Ways of Word-Derivation in English

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Ways of Word-derivation in English 1. Affixation. Classifications of suffixes and prefixes. 2. Conversion. Derivative relations within a conversion pair. 3. Word-composition. Classifications of compounds. Compounds and word-groups. 4. Minor ways of word-derivation: shortening, blending, back formation. 4 5 1. Affixation. Classifications of suffixes and prefixes. Affixation is the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to derivational stems (bases). Affixation is subdivided into prefixation and suffixation. Affixes can be classified into: * convertive and non-convertive, * native and borrowed, * motivated and non-motivated, * monosemantic and polysemantic, * productive and non-productive, * active and non-active. The number of prefixes is estimated to be from 50 to 80. According to their meaning prefixes can be subdivided into: * prefixes of negative meaning, * prefixes denoting repetition, * prefixes denoting space and time relations, * prefixes denoting quantity and intensity. Prefixes can be deverbal, denominal, deadjectival; changeable and unchangeable. The number of suffixes is estimated to be from 60 to 130. According to the part of speech meaning of the word being formed suffixes are subdivided into: * noun-suffixes, * adjective-suffixes, * verb-suffixes, * adverb-suffixes, * numeral-suffixes. According to their semantics suffixes can be grouped further. 2. Conversion. Derivative relations within a conversion pair. In the present-day English one can come across such pairs of words as flower – to flower, smile – to smile, pale – to pale etc. The linguistic phenomenon under discussion has been given different names (affixless derivation, zero-derivation, root-formation). Traditionally the term ‘conversion’ has been used. The term conversion refers to

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