[文学]大连海事英语专业词汇学 左秀兰教授4chapter 3 word formation.ppt

Word-formation General Remarks Various ways of forming words can be classified on the basis of frequency of usage, into major or minor processes. The major processes are compounding, derivation and conversion. The minor processes are eight, namely, acronymy, blending, clipping, words from proper names, back-formation, reduplication, neo-classical formation and miscellaneous. The percentage of firmly established new words since World War II The three major processes of word-formation: a) Compounding or composition (about 27%): raindrop, snow-white, baby-sit; (b) Derivation or affixation (about 17.5 %): Prefixation: deescalate（逐步缓和，逐渐降级）, antihero（反面主角）; Suffixation: hawkish, modernize; (c) Conversion (about 10.5%): bottle (verb), buy (noun). Note that words formed by these processes account for 55% of the new vocabulary. The eight minor processes of word-formation: a) Initialisms and acronyms (about 9%): U. N., TV, UNESCO, NATO; (b) Blending (about 6%): brunch, telex, airtel; (c) Clipping (about 2%): phone, flue, lab; (d) Words from proper names (about 2%): an Uncle Tom, xerox; (e) Back formation (about 1%): gangle（笨拙地移动）, vacuumclean; (f) Reduplication (about 0.5%): walkie-talkie, go-go; (g) Neoclassical formations (about 4%): psychodrama, neurolinguistic; (h) Others (about 3%): pizzazz(时髦派头), gazump(索高价). Words formed by these minor processes account for 26.5% of the new vocabulary. The remaining 18.5% is from borrowing, e.g. discotheque, ombudsman(专门调查官员舞弊情况的政府官员) and many others. Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the base, but do not generally change the word-class of the base. e.g. fair---unfair. However, in current English, prefixes do convert words to a different word-class in comparison with their original bases. e.g. be- adj.----v. becalm, belittle de- n.-----v. deform, debug en- n.-----v. enslave, endanger un- n.-----v. unleash, unearth anti- n.-----adj. anti-war, anti-craft