Учебное пособие: Brief course on lexicology

The structural types of words at the morphemic level are described in terms of the number and type of their ICs (immediate constituents) as monomorphic and polymorphic words.

Derivational level of analysis aims at finding out the derivative types of words, the interrelation between them and at finding out how different types of derivatives are constructed.

Derivationately all words form 2 structural classes:

1. simplexes (non-derived)

2. complexes (derivatives) which in their turn may be divided into:

· sufficial

· prefixal

· conversions

· compounds

Each structural type of complexes shows preference for one or another part of speech. Within part of speech derivative structures are characterized by a set of derivational patterns.

Derivational basis differ from stems both structurally and semantically. Derivational bases are built on the following language units:

· stems of various structure

· word-forms

· word-group or phrases

Each class and subset bases has its own range of collocability and shows peculiar ties with different parts of speech.

Derivational affixes form derived stems by repattering derivational bases. Semantically derivational affixes present a unity of lexical meaning and other types of meaning: functional, distributional and differential unlike non-derivational affixes which lack lexical meaning.

Derivational patterns (DP) are meaningful arrangements of various types of ICs that can be observed in a set of words based on their mutual interdependence. DPs can be viewed in terms of collocability of each IC.

There are 2 types of DPs: 1) structural that specify base classes and individual affixes.

2) structural-semantic that specify semantic peculiarities of bases and the individual meaning of the affix.

DPs of different levels of generalization signal:

· the class of source unit that motivates the derivative and the direction of motivation between different classes of words.

· The part of speech of the derivative.

· The lexical sets and semantic features of derivatives.

Lecture 7

Ways of forming words (according to A.I. Smirnitskiy):

Word-formation is the system of derivative types of words and the process of creating new words from the material available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulas and patterns.

As a subject of study English word-formation is that branch of English lexicology which studies the derivative structure of words and the patterns on which the English language builds new words. Like any other linguistic phenomenon, word-formation may be studied synchronically and diachronically.

There are 2 types of word-formation in Modern English :

1. word-derivation being of 2 kinds like affixation and conversion