has received such a degree’ whereas doc is not used in
these meanings.
 Among clippings there are homonyms, so that one and the same sound and
graphical complex may represent different words, as vac (vacation), vac (vacuum
cleaner); prep (preparation), prep (preparatory school), prep (prepare).
Clippings usually have synonyms in literary English, the latter being the
corresponding full words. But they are not interchangeable, as they are words of
different styles of speech. Clippings are highly colloquial; in most cases they belong
to slang.
Clipping brings new words in the same part of speech. Most lexical units of
this sort are nouns, e.g. pram (<perambulator), varsity (<university), tails
(<tailcoat). Clipped adjectives and verbs are infrequent in Modern English, e.g.
imposs (impossible), rev (<to revolve), tab (<tabulate), prep (<to prepare).
Similar formations will be found in other languages, too.
Abbreviation (initial shortening)
Abbreviation is the way of making a new word from the initial letters of a word
group [1: 115], e.g. UNO from the United Nations Organization, BBC from the
British Broadcasting Corporation. Abbreviations or initial shortenings are found not
only among formal words, such as the ones above, but also among colloquialisms and
slang [1:115].
It is commonly believed that the preference for shortenings can be explained
by their brevity and is due to the ever-increasing tempo of modern life. Confusion
and ambiguousness are quite natural consequences of the modern overabundance of
shortened words, and initial shortenings are often especially enigmatic and
misleading [1: 115-116].
According to D.I. Kveselevich abbreviations (or initial shortenings) are
subdivided into 5 groups:
1) Acronyms which are read in accordance with the rules of orthoepy as
though they were ordinary words [5: 49], e.g. UNESCO (<United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), NATO (<North Atlantic Treaty
organization), ANZAC (<Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), WOMAN
(<World Organization of Mothers of All Nations).
 2) Alphabetic abbreviations in which letters get their full alphabetic
pronunciation and a full stress [5: 49], e.g. USA, BBC, M.P. (<member of Parliament),
TV, IOY (<I owe you), GPO (<general post-office), FBI (<Federal Bureau of
Investigation), P.S. (<post scriptum), R.A.F. (<Royal Air Force). Alphabetic
abbreviations are sometimes used for famous persons’ names, e.g. F.D.R. (<Franklin
Delano Roosevelt), G.B.S. (<George Bernard Show), B.B. (<Brigitte Bardot).
3) Compound abbreviations (or semi-shortenings) in which the first
component is a letter (or letters) and the second component is a complete word [5:
50], e.g. A-bomb (<atomic bomb), H-bomb (< hydrogen bomb), V-day (<Victory
day), L-driver (learner-driver), ID card (identity card), H-bag (handbag), T-shirt
(tennis-shirt).
4) Graphical abbreviations which are used in texts for economy of space [5:
50]. Graphical abbreviations are signs or symbols that stand for the full words or
combinations of words only in written speech. The commonest form is an initial letter
or letters that stand for a word or combination of words. But with a view to prevent
ambiguity one or two other letters may be added. For instance, p. (page), s. (see),
b.b. (ball-bearing), Mr. (mister), Mrs. (missis), MS (manuscript), fig. (figure). In oral
speech graphical abbreviations have the pronunciation of full words, e.g. m.(mile), ft.
(<foot/feet), v (verb), ltd. (limited), usu. (<usually). To indicate a plural or a
superlative letters are often doubled, as: pp. (<pages), qq. (<questions).
5) Latin abbreviations which are graphical abbreviations of Latin words and
word combinations, for instance: e.g. (exampli gratia), etc (et cetera), viz. (videlicet),
i.e. (id est), ff. (folios). In oral speech they are replaced by their English equivalents,
for example, and so on, namely, that is, the following pages respectively. Some of
Latin abbreviations are pronounced as separate letters: a.m., p.m.
It should be stressed that the meaning of the initial shortening is that of the
corresponding word-group. In speech initial shortenings function like nouns; they
take the plural suffix, as MPs (<Members of Parliament), and the suffix of the
possessive case, as MP’s, POW’s (prisoners of war).
Initial shortenings can be polysemantic, e.g. the abbreviation M.P. has at least 3
meanings: 1) member of Parliament; 2) Metropolitan Police; 3) Military Police; the
abbreviation M.D. has three meanings as well: 1) Doctor of Medicine; 2) medical
department; 3) months after day; the abbreviation M.O. has two meanings: 1) mail
order; 2) Medical Officer; LP has three meanings: 1) Labour Party; 2) long-playing
(record); 3) low pressure; ID has three meanings: 1) identification; 2) inside
dimensions; 3) Intelligence Department.
On the whole it must be observed that shortening is gaining in importance
daily.
4) Sound-interchange
Sound-interchange (or sound gradation, or root inflexion) is one of the two
non-productive types of word-building in Modern English. The other one is stress-
interchange (or change of stress).
It is a matter of common knowledge that sound-interchange is to be found in
all the Indo-European languages. In English lexical sound-interchange, i.e. the
change of a root vowel or a root consonant, or both, used to play a certain role in
word-building in the past though it is no longer active now. In fact, sound-gradation
and change of stress which is sometimes combined with it, are absolutely
unproductive in Modern English.
Among the words formed with the help of sound-interchange we can
distinguish 3 groups of words.
(1) Words formed by means of vowel interchange, e.g. food > to feed, blood >
to bleed, gold > to gild; to shoot > shot, to sing> song, to write > writ (заст.
писання);
(2) Words formed by means of both vowel and consonantal interchange, e.g.
bath > to bathe, grass > to graze, breath > to breathe, cloth > to clothe, loss > to
lose, life > to live, choice > to choose.
(3)Words formed by means of consonantal interchange often accompanied by
changes in spelling, e.g. grease – сало, жир > to grease – змащувати (жиром);
house > to house – 1. поселити; 2. жити (у будинку); 3. умістити; price – ціна
> to prize – 1. високо цінувати; 2. оцінювати; advice > to advise; practice > to
practise.
It should be mentioned that sometimes sound-interchange is accompanied by
affixation, cf. deep > depth, wide > width, broad > breadth, long > length, strong >
strength, where vowel gradation is accompanied by the addition of the -th suffix.

5) Stress-interchange
Stress-interchange (or change of stress, or semantic stress, or morphological
stress) is another non-productive type of word-building in Modern English.
Change of stress is mostly observed in verb-noun pairs (e.g. ´transport – to
trans´port; ´accent – to ac´cent; ´attribute – to att´ribute; ´compound – to com
´pound; ´conflict – to con´flict; ´contest – to con´test; ´contrast – to con´trast;
´export – to ex´port; ´object – to ob´ject; ´perfume – to per´fume) and much more
seldom – in verb-adjective pairs (e.g. to pro´strate – ´prostrate = падати долілиць –
розпростертий; to ab´sent – ´absent; to abs´tract – ´abstract = відбірати;
підсумовувати – абстрактний, відвернений; to fre´quent – ´frequent = часто
відвідувати – частий).
The difference in stress often appeared after the verb was formed and was not
therefore connected with the formation of the new word. It could be brought about by
analogy or purely phonetical reasons. Change of stress mostly accompanied either the
formation or the borrowing of the word.
Thus, the noun August (Lat. Augustus) was borrowed in the 11th century and
the adjective august = величний) in the 17th century through French, retaining the
typical final stress of the French. In other cases it is the analogy of verbs of the same
root having the stress on the last syllable while the nominal root has it in the first, e.g.
to abs´tract (formed in the 16th century from an adjective ´abstract that dates from
the 14th century), to ´concert = домовлятися (formed in the 17th century from a
noun dating in English from the 16th century) [6: 118].
6) Back-formation (reversion)
Back-formation or reversion, by which we mean the derivation of new words,
mostly verbs, by means of subtracting a suffix or other element resembling it, is a
source of short words in the past and an active process at the present time [5: 47; 7:
96].
The earliest examples of this type of word-building are the verb to beg
(просити, благати; просити подаяння) that was made from the French borrowing
beggar (жебрак), to burgle (робити крадіжку зі зломом) from burglar (нічний
злодій-зломник, грабіжник), to cobble (лагодити взуття) from cobbler (швець, що
займається лагодженням взуття), to edit from editor, to peddle (торгувати врозніс)
from peddler (торговець врозніс). In all these cases the verb was made from the
noun by subtracting what was mistakenly associated with the English suffix –er/-or.
The pattern of the type to work > worker, to write > writer, to paint > painter was
firmly established in the subconsciousness of English-speaking people at the time
when these formations appeared, and it was taken for granted that any noun denoting
profession or occupation is certain to have a corresponding verb of the same root. So,
in the case of the verbs to beg, to burgle, to cobble, to edit, to peddle the process was
reversed: instead of a noun made from a verb by affixation (as in painter from to
paint, writer from to write, worker from to work), a verb was produced from a noun
by subtraction. That is why this type of word-building received the name of back-
formation or reversion [1: 119].
Back-formation or reversion may be found in the formation of words
belonging to different parts of speech:
(a) verbs made from names of agent with the suffixes -er, -or, -our/-eur, -ar, -rd,
e.g, broker > broke; wafter > waft; hawker > hawk; sculptor >sculpt; benefactor
>benefact;
(b) verbs made from nouns with the suffix -ing, e.g. kittling > to kittle; awning
> to awn; quisling > to quisle (квислінг, зрадник – бути зрадником, зрадити
батьківщину);
(c) verbs made from nouns with abstract suffixes -ence, -tion, -sion, -is, -y,
-ment, -age, -ery, e.g. reminiscence > to reminisce, infraction > to infract; television
> to televise, emplacement > to emplace;
(d) verbs made from adjectives, e.g. luminescent > to luminesce; frivolous > to
frivol (легковажний – безглуздо розтринькувати (гроші), гаяти (час);
(е) nouns made from adjectives, e.g. greedy > greed; nasty >nast;
cantankerous (сварливий, прискіпливий) > cantanker (сварливість,
прискіпливість) [7: 96-97]. It is to be remarked that the most active type of back-
formation in Modern English is derivation of verbs from compounds that have either
-er or -ing as their last element, e.g.: to air-conditon < air-conditoner, air-
conditioning; to force-land < forced-landing; to finger-print < finger-printing; to
straphang < straphanger; to babysit < baby-sitter; to house-break < house-breaker;
to house-clean < house-cleaner; to house-keep < to house-keeper.
Here we have the merging of two types of word-building: compounding and
back-formation. The process of back-formation may easily be paralleled in other
languages. Cf. the Russian: садить > cад; видеть > вид.

7) Reduplication
Reduplication is a very interesting type of English word-building because of its
national specificity. It is the most wide-spread type among the semi-productive types
of word-formation in Modern English. In reduplication new compound words are
made by doubling a stem (often a pseudo-morpheme) [1: 118], e.g. bye-bye, ta-ta,
goody-goody (xaнжa), din-din, riff-raff (покидьки суспільства), tick-tack, clitter-
clatter (базікання), fuddy-duddy (боркотун), hokey-pokey (дешеве морозиво),
hoity-toity (шум, безлад), willy-nilly (волею-неволею), dilly-dally, wishy-washy, tip-
top, teeny-weeny, see-saw.
According to D.I. Kveselevich, reduplicative compounds fall into three main
subgroups;
1) Reduplicative compounds proper whose ICs are identical in their form [5:
37], e.g. murmur, frou-frou (шелестіння шовку), thump-thump (тук-тук), blah-blah
(нісенітниця, дурниця), pooh-pooh (v., відноситися із зневагою), willy-willy
(ураган).
2) Ablaut (gradational) compounds whose ICs have different root-vowels [5:
37], e.g. zigzag, ping-pong, chit-chat, bibble-babble (n., базікання), dilly-dally (v.,
вагатися), nid-nod (v., хитати), knick-knack (n., дрібничка, прикраса), flimflam (n.,
нісенітниця; трюк), tiptop (a., чудовий), fiddle-faddle (n., дрібниці).
3) Rhyme compounds whose ICs are joined to rhyme [5: 37], e.g.: helter-
skelter (метушня, безлад), walkie-talkie (переносна рація), namby-pamby
(сентиментальність), higgledy-piggledy (повний безлад), holus-bolus (залпом),
hanky-panky (обман, обдурювання), nolens-wollens (волею-неволею).
This type of word-building is greatly facilitated in Modern English by the vast
number of monosyllables. Stylistically speaking, most words made by reduplication
represent informal groups: colloquialisms and slang, they are stylistically and
emotionally colored [1: 118].
In the Russian language there are also words made by reduplication, e.g.:
дурак-дураком, чин-чином, давным-давно, кишмя-кишит, ревмя-ревет, нос к
носу and so on. In the Ukrainian language there are such examples as: волею-
неволею, хочеш-не хочеш, пліч-о-пліч and others.
8) Blending (telescopy)
Blending is a special type of compounding by means of merging parts of words
into one new word. This category of word-formation is a development which has
linguistic value of its own in various languages, the tendency towards shortness has
become most active in recent times, in present-day English, particularly. Familiar
examples of English blend-words (telescoped words, hybrid words, blends,
portmanteaux words) are: slanguage (slang + language), brunch (breakfast + lunch),
drunch (drinks + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), advecture (advertising + architecture),
automagical (automatic + magical), cosplay (costume + play), dancercise (dancer +
exercise), smaze (smoke + haze).
It seems practical to distinguish bettween the following groups of blends:
1) coining the new word from the initial elements of one word and the final
elements of another, e.g.: bash (bang + smash), flurry (fly + hurry), hustle (hurry +
bustle), shimmer (shine + glimmer), Oxbridge (Oxford + Cambridge), motel (motor
+ hotel).
2) coining a new word by combining one notional word and the final element of
another word, e.g. Manglish (man + English), radiotrician (radio + electrician),
uraniumaire (uranium + millionare), newt (new + recruit), pulltician (pull+
politician), nixonomics (Nixon + economics).
3) coining a new word by combining the initial elements of one word with a
notional word, e.g.: telejournalist (television + journalist), legislady (legislative +
lady), mobus (motor + bus), bascart (basket + cart).
Blending or telescopy involves different lexico-grammatical categories (nouns:
macon (mutton + bacon), adjectives: mangy (mean + stingy), verbs: flurry (fly +
hurry), adverbs: posilutely (positively + absolutely).
Such coinages are often formed with a playful or humorous intent and have a
stylistic status. They can convey various shades of emotive colouring (irony or
mockery).

III Syntactico-morphological word-building

1 Juxtapositional compounding
Compounding can be defined as the formation of a lexical unit of two or more
stems. One should distinguish between morphological, syntactical and juxtapositional
(or neutral) composition.
The juxtapositional way of component combining is joining them by means of
simply placing them side by side. A.I. Smirnitsky called it ‘neutral’ for it is partly
morphological, and partly syntactical. It is morphological for it affects the
morphological structure of the word forming a two-morpheme or three-morpheme
word out of separate stems; it is syntactical for the stems stand to each other in the
same grammatical relation as words in the phrase.
The term ‘juxtapositional’ seems more exact for it characterizes the manner of
composition – placing the stems side-by-side: a) in the same syntactical order (e.g.
ash-tray, shirt-collar, gas-mask); b) in apposition (e.g. girl-friend, man-servant, lady-
companion); c) in reversed order (e.g. shoe-making – making shoes; lady-killer – kill
ladies; pitch-dark – as dark as pitch; sun-burnt – burnt by the sun, short-lived – that
lived short).
 2 Substantivation of adjectives
Substantivation (or substantivization) is the process in which adjectives (or
participles) acquire the paradigm and syntactic functions of nouns. One should
distinguish two main types of substantivation – complete (or whole) and partial.
Completely (or wholly) substantivized adjectives (CSA) have the full
paradigm of a noun, i.e. the singular and the plural forms, the genitive case and they
may be associated with various determiners (definite, indefinite and zero articles,
demonstrative and possessive pronouns), e.g. an official, the official, officials, the
officials, officials, officials’, this official, our officials.
Partially substantivized adjectives (PSA) do not acquire the full paradigm of
a noun, i.e. they acquire only some of the characteristics of the nouns; they are used
with the definite article. PSA fall into several structural-semantic groups:
a) PSA denoting a group or a class of people; used mostly in plural, e.g. reds,
greens, blues, buffs.
b) PSA denoting abstract notions, e.g. the good, the bad, the evil, the beautiful,
the extravagant, the ordinary, the singular, the plural. Such PSA are singular in
meaning and form and take a singular verb, e.g. The good in him overweighs the bad.
My mother never lost her taste for the extravagant. She didn’ t regard Eliza’ s
behaviour as particularly out of the ordinary.
c) PSA denoting inanimate things and used mostly in plural, e.g. sweets,
ancients, eatables, greens, valuables.
d) PSA denoting nationalities and used in plural, e.g. the English, the French,
the Chinese, the Irish, the Dutch. The English are great lovers of tea.
e) PSA denoting languages, e.g. English, German, Italian, French, Ukrainian.
Such PSA are singular in form and meaning, e.g. In number of speakers English
nowadays is second only to Chinese. English is the official language of Australia and
New Zealand.
3 Lexicalization of the plural of nouns
There are cases when the grammatical form of the plural of nouns becomes
isolated from the paradigm and acquires a new lexical meaning. This leads to the
appearance of new lexical units, e.g.:
a colour – colours (=hues) :: colours (=regimental flags);
a force – forces (=powers) :: forces (=an army);
a custom – customs (=habits):: customs (=taxes on imported goods);
a draught – draughts (=currents of air) :: draughts (=a game);
a glass – glasses (=vessels for drinking):: glasses (=spectacles);
a manner – manners (=ways) :: manners (=behaviour);
a moral – morals (=lessons of a story) :: morals (=standards of behaviour);
a quarter – quarters (=forth parts) :: quarters (=lodgings);
a line – lines (a long, narrow mark):: lines (= poetry).

4 Conversion
The problem of existing of conversion in Old English is a very contradictional
one. In the Middle English period approximately before the 15 th century verb
formation from nouns and adjectives was considerably reduced for the reason that a
great deal of the French loan-nouns and loan-verbs appeared. But back-formation,
analogy and homonymy played a great role in the further development of conversion
and soon (since the 18th century) it became one of the characteristic features of
English. Modern English vocabulary is exceedingly rich in conversional pairs. As the
way of forming new words conversion is extremely productive and new conversion
pairs make their appearance in fiction, newspaper articles, in the process of oral
communication and in all spheres of human activity gradually forcing their way into
the existing vocabulary and in the dictionaries as well. Conversion is a morphologico-
syntactical way of word-building which leads to the morphological, lexical, semantic
and syntactic changes of a derived word.
There are 5 patterns of conversion:
1 Noun > Verb (display, n > display, v; pin, n > pin, v; brake, n > brake, v);
2 Verb > Noun (slip, v > slip, n; call, v >call, n; walk, v > walk, n);
3 Noun >Adjective (lemon, n >lemon, adj; ice, n > ice, adj; nut, n > nut, adj);
 4 Adjective >Verb (dull, adj > dull, v; narrow, adj > narrow, v);
5 Adjective > Noun (tall, adj > tall, n; rich, adj > rich, n; dear, adj > dear, n).
Conversion is especially productive in the formation of verbs; it is, as a matter
of fact, the principal way of forming verbs in Modern English. The 20 th century
neologisms include a great many verbs formed by conversion, e. g. to can (=put into
can); to microfilm (= produce a microfilm of); to motor (=travel by car); to phone
(= use the telephone); to wire (=send a telegram).
There are two types of conversion: complete (a word is included in a new
paradigm and is characterized by new grammatical categories, accepts another
syntactic function and a new lexical-grammatical meaning) and partial (at first a
noun is formed by conversion from a verbal stem, and then this noun is combined
with such verbs as: give, make, have, take and a few others to form a verbal phrase:
to have a smoke; to take a walk; to give a ride).
It should be stressed that conversion as one of the types of word-building was
productive at every stage of development of the English language and it is still
productive nowadays.

4 Syntactical word-building: Syntactic compounding

Syntactic compounding is the process of semantic isolation and structural
integration of free word-groups. These words are formed from segments of speech
preserving articles, prepositions, adverbs, e.g.: forget-me-not, lily-of-the-valley, Jack-
of-all-trades, good-for-nothing, man-of-war, pick-me-up, milk-and-water, tongue-in-
cheek, mums-to-be, hit-or-miss, stay-at-home, know-all, know-nothing, passer-by,
son-in-law, cool-to-the-touch, melt-in-the-mouth. This type belongs to syntactical
way of word-building in English.

5 Minor types of word-building: Sound-imitation

The great majority of motivated words in present-day language are motivated by
reference to other words in the language, to the morphemes that go to compose them
and to their arrangement. Therefore, even if one hears the noun wage-earner for the
first time, one understands it, knowing the meaning of the words wage and earn and
the structural pattern noun stem + verbal stem + -er as in bread-winner, skyscraper,
strike-breaker. Sound imitating or onomatopoeic words are on the contrary motivated
with reference to extra-linguistic reality, they are echoes of natural sounds. Sound
imitation (onomatopoeia or echoism) is consequently the naming of an action or thing
by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with it. It would, however,
be wrong to think that onomatopoeic words reflect the real sounds directly,
irrespective of the laws of the language, because the same sounds are represented
differently in different languages. Compare the English word соск-a-doodle-do and
the French cocorico. Onomatopoeic words adopt the phonetic features of English and
fall into the combinations peculiar to it.
The majority of onomatopoeic words serve to name sounds or movements.
Most of them are verbs easily turned into nouns: bang, boom, bump, hum, rustle,
smack, thud etc. Sound-imitative words form a considerable part of interjections. Cf.
bang! hush! pooh!
Semantically, according to the source of sound, onomatopoeic words fall into a
few very definite groups. Many verbs denote sounds produced by human beings in
the process of communication or in expressing their feelings: babble, chatter, giggle,
grunt, grumble, murmur, mutter, titter, whine, whisper and many more. Then there are
sounds produced by animals, birds and insects, e.g. buzz, croak, crow, hiss, honk,
howl, moo, mew, neigh, purr, roar and others. Some birds are named after the sound
they make, these are the cuckoo, the whipoorwill and a few others. There are also
verbs imitating the sound of water such as bubble or splash, and others imitating the
noise of metallic things: clink, tinkle.
Robert Southey’s poem ‘The Cataract of Lodore’ is a classical example of the stylistic
possibilities offered by onomatopoeia: the words in it sound an echo of what the poet sees and
describes.
“How does the water
Come down at Lodore?”
My little boy asked me
Thus once on a time;
And moreover he tasked me
 To tell him in rhyme.
….......................................................

Dividing and gliding and sliding,

And falling and brawling and sprawling,
And driving and riving and striving,
And sprinkling and twinkling and wrinkling,
And sounding and bounding and rounding,
And bubbling and troubling and doubling,
And grumbling and rumbling and tumbling,
And clattering and battering and shattering;

Retreating and beating and meeting and sheeting,

Delaying and straying and playing and spraying,
Advancing and prancing and glancing and dancing,
Recoiling, turmoiling and toiling and boiling,
And gleaming and streaming and steaming and beaming,
And rushing and flushing and brushing and gushing,
And flapping and rapping and clapping and slapping,
And curling and whirling and purling and twirling,
And thumping and plumping and bumping and jumping,
And dashing and flashing and splashing and clashing;
And so never ending, but always descending,
Sounds and motions for ever and ever are blending,
All at once and all o’er, with a mighty uproar;
And this way the water comes down at Lodore.

Once being coined, onomatopoeic words lend themselves easily to further

word-building and to semantic development. They readily develop figurative
meanings. Croak, for instance, means ‘to make a deep harsh sound.’ In its direct
meaning the verb is used about frogs or ravens. Metaphorically it may be used about
a hoarse human voice.