blue, eggshell-thin, singer-songwriter,

d) compound-shortened words, e.g. boatel, tourmobile, VJ-day, motocross,

intervision, Eurodollar, Camford.

4. According to the relations between the components compound words are

subdivided into :

a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic

and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate; these

subordinative relations can be different:

with comparative relations, e.g. honey-sweet, eggshell-thin, with

limiting relations, e.g. breast-high, knee-deep, with emphatic relations,

e.g. dog-cheap, with objective relations, e.g. gold-rich, with cause

relations, e.g. love-sick, with space relations, e.g. top-heavy, with time

relations, e.g. spring-fresh, with subjective relations, e.g. foot-sore etc

b) coordinative compounds where both components are semantically

independent. Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has two

functions, e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, Oxbridge etc. Such

compounds are called additive. This group includes also compounds formed by

means of reduplication, e.g. fifty-fifty, no-no, and also compounds formed

with the help of rhythmic stems (reduplication combined with sound

interchange) e.g. criss-cross, walkie-talkie.

5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into

compounds with direct order, e.g. kill-joy, and compounds with indirect

order, e.g. nuclear-free, rope-ripe .

CONVERSION

Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building

system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. The

term «conversion» first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet «New English

Grammar» in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by different

scientists, e.g. prof. A.I. Smirntitsky treats conversion as a

morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from

another part of speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb «to

dial» from the noun «dial» we change the paradigm of the noun (a

dial,dials) for the paradigm of a regular verb (I dial, he dials, dialed,

dialing). A. Marchand in his book «The Categories and Types of Present-day

English» treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building

because we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of

the syntactic function, e.g. I need some good paper for my room. (The noun

«paper» is an object in the sentence). I paper my room every year. (The

verb «paper» is the predicate in the sentence).

Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can

be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different

meanings because of that, e.g.

a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting

parts of a human body e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder etc.

They have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting

tools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-gun, to

rifle, to nail,

b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denoted

by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to crowd, to wolf,

to ape,

c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are

formed from nouns denoting an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, to

paper,

d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the noun

from which they have been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, to

corner, to pocket,

e) verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the noun

from which they have been converted e.g. to winter, to week-end .

Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denote

the change of the state, e.g. to tame (to become or make tame) , to clean,

to slim etc.

Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs. Converted

nouns can denote:

a) instant of an action e.g. a jump, a move,

b) process or state e.g. sleep, walk,

c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been

converted, e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold ,

d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the

noun has been converted, e.g. a burn, a find, a purchase,

e) place of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been

converted, e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk.

Many nouns converted from verbs can be used only in the Singular form and

denote momentaneous actions. In such cases we have partial conversion. Such

deverbal nouns are often used with such verbs as : to have, to get, to take

etc., e.g. to have a try, to give a push, to take a swim .

CRITERIA OF SEMANTIC DERIVATION

In cases of conversion the problem of criteria of semantic derivation

arises : which of the converted pair is primary and which is converted from

it. The problem was first analized by prof. A.I. Smirnitsky. Later on P.A.

Soboleva developed his idea and worked out the following criteria:

1. If the lexical meaning of the root morpheme and the lexico-grammatical

meaning of the stem coincide the word is primary, e.g. in cases pen - to

pen, father - to father the nouns are names of an object and a living

being. Therefore in the nouns «pen» and «father» the lexical meaning of the

root and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide. The verbs

«to pen» and « to father» denote an action, a process therefore the lexico-

grammatical meanings of the stems do not coincide with the lexical meanings

of the roots. The verbs have a complex semantic structure and they were

converted from nouns.

2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which was

formed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair is

primary. This criterion can be applied only to nouns converted from verbs,

e.g. «chat» n. and «chat» v. can be compared with «conversation» -

«converse».

3. The criterion based on derivational relations is of more universal

character. In this case we must take a word-cluster of relative words to

which the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster has

suffixes added to a noun stem the noun is primary in the converted pair and

vica versa, e.g. in the word-cluster : hand n., hand v., handy, handful the

derived words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun is

primary and the verb is converted from it. In the word-cluster: dance n.,

dance v., dancer, dancing we see that the primary word is a verb and the

noun is converted from it.

SUBSTANTIVIZATION OF ADJECTIVES

Some scientists (Yespersen, Kruisinga ) refer substantivization of

adjectives to conversion. But most scientists disagree with them because in

cases of substantivization of adjectives we have quite different changes in

the language. Substantivization is the result of ellipsis (syntactical

shortening ) when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute

loses its semantically weak noun (man, person etc), e.g. «a grown-up

person» is shortened to «a grown-up». In cases of perfect substantivization

the attribute takes the paradigm of a countable noun , e.g. a criminal,

criminals, a criminal’s (mistake) , criminals’ (mistakes). Such words are

used in a sentence in the same function as nouns, e.g. I am fond of

musicals. (musical comedies).

There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives:

those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of collective

nouns, such as: sweets, news, empties, finals, greens,

those which have only the singular form and are used with the definite

article. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote a

class, a nationality, a group of people, e.g. the rich, the English, the

dead .

«STONE WALL» COMBINATIONS.

The problem whether adjectives can be formed by means of conversion from

nouns is the subject of many discussions. In Modern English there are a lot

of word combinations of the type , e.g. price rise, wage freeze, steel

helmet, sand castle etc.

If the first component of such units is an adjective converted from a

noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups typical of English

(adjective + noun). This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the

following facts:

1. «Stone» denotes some quality of the noun «wall».

2. «Stone» stands before the word it modifies, as adjectives in the

function of an attribute do in English.

3. «Stone» is used in the Singular though its meaning in most cases is

plural,and adjectives in English have no plural form.

4. There are some cases when the first component is used in the

Comparative or the Superlative degree, e.g. the bottomest end of the scale.

5. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, and

adjectives are characterized by adverbs, e.g. a purely family gathering.

6. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function with

a proper adjective to characterize the same noun, e.g. lonely bare stone

houses.

7. After the first component the pronoun «one» can be used instead of a

noun, e.g. I shall not put on a silk dress, I shall put on a cotton one.

However Henry Sweet and some other scientists say that these criteria are

not characterisitc of the majority of such units.

They consider the first component of such units to be a noun in the

function of an attribute because in Modern English almost all parts of

speech and even word-groups and sentences can be used in the function of an

attribute, e.g. the then president (an adverb), out-of-the-way vilages (a

word-group), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence).

There are different semantic relations between the components of «stone

wall» combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following groups:

1. time relations, e.g. evening paper,

2. space relations, e.g. top floor,

3. relations between the object and the material of which it is made,

e.g. steel helmet,

4. cause relations, e.g. war orphan,

5. relations between a part and the whole, e.g. a crew member,

6. relations between the object and an action, e.g. arms production,

7. relations between the agent and an action e.g. government threat,

price rise,

8. relations between the object and its designation, e.g. reception hall,

9. the first component denotes the head, organizer of the characterized

object, e.g. Clinton government, Forsyte family,

10. the first component denotes the field of activity of the second

component, e.g. language teacher, psychiatry doctor,

11. comparative relations, e.g. moon face,

12. qualitative relations, e.g. winter apples.

ABBREVIATION

In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened.

The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-

linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Modern

English many new abbreviations, acronyms , initials, blends are formed

because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give

more and more information in the shortest possible time.

There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-groups,

such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by monosyllabic

words. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English they

are shortened. Here we have modification of form on the basis of analogy,

e.g. the Latin borrowing «fanaticus» is shortened to «fan» on the analogy

with native words: man, pan, tan etc.

There are two main types of shortenings : graphical and lexical.

Graphical abbreviations

Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-

groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are

used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.

The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin

origin. In Russian this type of abbreviation is not typical. In these

abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally the

corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form,e.g.

for example (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem),

No - number (numero), p.a. - a year (per annum), d - penny (dinarius),

lb - pound (libra), i. e. - that is (id est) etc.

Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English

equivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced «in the

afternoon» (post meridiem) and «after death» (post mortem).

There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the

spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the

corresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several

semantic groups of them :

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 . ( Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latin

origin, e.g., M.B. - Medicinae Baccalaurus).

h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. - second,

in. -inch, mg. - milligram etc.

The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context, e.g.

«m» can be read as: male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute,

«l.p.» can be read as long-playing, low pressure.

Initial abbreviations

Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical

abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some

new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full

forms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. When they are used for some

duration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become

closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in the

shortened form.

In some cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossible

without using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in different

ways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in the

language of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United

States) is given in Russian as АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation

Talks) was for a long time used in Russian as СОЛТ, now a translation

variant is used (ОСВ -Договор об ограничении стратегических вооружений).

This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is preferable, e.g.

UFO - НЛО, CП - JV etc.

There are three types of initialisms in English:

a) initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc

b) initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO,

NATO etc.

c) initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form,

such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based Laboratory

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