Seminar 4
Seminar 4
1.What are the minor types of word-formation? Give a definition of minor types of word-formation
and enumerate them.
SOUND INTERCHANGE, stress-interchange, BACK-FORMATION, BLENDING.
2.What is sound interchange? Give examples
Sound interchange is the way of word-building when some sounds are changed to form a new word.
Eg;advise -to advise , to strike-stroke
3.Is sound interchange productive or non-productive in Modern English?
It is non-productive in Modern English
4.Was sound interchange productive or non-productive in Old English?
it was productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.
5.What can the causes of sound interchange be?
The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient Ablaut which cannot be
explained by the phonetic laws during the period of the language development known to scientists, e.g.
to strike - stroke, to sing - song etc.
6.Are voiceless or voiced consonants typical for nouns? Give examples.
In nouns we have voiceless consonants
7.Are voiceless or voiced consonants typical for verbs? Give examples.
in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants because in Old English these consonants in nouns
were at the end of the word and in verbs in the intervocalic position, e.g. bath - to bathe, life - to live,
breath - to breathe etc.
8.What three groups of words can be distinguished among the words formed with the help of sound-
interchange? Give examples.
Among the words formed with the help of sound-interchange we can distinguish 3 groups of words.
1. Words formed by means of vowel interchange, e.g. food > to feed, blood > to bleed,
gold > to gild; to shoot › shot, to sing> song, to write > writ (уст. писание);
2. Words formed by means of both vowel and consonantal interchange, e.g. bath › to
bathe, grass › to graze (пастись, щипать mpa), breath > to breathe, cloth > to clothe, loss > to lose, life ›
to live, choice > to choose, etc.
3. Words formed by means of consonantal interchange often accompanied by changes in
spelling, e.g. grease [ ] -сало, жир > to grease[ ] - смазывать (жиром); house|] > to house[] - 1.
поселить; 2. жить (в доме) 3. вмещать; price[ ] - цена > to prize[] - 1.высоко ценить; 2. оценивать;
advice [ ] > to advise[ lipractice[ ]›to practise[ l, use [ l>to usel] etc.
9. Can sound-interchange sometimes be accompanied by affixation? Give examples.
it should be mentioned that sometimes sound-interchange is accompanied by affixation. Eg;deep >
depth, wide > width, broad > breadth, long > length, strong > strength
10.What is stress interchange? Give examples.
Stress interchange is one of the ways of word-building,based on a shift of stress
Eg;conduct - to con'duct 'present - to pre sent 'frequent - to frequent
11.Do nouns of Romanic origin have stress on the first syllable or the last syllable?
Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin: nouns have the stress on
the first syllable
12.Do verbs of Romanic origin have stress on the first syllable or the last syllable?
Verbs on the last syllable, e.g. 'accent - to accent.
13.How can stress interchange be explained?
Verbs had one syllable more than the corresponding nouns.
14.Does stress interchange cause vowel interchange too? Explain and give examples.
We have also vowel interchange in such words because vowels are pronounced differently in stressed
and unstressed positions. Eg; present- to present
15.What is sound imitation? Give examples
It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitating different sounds
16.What are the semantic groups of words formed by sound imitation? Give examples.
There are some semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation.
a)sounds Produced by human beings, such as : to whisper, to giggle, to mumble, to sneeze, to whistle
etc.
b)sounds produced by animals , birds, insects, such as: to hiss, to buzz, to bark, to moo, to twitter etc.
c)sounds produced by nature and objects, such as : to splash, to rustle, to clatter, to bubble, to ding-
dong, to tinkle etc.
17.How are nouns formed from the verbs created by sound imitation? Give examples.
The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of a bell), chatter (of children)
etc.
18.What is blend? Give examples
Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. Eg;
19.In what verbs and nouns can stress-interchange be mostly met?
They can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of romanic origin nouns have the stress on the first syllable
and verbs on the last syllable. Eg; accent-to accent, export-to export
20.What two ways of word-building are combined in blends? Explain and give examples.
In blends two ways of word-building are combined : abbreviation and composition.
21.What is blending of addictive type? Give examples
they are transformable into a phrase consisting of two words combined by a conjunction "and".eg;
smog -> smoke & fog
22.What is blending of restrictive type? Give examples blending of restrictive type: transformpble into
an attributive phrase, where are first element serves as modifier of a second.eg;
Positron - positive electron,
Medicare - medical care
23.What is back formation? Give examples
it is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping the final morpheme to form a new
word. Eg; to accreditate (from accreditation), to bach (from bachelor), to collocate (from collocation).
24. Do the words formed through back-formation change their part-of-speech meaning?Give
examples.
the part-of-speech meaning of the primary word is changed, verbs are formed from nouns. Eg;
25. How did back formation first appear? Explain and give examples.
At first it appeared in the language as a result of misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed
word.E.g. it is typical of English to form nouns Engipeople denoting the agent of the action by adding the
suffix -er to a verb stem (speak- speaker).
