WORD STRUCTURE
By Dr.Pushpa Nagini Sripada
Assistant Professor of English
Sathyabama University
Chennai
pushpanagini AT yahoo DOT com
Abstract: An explanation of how words are formed based on various theories is explained in this article. A clear understanding of the structure of the word would help a teacher of English in focusing on teaching words in the classroom especially in L2 teaching contexts.
1. Word families
Words can be grouped together based on their structure. The following is an example of the word ‘happy’ and other associate word forms of it.
Happy happily happiness unhappy unhappily
Unhappier Unhappiest happier happiest
2. Inflection and Derivation
A word can be divided into minimal meaningful units called morphemes. For example the word ‘unfriendliness’, consists of four morphemes -un +friend +li +ness. In this word ‘friend’ is the ‘root’ because it cannot be divided further. The grammatical form of it is changed when ‘ly’ is added to ‘friend’. Further, ‘friendly’ is the stem to which -‘ness’ (suffix) is added to change into noun.
3. Affixes
Derivational affixes add meaning to the word derived. For example, if – ‘er’ is added to ‘sing’, it is changed into a noun ie ‘singer’ (one who can sing). Various affixes – prefix and suffixes change the meaning and forms of the words. In English, the spelling of the base word is changed in order to accommodate the ending- e.g ‘y’ is replaced with an ‘i’ in ‘happy’ to ‘happiness’.
Prefixes are ‘fix’ed at the beginning (‘pre’) of the word. All prefixes change the meaning of the base word. The word ‘happy’ can be changed into its opposite by adding – ‘un’ happy.
4. Blends
Some words are formed by combining two well- established words
e.g. brunch = a meal that is a combination of breakfast and lunch.
Heliport: a place where helicopters can land and take off (helicopter + airport)
Smog: polluted fog (smoke + fog)
5. Phrasal Combinations with Verbs
Phrasal verbs are compound verbs consisting of a verb, like come or take and a particle (i.e. an adverb or a preposition), like off or up. They are a common or an important part of English, especially in speaking and in informal writing. Often they have an equivalent formal word, for example, make up (phrasal verb) and made up.
6. Lexical Phrases
Skehan (1992) sees lexical phrases as ‘ready made elements and chunks’, items that ‘can be deployed without the need to construct each chunk independently’. Sinclair (1988) talks of ‘semi’ pre-constructed phrases that constitute a single choice, even though they might appear to be analysed into segments. Some examples are ‘as a matter of fact’, ‘at least from a point of view’. Much of the English language consists of lexical phrases. For example the phrases ‘as a matter of fact’, ‘as a matter of frequency’ come as single units in discourse. Some phrases do not follow grammatical example, like ‘it’s a matter of opinion’ is not used ‘as a matter of opinion’ like the other phrases ‘as a matter of course’, ‘as a matter of fact’. Some phrases like ‘by and large’, ‘spick and span’ are used in fixed pattern. But ‘as a matter of fact’ allows ‘as a matter of urgency’, ‘as a matter of opinion’. Some phrases ‘would you mind?’ and ‘have you ever….?’ Allow a range of completions. The following are different types of lexical phrases.
6.1 Poly Words
Some phrases like ‘according to’ and ‘in my view’ are regarded as poly words. These phrases are made up of more than a single word, but they can be taught as single items since same string of words reoccur without variation.
6.2 Frames
According to Sinclair (1990) frames have productive features that would help in making individual choices to construct new sentences.
For example, from+ a+ adjective+ point of view. This frame can be used to limit or focus a statement.
e.g. Everything looks good from financial point of view.
That would be a risky decision from a political point of view.
‘Whatever …are necessary’ and ‘are not… but’ have a frame that allows completion in any number of ways. Phrases and frames are very much like vocabulary items. They are used as units and are slotted into the message like single items.
6.3 Sentence Stems
Some lexical phrases constitute full sentences like ‘How do you do?’ or ‘How are you?’
Some enquiries, ‘Do you think…I…?’ for introducing a request are sometimes referred to as form / function composites since the form strongly signals the function it fulfills. Some introductory stems or cleft and pseudo-cleft sentences are introduced by phrases such as ‘It was …who’ and ‘X was the one who…’ ‘what I want /think do is…’ other phrases which highlight the use of the sentence or the other way it is to be interpreted ‘It is true that…’ ‘It is likely that…’,’ that’s why…’ .There are also predictable ways of introducing a research topic like ‘The aim / purpose / object of this study is to analyse/ investigate / establish…’etc.
6.4 Patterns
Wills (1990) explanation of patterns is worth mentioning here. He explains patterns as sub-class of lexical phrases. In his opinion they are like frames in that they are discontinuous and need to be completed, but, unlike frames, patterns are systematically related to identifiable sets of words as one looks at the pattern using ‘about’.
1. Concerning a particular subject: Think about it. I read a book about that recently.
2. Approximately: It takes about two hours to drive to Chennai. It will cost about a couple of hundreds.
3. To indicate general spatial orientation: It is late. There is nobody about. We spent the morning just walking about town.
Each of these meanings is likely to be found in association with predictable sets of words. With the first type (no. 1), one is likely to find verbs, such as ‘think, forget, talk and read’, nouns denoting items such as ‘a book’, ‘programme’, ‘story’ and an article’, as well as nouns denoting acts of communication such as ‘advice’, ‘agreement’ and ‘opinion’. Adjectives that denote attitudes towards information, states or events, such as ‘happy’, ‘pleased’ and ‘sorry’. With no.2 the numbers are found such as ‘a hundred’, ‘a thousand’ or a dozen’ measurements, such as ‘kilometer’, an ‘hour’ and a ‘half’ and a ton’. In no.3 one finds phrases like ‘hanging about’, ‘lying about’, ‘waiting about’. Computerised corpus available today on the net allows one to see all the words that collocate with ‘about’. Most patterns involve the use highly frequent words in the language like ‘about’ and their relationship with identifiable sets of words. Many patterns with nouns, verbs or adjectives followed by clauses are introduced by ‘that’ and by ‘wh’-words.
6.5 Collocations
The structure of some words allows them to go together even if it may not be possible to predict this association from the general meaning of the words. For example ‘strong tea’, ‘weak tea’, ‘sour milk’, ‘drink lemonade/water’ go together but not ‘weak cheese’ but ‘mild cheese’ and ‘strong cheese’.
6.6 Types of Idioms
A. Verb- plus – Object
Table 1 : Idioms
IdiomMeaningExample
Ram something down’ someone’s throatImpose one’s ideas / views on someoneJust because you are a Marxist you don’t have to ram it down someone’s throat.
‘Draw the line at something’Refuse to behave in a certain way because you think it is wrongI do use some strong language, but I draw the line at using offensive words.
‘Have second thoughts’Change your opinion or begin to have doubts about itI am having second thoughts about accepting that job offer.
B. Prepositional Phrases (preposition plus noun phrase)
Our boss always keeps us in the dark about changes until the last minute. (uniformed)
Over hundred villagers were killed in cold blood by the soldiers. (deliberately, without emotion)
It just happened out of blue. (completely unexpected)
C. Compounds
Table 2 : Idioms
IdiomMeaningExample
‘A kick in the teeth’An insult or an unfair actNot giving the job is a real a kick in the teeth for her.
‘A stumbling block’An obstacleThe terrorists are a stumbling block to progress.
‘Open-ended’Having no planned ending, can be developed in many waysI have no idea to give open-ended commitment. I prefer to have an agreement in writing,
‘State-of-the-art’Most modern, most technically advancedHe has a state of the art computer.
Source: McCarthy and Felicity O’Dell (2002:194)
WORD CLASSES
It is often suggested that words are of two basic types ‘content words’ and ‘function words’, content words are words with meaning, while function words have a syntactic rather than semantic function. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and ad words are content words; prepositions, conjunctions and determiners are classified as function words. The distinction between content words and function words relates to how specific the word sense is – the more specific, the more ‘contentful’ the word is. This conclusion is more appropriate in explaining pronouns, which were held to be function words, but now they are included in the class of ‘noun’.
References:
Aitchison, J. (1994). ‘Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon, second edition, Oxford, Blackwell.
Carter, R & Michael McCarthy. (1988). ‘Vocabulary and Language Teaching’: USA, Longman INC.
McCarthy, M. & Felicity O’ Dell. (1994). ‘English Vocabulary in Use’. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Nation, I.S.P. (1990). ‘Teaching and Learning Vocabulary’. New York, Newburry House.
O’Dell, F. (1997). ‘Incorporating Vocabulary into the Syllabus’. In Schmitt and MacCarthy eds. (1997). pp. 258-278.
Willis, Dave. (2002). ‘Rules, Patterns and Words. Grammar and lexis in English Language Teaching’. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
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