Among shortenings of the lexical type distinction should be made between lexical abbreviations and clippings- Lexical abbreviations are formed by a simultaneous operation of shortening and compounding, which accounts for the Russian term сложно-сокращенные слова universally applied to them in Soviet linguistic literature. They are made up of the initial sounds or syllables of the components of a word-group or a compound word usually of a terminological character. There are two ways to read and pronounce such abbreviations:
As a succession of the alphabetical readings of the constituent letters, e. g.
В. В. С,['bi:'bi:si:] = British Broadcasting Corporation; -T.V. ['ti:'vi:] television; etc.
as a succession of sounds denoted by the constituent letters, i. e. as if the abbreviations were ordinary words, e. g. UNO ['ju:noy] = United Nations Organization; NATO ['neitou] = North Atlantic Treaty Organization; laser
[`leiza] light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation; etc.
As a rule, lexical abbreviations do not include functional words (prepositions, articles, etc.). although there are some exceptions, e. g. R. and D. [ 'a:rsn'di:] research and development program.
In some cases only the first component of a two-member word-group or the first two components of a three-member group are shortened, the last one undergoing no change at all, e. g. V-day r'vi: 'dei]Victory Day; H-bomb r'eitj 'bnm] hydrogen Domb; V.J.-Day ['vi'dgei'dei] = Victory over Japan Day, etc.
As a general rule, lexical abbreviations first make their appearance in written speech, mostly in newspaper style and in the style of scientific prose, and gradually find their way into the sphere of oral intercourse. Ginzburg R.S. et al. A Course in Modern English Lexicology. M., 1979 pp.72-82
Clipping consists in the cutting off of one or several syllables of a word. In many cases the stressed syllable is preserved, e.g. sis from sister, Jap from Japanese, doc from doctor, etc. Diminutives of proper names are often formed in this way, e.g. AH from Alfred, Ed from Edward, Sam from Samuel, etc. Sometimes, however, it is the unstressed syllable that remains e. g. phone from telephone, plane from airplane, dome from aerodrome, etc. Traditionally clippings are classified into several types depending on which part of the word is clipped:
Words that have been shortened at the end--the so called apocope ['opokop]--апокопа, е. g. ad from advertisement, lab from laboratory, etc.
Words that have been shortened at the beginning--the so-called aphaeresis [a'fiansisj -- аферезис, е. g. car from motor-car, phone from telephone, etc.
Words in which some syllables or sounds have been omitted from the middle--the so-called syncope ['sinkapi] -- синкопа, е.g. math's from mathematics, pants from pantaloons specs from spectacles, etc.
Words that have been clipped both at the beginning and at the end, e. g. flu from influenza, tic from detective, frig from refrigerator, etc.
It is typical of word-clipping in Modern English that in most cases it is the nouns that are shortened. There are very few clipped adjectives all of them belonging to jargonize, e. g. add from ardent, dilly from delightful and some others. As for clipped verbs it is usually a case of conversion from clipped nouns, e. g. to taxi from taxi, to phone from phone, to perm from perm--'a permanent wave', etc.
1) When performing in the sentence some peculiarities the syntactical functions of ordinary of Clipped words and lexical Abbreviations, abbreviations take on grammatical inflections, e. g. exams, M. P. s (will attack huge arms bill), (Tory) M. P.'s (concern at), etc.
These two categories of shortened words may be used with the definite and the indefinite article, e. g. the В. В. С, a bike, the radar, etc. Buranov, Muminov Readings on Modern English Lexicology T. O'qituvchi 1985 pp. 34-47
They may be combined with derivational affixes and also be used in compounding, e. g. Y. С L.-er-- 'member of the Y.C.L.'; M. P.-ess--'woman-member of Parliament'; hanky from handkerchief, nighttime from nightdress (with the diminutive suffix -ie); radar man--оператор радиолокационой станции, etc.
Clipped words are characteristic of colloquial speech. The number of clipped words used in everyday speech is rather considerable and newly clipped words keep entering the vocabulary.
In the course of time many clipped words find their way into the literary language losing their stylistic coloring, though not infrequently they still preserve the stamp of collo-quial words and, as a result, are restricted in use.
The term blending is used to de-§ 39. Blending signage the method of merging parts of words (not morphemes) into one new word; the result is a blend, also known as a portmanteau word. The noun smog is an example in point. It is composed of the parts of the nouns smoke and fog (smoke-Hog). Thus blending is in fact com-pounding by means of clipped words. The result of blending is an unanalyzed, simple word, for the parts of words blended by the word-coiner (for instance, sin and go in smog) are not morphemes at all in terms of the English language. Therefore a blend is perceived as a simple word unless speakers have re-ceived the extra-linguistic information about its composition. Many blends are short-lived. A fair proportion, however, have become established in the vocabulary, e. g. clash--clap H-crash or dash; flush = flash blush; brunch--breakfast-Ь lunch; 5language=slang-language; amaze smoke haze, etc. In most cases blends belong to the colloquial layer of words sometimes bordering on slang, e. g. amaze, brunch, language, politician pollute politician--грязный политикан, etc. There are numerous blends, however, in the terminological sector of the vocabulary, e.g. recon=radar beacon--радиолокационный маяк; transceiver = transmitter-receive--приемное-передающая станция; transistor=transfer resistor--транзистор, etc.
In considering the diachronic and the formation synchronic approach to language study (see 'Introduction', § 2) reference was made, in particular, to the verb to beg derived from the noun beggar borrowed from Old French. The noun beggar was later presumed to have been derived from a shorter word on the analogy of the derivative correlation of the "speak--speaker" type. This process of word-formation is called backformation (or back-derivation) and has diachronic relevance only. It does not affect the derivative correlation for present-day speakers who do not feel any difference between the relationship "speak-- speaker", on the one hand, and "beg--beggar", on the other. Examples of backformation are numerous: to burgle from burglar; to edit from editor; to enthuse from enthusiasm; to sculpt from sculptor, to liaise from liaison, etc. At the present time backformation combined with conversion seems to be active in the formation of verbs from compound nouns mostly of a terminological character, e.g. to blood-transfuse from blood-trans fusion -- переливание крови; to rush-develop from rush-development -- быстрое проявление пленки; to finger-print from finger-printing -- взятие отпечатков пальцев; to baby-sit from baby-sitter= приходящая няня, etc.
Sound-interchange is the gradation of e.g. Sound- and stress- sounded occupying one and the same interchange. Place in the sound-form of one and the same morpheme in various cases of its occurrence. Both sound and stress-interchange may be regarded as ways of forming words only diachronically because in Modern English not a single word can be coined by changing the root-vowel of a word or by shifting the place of the stress. Sound-interchange as well as stress-interchange is absolutely non-productive and in fact has turned into a means of distinguishing between different words, primarily between words of different parts of speech and as such is rather wide-spread in Modern English, e.g. to sing--song, to live--life, to breathe--breath, etc. It also distinguishes between different word-forms, e.g. man--men, wife--wives, to know--knew, to leave--left, etc.
Sound-interchange naturally falls into two groups: vowel-interchange and consonant-interchange.
By means of vowel-interchange we distinguish different parts of speech, e.g. full--to fill, food--to feed, blood-to bleed, etc. In some cases vowel-interchange is combined with affixation, e.g. long--length, strong--strength, broad-- breadth; nature--natural, nation--national, etc. Intransitive verbs and corresponding transitive ones with a causative meaning also display vowel-interchange, e.g. to rise--to raise, to sit--to set, to He--to lay, to fall--to fell.
The type of consonant-interchange typical of Modern English is the interchange of a voiceless fricative consonant in a noun and the corresponding voiced consonant in the cor-responding verb, e.g.: use--to use, mouth--to mouth, house-to house, advice--to advise, etc.
There are some particular cases of consonant-interchange: [k]--[tj]: to speak--speech; to break--breach; [s]--[dj:] defense--to defend; offence--to offend; [sj--ft]: evidence-evident; importance--important; etc. Consonant-interchange may be combined with vowel-interchange, e.g. bath--to bathe; breath--to breathe; life--to live, etc.
Many English verbs of Latin-French origin are distinguished from the corresponding nouns by the position of stress. Here are some well-known examples of such pairs of words: 'export «--to export o; 'import n--to import v; 'conduct n--to conduct v; 'present n--to present v; 'contrast n-- to contrast u; 'increase n---to increase v, etc.
Stress-interchange is not restricted to pairs of words consisting of a noun and a verb. It may also occur between other parts of speech, for instance, between adjective and verb, cf. 'frequent adj--to frequent v, 'absent ad\-- to absent v, etc.
Relationship Sound-interchange in English is often Between sound (stress)- combined with a difference only in the interchange paradigm. Hence the question arises and conversion. Of the relativistic between sound-interchange and conversion. To investigate the problem the following three types of relations should be distinguished:
1) Breath--to breathe
As far as cases of this type are concerned, sound-interchange distinguishes only between words; it does not differentiate word-forms of one and the same word. Consequently it has no relation to the paradigms of the words. Hence, cases of this type cannot be regarded as conversion.
Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
