Linking World Chapter 1 | Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

Chapter 1

Topics:

- morphemes

- word formation

-examples of non-equivalence between English and Italian.

What isthe vocabulary or lexiconof a language?

Alexiconis a set of elements, i.e. a repertoire of words and phrases that, in a language system, provide

different meanings.

In the vocabulary or lexis of a language,a word is an oral or written expression of information or a

concept, i.e.the representation of an idea carried out to accomplish a conventional reference.Words can

also stand alone as they are “complete units of meaning”.

But, first of all, what can words be composed of?

Morphemes form words. Words can be constructed from smaller units of meaning called MORPHEMES.

Morphology, one of the branches of linguistics, focuses precisely on the structure of words and what

constitutes them: morphemes.

According to Morphology, A WORD IS A LINGUISTIC ELEMENT FORMED BY A FREE

MORPHEME OR BY SEVERAL MORPHEMES LINKED TOGETHER.

The morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning within a given lexicon, and there are two types of

morphemes:free or bound.

A free morpheme occurs alone as a word and without additional elements. In contrast, a bound

morpheme is the part of a word that is bound to another morpheme and cannot exist without it.

free morpheme =LOVE

bound morpheme =LOVER consists of the word LOVE + ER.

Most bound morphemes are affixes or suffixes. That is, morphemes can be added to the beginning of a

word as prefixes or to the end of a word as suffixes = fromhappy to unhappyorhappiness

Bound morphemes can be derivational or inflectional. Derivational affixes create new words, while

inflectional affixes create new forms of the same word.

LOVER = the ER shows a person in love with another, while the term LOVE by itself is an abstract

concept. This means that their meanings are different. Still, they are correlated sinceloverderivates

fromlove.

Derivational affixescan be either prefixes or suffixes.They may indicate:

> adifferent meaning of the word: POSSIBILE VS IMPOSSIBLE as the prefix “IM”,

inimpossible,modifies the meaning of the free morpheme into its opposite;

> adifferent word class of the term:RAPID vs RAPIDITY, as the suffix “ITY” in the

wordrapiditychanges the adjective into a noun.

Inflectional affixes or Inflexionsare always suffixes. They signal/indicate a grammatical

relationship or category(person, tense, aspect, number).

For example,

1) the plural noun OFFICES =officeis a free morpheme, while the -S at the end of the word shows its plural

form.

2) In the sentence “Sara worked very hard in the past”, the suffix shows the past tense of the verb (the

grammatical relationship).

As in almost all languages, English develops new words by creating them from existing ones. Indeed, it is

crucial for a linguist (or translator, mediator, or English teacher) to understand how the English lexicon is

formed and shapes itself. By understanding how words are created and adjusted, and thus their various parts

and types, one can understand the meaning of unknown words. This is as soon as one is able to identify and

analyse the morphemes and other elements that form a word.

AFFIXATION AND COMPOUNDING are two significant types of word formation in English:

AFFIXATIONconsists of forming new words by adding prefixes or suffixes to existing words, thus

creating derivatives.

Derivatives formed by the addition ofprefixes,such as:

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Chapter 1 Topics:

morphemes
word formation -examples of non-equivalence between English and Italian. What is the vocabulary or lexicon of a language? A lexicon is a set of elements, i.e. a repertoire of words and phrases that, in a language system, provide different meanings. In the vocabulary or lexis of a language, a word is an oral or written expression of information or a concept , i.e. the representation of an idea carried out to accomplish a conventional reference. Words can also stand alone as they are “complete units of meaning”. But, first of all, what can words be composed of? Morphemes form words. Words can be constructed from smaller units of meaning called MORPHEMES. Morphology, one of the branches of linguistics, focuses precisely on the structure of words and what constitutes them: morphemes. According to Morphology, A WORD IS A LINGUISTIC ELEMENT FORMED BY A FREE MORPHEME OR BY SEVERAL MORPHEMES LINKED TOGETHER. The morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning within a given lexicon, and there are two types of morphemes: free or bound. A free morpheme occurs alone as a word and without additional elements. In contrast, a bound morpheme is the part of a word that is bound to another morpheme and cannot exist without it.  free morpheme = LOVE  bound morpheme = LOVER consists of the word LOVE + ER. Most bound morphemes are affixes or suffixes. That is, morphemes can be added to the beginning of a word as prefixes or to the end of a word as suffixes = from happy to unhappy or happiness Bound morphemes can be derivational or inflectional. Derivational affixes create new words, while inflectional affixes create new forms of the same word. LOVER = the ER shows a person in love with another, while the term LOVE by itself is an abstract concept. This means that their meanings are different. Still, they are correlated since lover derivates from love.  Derivational affixes can be either prefixes or suffixes. They may indicate:

a different meaning of the word : POSSIBILE VS IMPOSSIBLE as the prefix “IM”, in impossible, modifies the meaning of the free morpheme into its opposite; a different word class of the term: RAPID vs RAPIDITY, as the suffix “ITY” in the word rapidity changes the adjective into a noun.  Inflectional affixes or Inflexions are always suffixes. They signal/indicate a grammatical relationship or category (person, tense, aspect, number). For example,

the plural noun OFFICES = office is a free morpheme, while the -S at the end of the word shows its plural form.
In the sentence “Sara worked very hard in the past”, the suffix shows the past tense of the verb (the grammatical relationship). As in almost all languages, English develops new words by creating them from existing ones. Indeed, it is crucial for a linguist (or translator, mediator, or English teacher) to understand how the English lexicon is formed and shapes itself. By understanding how words are created and adjusted, and thus their various parts and types, one can understand the meaning of unknown words. This is as soon as one is able to identify and analyse the morphemes and other elements that form a word. AFFIXATION AND COMPOUNDING are two significant types of word formation in English: AFFIXATION consists of forming new words by adding prefixes or suffixes to existing words, thus creating derivatives. Derivatives formed by the addition of prefixes, such as:

 negation usual→unusual,  orientation clerical→anticlerical,  location and distance national→international,  time and order governor→ex-governor,  grammatical conversion trust→entrust. Derivatives formed by the addition of suffixes express conversions at the grammatical level, such as:  Abstract nouns derived from concrete nouns: mile→mileage,  Verbs derived from adjectives clear→clarify,  Nouns from adjectives sad→sadness Derivatives formed by the addition of prefixes and suffixes: unbelievable, impossibility, internationally. In addition, Derivates can be written as single words , such as confidently, and ecolabel; or with HYPHENS , such as e-commerce, h-minded and tough-minded. COMPOUNDING consists of combining two or more existing words and gives rise to compounds, which are written

as single words such as boyfriend, mailbox
as a series of separate words such as business class, work of art
some with hyphens such as laid-black. The analysis of words into morphemes is called morphemic analysis. Now, let us talk about some annoying TRANSLATION PROBLEMS. Sometimes translators experience equivalence problems because certain words in the source language do not have a direct equivalent in the target language. How to deal with this? The answer is paraphrasing , the most common translation procedure used to translate English words formed with derivational suffixes when lack of equivalence verifies.
1. “-WARD” and “-WARDS”used with some nouns, adjectives or adverbs of place or direction = “in a particular direction or towards a particular place” > translated as a, diretto verso, in direzione.
2. -WISE, used with many nouns verbs adjectives = “speaking of or referring to” but also with nouns and adjectives as “in the direction of” > careerwise= per quanto attiene alla carriera or crosswise: per traverso, a croce. Other examples of suffixes and how to translate them: o -EYED = describing someone’s eye color (a blue-eyed little boy) o -HAIRED = describing the hair of a person (a blue-eyed and dark-haired little boy) o - AHOLIC (Ah-olik) = someone who likes something a lot chocoaholic à adora la cioccolata (WORKAHOLIC) o - ATHON = an event or action that lasts for a long time and is organised to raise money for charity, so swimmathon can also mean maratona di nuoto Lack of equivalence often occurs with compounds. For example, a buzzword is “a word that has become very popular, especially relating to a particular activity or subject”. It has no direct equivalent in Italian; therefore , it can be paraphrased , such as with espressione tecnica di moda or slogan del momento. Eventually, certain Italian adverbs evolved from adjectives since it has been added the suffix {-MENTE} to those in English created by adding {-LY}. However, there are syntactic rules which are different from one language to another: in English, it is possible to find two adverbs ending with the suffix {-LY}, but in Italian, it is not possible to find two adverbs in {-MENTE}.

Linking World Chapter 1, Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

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