Presentation on theme: "Computational lexicology, morphology and syntax Diana Trandab ă ţ Course 2 Academic year 2014-2015."— Presentation transcript:
Computational lexicology, morphology and syntax Diana Trandab ă ţ Course 2 Academic year 2014-2015
Lexicology as a part of linguistics Lexicology - part of linguistics, dealing with the vocabulary of a language and the properties of words as the main units of language. Vocabulary means the sum of all the words in the language. Good knowledge of the description of the vocabulary, rules of word-formation, origin and history of words helps to guess and remember the meaning of new-learned words, to master the standards of their usage.
Branches of Lexicology General - the general study of words, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language Special - the description of the vocabulary of a given language Historical - the study of the evolution of a vocabulary as well as of its elements. This branch discusses the origin of words, their change and development. Descriptive - deals with the description of the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development.
Word structure A word is an independent unit of a language word A morpheme is the minimum meaningful language unit. But unlike a word it is not independent. It occurs in speech just as a constituent part of words.morpheme
Morphemes A root is a basic element of words. The root in English is very often homonymous with the word. It is one of the most typical features of the English language. Roots are called productive if they are capable of producing new words.root Affixes may be subdivided into prefixes, suffixes and infixes. A suffix is a morpheme following the root and forming a new word.suffix A prefix is a morpheme standing before the root and modifying meaning.prefix
Exercise 1 Which of the lexicology branches will this course deal with, and why do you think so? Give the morphematic division (root, prefix, suffix) of these words: 1.unpredictable, 2.cooperation, 3.multidimensional, 4.leadership, 5.impression.
Native and Borrowed Words A native word is a word which belongs to the original stock.native word Native words constitute about 80% of the 500 most frequent words in a language. They may be characterized by a high lexical and grammatical valency (ability to combine with other words), high frequency and developed polysemy. They are often monosyllabic, have great word building power and enter a number of set expressions.
Degree of Assimilation 1)Completely assimilated words E.g.: wine, window, chair. 1)Partially assimilated words a. Loan words not assimilated semantically E.g.: sari, toreador. b. Loan words not assimilated grammatically E.g.: bacillus. c. Loan words not assimilated phonetically or graphically. E.g.: tabacco, e-mail. 2)Unassimilated E.g. chauffeur, haute couture. The words from other languages for which there are corresponding English equivalents are so-called barbarisms. E.g.: ciao.
Wordformation Word-formation is a process of creating new words by means of existing elements and according to the patterns and rules of a given language. 1)Derivation 2)Compounding 3)Conversion 4)Quantitative changes
Derivation Derivation is a kind of word-formation when a new word is formed by adding a derivational morpheme (usually suffix or prefix) to the root. 1)Suffixation is a kind of word-formation when a new word is formed by adding a suffix to the root. 2)Prefixation is a kind of word-formation when a new word is formed by adding a prefix to the root.
3 Verb-forming suffixes -en (brighten, moisten) -ify/-fy (intensify, qualify) -ize/*-ise (rationalize, advertise, stabilize) ______________________________ *‘ize’ is often used in American English (maximize) as an alternative spelling of ‘ise’ in British English (maximise).
4 Adverb forming suffixes -ly (frequently, perfectly) *-ward/-wards (windward, backward, homewards) -wise (vote-wise, percentage-wise) _ ________________________________ *Words formed with ‘ward’ can usually be used as either adverbs or adjectives words formed with ‘wards’ are mainly used as adverbs (e.g. westward, westwards).
Prefixation Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the root; the simple word and its prefixed derivative usually belong to the same part of speech. The group of class-changing prefixes is rather small, e.g.: be- (belittle, befriend), de- (defrost, descale).
Compounds Endocentric compounds – the two constituent elements are clearly the determinant and determinatum (ashtray, mousetrap, stepladder) Exocentric compounds – the determinatum is not expressed (hangover, killjoy, ladybird, forget-me-not) Rhyme-motivated (harum-scarum) Pseudo-compounds (mayday, hamburger) Semiaffixes (chairman, yes-man, kissproof)
Conversion - zero derivation The process of converting words from one part of speech to another without adding any derivative element is called conversion or zero derivation. "In English almost every word can be verbed..."
Conversion - classification Verbs (to nurse, to hand, to e-mail, to finger, to hammer, to empty, to up, to blind) Nouns (a go, a hunt, a lift, a find, pros and cons, whys, ups and downs, a black, breakdown, make-up, comeback, take-off) Occasional formations (nonce-words) Occasional words are usually emotionally coloured words coined for a unique occasion. E.g. Don’t darling me!, Don’t yes-mum me! Marginal Cases of Conversion Cases of formations by shift of stress are neither regular, nor productive. E.g. verb > noun (abstract, import, refill, transfer) verb > adjective ( frequent, moderate, perfect)
Clipping Clipping (shortening) The shortening of words consists of the reduction of a word to one of its parts, as a result of which the new form is used as an independent lexical unit. This type of word-formation is in English highly productive. a. Final clipping – the beginning of the prototype is retained. E.g. ad, advert < advertisement, memo < memorandum, lab < laboratory, gym < gymnasium, vac < vacuum cleaner. b. Initial clipping – the final part is retained. E.g. chute < parachute, phone < telephone, copter < helicopter, plane < aeroplane. c. The middle is retained. E.g. Liz < Elizabeth, flu < influenza, tec < detective. d. The middle is left. E.g. fancy < fantasy, bionics < binoculars, maths < mathematics, ag’st < against.
Blending Blending is a word-formation process of forming a new lexeme from parts of two or more other words. E.g. smog < smoke + fog, brunch < breakfast + lunch, tranceiver < transmitter + receiver, bit < binary digit, chunnel < channel + tunnel…
Graphical abbreviations New lexical units formed from the initial letters of the words and pronounced as one word – acronyms. E.g. UNESCO, AIDS, NATO, laser, radar. New lexical units formed from the initial letters of the words with alphabetic reading. E.g. BC, SOS, TV, VIP, VAT. Initial abbreviation in which the first element is a letter and the second a complete word. E.g. A-bomb, E-mail, U-pronunciation (U < upper class). Latin abbreviations. E.g. AD, BC, i.e., e.g. Shortenings formed by a part of a word and the remaining part expressed by a capital letter or a figure. E.g. 2-nite, 4 you, par-T.
Until next week… “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” ― Socrates
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