Курсовые - Word formation in the English and French languages PDF

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The title of the course paper is “Word formation in the English and French languages”. The main thing which will be done in this course paper is the comparison of two languages in one morphological aspect. But before doing this we should consider: what is word formation?

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Introduction The title of the course paper is “Word formation in the English and French languages”. The main thing which will be done in this course paper is the comparison of two languages in one morphological aspect. But before doing this we should consider: what is word formation? 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. Word formation of such languages like English and French has some differences. This is so because English is the Analytic language but French is semi-analytic as we can find in it some characteristics of the Synthetic language. The theme of my course paper belongs to morphological section of these languages and that is why the object of this course paper is English and French morphology. The subject of my work is classification of word formation, their formation and usage in both languages. The aim of my work is to find differences and similarities between word formation in English and French languages. To achieve this goal I have set myself the following tasks: • To find out types of word – formation in the English language; • To find out types of word – formation in the French language; • To compare these types of forming words in the English and French languages; • To prove the theoretical part by the examples of English and French texts. In my work I have used the scientific method of research for the topic. The course paper consists of two parts. In the first one I analyze what types of forming words exist in each of the languages. Then I examine the theoretical part of the word – formation of English and French. I compare these two languages using above analysis. All this research can help me to make up the second part of the paper, the practical part. This part consists of two texts. The first one is in English and the second is in French. The main aim of the practical part is to find out similarities and differences in the usage of types of forming words in both of the texts according to the theoretical part of the paper.

This course paper consists of the following parts: 1) Introduction 2) Theoretical part. 3) Practical part. 4) Conclusion 5) List of references

Word formation in English language

Before studying word formation in English language, let’s deal with the subject, which study this area of language. This is morphology. Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. Morphology divides into inflectional and lexical morphology. Inflectional morphology has a deal with the differences between the shapes of the inflectional forms of variable lexemes. Lexical morphology connects with the lexical bases’ formation. Lexeme Friend(n) Friendly(adj)

friend friendly

friends friendlier

Inflectional forms friend’s friendliest

friends’

Inflectional morphology has a deal with the horizontal relationships in the table. There are different shapes that share a lexeme’s lexical base. Lexical morphology deals with the vertical dimension in the table: the structure of different lexical bases and relations between them. To conclude, inflectional morphology ties in mainly with syntax, while lexical morphology is mainly relevant to the content of the dictionary. Inflectional forms matter for rules of syntax, whereas lexical morphology relates only to the structure of the words in the dictionary and the formation of new words added to it. 1 Inflectional morphology There are some basic concepts of English inflection. 1) Lexical base. The lexical base of a lexeme is the first point for describing the forms of inflection, it’s almost always identical with one of the inflectional forms. But there exist several exceptions, there are a few lexemes which lexical base isn’t identical with any of the inflectional forms.

The examples of such exceptions are plural-only nouns: Auspices, clothes, scissors, credentials, binoculars. 1 A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar – Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum

2) Morphological operations. Inflectional forms of a lexeme can be formed in different ways. So, there exist different types of operations on lexical bases. One of such operations is suffixation of –s, it means adding –s to the end of the base. Suffixation is the main operation in the inflectional system. Another one operation in the inflectional system is modification. Modification of the base plays an important role. There are some examples of suffixation and modification it the table.

Suffixation Modification

Plural noun formation Dog+s = dogs Goose modified = geese

Preterite verb formation Want+ed = wanted Take modified = took

English doesn’t make much use of word structure to express grammatical meaning and the inflection in English is limited in comparison with other languages. There are suffixes of English inflection in table №3. suffix Noun plurals(-s,-es,en) 3rd person singular present tense -s Past tense -ed -ing form as progressive aspect -ed form as –ed participle Comparative forms –er, -est Negative verb inflection –n’t

examples Cars, buses, oxen He works, it rises We walked, I wanted She’s running They’ve landed He’s bigger, I’m biggest He can’t, we won’t

Examples of inflection through vowel or consonant change goose hang far advise

geese hung further advice

plural Past tense comparative Verb to noun

Inflected form can be identical to its non-inflected form. In such way this is called syncretism. Syncretism is the word has the same form in to different ways of using of this word. In the table below we can see some examples of syncretism. deer fish shed set put

deer fish shed set put

plural plural Past tense, -ed participle Past tense, -ed participle Past tense, -ed participle

Another inflectional process is suppletion. This is the process when an alternative word is used for a particular inflectional meaning. Suppletion is shown in the next table. be Go

Am, is, are went

Present tense Past tense

Verb inflection Almost all lexical verbs have six inflectional forms. As a rule, the plain form and the plain present tense are identical with the lexical base, the gerund – participle and the 3 rd person singular present tense are very straightforward. 1) The gerund – participle The gerund – participle is formed with help of the suffix –ing which is added to the lexical base. In writing, when we add the suffix it may lead to modification of the base, such as: -

Consonant doubling

-

Deletion of e

-

Replacement of ie by y

In the table some examples of these modifications are illustrated. Lexical

see

stop

hope

subdue

hoe

lie

base Gerund

See - ing

Stopp - ing

Hop - ing

Subdu - ing

Hoe - ing

Ly - ing

participle

2) The 3rd person singular present tense

The 3 rd person singular present tense is usually forming by adding –s or –es to the base. But if it’s so it means that the verb be is irregular because in the sentence it’s is, not bes. In this case, the verb have is also irregular: has, not haves. If we examine such cases in speech, we will see that does is also irregular because the vowel differs from that of the base. The verb says is another one example of this. Lexical base 3rd

miss

sing. Miss -es

lose

touch

go

boo

stop

Los -es

Touch -es

Go -es

Boo -s

Stop -s

Present

3) The preterite and past participle These two forms are morphologically identical. They are: 1) Regular forms of verbs 2) Irregular forms of verbs Verbs whose preterite and past participle are regular in speech are formed by adding the suffix – ed, which may be the case of: -

Consonant doubling

-

Replacement of y by i

The examples of this are given below Lexical

Laugh

Stop

prefer

hope

subdue

deny

base Preterite

Laugh -ed

Stopp -ed

Preferr -ed

Hop -ed

Subdu -ed

Deni –ed

Some irregular verbs are alike regular verbs. They have shape sharing between preterite and past participle. These exist a dozen where there is variation between a regular form and mildly irregular one.

In the next table we can see morphological relations between preterite/ past participle and the lexical base

Base preterite

A hit hit

B bend bent

C burn burnt

D keep kept

E flee fled

F think thought

G dig dug

H stand stood

There are eight types of morphological relations, let’s deal with each of them: 1) Type A ( preterite identical with base) Over twenty verbs where the preterite is identical with the lexical base are known nowadays. Most of them have bases which ends with –t, but there are also a few in –d. For example, the verb shed. 2) Type B (base-final d replaced by t) To this type belong such verbs which preterite is not identical to the base but differs simply in the replacement of final d by t. For example: send, spend… 3) Type C (preterite formed by addition of –t) It’s a small class of verbs which have regular variations too. One of such verbs is burn, it can be two variants: burnt of burned 4) Type D (addition of –t with modification of the base) This type is similar to the previous one, but the addition of –t is accompanied by modification of the base. It’s usually just a change in the vowel, but a more extensive modification is found in the verb leave –left. 5) Type E (addition of –d with modification of the base) It’s a small number of verbs add –d instead of –t, in all cases with modification of the base. 6) Type F (preterites in ought or aught) A handful of verbs have highly irregular preterites with ought or aught replacing vowel + any following consonant in base, for example: catch, buy. 7) Type G (preterite formed by vowel change)

In some verbs the preterite differs from the base just due to the vowel. So we can compare such verbs like: hang – hung, shine – shone, etc. 8) Type H (miscellaneous) There are some verbs which have a unique difference between preterite and base. For example: had and made differ from have and make in the second consonant. Irregular forms with preterite and past participle distinct There exist such verbs which preterite and past participle have difference in form. It’s known that past participle has a distinctive suffix spelled in three different ways: After vowel symbol or n ne

re: For

en

do, go: Elsewhere:

grown

lain

seen

sewn

torn

borne broken

done chosen

gone fallen

swollen

taken

bear,

In the next table it is shown variety of morphological relations between past participle, lexical base and preterite: D Lie Lay

E Drink Drank

F Fly Flew

participle shown Taken Ridden Lain 1) Type A ( preterite; past participle: base + suffix)

Drunk

Flown

Base Preterite Past

A Show Showed

B Take Took

C Ride Rode

All verbs of this type have a regular past participle as a variant of the irregular one. 2) Type B ( preterite; vowel change; past participle: base + suffix) In this type the formation of past participle is the same as in previous type, but the preterite is irregular, formed by vowel change. 3) Type C ( preterite: vowel change; past participle: modified base + suffix) The difference of this type in that the base to which the past participle suffix is added is modified.

4) Type D ( preterite: vowel change; past participle: preterite form + suffix) Here the past participle suffix is added to the preterite form, not to the lexical base. 5) Type E (three different vowels; no suffix) With a few verbs the three forms are distinguished solely by their vowels. 6) Type F (miscellaneous) This type is about the verbs which don’t fit into any of the previous ones. For example, the verb fly (the three forms have different vowels but the past participle also contains the suffix). Now we turn to the next type of inflection: noun inflection. Noun inflection. Nouns inflect for number and case. In this part they will be considered. -

Plural formation: there are two types of formation of plural nouns. We can divide them into regular and irregular formation. Let’s consider regular formation firstly.

Regular formation is formed by adding –es or –s to the lexical base. In the table below we can see this type visually. Lexical base Plural

cross Cross -es

Horse Hors -es

edge Edg -es

Echo Echo -es

Now let’s deal with irregular formation. There are four types of irregular plural formation in English:

.

Types of irregular formation of plural nouns

Book Book –s

Studio Studio -s

Modification of the

Vowel change and the suffix –en /- ren

base-final consonant

Base plurals

Foreing plurals

Now we consider each of them in details: 1) Modification of the base-final consonant. In this type addition of the plural suffix is accompanied by a modification of the consonant at the end of the base. In such nouns the consonant f is changed to v. But some nouns of this type have both variants: regular and irregular. For example, dwarf, it can be dwarfs and dwarves. Base Plural

Calf Calve -s

Knife Knive -s

Leaf Leave -s

Thief Thieve -s

Loaf Loave -s

Wolf Wolve -s

Wife Wive -s

2) Vowel change and the suffix –en / -ren To this types belong nouns which plural is formed by changing the vowel and/or adiing the suffix –en / -ren. Base Plural

Man Men

Woman Women

Foot Feet

Tooth Teeth

Mouse Mice

Ox Ox –en

Child Child -ren

3) Base plurals This type contains such nouns which singular and plural forms are identical with the base. Usually such nouns belong to one or other of following categories: 

Nouns denoting edible fish and game animals – creatures that traditionally hunted ( salmon, deer, reindeer, etc.)



Nouns with bases ending in s: barracks, means, series, species, etc.



Nationality nouns in –ese: Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc.



Many names of tribes and ethnic groups: Roma, Apache, Inuit, etc.2

2 A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar – Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum

4) Foreign plurals Nouns which were taken from Latin, Greek and other languages have plurals from those languages. Many of these nouns belong to scientific or otherwise relatively learned vocabulary. Base

Formula

Stimulus

Larva

Chassis

Syllabus

Phenomeno n

Foreign plural Regular

Formulae

Stimuli

plural

Formulas

-

Larvae

Chassis

-

-

Syllabi

Phenomena

Syllabuses

-

That’s all about plural formation and now we turn to the case of nouns, it is called genitive formation. Genitive formation From a morphological point of view there are two types of genitive: -

‘s genitive

-

Bare genitive

Let’s deal with bare genitive at first. 1) Bare genitive. In writing bare infinitive is shown by a final apostrophe, in speech it’s not marked at all.

Plurals formed with the –s/ -es suffix Obligatory Nouns in s with base

Girls’

Foxes’

plurals Obligatory Certain proper nouns

Barracks’

Series’

in s

James’

Socrates’

Optional

2) The ‘s genitive This type is formed by adding ‘s to the non – genitive counterpart. It can be a singular or plural. The genitive is like the plural suffix, but there is one difference between them. The genitive doesn’t trigger any modification of the base.

Grade Grade is the last of three inflectional systems of English. It contains three terms: plain, comparative and superlative. It has regular and irregular forms. Regular forms are made by the suffixes –er and –est. Adjective

Adverb

Determinativ

Plain Comparativ

Cold Colder

Hot Hotter

Easy Easier

Early Earlier

Soon Sooner

e Few Fewer

e Superlative

Coldest

Hottest

Easiest

Earliest

Soonest

Fewest

But there exist such words which comparative and superlative forms are irregular. Plain Comparative Superlative

Good Better Best

Much/ many More Most

Bad Worse Worst

Little Less Least

That’s all for inflectional morphology in English, now le’s deal with another part: lexical morphology. Lexical morphology Lexical morphology is concerned with the formation and structure of the lexical bases of lexemes. The word is the basic unit. It relates the grammar of a language to its vocabulary. Words have internal structure which consists of two areas: 1) Lexical identity 2) Grammatical identity Words are consist of morphemes, which is the smallest unit of meaning. There are words which consist of one morpheme. But some words consist of two of more morphemes. In the table №4 we can see different kinds of morpheme. 3

Word dog

Examples of words and their morphemes Morpheme(s) dog

3 Cambridge Grammar of English – Ronald Carter, Michael McCarthy

drink dogs drank drinkable impenetrable intolerable irregular midday homesick homesickness

drink dog+s drink+ irregular past a drink+able Im+penetr+able In+toler+able Ir+regular Mid+day Home+sick Home+sick+ness

There are several types of morphemes: 1) Affixes 2) Inflectional morphemes 3) Derivational morphemes 4) Allomorphs 5) Compounds *Affix – is a morpheme which attached to the beginning or the end of words. There are two types of affixes: 1) Prefix – is an affix which attached to the beginning of words 2) Suffix – is an affix which attached to the ends of words *Inflectional morpheme – is an affix, which express grammatical relations. *Derivational morpheme – is an affix, which expresses lexical relations to form new or different words when attached to basic words *Allomorph – it’s a morpheme, which has a variation in form. Though the meaning of these morphemes is the same. *Compound – it’s combinations of words. Stem and base of the word Stem – is the form of a word to which prefixes and suffixed attach. There are two types of words: 1) A simple word ( a word which consist of a stem only) 2) A complex word ( a word which consist of a stem and prefix or suffix)

In the table №5 there are examples of words showing stems and affixes. 4 Word Snowy Untraceable Deduce Capture recapture

stem

Prefixes/Suffixes -y Un-;-able De-ure Re-...