第4章
Enumerate the three important means of word formation and explain their
respective role in the expansion of English vocabulary.
Affixation
1. What is affixation? What is its alternative name?
2. What is the difference between prefixation and suffixation?
3. What are the characteristics of prefixes and suffixes?
4. What is the best way to classify prefixes? Why?
5. Form negatives with each of the following words by using one of these
prefixes dis-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, non-, un-.
smoker
capable
practical
obey
security
relevant
mature
ability
officially
willingness
legal
agreement
logical
loyal
convenient
athletic
6. Turn the following nouns and adjectives into verbs with -en, -ify, -ize and
then choose them to fill in the blanks in the sentences that follow.
hard
horror
modern
memory
false
apology
deep
glory
sterile
length
intense
beauty
fat
sympathy
a. He
for interrrupting her.
b. She tried to
her room with posters and plants.
the airport’ s main
c. A study has been ordered into the feasibility of
runway by two hundred metres.
d. However much they
, they all felt it was her fault.
e. Soya is excellent food
cattle.
f. She laughed and that seemed to
her voice.
g. Forty thousand pound had been spent on
h.
the station.
bottles by immersing them in boiling water for fifteen minutes.
7. Each of the following sentences contains a word printed in italics. Complete
the sentence by using this word to form a noun to refer to a person.
a. If you are employed by a company, you are one of its
b. A
c. The
.
is someone whose job is politics.
in a discussion are the people who participate in it.
d. A woman who works as a
does the same job as a waiter.
e. The person who conducts an orchestra or choir is called the
f. Your
g. A
is the person who teaches you.
is someone who earns their living by playing the piano.
h. If someone examines you, you are the
and he or she is the
8. Match Column A with Column B and give two examples for each.
A
.
B
trans-
before
mono-
over, above
super-
one
auto -
between
Examples
.
sub-
self
mal-
little, small
inter-
bad, badly
mini-
below
pre-
across
Compounding
1. What are the criteria by which to differentiate compounds from free phrases?
What do you think of these criteria?
2. Analyse the following compound words and explain their internal
grammatical relationship.
heartbeat
brainwashing
movie-goer
baking powder
far- reaching
dog-tired
lion-hearted
love-sick
boyfriend
peace-loving
snap decision
easy chair
on-coming
tax-free
light-blue
goings-on
3. What are the usual methods to form compound verbs? Give examples.
4. Form compounds using the following either as the first or the second element
of the compound as indicated and translate the words into Chinese.
well-
-bound
-work
-worthy
-woman
-wide
-minded
-style
self-
-related
-proof
once-
news-
mock-
-in-law
home-
half-
-conscious
-based
ever-
Conversion
1. What is conversion? What do you think of the alternatives functional shift
and zero-derivation?
2. In what way is conversion different from suffixation?
3. What classes of words are most frequently converted?
4. In what way are verbs converted from nouns semantically related to the
original nouns and versa?
5. Explain partial conversion and full conversion with examples.
6. What changes are occasionally involved in the process of conversion?
7. Pick out the words which you think are converted in the following sentences
and tell how they are converted.
a. We can't stomach such an insult.
b. Robert Acheson roomed right next to me.
c. He wolfed down his lunch.
d. There is no come and go with her.
e. I'm one of his familiars.
f. Poor innocents!
g. She flatted her last note.
h. The engineers abed and ouched at the new machines.
i. Come to the fire and have a warm.
j. Is Bill Jackson a has-been or a might-have-been?
k. He Hamleted at the chance and then he regretted for it.
1. These shoes were an excellent buy.
m. He turned his head and smoothed back the hair over one temple.
Blending
Analyse the blends and translate them into Chinese.
motel
humint
advertisetics
psywarrior
hoverpork
chunnel
hi-fi
cinemactress
Clipping
Restore the full forms of the following words and see how these slipped words
are formed.
copter
dorm
lab
prefab
gas
prof
scope
champ
sarge
mike
ad
tec
Acronymy
1. Both initialisms and acronyms are formed to a certain extent from initial
letters. Is there any difference between them? Illustrate your point with
examples.
2. What do the short forms stand for?
kg
ft
ibid
etc.
cf
VIP
cm
$
OPEC
TOEFL
3. Choose a word from the list to fill each of the blanks.
SALT
laser
radar
sonar
AIDS
WHO
G-man
BASIC
a. There was a wide coverage of the
b. There are enemy aircraft on the
talks in the press.
screen.
c.
is still an incurable disease.
d. If one knows
language, one will find it easy to learn how to use
computers.
e.
has long been applied to surgery in medicine.
f.
is an international agency of the United Nations which is concerned
with improving health standards and services throughout the world.
g. Passive
listens for noises emanating from a submarine.
h. The person who works for the Federal Bureau of Investigation is called a
.
Backformation
1. Both back-formation and back-clipping are ways of making words by
removing the endings of words. How do you account for the coexistence of
the two? Can you illustrate the difference?
2. Give the original words from which the following words are back-formed.
lase
escalate
babysit
peeve
orate
commute
Commonization of Proper Names
Study the following sentences and pick out the words which used to be proper
names and explain the meanings in relation to their origins.
a. One of the goals of high-powered advertising is to tantalize us with items we
can't quite afford.
b. We have decided that it is impossible to cheat when that Argus-eyed professor
gives an exam.
c. The number of mirrors in the average home suggests that there is a little
narcissism in each d us.
d. The terrorists have embarked on a scheme to sabotage as many factories in the
Common Market countries as possible.
e. Our new football coach is a real martinet; he even calls our homes at night to
see whether we are in.
f. How can such a disgusting yahoo really think he has charm and style?
g. This Shylock demands 10 percent per week on all loans, and he has the
enforcers to guarantee payment.
h. She began the daily round of washing and hoovering.
i. The Christian heaven can be seen as a sort of spiritual utopia.
j. Simply because a black person is polite to white people doesn't make him or her
guilty of Uncle Tomism.