Complex Words in English (jJent'rl1l13tlitIJY: fbmdtJlpb Quirk Wl\LT El, NASlI,bnguage ood Creative lIlusin" LEO H01;'lt. Ad-verhs 3n(i Modality in English WALTEJlNASH AND IlAVIl> STACEY, Creating Tens: An Introduction to the Study of Composition PA1lUCK J. IltIFFLEY, Theh'.nglish Infinitive SIDNEY GRE:EN$AUM, Good Englisb and the Grrulnnarian DEREK A1l'IUDG:E, The Rhythms of English Poetry GEOFFrurf N. LEECH AND MICBAltL H. SHORT, Style in Fiction M;A.K. HALLIDAY AND RUQAlYA HASAN, Cohesion in English GEOFFREY N. LEECH, A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry VALERIEAIlAMS. Complex Words in Fnglish Complex Words in English Valerie Adams ~ ~~~~~~n~~:up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2001 by Pearson Education Limited Published 20 l3 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2001, Taylor & Francis. The right of Valerie Adams to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photo copying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treat ment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluat ing and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products li ability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instruc tions, or ideas contained in the material herein. ISBN l3: 978-0-582-23964-7 (pbk) British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Set by 35 in 10/12ptJanson Text Contents Preface tX Preliminaries 1 1.1 Word formation 1 1.2 Lexemes 2 1.2.1 Complex words 2 1.2.2 Lexemes and phrases 2 1.2.3 Lexemes and word-forms 5 1.3 Motivation 7 1.4 Present and past 11 1.5 Examples and the OED 12 1.6 Varieties of complex word 15 Notes 17 2 Transposition 19 2.1 Scope 19 2.2 'Zero' 20 2.3 Verbs 22 2.3.1 Noun to verb 22 2.3.2 Adjective to verb 26 2.4 Nouns 28 2.4.1 Verb to noun 28 2.4.2 Adjective to noun 31 2.5 Adjectives 33 2.5.1 Verb to adjective 33 2.5.2 Noun to adjective 35 2.6 Adverbs 38 Notes 40 3 Prefixes 41 3.1 Scope 41 3.2 Verbs 43 VI CONTENTS 3.3 Adjectives 45 3.4 Nouns 49 Notes 50 4 Suffixes 52 4.1 Scope 52 4.2 Individuals 53 4.3 Diminutives 55 4.4 States, realms and other non-individual entities 58 Notes 69 5 Particles 71 5.1 Scope 71 5.2 Particle + base compounds 72 5.2.1 Verbs 72 5.2.2 Adjectives 73 5.2.3 Nouns 73 5.3 Over, under, out 74 5.3.1 Verbs 74 5.3.2 Adjectives 75 5.3.3 Nouns 75 5.4 Base + particle nouns 76 Notes 77 6 Noun compounds 78 6.1 Scope 78 6.1.1 Noun + deverbal nominalization 78 6.1.2 Noun + noun 79 6.1.3 Noun-genitive s + noun 80 6.1.4 Adjective + noun 81 6.1.5 Exocentric compounds 81 6.2 Meaning 82 6.3 Contexts 86 Notes 88 7 Adjective compounds 90 7.1 Scope 90 7.2 -ing 91 7.2.1 Noun + verb-ing 91 7.2.2 Adjective + verb-ing 92 CONTENTS VII 7.3 -ed 93 7.3.1 Noun + verb-ed 93 7.3.2 Adjective + verb-ed 94 7.3.3 'Bahuvrihi' compounds 94 7.4 Adjective 96 7.4.1 Noun + adjective 96 7.4.2 Adjective + adjective 97 7.5 Attributive and predicative 97 Notes 98 8 Verb compounds 100 8.1 Scope 100 8.2 Inflection 102 8.3 Focus 103 8.4 Lexicalization 105 8.5 Acceptability in use 106 8.6 Frequency 108 Notes 109 9 Stem formations 110 9.1 Scope 110 9.2 Strata 110 9.3 Stems 113 9.4 Stem combinations 115 9.4.1 Prefixation 115 9.4.2 Suffixation 116 9.4.3 Stem compounds 118 Notes 120 10 Phonaesthemes 121 10.1 Scope 121 10.2 Some assonances 124 10.3 Some rimes 126 10.4 Reduplication 127 10.5 Problems with phonaesthemes 129 Notes 132 11 Reanalysis 133 11.1 Scope 133 11.2 Affixes 134 11.3 Backformation 136 11.4 Blending 138 11.5 Shortening 141 Notes 143 viii CONTENTS 12 Overview 144 12.1 Patterns 144 12.2 Productivity 146 Notes 153 References 155 General index 165 Index of word-elements 170 Preface This book was first planned as a second edition of An Introduction to Modern English Word-formation (1973). In the event, nothing of that work has remained, aside from a handful of examples which I was unwilling to re linquish. The earlier book coalesced rather fortuitously, it now seems to me, around an initial interest in some of the more eccentric kinds of word creation, specifically blends. My aim in this one has been to give a much more inclusive account of word formation in English. In the intervening period, morphology has made considerable advances in status and scope, and there have been some varied and innovative approaches to the description of complex words. In investigating the different kinds of word-making, more and less systematic, I have gained much from the de- . scriptive studies which have appeared in the last twenty-five years or so. An appreciable number of examples in my first book were elucidated and vouched for by the phrases and sentences in which I found them. Such illustrations in context are a more prominent feature of this book, thanks largely to the new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and its Compact Disc version. Its resources have been an essential counterbalance to my intuitions about likely, unlikely and impossible complex words. I am very grateful to Bas Aarts and Jill House for their advice on parts of the book, and to Randolph Quirk for helpful comments on all of it. Valerie Adams