Seminar №2 Word-formation in Modern English

Theme №1 Etymology and Word-formation
Lecture 2 Word-formation in Modern English
1. The morphological structure of a word.
2. Productivity. Productive and non-productive ways of word-formation.
3. Affixation. General characteristics of suffixes and prefixes. Classification of prefixes.
3.1. Semantics of Affixes.
3.2. Boundary cases between derivation, inflection and composition
3.2.1 Semi-Affixes.
3.2.2. Combining forms.
4. Word - composition. Classification of compound words.
4.1. The semantic aspect of compound words.
4.2. The criteria of compounds.
4.3. Pseudo-compounds.
5. Conversion.
6. Shortening.
7. Non-productive means of word formation.
7.1. Blending.
7.2. Back-formation.
7.3. Onomatopoeia.
7.4. Sound and stress interchange.


Recommended Literature
1. Каращук T.M. Словообразование английского языка,- М., 1997.
2. Кубрякова Е:С. Типы языковых значений: Семантика производного слова,- М., 1981.
3. Мостовий М.Д. Лексиколоія англійської мови.-Харків, 1993.
4. Харитончик З.А Лексикология английского языка.- Минск, 1992
5. Arnold I.V. The English Word.- M., 1973.
6. Ginsburg R.S. and others. A Course in Modem English Lexicology.- M., 1966.
7. Marchand H. Studies in Syntax and Word-Formation.- Munchen, 1974.
9. Nikolenko A.G. English Lexicology – Theory and Practice. – Вінниця, Нова книга, 2007. – 567с.
10. Rayevskaya N.M. English Lexicology,- K., 1979.
11. Warren B. Classifying Adjectives.- Oostburg, 1984.


1. The morphological structure of a word.

The word is not the smallest unit of the language. It consists of morphemes. The term morpheme is derived from Gr morphe ‘form’ + -eme. The Greek suffix -erne has been adopted by linguists to denote the smallest significant or distinctive unit. The morpheme may be defined as the smallest meaningful unit which has a sound form and meaning and which occurs in speech only as a part of a word. In other words, a morpheme is an association of a given meaning with a given sound pattern. But unlike a word it is not autonomous. Morphemes occur in speech only as constituent parts of words, not independently, although a word may consist of a single morpheme. Nor are they divisible into smaller meaningful units. That is why the morpheme may be defined as the minimum meaningful language unit.