Morphology and Lexicology

Morphology and Lexicology

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Basic concepts of words and vocabulary

Chapter 1 (Page 6 -20)

Contents

1.1 What Is a Word1.2 Sound and Meaning

1.3 Sound and Form1.4 Vocabulary

1.5 Classification of Words1.5.1 Basic Word Stock and Nonbasic Vocabulary1.5.2 Content Words and Functional Words

1.5.3 Native Words and Borrowed Words

Questions and Tasks

What Is a WordElusive notion, which demands careful consideration at the outset

Critcria for vocabulary classification

Each class of words to some extent

1.1 What Is a Word

Word

Can be defined as a meaningful group of letters

Is viewd as a sound or combination of sounds which are made voluntarily with human vocal equipment

Unit of meaning

Be a free formthat can function in a sentence

1.1 What Is a Word

(1) A minimal free form of a language

(2) A sound unity

(3) A unit of meaning

(4) A form that can function alone in a sentence

The definition of a word comprises the following points

1.1 What Is a Word

Simple Complex

Each have sound, meaning, syntac-tic function.

Each can be used alone in a sen-tence.

Both are polysy-labic.

Both can function as subject, object, predictive(S.C) in a sentence.

1.1 What Is a Word

Simple

Complex

Man

Man / age / mentManage / ment

Fine

Mis / for / tuneMis / fortune

Black / mailCompel, compulsion

Questions and Tasks

1. Which of the following is NOT true?

(a) A word is the smallest form of a language

(b) A word is a sound unity.

(c) A word has a given meaning.

(d) A word can be used freely in a sentence.

(a) A word is the smallest form of a language

Sound and Meaning

1.2 Sound and Meaning

certain sounds will represent certain persons, things, places, properties, processes and activities outside the language system.

This symbolic connection is free.

There is ‘no logical relationship between the sound and the actual thing and idea itself’


A word is a symbol that stands for something else in the world

certain sounds will represent certain persons, things, places, properties, processes and activities outside the language system.

This symbolic connection is arbitrary.

There is ‘ no logical relationship between the sound and the actual thing and idea itself ’


A dog is called a dog not because the sound and the three letters that make up the word just automatically suggest the animal in question.It is only symbolic.

The relationship between them is conventional because people of the same speech community have agreed to refer to the animal with this cluster of sounds.


In different languages the same concept can be represented by different sounds.

Example

Woman

Becomes ‘Frau’ in German ‘Femme’ in French ‘funu’ in Chinese


On the other hand, the same sound [mi:t] is used to mean meet, meat, mete.

Examplemeet, meat, mete.

Knight and night, though denoting entirely different things, yet have the same sound.

Questions and Tasks

6. Illustrate the relationship between sound and meaning with examples.

This symbolic connection is free (arbitrary).There is ‘no logical relationship between the sound and the actual thing and idea itself’

Sound and Form

1.3 Sound and Form

Written form of a natural language is the written record of the oral form.

Written form should agree with the oral form.

The sound should be similar to the form.

It is generally agreed and fairly true of English in its earliest stage (Old English)

1.3 Sound and Form

The speech of the time was represented very much more faithfully in writing than it is today.

With the development of the language, More and more differences occur between the two.

1.3 Sound and Form

It does not have a separate letter to represent each sound in the languageso that some letters must do double duty or work together in combination.

English alphabet was adopted from the Romans.

1.3 Sound and Form

During the last five hundred years, though the sounds of speech have changed con-siderably, there have been no correspond-ing changes of spelling.

The pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spelling over the years, and in some cases the two have drawn far apart.

1.3 Sound and Form

In the early days the spelling differences did not matter very much as people were not so used to seeing words in print, and the spell-ing was not fixed as it is today.

Sometimes, people deliberately changed spell-ing of words either to make a line even or for easier recognition.

Some of the differences were created by the early scribes.

1.3 Sound and Form

Before the printing press was brought to Eng-land, and everything was written by hand.

Those scribes, who made a living by writing for other people often worked in haste to meet the needs of the King, Church, and merchants.

1.3 Sound and Form

One problem was that several letters written with short vertical strokes such as i , u , v , m , w and n looked all alike.

To solve the problem in part, they changed the letter u to o when it came before m, n, or v.

sum cum wuman wunder munksome come woman wonder monk

1.3 Sound and Form

At some point, too, the scribes seem to have decided that no English word should end in u or v.

Thus, in time, an e was added to such words as live, have, due, and true but not pronounced

1.3 Sound and Form

In the late 1500, printing became well established. It helped to freeze the spelling of words.

Dictionaries did their share in stopping spelling changes.

Some British and American scholars have made efforts to reform the English spelling, but with little success.

Questions and Tasks

2. The differences between sound and form are due to

(a) The fact of more phonemes than letters in English(b) Stabilization of spelling by printing.(c) Influence of the work of scribes.

(d) Innovations made by linguists.

VocabularyAll the words in a language make up its vocabulary.

1.4 Vocabulary

- The term ‘vocabulary’ is used in different senses.

- It can refer to the total number of the words in a language.

- It can stand for all the words used in a particular historical period.

- English is one of the world’s highly developed languages.

- Naturally the vocabulary is one of the largest and richest.

Questions and Tasks

5. What is vocabulary?

The vocabulary of a language is all the words in it.(The English vocabulary consists of words of all kinds.)

Not only it can refer to the total number of the words in a language, but it can stand for all the words used in a particular historical period.

Classification of Words

The vocabulary can be classified by different criteria and for different purposes.

1.5 Classification of Words

Words fall into the basic word stock andnonbasic vocabulary by use frequency, into content words and functional words by notion, and into native words and borrowed words by origin.

*word stock : the set of words in a language

Basic Word Stock and Nonbasic Vocabulary

1.5.1 Basic Word Stock and Nonbasic Vocabulary

Though words of the basic word stock constitute a small percentage of the English vocabulary, yet it is the most important part of it. These words have obvious characteristics.

1. All national character ( 국민성 )

2. stability ( 안정성 )

3. Productivity ( 생산성 )

4. Polysemy ( 다의성 )

5. Collocability ( 연어구성력 )


1. All national character

Words of the basic word stock denote the most com-mon things and phenomena of the world around us, which are indispensable to all the people who speak the language.

These words cannot be avoided by any speaker of Eng-lish, irrespective of class origin, education, profession, geographical regions, culture, etc.


These words have obvious characteristics

Numerals, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions: one, hundred, I, you, who, in, out, and

Human body and relations: head, foot, father, son

Natural phenomena: rain, snow, fire, water

Names of plants and animals: oak, grass, tree, cat, dog

Action, size, domain, state: come, go, good, old, white


2. Stability

As they denote the commonest things necessary to life, they are likely to remain unchanged. Stability, however, is only relative. Actualy the basic word stock has been undergoing some changes.Words like arrow, bow, knight, which were common in the past, have now moved out of the word stock whereas such words as computer, car, plane, which denote new things and modern way of like, have entered the stock. But this change is slow.


3. Productivity

Words of the basic word stock are mostly root words or monosyllabic words. They can each be used alone, and at the same time can form new words with other roots and affixes.Foot : football, footer, footfall, footed etc.In the same way, dog is the father of doglike, doghood, dogcart, dogsleep, to name just a few


4. Polysemy

Words belonging to the basic word stock often possess more than one meaning because most of them have undergone semantic changes in the course of use and become polysemous.

Take(verb) : to move or carry from one place to another to perform the actions connected with to test or measure


5. Collocability

Collocability means the tendency or legitimacy of words to occur together in a collocation.

Many words of the basic word stock enter quite a number of set expressions, idiomatic usages, prover-bial saying and the like.


For example

hearta change of heartafter one’s heartbreak one’s heartcry one’s heart outtake something to heartwith all one’s heart


Of course, not all the words of the basic word stock have these characteristics.

Pronouns and numerals enjoy nation-wide use and stability, but are semantically monosemous and have limited productivity and collocability.

Therefore, ‘all national character’ is the most important of all features that may differentiate words of common use from all others.

Questions and Tasks

3. Of the five characteristics listed for the basic word stock, the most important is

(a) All national character.

(b) productivity.

(c) polysemy.

(d) collocability.

(a) All national character.


Words, void of the stated characteristics, do not belong to the common core of the language.

1. Terminology (professional - medical)2. Jargon (technical term)3. Slang4. Argot ( 은어 part of the slang)5. Dialectal words (rural area’s words)6. Archaisms (archaic, old words)7. Neologisms (new words)


1. Terminology

Terminology consists of technical terms used in particular disciplines and academic areas as

In medicine : hepatitis, penicillinIn mathematics : calculus, algebraIn music : symphony, orchestra, sonataIn education : microteaching, audiovisual


2. Jargon

Jargon refers to the specialized vocabularies by which members of particular arts, sciences trades and profes-sions communicate among themselves such as

In business : bottom line for ‘inescapable implication’In horse-racing : hold him back for ‘prevent a horse from winning’In medicine : paranoid for ‘suspicious, worried’


3. Slang

Slang belongs to the sub-standard language, a category that seems to stand between the standard general words including informal ones available to ev-eryone and in-group words like cant, jargon, and argot, all of which are associated with, or most available to, specific groups of the population.

Certain words are labeled ‘slang’ not because of their appearance or pronunciation but because of their us-age.


3. Slang (example)

Dough and bread, for instance, are standard when they are used as food terms but slang in the sense of ‘money’.

Beaver(girl), smoky, bear(police), catch(talk to), holler(call), roger(understand), X-rays(radar) are all slang words.


3. Slang

These examples indicate that much of the slang is cre-ated by changing or extending the meaning of existing words though some slang words are new coinages alto-gether.

Almost everyone uses some slang sometimes, and some people use a lot of slang often.As some people claim, slang avoids pretensions.It is ‘language that rolls up its sleeves’ and gets to work.


4. Argot

Argot generally refers to the jargon of criminals.Its use is confined to the sub-cultural groups, and out-siders can hardly understand it.

Ex) dip (pick-pocket) persuader (dagger) can-opener (all-purpose key)


5. Dialectal words

Dialectal words are words used only by speakers of the dialect in question.

Ex) beauty (Aus E = excellent, great) station (Aus E = chichen) coo (Scot E = cow) hame (Scot E = home)


6. Archaisms

Archaisms are words or forms that were once in com-mon use but are now restricted only to specialized or limited use. They are found mainly in older poems, legal documents and religious writing or speech.

Ex) thou (you), ye (plural you), brethren (brother), quoth (said), wilt (will), wherein (in what), hereof (of this, concerning this)


7. Neologisms

Neologisms are newly-created words or expressions, or words that have taken on new meanings.

We will deal with the examples at the exercise.

Questions and Tasks

7. Choose the standard word from the column on the right to match each of the slang words on the left.

Questions and Tasks

(a) tart

(b) bloke

(c) gat

(d) swell

(e) chicken(f) blue (g) smoky

(h) full

(i) damn

(j) beaver

girl

police

greatdrunk

cowardloose woman

pistol

fight

fellow

woman

Questions and Tasks

8. Give the modern equivalents for the following archaic words:

haply

methinks

sooth

troth

quoth

billow

albeit

eke

morn

ere

hallowed

bade

perhaps

It seems to me

truth

faith

said

wave /the sea

althoughalso

morning

before

holy

bid

Questions and Tasks

9. Explain neologisms with examples.

Microelectronics = the branch of electronics dealing with integrated circuits.

Futurology = a study that deals with future possibilities based on current trends.

E-mail = electronic mail, the sending of messages via computer systems

Questions and Tasks

9. Explain neologisms with examples.

AIDS = acquired immune deficiency syndrome

Internet = an international computer network linking both business and private users.

Freak out = withdraw from reality and society esp. by taking drugs.

Content Words and Functional Words

By notion, words can be grouped into content words and functional words.

1.5.2 Content Words and Functional Words

Content words

It denotes clear notions and thus are known as notional words.

They include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numerals, which denote objects, phenomena, action, quality, state, degree, quantity, etc.

Ex) Earth, cloud, run, walk, dark, five, December


Content words

It constitute the main body of the English vocabulary.

It is numerous, and the number is ever growing whereas functional words, which make up a very small number of the vocabulary, remain stable.


Functional words

It doesn’t have notions of their own.Therefore, they are also called empty words.

As their chief function is to express the relation between notions, the relation between words as well as between sentences, they are known as form words. Prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliaries and articles belong to this category.

Ex) on, of, upon, but, be, a, the


Functional words - examples

1. It is fun to play with children.

2. It is certain that they have forgotten the address.

3. The more I see the film, the more I like it.

Of the total of twenty-seven words, only nine are contents words and all the rest are functional words.

Native Words andBorrowed WordsAs far as the origins of the words are concerned, English words can be classifiedinto native words and borrowed words.


Native words are words brought to Britain in the 15c by the German tribes : Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, thus known as Anglo-Saxon words.

They are small in number but they form the mainstream of the basic word stock and stand at the core of the language.

Therefore, what is true of the basic word stock is also true of native words.

Apart from the characteristics mentioned ofthe basic word stock, in contrast to borrowed words.


Native words have two other features:

1. Neutral in style.Since native words denote the commonest thingsin human society, they are used by all people, in all places, on all occasions, and at all times. Therefore, they are not stylistically specific.begin (E) – commence (F)kingly (E) – royal (F) – regal (L)

Native words are neither formal nor informal whereas the words borrowed from French or Latin are literary and learned, thus appropriate in formal style.


Native words have two other features:

2. Frequent in use.Native words are most frequently used in everyday speech and writing.The proportion of its use in relation to borrowings is perhaps just the opposite of its number. (page 18)

Words taken over from foreign languages are known as borrowed words or loan words or borrowings."The English language has vast debts. In any dictionary some 80% of the entries are borrowed”


We can bring the loan-words under four classes.

1. Denizens

2. Aliens

3. Translation-loans

4. Semantic-loans


Denizens

It is borrowed early in the past and now are well assimilated into the English language. In other words they have come to conform to the English way of pronunciation and spelling. Some of the words are so successfully assimilated that only trained professionals may be aware of their origin.

Words of this group are early borrowings from Latin, Greek, French and Scandinavians


Denizens - Examples

port from portus (L)shirt from skyrta (ON)change from changier (F)pork from porc (F)


Aliens

Aliens are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and spelling.

These words are immediately recognisable as foreign in origin.

Emir (Arab), Décor (F), Bazaar (Per)


Translation-loans

Translation-loans are words and expressions formed from the existing material in the English language but modelled on the patterns taken from another language. According to the meaningLong time no see from haojiumeijian (CH)Master piece from Meisterstuck (G)

According to the soundKetchup from ke-tsiap (CH dial)Tea from t’e (CH dial)


Semantic-loans

Words of this category are not borrowed with reference to the form. But their meanings are borrowed.

In other words, English has borrowed a new meaning for an existing word in the language.

Pioneer : explorer, person doing pioneering work (original mean-ing) a member of the Young Pioneer (Russian)

Questions and Tasks

4. Complete the following statements by supplying an appropriate term for each blank.

(a) Borrowed words which still sound foreign and look foreign are __________.

(b) There is no _______ relationship between sound and ________ as the connection between them is ________ and conventional.

aliens

logicalmeaning

arbitrary

Questions and Tasks

(c) ________ are borrowings that have become naturalized or assimilated in English.

(d) Archaisms are words no longer in _______ use or _______ in use.

Dinizens

commonobsolete

Questions and Tasks

(e) Content words are changing all the time whereas functional words are _____. ________ words enjoy a _____ frequency in use than content words.

(f) A word whose meaning was borrowed from another language is called _____________.

stablefunctional higher

Semantic loan

Questions and Tasks

10. How do you account for the role of native words in English in relation to loan-words?

Questions and Tasks

11. Group the following borrowed words into denizens, aliens, translation loans and semantic loans:

confrerekettlechopsticktyphoonpro patriadieWunderkindmikadosilk

wallskirtdreamgifthusbandparvenubloomblack humourlong time no see

Questions and Tasks

Aliens : confrere, pro patria, Wunderkind, mikado, parvenu

Denizens : kettle, die, wall, skirt

Translation loans : chopstick, silk, long time no see, black humour, typhoon

Semantic loans : dream, bloom, gift

Typhoon can go to aliens and silk to denizens.

Thank you

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Morphology and Lexicology