Master 1

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Facts about words

I/Making new words

There are two basic methods by which a language may increase its
vocabulary. The first is to use the material (morphemes) available in the
language already, and to recombine it in new ways. The other is to import
a word from another language, a process called, rather curiously,
‘borrowing’ – there is, after all, no intention to return the borrowed item,
which is termed a ‘loanword’. Nearly all new words are added to the larger
word classes (1.5), especially nouns, verbs and adjectives, with the
majority being nouns.

1.Compounds

Compounds are formed by joining two or more root morphemes or

(classical) combining

forms into a single lexeme. A discovery, product, sensation, or process is

often suitably named by a compound, whose status as a lexeme is
reinforced by usage and confirmed by inclusion in a dictionary. Compounds
are often idiomatic in meaning, or at least not entirely transparent. For
example, the meaning of seat belt – as a safety restraint in vehicles or
aircraft – is not immediately obvious from the two parts of the compound.
If you were unfamiliar with the object, you would need some explanation
of the word. This is even more so in the case of neo-classical compounds,
where a knowledge of Greek and Latin would be required for their
interpretation; e.g. calligraphy (‘beautiful’ + ‘writing’); mastectomy
(‘breast’ + ‘cut out’); pachyderm (‘thick’ + ‘skin’), denoting a large
mammal with thick skin, such as an elephant; stenothermal (‘narrow’ +
‘heat’), i.e. tolerant of only small temperature changes. Where a
compound is composed of more than two roots, a structure is usually
evident among the parts, which is sometimes reflected in how the
compound is written. For example, four-wheel drive indicates that four and
wheel belong together and relate as a unit to drive; whereas golden
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handshake indicates that hand and shake belong together and golden is
then added to form the three-part compound.

An interesting compound is formed by the combination of two roots and

the addition of the –ed suffix, to form an adjective. The –ed suffix looks like
the past participle inflection of verbs, but there is no verb involved in this
word formation. Here are some examples: dark-haired, empty-handed,
hard-nosed, jet-lagged, muddle-headed, open-minded, quick-witted,
round-shouldered, sharp-tongued, warm-hearted. They are mostly, but not
exclusively, composed of ‘adjective + noun-ed’.

A special type of compound is formed by blending two roots; the first root
loses letters/sounds from the end and the second from the beginning, e.g.
breakfast +lunch >brunch, smoke + fog > smog, transfer + resistor >
transistor. Sometimes, one of the

elements does not lose any material, e.g. car + hijack > carjack, cheese +
hamburger >

cheeseburger; or there are shared letters, e.g. circle + clip > circlip, floppy
+ optical >

floptical, twig + igloo > twigloo.

2.Derivatives

The addition of a derivational prefix or suffix to a lexeme forms a

derivative. The lexeme may be ‘simple’ (i.e. a single morpheme), or it may
be a compound, or it may be a

derivative already; e.g. care-ful, landscape-(e)r, national-ity. Some

derivational affixes

have their origin in Anglo-Saxon (e.g. -ful, -er), others have come from
French or Latin

(e.g. -al, -ity); and while there is a tendency to use Anglo-Saxon affixes
with Anglo-Saxon roots and Latinate affixes with Latinate roots, some
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mixing does occur, e.g. beauti-ful, preach-er (Latin root + Anglo-Saxon
suffix), fals(e)-ity, ship-ment (Anglo Saxon root + Latin suffix).

Prefixes, of which usually not more than one is added to a root, do not
normally change the word class of the item to which they are added.
Common prefixes include those with a ‘negative’ or ‘opposite’ meaning,
such as dis-, in-(and its variants il-, im-, ir-), un-, the ‘again’ prefix re-, the
‘attitude’ prefixes pro-and anti-, and the self- prefix. Here is an example of
each: dis-please, in-decision, il-legible, im-patient, ir-reversible, un-certain,
re-read, pro-life, anti-freeze, self-addressed.

Suffixes are numerous and usually change the word class of the item they
are added to. Changing verbs to nouns are: -er (the ‘doer’/‘agent’ suffix), -
(t)ion, -ment, -ance; e.g. bak(e)-er, educat(e)-ion, enjoy-ment, perform-
ance. Changing adjectives to nouns are: -ity, -ness; e.g. sincer(e)-ity,
smooth-ness. Changing adjectives to verbs are: -en, -ify, ise;e.g. thick-en,
solid-ify, internal-ise. Changing verbs to adjectives are: -able/-ible; e.g.
avoid-able, collaps(e)-ible. Changing nouns to adjectives are: -al, -ful, -ly;
e.g. cultur(e)- al, hope-ful, friend-ly. And changing adjectives to adverbs is:
-ly; e.g. quick-ly, smooth-ly.

More than one derivational suffix may be added to a root, e.g. friend-li-
ness, recover abil-ity, care-ful-ly, nation-al-is(e)-ation.

A special type of derivation occurs which changes the word class of a

lexeme but does

not add a suffix. It is called ‘conversion’. For example, bottle is primarily a

noun, but it is

used as a verb, with the sense ‘put into a bottle’, by conversion. A

contrary conversion

would be catch, where the verb can also be used as a noun. There are
many cases of

conversion (e.g. dirty (adjective to verb), skin (noun to verb), spill (verb to
noun), spoon
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(noun to verb)) and it is still a productive process, especially from nouns to
verbs, e.g.

doorstep, handbag, progress, showcase, text-message.

A minor type of derivation is ‘backformation’, a kind of derivation in

reverse, in which a supposed affix is removed from a word. This is how the
verb edit was derived from the noun editor, by removing the supposed
‘doer’ suffix -or (compare actor, advisor). A similar backformation derived
babysit from babysitter, commentate from commentator, malinger from
malingerer, scavenge from scavenger. Automate was derived by
backformation from automation, destruct from destruction, enthuse from
enthusiasm, greed from greedy, sedate from sedation, televise from
television.

3.Acronyms

A minor, but nevertheless much-used word formation process takes the

initial letters of a phrase and creates a word, called an acronym. Either the
acronym is pronounced as a normal word (e.g. AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome), UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation)), or the letters are spelled out (e.g. ATM (Automated
Teller Machine), HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)). Sometimes the two
forms are combined, e.g. CD-ROM (Compact Disc – Read Only

Memory). The acronym is usually spelt with capital letters, but a few
acronyms no longer betray their origin in this way, e.g. laser (‘light
amplification by stimulated emission of radiation’). Here are some further
examples, first of ‘said’ acronyms: DAT (Digital Audio Tape), DWEM (Dead
White European Male), MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), SIMM
(Single In-line Memory Module); then of ‘spelled out’ acronyms (also called
‘initialisms’): BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), CSA (Child
Support Agency), FAQ (Frequently Asked Question), HTML (HyperText
Markup Language), LMS (Local Management of Schools).

A further type of acronym is formed by taking the first syllable of the

words of a phrase, e.g. biopic (biographical picture), infotech (information
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technology), Ofsted (Office of Standards in Education), pixel (picture
element). In the case of Ofsted, the second element (st) does not consist
of the full syllable, and an x has been added to pixel to join the two
syllables. These ‘syllabic acronyms’ are a relatively rare formation.

4 Loanwords

When a word is ‘borrowed’ from another language and added to the

vocabulary, it is a ‘loanword’. Some loanwords continue to betray their
origins, either in their spelling or their pronunciation, or both (e.g.
blitzkrieg (German), kibbutz (Hebrew), spaghetti (Italian)); while others
have become naturalised (e.g. coach (Hungarian), gong (Malay), tycoon
(Japanese)). Words have been borrowed into English for some reasons.

After the Norman conquest, a new language was imposed on top of the
English, and so, for example, beef, mutton and pork appeared alongside
cow, sheep and pig. During the Renaissance, excessive admiration for
Roman and Greek cultures and languages led to the borrowing of words
from Latin and Greek to remedy what was felt to be a lack in English of
erudite vocabulary; and so abscond was borrowed alongside hide,
calculate for count, emporium for shop, manuscript for book, protect
forward, transgress for sin, valediction for farewell.

When the explorers and colonists went to new countries, experienced

different foods, and came into contact with plants and animals they had
never encountered before, they often took the words for these things from
the local languages. So, we have chipmunk from Algonquian (in North
America), kookaburra from Wiradhuri (in Australia), kiwi from Maori (in
New Zealand), chutney from Hindi, poppadom from Tamil, lychee from
Chinese, sushi from Japanese, impala from Zulu, sherbet from Turkish, and
so on.

Through the centuries, when a culture has been admired for its prowess in
a particular area, English has borrowed its words for that topic; e.g.
musical terms from Italian (concerto, opera, soprano, tempo), culinary
terms from French (casserole, fricassee, au gratin, purée, sauté).
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When a profession has sought an erudite vocabulary to mark off its
supposed area of competence, it has usually looked to the classical
languages for its jargon. The law, for example, has taken many terms from
Latin, such as: ad litem (‘in a lawsuit’), bona fide (‘with good faith’), corpus
delicti (‘body of offence’), ejusdem generis (‘of the same kind’), in
personam (‘against the person’), lis pendens (‘a lawsuit pending’), obiter
dictum (‘a passing remark’ – by a judge), prima facie (‘at first impression’),
subpoena (‘under penalty’ – i.e. to attend court), ultra vires (‘beyond(one’s
legal) power’). Medicine, on the other hand, has tended to look more to
Greek for its jargon: an inflammatory disease ends in -itis (bronchitis,
peritonitis), a surgical removal ends in -ectomy (hysterectomy,
vasectomy), the medical care of particular groups ends in -iatrics
(geriatrics, paediatrics).

English continues to enhance its vocabulary by taking in loanwords from

languages around the world. Some recent borrowing includes: balti (Urdu),
ciabatta (Italian), gite (French), intifada (Arabic), juggernaut (Hindi),
karaoke (Japanese), nouvelle cuisine (French), ombudsman (Swedish),
paparrazi (Italian), perestroika (Russian), salsa (Spanish), tikka (Punjabi).

II/Word meaning

One of the most important tasks of a lexicographer is to capture the

‘meaning’ of a word in a ‘definition’. We need to determine, first of all what
constitutes the ‘meaning’ of a word, which is the purpose of this section.
The suggestion is that the meaning of a word is composed of several
features: its relation with the real world, the associations that it carries
with it, its relations with other words in the vocabulary, and the regular
company that it keeps with other words in the sentence and text structure.

Many words have more than one meaning; they manifest

‘polysemy’. Ascertaining how many meanings, or ‘senses’, a lexeme has,
and in what order to arrange them are difficult decisions for a
lexicographer to make, and dictionaries may differ quite markedly in their
analysis. Our immediate discussion, however, is concerned with the
general factors that may apply to any lexeme or sense of a lexeme.
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1 Reference

The primary feature of meaning is the relation of reference between a

lexeme and the entity – person, object, feeling, action, idea, quality, etc. –
in the real world that the lexeme denotes. The exact nature of the
reference relation has exercised the minds of linguists and philosophers
over many centuries (Lyons 1977). We use words to talk about and make
reference to the world we live in, our experience of that world, our
speculation about what might have been or could be, and our imagination
of other possible worlds and possible scenarios. Our worlds are inhabited
by humans and other creatures, by natural objects and artifacts, by our
ideas, opinions, and beliefs, which possess characteristics that we
describe, and which interact in myriad ways. We can talk about all these
things and communicate about them with other people who speak the
same language, because we have a shared vocabulary and grammar. In
particular, we agree about which word refers to which aspect of reality or
our experience of it. The reference of some words is both more obvious
and more easily described. This is the case, especially for tangible objects
(bicycle, trumpet) and for physical actions (jump, spill).

For words that denote more abstract entities, the reference relation
is less clearly discernible. This is the case for many abstract nouns
(deference, solitude), for verbs expressing mental and emotional states
and processes (think, worry), and for adjectives generally, especially
where they are gradable (long, warm) or evaluative (ridiculous, superb).
For some words, belonging to the smaller, grammatical classes, a relation
of reference may be scarcely discernible (about, this).

What we are often interested in, including lexicographically, is how

words that have a similar reference differ from each other. For example,
how do happen, occur, befall, transpire, and, perhaps, materialize differ?
They all denote ‘come about’ or ‘take place’ (LDEL2:718). The differences
are subtle and may have little to do with reference as such, and more to
do with context: occur would be found in a more formal context than
happen; befall has an old-fashioned ring to it; transpire and materialize
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are, perhaps, particular kinds of ‘come about’. We cannot isolate a word
either from the typical contexts in which it occurs or from its relationships
with other words.

2.3.2 Connotation

A distinction is often drawn between the ‘denotation’ of a word and

its ‘connotation’. While the denotation is the straightforward, neutral
relation between a word and its referent, the connotation brings in the,
often emotive, associations that a word may have for a speaker or a
community of speakers. For many English speakers, the word champagne,
while denoting a sparkling wine from a particular region of France, has the
connotation of celebration or expensive living.

Some words spread particular negative or positive connotations

(semantic prosodies) across the phrases or sentences in which they occur.
For example, fundamentalist or fundamentalism, which denote
‘adherent/adherence to the fundamental teachings of a movement or
religion’, are usually used in a negative context and with a connotation of
a fanaticism that should be disapproved of. On the other hand, inspire,
denoting ‘creating the desire to do or feel something’, usually has a
positive connotation and spreads a positive semantic prosody, occurring
typically with nouns like confidence, enthusiasm or loyalty.

Such connotations are widely shared and may be or become intrinsic

to the contexts in which the users of a language generally situate the
words. Connotations may be more restricted in scope, to a particular
generation (e.g. blitz to those who lived through World War II), or to a
particular group (e.g. safe to those who have hazardous occupations), or
even to an individual. A connotation that is shared by a large proportion of
speakers can be considered as a contributory feature to the meaning of a
lexeme.

2.3.3 Sense relations

A third contributory factor to the meaning of a lexeme or a sense of

a lexeme is the semantic relations it contracts with other lexemes in the
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vocabulary, often termed ‘sense relations. They include sameness or
similarity of meaning (synonymy), oppositeness of meaning (antonymy),
the ‘kind of’ relation (hyponymy), and the ‘part of relation (meronymy).

Synonymy is a widespread relation in English, in large part because there

are words with similar meanings from more than one of the strata that
make up the vocabulary. For example, begin has an Anglo-Saxon origin,
while its synonym commence entered English from French during the
medieval period; similarly with keep and retain, leave and depart, tell and
inform, live and reside, share and portion, and so on. Equally, synonym
pairs exist that derive, on the one hand, from French in the medieval
period, and on the other, from Latin during the Renaissance: complete and
plenary, join and connect, sign and portent, taste and gustation, vote and
plebiscite. There are, even, synonym triplets from each of the three strata
of vocabulary; e.g. end, finish, terminate; hatred, enmity, animosity;
kingly, royal, regal; sin, trespass, transgression. In general, as the
examples cited confirm, the synonym from the Latinate strata tends to be
used in more formal contexts than the one from the Anglo-Saxon
substratum.

The other major source of synonym pairs is dialect difference, either

between national varieties (e.g. British and American English) or between
dialects within a national variety. The major differences between British
and American English are in vocabulary, rather than in grammar, e.g. (BrE
word followed by AmE word) biscuit, cookie; car park, parking lot; drawing
pin, thumbtack; flannel, washcloth; lorry, truck; single (ticket), one way
ticket; waistcoat, vest; and many more. Here are some synonym pairs for
Scottish English and English English: birl, whirl; dree, endure; fankle,
entangle; kirk, church; lum, chimney; neep, turnip; out with, outside;
vennel, alley.

Antonymy is a less frequently occurring sense relation than synonymy. It

is most

prevalent among gradable adjectives, where the antonyms represent the

opposite ends of a scale, e.g. big, small; wide, narrow; beautiful, ugly;
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quick, slow. Other word classes also show antonymy: verbs begin and end,
nouns bottom and top, prepositions into and out of, adverbs above and
below.

Not all antonymy is of the same type. In the case of gradable antonyms,
the words are in a ‘more/less’ relation: wide and narrow cover overlapping
parts of a spectrum, and an object is wide or narrow in relation to some
norm. In contrast some antonyms have an ‘either/or’ relation: win and
lose are mutually exclusive, you do either one or the other. A third type of
antonym shows a ‘converse’ relation: buy and sell are the converse of
each other; if X sells some goods to Y, then Y buys them from X.

Hyponymy relates words hierarchically, with a superordinate word

(hypernym) having a more general meaning than the subordinate word
(hyponym). The hyponyms are in a ‘kind of’ relation to the hypernym. For
example, knife, fork and spoon are kinds of cutlery; so, cutlery is a
superordinate word, with a general meaning, and knife, fork and spoon are
its hyponyms, with more specific meanings. These in turn may be
superordinate words to their hyponyms; spoon, for example, has the
hyponyms teaspoon, tablespoon, dessertspoon, ladle. A large part of
vocabulary can be viewed as being related by hyponymy, but, as with
language generally, there is no neat system of hyponymy relations
organizing the whole vocabulary of English.

Meronymy is like hyponymy in that it relates words hierarchically, but the

relation is a ‘part of’ relation. The meronyms of a superordinate word
represent the parts of that word. For example, ball, heel and instep are
meronyms of foot; hub, rim and spoke are meronyms of wheel; flower, root
and stalk are meronyms of a plant. Together, hyponymy and meronymy
serve to group words into semantic sets, known as ‘lexical fields’, in which
the lexemes all refer to the same area of meaning.

2.3.4 Collocation

The sense relations between words are ‘paradigmatic relations: a

synonym, antonym,

hyponym, or meronym would substitute for its counterpart in some slot in

the structure of sentences. The meaning of a word is also determined by
its ‘syntagmatic’ relations,
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specifically, by its collocation, the other words that typically accompany it
in the structure

of sentences and discourses. For example, the noun ban is typically

modified by the

adjective total or complete, is associated with the verbs impose and lift,
and is followed

by the preposition on. In a sentence with the verb spend, the Object would
typically

consist of either an amount of money (two hundred pounds) or a period of

time (last

weekend). The adjective flippant typically associates either with a noun

referring to

something said (remark, answer, comment) or with the noun attitude.

The word ‘typically’ occurs in all these statements about collocation,

because collocation is a matter of the statistical probability or likelihood
that two words will co-occur. One of a pair may exercise a stronger
attraction than the other; for example, wine is more likely to co-occur with
red than red is with wine, because red can co-occur with many nouns,
while wine occurs with only a small number of adjectives. The description
of collocation is most reliably based on the analysis of large computer
corpora of texts, which can yield appropriate statistical data.

To summarise, the components of (the sense of) a lexeme’s meaning

are: its relations with the ‘real world’ in the form of its denotation and
connotation; its relations with other (senses of) lexemes in the vocabulary;
its relations with the other lexemes that typically accompany it in the
structure of sentences.

2.4 Describing words

In this concluding section of the chapter, we shall examine what

constitutes the
description of a lexeme; in other words, what information about words a
lexicographer
needs to take account of in framing a dictionary entry. Following Hudson
(1988), ‘lexical
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facts include: the form of a word, its structure, its meaning, its grammar,
its usage, and
its origin.
By ‘form’ of a word is meant its pronunciation (phonology) and spelling
(orthography). The description of pronunciation specifies what sounds
(phonemes) a word has, if it has more than one syllable how they are each
stressed, and if the pronunciation is subject to any variation in connected
speech (e.g. vowel reduction or change in stress). The description of
spelling specifies the letters that make up the word, any variant spelling,
and possibly where the word may be broken at the end of a line.

The structure of a word refers to its composition in terms of morphemes,

how the roots relate to each other in a compound word, what prefixes and
suffixes the word has, and how they modify the meaning of the root. The
description of structure also needs to indicate if there are any
pronunciation or spelling changes, either in the root or in an affix, as a
result of joining morphemes together to form the word. For example, clear
changes in pronunciation and spelling when the suffix -ify is added
(clarify), as does discreet with the suffix -ion (discretion); bake loses an ‘e’
when -er is added to form baker, as does debate with suffix -able
(debatable). The suffix -able alternates with -ible (discernible), with no
difference in pronunciation, depending on which Latin root it is added to.

The meaning of a word was discussed quite fully in 2.3. Both the
reference relation and any other relevant semantic relations (sense
relations, collocation) need to be described for an adequate account of
meaning.

The description of grammar has two aspects: the inflections that a

word has, and how a word fits into the syntax of sentences. For inflections,
the description specifies which inflections the word may have , how they
are pronounced and spelled, and any changes to the form of the root that
result from their addition. For example, the addition of plural suffix -(e)s
changes hoof to hoov-es, city to citi-es, the addition of the past tense/past
participle suffix -(e)d changes cry to cri-ed, slap to slapp-ed. If a word has
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an irregular form (e.g. of plural or past tense), this too will be specified,
e.g. foot – feet, appendix – appendices, criterion – criteria, buy – bought,
tell – told, see – saw.

The description of the syntactic operation of words begins with their

assignment to a word class, which is an initial specification of where the
word may be used in the structure of sentences. Any deviation from the
normal expectation needs to be specified, e.g. if an adjective is restricted
to one of the three possible positions for adjectives (i.e. ‘attributive’ –
before nouns (the brown suit), ‘postpositive’ – after nouns (time enough),
and ‘predicative’ – after a verb like be (the suit is brown)). For example,
awake occurs as predicative (the baby is awake) but not as attributive, and
chief occurs as attributive (our chief concern) but not as predicative;
galore, emeritus, and extraordinaire occur only in the postpositive
position. For verbs, the specification of syntactic operation is even more
complex, including not only whether a verb may take an Object,
Complement, etc., but also what type of Object (e.g. noun phrase, nominal
clause) and so on.

The description of usage specifies whether a word or any of its senses,

is restricted to particular contexts. The restriction could be geographical
(a national variety or a dialect), it could be time-bound (an obsolete or
archaic meaning), it could be the formality of the situation or the word’s
status in the language (e.g. slang or taboo). The restriction could be
linked with the expression of the speaker’s or writer’s attitude, to
indicate disapproval or an insult, or to be appreciative. Or, a word may be
restricted in its usage because to use it would be offensive to a particular
group of people.

Finally, the description of a word includes a specification of its

origin, if it belonged to Anglo-Saxon or if it has been ‘borrowed’, from
which language and when. ‘Origin’ is sometimes taken to mean the
‘ultimate’ origin, as far as this can be ascertained; for example, a word
taken from French during the medieval period may have its origin traced
back through older French to Latin. This part of the description may also
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chart the history of changes in the form (spelling and pronunciation) and in
the meaning of the word.

These are the features of words, their lexical description, that

lexicographers must grapple with and from among which they must
choose what to include in their lexicographical descriptions, which are
published in dictionaries.