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The Lexicon

The Lexicon. Words: How We Make Them and Use Them. Innovation. New words must fill a lexical gap Can be filled by new word formation processes, borrowing, or calques New word processes Systematic and predictable processes. Combining Processes.

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The Lexicon

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  1. The Lexicon Words: How We Make Them and Use Them

  2. Innovation • New words must fill a lexical gap • Can be filled by new word formation processes, borrowing, or calques • New word processes • Systematic and predictable processes

  3. Combining Processes • Use existing morphological resources to make new words • Compounding—binding of free morphemes • Common in Germanic and other Indo-European languages • Served poetic purposes in Old English (Beowulf) • Compounds can also be “relic forms” —cranberry—or apparently single forms can develop from compounds • Prefixing—attaching a bound prefix to the front of a free form; many are borrowed • Suffixing—attaching to the rear

  4. Shortening Processes • Create new words from existing word stock, often with an accompanied change in meaning • Alphabetism- words formed from abbreviations, but still pronounced in letter form • IOU, OK, URL, ATM • Acronymy—shortened phrases where the letters are pronounced as words (radar, sonar, scuba)

  5. Shortening Processes, con’t • Clipping—shortening, often at primary morpheme boundary (although not necessarily retaining the main morpheme) • Foreclipped (beginning clipped off): bus>omnibus • Hindclipped (end clipped off): cell>cellular • Innovative clippings disregard morphemic boundaries and clip instead at syllabic boundaries • Backformation—new words created by removing an apparent or reanalyzed suffix: burgle>burglar; conversate>conversation

  6. Other New Word Processes • Blending: attachment of a clipped morpheme to a free morpheme: smog, motel (also called “portmanteau words”) • Shifting: functional shifts allow for words to change functional categories– n. email > v. email; n. Facebook > v. Facebook • Taboo Deformation: reversal of sounds at morpheme initial points to avoid taboos: doggone > goddamn

  7. Borrowing • English is a porous language • Borrowings reflect linguistic history • > 500 AD borrowings from Latin, a few from Celtic (street, town) • 500-1000 AD Latin, Scandinavian Languages • 1000-1400 AD French, Scandinavian Languages • 1400-1600 French, Italian, Dutch, Greek • 1600-2000 All that and more…Native American, Russian, Aboriginal Austronesian, W. African

  8. Word Categories and How We Use Them • Lexical Categories (parts of speech) are the building blocks of syntax • Open Lexical Classes– Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs • All can be described semantically (according to their frames of meaning), morphologically (according to their patterns of combination with other morphemes), and syntactically (how they appear in utterances) • All open categories appear as the main component of a phrase named after them (Noun Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Verb Phrase, Adverbial Phrase)

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