Intro 1/ Justification

I’m going to talk about Unit 10. The lexicon. Characteristics of word-formation in English. Prefixation, suffixation,
Composition. This unit is quite important since lexis is considered to be a central element in communicative competence and
in the acquisition of a second language, that is, vocabulary and lexical units are at the core of learning and communication

With this aim in mind, I will present this unit in /three/ main chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introductory and elementary account
of the term lexis, exploring key terminology. What is a word? What is a lexeme? Chapter 2 provides, then, a theoretical
approach to the word-formation process, with special attention to prefixation and suffixation. After this, Chapter 3 will deal with
compound words. From all these chapters we shall draw some educational implications and conclusions, and finally,
bibliography will be listed.

Chapter 1

It is common for speakers of a Language to define a word as an element in the language that conveys meaning. However,
although words play an important role in linguistic analysis, they do not correspond to the essential morphological unit. The
reason for it is that words may largely vary across languages (Humbold’s typology) and within one same language. It
is necessary to find a more basic unit.
Consider the words pencil, impossible and women. Only the first one can be considered a unit of meaning. Since impossible
includes im (not) and possible, woman and plural. Precisely, these independent “bits” of meaning are what we take to be the
basic units of word analysis, called morphemes. Bloomfield defined the morpheme as the “minimal meaningful element” in a
language.

We may distinguish between more and less essential morphemes. The essential morpheme in a word, the one that carries the
lexical meaning, is known as the lexeme or lexical morpheme. In books, nicer, cooking the corresponding lexical
morphemes are {BOOK}, {NICE} and {COOK}. The bits of meaning in these words which correspond to grammatical notions
such as {PLURA}, {COMPARATIVE} and {PRESENT PARTICIPLE} are known as grammatical morphemes.
An abstract analysis of words provides morphemes and a less abstract analysis will provide different units called morphs.
Therefore, morphs are the actual realization of morphemes. It is important to take a step further and refine the notion of
morph into its possible allomorphs (Different realizations of the same morpheme).
For example:
MORPHEMES ALLOMORPHS
Books = {BOOK} + {PLURAL} Books = book + /s/
Pens = {PEN} + { PLURAL } Pens = pen + /z/

We can also distinguish morphs of different importance in a word: The root is the morph that realizes the essential meaning
and the affixes are morphs which are added before or after the root. Finally, There is also a term to refer to the root plus
all the derivational affixes in the word: Base.

On the other hand, Word-formation processes (WFP) are a set of grammatical rules which are used in order to create new
English words. Even though there are many processes which enrich the English
Language, WFR are the most common ones to create new words.

Before getting into more detail with the WFR, We need to make a distinction between open and close classes of words. The
first group are classes, to which new members can be added, for examples nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Closed
classes are those whose members are relatively fixed in number, for example articles, pronouns and prepositions.
We can create new words without changing the grammatical class. Word formation processes (WFP) of this type are known as
classmaintaining. In all other cases, the processes are known as class-changing.

The process by which the word is formed from another is called wordformation rule. There are several processes employed in
English to form new words.
These processes can be divided in two groups: The MAJOR PROCESSES, which are the most frequently employed and
account for the greater part of the English lexicon, and the minor processes which are of more limited application.

The Major processes are Affixation, compounding and Conversion.

 Affixation is a WFP which adds an affix to the base, with or without changing the word class.
 The most common WFP of all is the compounding, which adds one base to another in order to create a new word. (tea
+ pot → teapot).

The MINOR PROCESSES of WF are:

Reduplication (words are formed following phonological conventions)→ tick-tack
Clipping (basically, to shorten long words) → ad (from Advertisement)
Blending (fusing parts of two words)→ brunch (from breakfast and lunch)
Acronyms (new words by combining the initial letter or syllables of word)→ NATO (From North Atlantic Treaty
Organization)

Chapter 2 PREFIXATION
 1. Prefixes are particles that can be added before full words but which cannot occur in isolation. Most prefixes in English
are of foreign origin (Latin, Greek or French), except a-, be- fore-, mis- & un-, which are German in origin.
Some characteristics of the English prefixes are:
a. All prefixes have some stress, though light, in the first syllable, with the exception of a-. However, the main stress
of the word falls on the base.
b. Prefixes do not normally alter the stress pattern of the word.
c. Prefixes do not generally alter word class of the base (class-maintaining).
d. English prefixes, following Quirk et al., can be grouped according to their meaning.

MEANING ADDED TO EXAMPLES

UN- -not, the opossite Adj &Advs Unreal, unfair

-most common neg. suffix -ed/-ing particles
2-1 NEGATIVE

NON- -not – can be derived from Adjs, nouns of actions Non-stop, non-agression
neg. clause

IN-,IL/_i,IM/labis,IR_r Not, the opossite. Adjs, Insane, irrelevant, illogical

DIS- Not, the opossite Adjs, V Dislike, disloyal

A-(N) -denote absence of qual. Adjs, Nouns, Amoral, anarchy

UN- Reverse action + V V & Ns Undo,

REVERSATIVE

Deprived of + N Unhorse,
2-2

DE- To reverse an action Verbs, Abstract noun Defrost, deforestation

DIS- Reverse action, deprived of Vs & Ns Participles Disconnect, Discolored

MIS- Wrongly, bad Vs, abstratct nouns. Misconduct, misbehaviour

Participles.

MAL- Bad. Normally not w/ german Abstract Ns Malfunction

2-3 PEJORATIVE

PSEUDO- False, imitation Ns & Adjs Pseudo-intellectual

ARCH- Supreme, highest Ns + Human Archduke,arch-enemy

SUPER- Better, more than Ns & Adjs Superman, supernatural

OUT- To do smt. Better, faster, Vs (transitive) Outrun, outstand

longer
2-4 DEGREE OR SIZE

SUR- Over, above Ns Surcharge (sobrecargar)

SUB- Under, lower than, Adjs Substandard, subhuman

OVER VS UNDER Too much Vs, ed-participles, Adjs Overconfident,

Too little underprotected

HYPER- Extremely, extra special Adjs Hyperactive

ULTRA- Extremely, beyond Adjs Ultra-violet,

MINI-MICRO- Little, recent prefix (micro) Ns Mini-skirt, microwave

MACRO On a large scale Macro-simbiotics
 CO- Implies accompanying Vs, Ns, Adjs Cooperative, co-pilot
2-5 ATTITUDE
COUNTER- In opossition, against Vs, abstract ns counteract

ANTI- Against, enemy of. Ns, Adjs, advbs, V Antisocial, anti-christ

PRO- For Pro-communist

SUPER- Over Ns Superstructure

2-6 LOCATIVE

SUB- Under Ns, Adjs, V Subway

INTER- Between Denominal Adjs, Vs, Ns International

TRANS- Across Denominal Adj, Vs Transatlantic

FORE- Before Verbs, Abstract Ns Foretell, foreseen

2-7 TIME

PRE- VS POST- Before/After Attribut ns, Adj Pre-war, Post-war

Ex- Former Ns (Human) Ex-husband

Re- Again Vs, Abstrac Ns Recollect, Rebuild

One - Unilateral, Monorail

UNI- or MONO-
2-8 NUMBERS

Two - Bilingual, Dichotomy

BI- or DI-
Three - Trident
TRI-
Many - Multiracial, polygamy
MULTI- POLY-

Ns, Participle adjs Bewigged

BE- Vs,Adjs, Ns Transitive Vs Bewitch
2-9 CON

EN- Ns Vs Endanger

A-

Vs Predicative Adjs Afloat

-
AUTO- Self Autobiography

-
2-10 OTHERS

NEO- Now, revived Neo-gothic

-
PAN- World, wide Pan-american
-
PROTO- First, original Proto-punk

-
SEMI- Half Semicircle
-
VICE- Delegate Vice-president

Chapter 3 SUFIXATION
A suffix is a derivate final element which is productive in forming new words [Marchand]. We must distinguish between suffixes
with semantic value (derivational suffixes) and inflections with grammatical value (Inflectional suffixes).
Unlike prefixes, suffixes are usually class-changing elements. Suffixes rarely have meaning if their own and, as a rule,
they only serve to modify the meaning of the main element (red 􀁯 reddish) or to change its category (clean 􀁯
cleanness).

Semi-suffixes [Marchand]. They are basically free forms, which are almost used as suffixes (same position and semantically
empty) ex. proof in fireproof.
Native suffixes combine only with a native base, and there is no change of stress: hopeful, goodness.
Foreign suffixes, however, can combine with a foreign base as in utterance or with a native base as in eatable, beautiful.
These are called hybrids.
Here, following Quirk, I shall group suffixes not only by the class of the word they form:
4 Compound Words: Two different definitions: a) A combination of 2 words so as to function as a unit
[Jespersen] b) A unit consisting of 2 or more bases [Quirk].

They may be written in three ways: firstly, as two independent words, as in washing machine. Secondly, joined by a hyphen,
as in tax-free. Finally, as one word, as in toothache. There is no rule about how compounds should be spelt.
Compounds usually have main stress on the first element and secondary stress on the second element. For example:
‘black,bird (compound: kind of bird) and ,black’bird (a bird that is black). The meaning of a compound cannot always be
deduced.
Following Quirk, we are going to concentrate our classification on the productive types of compounding and will indicate the
syntactic relation of the compounding element by paraphrases.
5. Educational implications
The European Council (1998) and, in particular, the Spanish Educational System within the framework of the Educational
Reform, envisages vocabulary knowledge of second language learners within the four skills (writing, reading, listening, and
speaking) as both necessary and reasonably straightforward since words are the basic building blocks of language, that is,
those units of meaning from which larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and whole texts are formed. When it comes
to verba l skills, lexis is somewhat easier because much less is required for listening and speaking than for reading and writing.

Our goal as teachers is to highlight a number of key principles, such as to build a large sight vocabulary, to integrate new words
with old, to provide a number of encounters with a word, to promote a deep level of processing, to make new words ‘real’ by
connecting them to the student’s world in some say, and above all, to use a va riety of techniques in word-formation to
encourage independent learning strategies. In fact, vocabulary acquisition is an incremental process, and teachers must
concentrate not only on introducing new words, but also on enhancing learners’ knowledge of previously presented words.
6. CONCLUSION
Grammatical knowledge of a word can consist of many things, but the present study focused on word-formation and
morphology, where knowledge of suffixes, prefixes, and compounding rules are particularly im portant as this allows learners to
use the different members of a word family. Affixes should be taught in the first place because using word parts is one of three
major strategies that can help students become independent vocabulary learners, that is, gue ssing from context and having
students work with word families instead of just single words.

Therefore, an understanding of derivational suffixes makes this possible, together with knowledge of prefixes and compounding
rules.
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Council of Europe (1998) Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European Framework of reference.
Jespersen, O. 1993, The essentials of English grammar. London.
Katamba, Francis. 2005 (second edition) English words. Structure, history, Usage.
Quirk, R & S. Greenbaum. 1973. A University Grammar of English. Longman.
Read, John 2000. Second Language Vocabulary Assessment: Current Practices and New Directions
BOE