Ivan Franko National University

of Lviv

Lexicology

Hryhoriy Kochur Department of translation

studies and contrastive linguistics
Nadiya Andreichuk, professor
nadiyaan@gmail.com
 Lecture 5

Categories and types of

present-day English
and Ukrainian
word-formation (part 2)

Contrast is the occurance

of different elements
to create interest
...the game is to say something new
with old words

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1849)
 Plan

1. Compounding
 1.1. Formal characteristics
 1.2.The treatment of compounds.
 1.3. Types of compounds
 1.4. “Bahuvrihi” compounds
 1.5. Reduplicatives
2 .Contrastive analysis of noun compounds
in English and Ukrainian
3. Сonversion as the type of word formation

4. Shortening as the type of word formation

 Productivity of compounding
one of the most productive means of word-
formation both in English and in Ukrainian
 is characterized by the ease with which
compound words are formed when need
arises without becoming permanent units of
the vocabulary
can be studied both diachronically and
synchronically
 TASKS OF RESEARCH

1).The principal features of compounds

which distinguish them from other
linguistic units.
 2). The semantic structure of compound
words.
 3). The principles of classification.
 Ф
DEFINITION

A compound - a lexical unit

consisting of more than one stem and
functioning both grammatically and
semantically as a single word
 three aspects of compounding

1) structural; 2) semantic; 3) functional

In English grammars three structural
types are distinguished:
 neutral,
 morphological
syntactic
 neutral compounds

the process of compounding is realized without any

linking element (juxtaposion of two stems).
 E.g. shop-window, sunflower, bedroom.
 There are three types of neutral compounds:
a) simple neutral compounds: they consist of
affixless stems;
b) derivational compounds: contain affixes, e.g.
absent-mindedness, golden-haired, honey-mooner;
c) contracted compounds: have a shortened stem in
their structure: TV-set, H-bag, T-shirt
 Morphological compounds

few in number
non-productive in English
two stems are combined by a linking vowel
or consonant: Anglo-Saxon, handiwork,
spokesman
Quite productive in Ukrainian where
interfixes are most commonly used:
життєпис, лісосмуга
 syntactic compounds

formed from segments of speech preserving

in their structure numerous traces of
syntagmatic relations typical of speech:
 lily-of the valley, Jack-of-all-trades,
mother-in-law
 Semantic aspect of compounds

refers to the issue of correlation of the

separate meanings of the constituent parts
and the actual meaning of the compound
 can the meaning of a compound word be
regarded as the sum of its constituent
meanings?
 examples
classroom, evening-gown, sleeping-
car - we can speak about the sum of
constituent meanings,
blackboard, football, chatterbox - we
can trace some change in meaning, but the
meaning of the components is still
transparent.
ladybird, tallboy, bluestocking -
meaning of the compounds does not
correspond to the separate meanings of
constituent parts
 In Ukrainian

 1. Stem-combining with the help of

interfixes о, е (доброзичливий,
працездатний) or without them
(триповерховий, всюдихiд);
 2. Word-combining or juxtaposition
(Lat. juxta - near, positio - place) -
combining several words or word-forms in
one complex word (хата-лабораторiя,
салон-перукарня)
 Number of stems involved

In principle any number of bases may be

involved, but in English except for a
relatively minor class of items (normally
abbreviated) compounds usually comprise
two stems only, however internally
complex each may be.
 type of stems

Compounding can take place within any of

the word classes, but:
 with very few exceptions, the resulting
compound word in English is a noun, a
verb or an adjective
 In Ukrainian this list includes nouns,
adjectives and adverbs.
cohesion and integrity of a compound

The structural cohesion and integrity of a

compound may depend upon:
 unity of stress,
 solid or hyphanated spelling,
 semantic unity,
 unity of morphological and syntactic functioning
 or, more often, upon the combined effect of
several of these factors
 Formal aspects

In English there are three forms of compound

words:
the closed form, in which the words are melded
together, such as firefly, secondhand, softball,
childlike, crosstown, redhead, keyboard, makeup,
notebook;
the hyphenated form, such as daughter-in-law,
master-at-arms, over-the-counter, six-pack, six-
year-old, mass-produced;
and the open form, such as post office, real estate,
middle class, full moon, half sister, attorney
general.
 Formal aspects
Modifying compounds are often hyphenated to avoid
confusion. The New York Public Library's Writer's
Guide points out that an old-furniture salesman
clearly sells old furniture, but an old furniture
salesman would be an old man.
Not the same ambiguity about a used car dealer.
When compounded modifiers precede a noun, they
are often hyphenated: part-time teacher, fifty-yard-
wide field, fire-resistant curtains, high-speed chase.
When those same modifying words come after the
noun they are not hyphenated: a field fifty yards
wide, curtains that are fire resistant, etc
 Relations of the components

In describing the structure of a compound we should

examine the interrelations of the components
 Compounding associates stems drawn from the
whole lexicon in a wide range of semantic relations.
Although both bases in a compound are in principle
equally open, they are normally in a relation whereby
the first is modifying the second.
 the structure of a compound:
endocentric

Compounding is sometimes viewed as prefixation

with open-class items (A Comprehensive
grammar, p. 1568)
This does not mean that a compound can be
formed by placing any lexical item in front of
another.
The relations between items brought together in
compounding must be such that it is reasonable
and useful to classify the second element in terms
of the first. Such compounds are called
endocentric.
 the structure of a compound:
exocentric

In exocentric compounds there is no semantic

centre as in scarecrow (figure of a man in old
clothes set up to scare birds away from crops).
Only the combination of both elements names the
referent
Exocentric compounds are idiomatic
 semantic integrity of a compound

Idiomatic compounds: the meaning of the

whole is not a mere sum of its elements and
the compound is often very different in
meaning from a corresponding syntactic
group.
 e.g. a blackboard - a black board.
 In some cases the original motivation of the
idiomatic compound cannot be easily re-
created.
 e.g. blackmail - getting money or some other
profit from a person by threats.
 Bahuvrihi – special type of semantic
integrity

The term “bahuvrihi” refers not to the pattern of

formation but to the relation such compounds have
with their referents.
 Neither constituent refers to the entity named but,
the whole refers to a separate entity (usually a
person) that is claimed to be characterized by the
compound, in its literal or figurative meaning.
The name, from Sanskrit, is itself a bahuvrihi
compound that means “much rice” but refers, as a
form of synecdoche, to a rich man.
 Bahuvrihi compounds

a highbrow means ‘an intellectual’, on the basis of

the facetious claim that people of intellectual interest
and cultivated tastes are likely to have a lofty
expanse of forehead.
 Many bahuvrihi compounds are somewhat
disparaging (зневажливий) in tone and are used
chiefly in informal style. They are formed on one or
other of the patterns already described.
 e.g: birdbrain, egghead, hardback, loudmouth,
blockhead, butterfingers, featherweight.
Ukrainian: твердолобий, криворукий.
 Reduplicatives

Some compounds have two or more constituents

which are either identical or only slightly
different,e.g. goody-goody (a self-consciously
virtuous person, informal). The difference between
the two constituents may be in the intial consonants,
as in walkie-talkie, or in the medial vowels, e.g.
criss-cross. Most of the reduplicatives are highly
informal or familiar, and many belong to the sphere
of child-parent talk, e.g. din-din (dinner).
 Reduplicatives
The most common uses of reduplicatives (sometimes
called ‘jingles’) are:
[1] to imitate sounds, e.g. rat-a-tat [knocking on
door], tick-tock [of clock],
 ha-ha [of laughter], bow-wow [of dog] 
[2] to suggest alternating movements, e.g. seesaw,
flip-flop, ping- pong.
[3] to disparage by suggesting instability, nonsense,
insincerity, vacillation (вагання) etc.: higgledy-
piggledy, hocus-pocus, wishy-washy, dilly-dally,
shilly-shally.
[4] to intensify, e.g. teeny-weeny, tip-top.
 Reduplicatives in Ukrainian

Besides “classical” reduplicatives of intensification

(Uk.: тихо-тихо, ледь-ледь, думав-думав)
Ukrainian linguists single out such compounds as:
synonymic unities, e.g. пане-брате, стежки-
доріжки, часто-густо;
semantic unities, e.g. батько-мати, руки-ноги,
хліб-сіль, діди-прадіди;
appositional unities, e.g. машина-амфібія,
дівчина-смуглянка.
 syntactic relations
semantic connections within compounds can be
treated in terms of syntactic relations. Such mode of
presentation which (where possible) links
compounds to sentential or clausal paraphrases is
adopted by “A Comprehensive Grammar”,
H.Marchand.
As an example of this approach we may take the two
compounds: daydreaming and sightseeing which
can be analyzed in terms of their sentential
analogues:
 X dreams during the day, i.e. verb + adverbial
 X sees sights, i.e. verb + object
 Contrastive analysis of noun
compounds
 Subject + action : вода спадає – водоспад
this type is represented by the following ways of
combining of structural components:
noun (subject) + deverbal noun e.g.
English: sunrise, rainfall, headache, bee-sting,
frostbite, daybreak, heartbeat, rainfall
Ukrainian: небосхил, серцебиття, зорепад,
сонцестояння, снігопад
This type is rather productive in both contrasted
languages.
 Contrastive analysis of noun
compounds

deverbal noun + noun (subject)

In English we refer to this type those compounds
where the first component is a verbal noun in –ing,
e.g, flying machine, firing squad, investigating
committee and it is very productive. In Ukrainian
examples are few: падолист (арх.), трясогузка.
verb + noun (subject)
This type can be found only in English: watchdog,
playboy.
 Contrastive analysis of noun
compounds
Object + action: вказує дорогу – дороговказ
noun (object) + deverbal noun
This is a moderately productive type in English but
very common in Ukrainian, e.g.
English: birth-control, handshake. Ukrainian:
душогуб, сінокіс, гречкосій, родовід.
In Eng. we can single out a subtype noun (object) +
verbal noun in – ing: book-keeping, town-planning.
In Ukr. compounds of that subtype correspond to
compounds in –ння: сироваріння,
містобудування.
 Contrastive analysis of noun
compounds

noun (object) + agent noun

In English this is a very productive type and
designates concrete (usually human) agents:
mathmaker, stockholder, hairsplitter. Note,
however, dishwasher, lawn-mover. All compounds
of this type in English are nouns with –er suffix. As
in Ukrainian there is a wide range of suffixes forming
agent nouns, so examples of compounds reflect this
diversity: м’ясорубка, законодавець,
користолюбець,квартиронаймач,
містобудівник.
 Contrastive analysis of noun
compounds
verb + noun (object)
Eng.: call-girl, push-button, drawbridge. In Ukr. the
first component of these compounds is a verb in
imperative: голиборода, крути- вус, пройдисвіт,
дурисвіт. This type is often encountered in plant-
names as дери- літ, ломикамінь, ломиніс and for
poetic characterization of people as Вернигора,
Перетанцюйбіс, Непийвода. This type of
compounds belongs to the ancient layer of Ukr.
vocabulary, for example, the God of Sun in ancient
Ukrainian religion was named Дажбог : imperative
form of the verb dadjú – дай and noun bogú –
щастя, добробут.
 Contrastive analysis of noun
compounds
Action + adverbial: ходить пішки –
пішохід.
In English this type of noun compounds has the
following subtypes:
verbal noun in – ing + noun (adverbial component
which can be transformed into prepositional
phrase), e.g. writing-desk (write at a desk), hiding
place (hide in a place), walking stick (walk with a
stick).
noun (adverbial component) + agent noun, e.g.
city-dweller (dwell in the city), baby sitter (sit
with the baby)
 Contrastive analysis of noun
compounds
noun (adverbial component ) + verbal noun in –ing,
sunbathing (bathe in the sun), handwriting (write by
hand),
noun (adverbial component) + noun (converted
from verb), homework (work at home), gunfight
(fight with a gun).
In Eng. the 2) and the 4) subtypes can actually be
combined and this combined type occurs in Ukr.:
місцеперебування, праце-здатність, світогляд.
Besides, In Ukr. there exists another productive type
of compounds formation: adverb (adverbial
component) + deverbal noun, e.g. скоропис,
марнослів’я, пішохід.
 Summing up

Contrastive analysis of compound nouns in

Eng. and in Ukr. with syntactic paraphrase as
tertium comparationis reveals both isomorphic and
allomorphic features in contrasted languages.
 Conversion
the word formation process in which a word of one
part of speech becomes a word of another part of
speech without any changes to spelling or
pronunciation

The grammatical paradigme of the word serves as

the word-forming means
 Conversion in English
noun to Verb conversion: access – to access, fool –
to fool, Google – to google, bottle – to bottle
verb to Noun conversion: to alert – alert, to attack
– attack, to call – call, to clone – clone
 adjective to verb: green → to green (to make
environmentally friendly)
 preposition to noun: up, down → the ups and
downs of life
 conjunction to noun: if, and, but → no ifs, ands,
or buts
 interjection to noun: ho ho ho → I love the ho ho
hos of Christmas time
 Types of conversion
Partial conversion is a kind of a double
process when first a noun is formed by
conversion from a verbal stem and next this
noun is combined with such verbs as to give,
to make, to take to form a separate phrase:
to have a look, to take a swim, to give a
whistle.
 Types of conversion

Reconversion - the phenomenon when one of

the meanings of the converted word is a source for
a new meaning of the same stem:
cable (металевий провідник) - to cable
(телеграфувати) - cable (телеграма);
 help (допомога) - to help (допомагати
пригощати) - help (порція їжі);
 deal (кількість) - to deal (роздавати) - deal
(роздача карт).
 Types of conversion

Substantivation can also be considered as a type

of conversion. Complete substantivation is a kind
of substantivation when the whole paradigm of a
noun is acquired:
a private - the private, privates, the privates.
 Shortening

Shortening of words is the way of formation of

new words by means of substituting a part of
the word for a whole.
 Shortening

Graphical Lexical
(abbreviation, clipping,
blending)
 Graphical Latin abbreviations

a.m. (ante meridium) – in the morning;

p.m. (post meridiem) – in the afternoon; 
i.e. (id est) – that is; 
cp. (comparare) – compare; 
e.g., (exempli gratia) – for example.
 Graphical abbreviations
 a) days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue - Tuesday etc
 b) names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug - August etc.
 c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks
-Berkshire etc
 d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, Alas - Alaska
etc.
 e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc.
 f) military ranks, e.g. capt. -captain, col. - colonel, sgt -
sergeant etc.
 g) scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - Bachelor of Arts, D.M. -
Doctor of Medicine .
 h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. -
second, in. -inch, mg. - milligram etc.
 Graphical abbreviations in Ukrainian

a) the names of administrative units - м., смт, обл., р-н, ст.,

вул.;
b) titles - асист., доц., проф., канд. техн. наук, зав., член-
кор., акад.;
c) dates of calendar - н. е., ст., м-ць, p., pp.;
d) currency and numeric names - грн, коп., тис, млн, млрд;
e) units of time, length, weight - га, г, кг, л, мл, км, хв, год.;
f) documents - квит., накл.;
g) designation in texts - див., пор., напр., с, та ін., і т. ін.,
табл., іл.
h) names of address – п., гром.
 Acronyms and clippings
Acronyms - the words formed from the initial
letters of each of the successive or major parts of a
term: the USA (United States of America), NATO
(North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), WASP
(Womens Air Force Service Pilots), США
(Сполучені Штати Америки), ООН (Організація
Об’єднаних Націй).
Clippings - consist in cutting off one or several
syllables of the word.
 Types of clipping

1) i n i t i a l clipping
e.g., phone (telephone),
net (Internet),
chute (parachute),
bot (robot)
coon (raccoon)
2) f i n a l clipping .

e.g., cap (captain),
gym (gymnasium, gymnastics),
lab (laboratory),
ed (editor)
 .

3) m e d i a l clipping

e.g., a) maths (mathematics),
specs (spectacles),
b) fancy (fantasy),
ma'am (madam)
4) complex clipping

e.g. cablegram (cable telegram),
op art (optical art),
org-man(organization man),
linocut (linoleum cut)
 One more classification of clippings:

Aphaeresis - the omission of the initial part of the

word: telephone - phone, omnibus – bus, acute
(sharp) - cute (pretty, clever), espy (see at a
distance) - spy (to try to get secret information).
Syncope - the omission of an unstressed middle
syllable: fantasy - fancy, courtesy (ввічливий) –
curtsy (реверанс).
Apocope - the omission of the final part of the
word: gym (gymnasium), specs (spectacles), croc
(crocodile), pub (public house), brig (brigantine)
 Clipping in Ukrainian

Sometimes used in slang:

final clipping – універ (університет), лаби
(лабораторні), гіста (гістологія), спец
(спеціаліст), Люда (Людмила),

initial – нет (Інтернет), бот (робот).

 Blending

A blend is a word formed by merging the sounds and

meanings of two or more other words or word parts.
e.g. smog – smoke ang fog,
chunnel - channel, canal,
dramedy – drama, comedy,
detectifiction - detective fiction,
informecial - information commercial,
slanguist - slang linguist
In Ukrainian - хилитати ← хилити + хитати,
цурпалок ← цурка + палка, вебінар ← веб + семінар
 Blending

is used to designate the method of merging parts of

words (not morphemes) into one new word. The
result of it is a blend, also known as
a portmanteau word.
When you get up too late for breakfast and too
early for lunch you can have brunch.
If a state decides to execute a criminal with the aid
of electricity it electrocutes him.
The astronaut has a tool, a space hammer, which is
known as spammer.
News that is broadcast is a newscast.
 Compound abbreviations

A-bomb – atomic bomb,

V-day – victory day,
hi-fi – high fidelity,
sci-fic (scientific fiction)
Compound abbreviations in Ukrainian

держмито – державне мито,

спецзамовлення – спеціальне замовлення,
літпроцес – літературний процес,
завкафедри – завідуючий кафедри,
техплан – технічний план
The bulk of shortened words are nouns

Verbs are rarely shortened, e.g., rev

(revolve), tab (tabulate)

Clipped adjectives are also very few,

e.g., comfy (comfortable), awk (awkward),
impos (impossible), mizzy (miserable)