SUPORT DE CURS

DISCIPLINA: LIMBA ENGLEZĂ CONTEMPORANĂ

Anul II Semestrul I

TITULARUL DISCIPLINEI: lector dr. Mirela Copca

TEMA NR.1 : MORPHOLOGY ( Inflection and Derivation )Syllabus:

Linguistics – theoretical approach

1. Fundamentals.
1.1. The subject matter of morphology.
1.2 The basic units of morphology: some terminological issues.
1.3 Derivation versus inflection. Some inflectional categories.

2. A word and its parts: roots, affixes.

2.1. The notions of “root”, “base” and “stem”
2.2. Derivation
2.3. Classification of affixes ( suffixes and prefixes )

3. Derivation and conversion.

3.1 Conversion.
3.2. Conversion between nouns and verbs.
3.3 Conversion of adjective to verb (to dirty)
3.4. Conversion of adjective to noun (an intellectual)
3.5. Conversion of noun to adjective (a computer error)

4. Compound words.
4.1 Compounding defined
4.2 Classification of compounds

5. Minor word-formation processes: acronyms, clipping, blending, back formation.

About Linguistics

1. History of Linguistics

2. Methods in Linguistics

The origins of language have probably been debated for as long as humans have been
able to use it. But near the end of the 18th century, an interesting regularity in the sound
patterns of several different languages was discovered.

ENGLISH LATIN SANSKRIT

father pater pitar

full plenus purnas

for per pari

"The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more

perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than
either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the
forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed,
that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung
from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.“

Sir William Jones (1746 – 1794)

Jones' observation fueled an interest in the systematic study of how languages are
historically related. For this reason, linguistics at the time was mostly diachronic and
comparative. Scholars who studied Indo-European languages were particularly
interested in sound change.

Swiss-born linguist who taught at Universities in Geneva and Paris

Course in General Linguistics /Cours de linguistique générale

"A sign is the basic unit of language (a given language at a given time). Every language
is a complete system of signs. Parole (the speech of an individual) is an external
manifestation of language."

F.de Saussure is generally regarded as the father of modern linguistics and specifically
Structuralism
1.1. Lexicology as a branch of Linguistics

Lexicology is the part of linguistics, dealing with the vocabulary of a language and the properties
of words as the main units of language. The term «lexicology» is of Greek origin / from «lexis» -
«word» and «logos» - «science»/ . Lexicology is the part of linguistics which deals with the
vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word-groups.

The term «vocabulary» is used to denote the system of words and word-groups that the language
possesses. Vocabulary means the sum of all the words in the language.

Good knowledge of the description of the vocabulary, rules of word-formation, origin and
history of words helps to guess and remember the meaning of new-learned words, to master the
standards of their usage, and to prevent mistakes.

Branches of Linguistics

General - the general study of words, irrespective of the specific features of any particular
language

Special - the description of the vocabulary of a given language

Historical - the study of the evolution of a vocabulary as well as of its elements. This branch
discusses the origin of words, their change and development.

Descriptive - deals with the description of the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of
its development.

1.2. The basic units of morphology – some terminological issues

Most grammars divide the study of sentence structure into two areas, MORPHOLOGY, which
deals with the internal structure of words, and SYNTAX, which deals with the way words are
combined to form sentences. In morphology, the basic units under investigation are the
morphemes of a language.

The main unit of the lexical system of a language resulting from the association of a group of
sounds with a meaning is a word. This unit is used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It
is the smallest language unit which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

A word, however, can be divided into smaller sense units - morphemes. The morpheme is the
smallest meaningful language unit. The morpheme consists of a class of variants, allomorphs,
which are either phonologically or morphologically conditioned, e.g. please, pleasant, pleasure.

Morphemes are divided into two large groups: lexical morphemes and grammatical (functional)
morphemes. Both lexical and grammatical morphemes can be free and bound. Free lexical
morphemes are roots of words which express the lexical meaning of the word. Free grammatical
morphemes are function words: articles, conjunctions and prepositions ( the, with, and).

By definition, a MORPHEME is a minimal unit of meaning, that is, a meaningful sequence of

sounds which is not divisible into smaller meaningful units, e.g., ball. It is important not to
equate morphemes with either words or syllables; in both theory and practice, there is no
necessary coincidence between a morpheme and either of these units. For example, the English
noun hands is one word consisting of one syllable, but having two morphemes: hand, which
defines a specific body part, and -s which indicates plural. Conversely, finger has two syllables
but is only one morpheme. One cannot divide the word finger into smaller meaningful units: the
sequences fing, inger, ger, etc. are all without content. Even the sequence fin, which does have
meaning in English, is not part of the morphological structure of finger, because its meaning is
unrelated to the meaning of the whole word.
Morphemes are variously classified by linguists as BOUND or FREE.
Morphemes are also classified as ROOTS and AFFIXES.
A BOUND MORPHEME is one which cannot occur as an independent word, e.g., the un–
meaning ‘not’ in untrustworthy, unappreciative, unnecessary, etc.
A FREE MORPHEME is one which can stand alone, e.g., the morpheme trust. In English,
bound morphemes constitute a relatively small class of items, while the number of free
morphemes is very large. In other languages, the situation is often quite different. For example,
Classical Greek has very few free morphemes, but a great number of bound ones.

A ROOT is a morpheme which constitutes the core element of a word or group of words of
closely related meaning. For example, the morpheme trust serves as the root in all of the
following words: trusted, untrustworthy, mistrustful, entrust, and so on.
An AFFIX is a bound morpheme added to the beginning of a word (in which case it is called a
PREFIX) or to the end of a word (in which case it is called a SUFFIX). Some common affixes
in English are un–, mis–, con–, ex–, –ly, –ing, –ness, and –er.
Note that there are also bound roots, i.e. roots that only occur in combination with some other
bound morpheme. Examples of bound roots are often of Latin origin, e.g. later- (as in
combination with the adjectival suffix -al), circul- (as in circulate, circulation, circulatory,
circular), approb- (as in approbate, approbation, approbatory, approbator), simul- (as in
simulant, simulate, simulation).
Other examples :
refer, prefer ,confer, defer, transfer, infer
reduce, conduce, deduce, induce
revoke, convoke, invoke
relate, translate

Affixes that are added to roots to indicate grammatical relationships are known as
INFLECTIONAL ENDINGS, and the process of combining these endings with roots is called
INFLECTION. The –s used to indicate the plural of English nouns is an example of an
inflectional ending, as is the –ed used to indicate past tense. Comparatively speaking, English is
very poor in inflectional endings. Other languages have highly developed inflectional systems.
For example, in Latin, Russian, and Finnish, the form of a noun changes depending on whether it
is used as the subject of a verb or as the object. In English, nouns are not inflected for this
particular contrast, although some pronouns are, e.g., I/me, she/her, he/him, we/us, they/them,
who/whom.

1.3.SOME INFLECTIONAL CATEGORIES

PERSON: the inflectional category in pronouns and verbs that refers to the three–way
distinction between the speaker (first person), e.g., I am tall, the hearer (second person), e.g., You
are tall, and someone or something else (third person), e.g., He (she, it) is tall.

NUMBER: an inflectional category in substantives and verbs that refers to the distinction
between singular, e.g., the house IS big, and plural, e.g., the houses ARE big.

TENSE: an inflectional category in verbs which indicates distinctions in the TIME (PRESENT,
PAST, FUTURE) and the ASPECT (PROGRESSIVE, PERFECTIVE) of an action or state.
For example, the verb phrase is looking is in the present progressive tense, that is, it indicates an
action which is going on in the present; the verb phrase has looked is in the present perfect tense,
that is, it indicates an action that was completed in the past. Strictly speaking, tense is only
partially an inflectional category in English, since it is signaled both by independent words, e.g.,
forms of the verbs be and have and by endings, e.g., –ing and –ed.

VOICE: an inflectional category in verbs that refers to the distinction between ACTIVE and
PASSIVE. An active verb is one whose subject is viewed as performing the action it defines,
e.g., John killed the tigers; a passive verb is one whose subject is viewed as undergoing the
action it defines, e.g., the tigers were killed by John.

MOOD: an inflectional category in verbs that refers to the distinction between INDICATIVE,
CONDITIONAL, and IMPERATIVE. The indicative mood expresses ordinary statements (he
stopped); the conditional mood expresses conditions (he would stop); the imperative mood
expresses commands (stop!).

CASE: an inflectional category which indicates the relationship of substantives to other words in
a sentence. In English, the opposition he/him/his is a case opposition: he is used to indicate the
subject (NOMINATIVE CASE), him to indicate the object (OBJECTIVE or ACCUSATIVE
CASE), and his to indicate the possessor (POSSESSIVE or GENITIVE).

GENDER: an inflectional category in substantives that refers to the tripartite distinction between
MASCULINE, FEMININE, and NEUTER. In English, only the third person singular pronouns
show gender distinctions, e.g., he, she, and it; moreover, the distinction is based on sex. In other
languages, e.g., German, gender is a grammatical category of substantives and bears no
relationship to sex.

Inflectional categories and affixes of English

Word class to which

Inflectional category Regular affix used to express category
inflection applies
Nouns Number -s, -es: book/books, bush/bushes
. Possessive -'s, -': the cat's tail, Charles' toe
-s, -es: it rains, Karen writes, the
Verbs 3rd person singular present
water sloshes
. past tense -ed: paint/painted
-ed: paint/painted ('has painted) (past
. perfect aspect
participle)
progressive or continunous -ing: fall/falling, write/writing
.
aspect (present participle)
comparative (comparing
Adjectives -er: tall/taller
two items)
superlative (comparing +2
. -est: tall/tallest
items)

Regular and irregular inflectional morphology

Here are some ways English inflectional morphology is irregular:

Type of
Noun plurals Verbs: past tense Verbs: past participle
irregularity
oxen, syllabi,
Unusual suffix , taken, seen, fallen, eaten
antennae
run/ran, come/came, flee/fled,
foot/feet,
Change of vowel meet/met, fly/flew, stick/stuck, swim/swum, sing/sung
mouse/mice
get/got, break/broke
Change of vowel brother/brethren/ feel/felt, kneel/knelt write/written, do/done,
with unusual
break/broken, fly/flown
suffix
Change in
send/sent, bend/bent, send/sent, bend/bent,
base/stem form
, think/thought, teach/taught, think/thought,
(sometimes with
buy/bought teach/taught, buy/bought
unusual suffix)
Zero-marking (no deer, sheep,
hit, beat hit, beat, come
suffix) moose, fish

More ways inflection can be irregular:

Suppletion (instead of a suffix, the whole word changes):

be - am - are - is - was - were - been
go - went - gone
good - better - best
bad - worse - worst
some - more - most

English derivational morphology

Below is a sample of some English derivational affixes. This is only a sample; there are far more
affixes than presented here.

Some derivational affixes of English

Class(es) of word to which

Affix Nature of change in meaning Examples
affix applies
Prefix Noun: non-starter
Noun, adjective Negation/opposite
'non-' Adj.: non-partisan
Suffix '- electric/electricity
Adjective Changes to noun
ity' obese/obesity
Verb Reverses action tie/untie, fasten/unfasten
Prefix 'un-'
Adjective opposite quality clear/unclear, safe/unsafe
Suffix '- fame/famous,
Noun Changes to adjective
ous' glamor/glamorous
Prefix 're-' Verb Repeat action tie/retie, write/rewrite
Suffix '- Verb Changes to adjective; print/printable,
able' means 'can undergo action drink/drinkable
 of verb'
Word Structure
2.A WORD AND ITS PARTS

A word is an independent unit of a language. The term «word» denotes the main lexical unit of a
language resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. It is the smallest
unit of a language which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

2.1. The notions of root, base and stem

We should clarify the distinction bet. root, stem and base, because these terms are not always
clearly defined in the morphological literature and are therefore a potential source of confusion.

Root, stem, base are all terms used to designate that part of a word that remains when all affixes
have been removed.

A root is a basic element of words. The root in English is very often homonymous with the word. It is one
of the most typical features of the English language. Roots are called productive if they are capable of
producing new words.

A root is a form which is not further analyzable, either in terms of derivational or inflectional
morphology (cannot be analyzed into morphemes).

It is that part of a word-form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have
been removed.

A root is the basic part always present in a lexeme.

The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of
semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents.

Inflectional roots are often called stems, and a root in the strict sense may be thought of as a
monomorphemic stem.

In a complex word (compound), we can have two roots :

ex. wheelchair = wheel + chair

greenhouse = green + house

A stem is usually used for bases of inflections, so a stem is concerned only when we deal with
inflectional morphology. Inflectional affixes are added to a stem; it is the part of the word-form
which remains when all inflectional affixes have been removed.

In the compound classrooms, the stem is classroom, even though the stem contains two roots.
In the word destabilized, we deal with inflection ( past tense),so the root is stabil and the stem is
destabiliz + ed.

The stem is the base with all inflectional suffixes removed, while the root is what remains after
all affixes have been taken off.

stem = the element to which we add an inflection

A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added.

The part of the word an affix is attached to is called base.

A derivational analyzable form to which affixes are added can only be referred to as a base.

The base that cannot be analyzed further into morphemes is a root.

Root = bases that cannot be further analyzed into morphemes (either in terms of inflectional or
derivational morphology);

Stem = bases for inflection;

This means that any root or any stem can be called a base.

Ex : in the form untouchables, the root is touch to which first the suffix –able, then the prefix
un- an finally the suffix –s have been added;

The stem is untouchable;

And finally , talking about base, touchable can act as a base for prefixation to give
untouchable, but in this process touchable could not be a root because is analyzable in terms
of derivational morphology.

Ex. Colony -ize -ation

The root/base of suffix -ize in the derivative colonize is colony; the base of the suffix –ation
in the derivative colonization is colonize.

Colonized = colony + ed Colony is the root/stem for colonized.

2.2 Derivation

Derivation is the word-formation process when a new word is formed by adding a derivational
morphemes , affixes (usually suffix or prefix) to the root.

1) Suffixation is a kind of word-formation when a new word is formed by adding a

suffix to the root.
 2) Prefixation is a kind of word-formation when a new word is formed by adding a
prefix to the root.

Affixes may be subdivided into prefixes, suffixes and infixes.

A suffix is a morpheme following the root and forming a new word.
A prefix is a morpheme standing before the root and modifying meaning.

2.3. Classification of affixes ( suffixes and prefixes )

1 Noun-forming suffixes

-age (passage, marriage, mileage…); -ance/-ence (assistance, predominance,

correspondence…); -dom (freedom, kingdom…)

-ee (employee, referee…); -eer/er (engineer, profiteer, manager…); -ess (manageress,

heiress…)

-ist (economist…)

-hood (adulthood, singlehood…)

-ing (building, meaning…)

-ion/-sion/-tion/-ition/-ation (production, conclusion, realisation…)

-ism (consumerism, perfectionism…)

-ment (agreement, investment…)

-ness (effectiveness…)

-ship (ownership…)

-ty/-ity (productivity, prosperity…)

-ure/-ture (procedure, expenditure…)

2 Adjective-forming suffixes

-able/-ible (manageable, permissible)

-al/-tal/-ial/-tial (economical, statistical)
-ant/-ent (redundant, dependent)
-ary (monetary, inflationary)
-ate/-ete (accurate, complete)
-ful (dutiful, powerful)
-ish (snobbish, reddish)
-ive (effective, extensive)
 -less (effortless, powerless)
-like (businesslike, lifelike)
-ly (costly, orderly)
-ous/-ious (ambiguous, nutritious)
-some (troublesome, worrisome)
-y (sexy, worthy)

3 Verb-forming suffixes

-en (brighten, moisten)

-ify/-fy (intensify, qualify)

V from N: -ify à beautify

V from Adj: -en à shorten

-ize/*-ise (rationalize, advertise, stabilize)

*‘ize’ is often used in American English (maximize) as an alternative spelling of ‘ise’ in

British English (maximise).

4 Adverb forming suffixes

-ly (frequently, perfectly)

-ward/-wards (windward, backward, homewards)
-wise (vote-wise, percentage-wise) _

Prefixation

Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the root; therefore the simple word and its prefixed
derivative usually belong to the same part of speech. The group of class-changing prefixes is
rather small, e.g.:
be- (belittle, befriend), de- (defrost, descale).

Negative prefixes
Negative prefixes
give negative, reverse or opposite meaning

a- (apolitical, asexual)
de- (destabilise, declassify)
dis- (disenfranchise, disinvest)
 il- ( before l : illegal), im- ( before p, b, m : imperceptible)/ in- (inadequate),
ir- (before –r : irresponsible
non- (non-economic, non-profit)
un- (unacceptable, undemocratic)

Non-negative prefixes I
1) Degree, measures or size
hyper- (hypercreative, hyperdevoted);
over- (overestimate, overcompensate); semi- (semiskilled, semi-annual); super- (super-
dominant, supercharged); ultra- (ultra-conservative, ultra-secret)
2) Repetition or possibility:
em-(before p,b,m)/en- (embark, enclose)
3) Time, place, order relation:
ex- (ex-employer, ex-tenant); inter- (inter-office, inter-government); post- (post-
election); pre- (pre-delivery)

Non-negative prefixes II

4) Number and numeral relation: bi- (bilateral, bilingual); multi- (multi-dimensional, multi-
media); uni- (unilateral, unisex)
5) Attitude, counteraction: anti- (, antiestablishment); auto- ( autonomy); counter-
(countercharge, counteroffer); pro- (pro-business, pro-liberal)
mis- (miscalculation, mismanage); pseudo- (pseudo-creativity, pseudo-democratic

A salient characteristic of English – English differs from many other languages because a high
proportion of complex words are like helpfulness and uncommon in that they have a free
morpheme (like help and common) at their core. Compare the two column of words listed at (1),
all of which consist of two morphemes, separated by a hyphen:

(1) a. read-able b. leg-ible

hear-ing audi-ence

en-large magn-ify

perform-ance rend-ition

white-ness clar-ity

dark-en obfusc-ate

seek-er applic-ant
The rationale for the division is that the words in column a. all contain a free morpheme,
respectively read, hear, large, perform, white, seek and dark. By contrast, in the words in column
b., though they are similar in meaning to their counterparts in a., both the morphemes are bound.
If you know something about the history of the English language, or if you know some French,
Spanish or Latin, you may know already that most of the free morphemes in (1a) belong to that
part of the vocabulary of English that has been inherited directly through the Germanic branch of
the Indo-European language family to which English belongs, whereas all the morphemes in (1b)
have been introduced, or borrowed, from Latin, either directly or via French. Even without such
historical knowledge, it may strike you that the words in (1b) are on the whole somewhat less
common, or more bookish, than those in (1a). This reflects the fact that, among the most widely
used words, the Germanic element still predominates. It is thus fair to say that, in English, there
is still a strong tendency for complex words to contain a free morpheme at their core.

a.derivation b. inflection

worker (she) works

useless (the) workers
untruthfulness (we) picked
interview (the) children
curiosity John’s (house)
passivize
Terrorism

Derivation vs Inflection ---Main Features

derivation
- encodes lexical meaning
- is not syntactically relevant
- can occur inside derivation
- often changes the part of speech
- is often semantically opaque
- is often restricted in its productivity
- is not restricted to suffixation
inflection
encodes grammatical categories
is syntactically relevant
occurs outside all derivation
does not change part of speech
is rarely semantically opaque
is fully productive
always suffixational (in English)

3. Derivation and Conversion

Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building system. It is also called zero-
suffixation. The term «conversion» first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet «New English
Grammar» in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by different scientists, e.g. they treats
conversion as a morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from
another part of speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb «to dial» from the noun
«dial» we change the paradigm of the noun (a dial,dials) for the paradigm of a regular verb (I
dial, he dials, dialed, dialing). A. Marchand in his book «The Categories and Types of Present-
day English» treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building because we have
not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of the syntactic function, e.g.” I need
some good paper for my room.” (The noun «paper» is an object in the sentence). “I paper my
room every year.” (The verb «paper» is the predicate in the sentence).

3.1.Conversion

The process of converting words from one part of speech to another without adding any
derivative element is called conversion.

3.2. Conversion between nouns and verbs

Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can be formed from
nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings because of that, e.g.

a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting parts of a human
body e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder etc. They have instrumental meaning if they are
formed from nouns denoting tools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-
gun, to rifle, to nail,

b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denoted by the noun from which
they have been converted, e.g. to crowd, to wolf, to ape,

c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are formed from nouns denoting
an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, to paper,

d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the noun from which they have
been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, to corner, to pocket,

e) verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the noun from which they have
been converted e.g. to winter, to week-end .

Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denote the change of the state,
e.g. to clean, to slim etc.

Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs. Converted nouns can denote:
a) instant of an action e.g. a jump, a move,

b) process or state e.g. sleep, walk,

c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a help,
a flirt, a scold ,

d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted,
e.g. a burn, a find, a purchase,

e) place of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a
drive, a stop, a walk.

Conversion – classification
Verbs :
(to nurse, to hand, to e-mail, to finger, to hammer, to empty, to up, to blind)
Nouns :
(a go, a hunt, a lift, a find, pros and cons, whys, ups and downs, a black, breakdown,
make-up, comeback, take-off)
Occasional words are usually emotionally coloured words coined for a unique occasion.
E.g. Don’t darling me!, Don’t yes-mum me!
Marginal Cases of Conversion
Cases of formations by shift of stress are neither regular, nor productive.
E.g. verb > noun (abstract, import, refill, transfer)
verb > adjective ( frequent, moderate, perfect)

4. Composition

Compounds appear in three forms:

 as two separate words

 as two separate words linked by a hyphen
 as one word

The three orthographies depend on the extent to which the two components are felt to
have lost their original meaning or not. That is why dictionaries sometimes differ with regard to
the orthography of compound nouns are.

Compounds are made of two or more words representing either homogeneous or non-
homogeneous parts of speech. The semantic relation between the elements of the compound
noun is of two types:
 a) endocentric, the meaning of the compound analyzed can be deduced from the meaning of
its parts;
b) exocentric, the meaning of the compound cannot be deduced from the meaning of its
parts.

Two types of compounds:

Endocentric compounds: AB is an instance of B: houseboat is a type of boat, boathouse

is a house; a person who is seasick is sick. In endocentric compounds, the final element is
the head, and the other element(s) provide additional information about the head.
(1) [N N]N: chess table, strawberry jam, diesel motor, bookshelf
(2) [V N]N: crybaby, scrubwoman, bakehouse
(3) [Participle N]N: reading class, writing table, drinking water
(4) [A N]N: blackbird, drydock, redbrick, wetsuit
(5) [Particle/Preposition N]N: outgrowth, undergrowth, offprint
(6) [N A]A: bloodthirsty, pain-free, theory-neutral, colourblind, class-specific, sky blue

a) endocentric:

1. N + N: post-office, clock-room, classroom (note the three orthographies). In each case the
meaning of the compound is deductible from the meaning of its parts.
To understand a compound noun, we determine the meaning of the last term (the Head).
The preceding term supplying some information about it, classroom means room for classes.
Mention should be made that compound noun have the principal stress on the first word, e.g.
drug store, post office.

2. V-ING +N: this pattern is also of the endocentric type. In this compound the V-ing can be
originally:
- a gerund: a sleeping car, working conditions

- a present participle: used as an adjective which can be expended into a relative (attributive
clause: the working class = the class who works.

3. N+N (derived from verb-er): this pattern is usually of the endocentric type, e.g. watch-
maker, pencil-sharpener
4. V+N: watch dog, a rattlesnake
5. ADJ+N: blackboard

b) exocentric:

Exocentric compounds: AB is neither an A nor a B: a sabretooth is neither a tooth nor a

sabre, but a tiger with teeth resembling sabres. Exocentric means literally ‘out-centred’,
i.e. the ‘centre’, i.e. head, is not in the compound. Note also that calling a compound
exocentric isn’t the same as saying that its meaning has nothing to do with the meanings
of the parts of the compound. In most examples below, you can see that the compound’s
meaning clearly is related to that of its parts.
(1) [A N]N: paleface, redskin, redneck, redhead, highbrow, bigfoot
(2) [N N]N: skinhead, egghead, blockhead
(3) [V N]N: pickpocket, spoilsport, killjoy,
(4) [V Particle]N: hándout, putdown, sit-in, walkout, breakdown, fallout, pushup

1. N + N: ladybird (buburuza), blockhead (netot), butterfly (fluture)

2. ADJ+N: hotdog, blackleg

More on the notion ‘head’

The head is the element that determines the semantic and grammatical characteristics of
the whole word.
Since endocentric compounds have heads, it follows that endocentric compounds form
their plural in the same way as their heads do. E.g. scrubwomen, firemen. Exocentric
compounds, being headless, are not inflected in the same way as their righthand members:
still lifes, lowlifes (cf. lives), walkmans, tenderfoots, bigfoots
Exocentric compounds, being headless, don’t necessarily have a constituent with the same
syntactic category as that of the whole compound: sit-in doesn’t contain a noun.
Right-Hand Head Rule: The head of a word is on the right in English.
A consequence: Prefixes do not change the category of their bases: [un[[love]Nly]A]A.

5. Minor word-formation processes

1. Clipping
2. Blending
3. Graphical Abbreviations
4. Back-formation

1.Clipping (shortening)
The shortening of words consists of the reduction of a word to one of its parts, as a result
of which the new form is used as an independent lexical unit.
This type of word-formation is in English highly productive.

a. Final clipping – the beginning of the prototype is retained.

E.g. ad, advert < advertisement,
memo < memorandum, lab < laboratory,
gym < gymnasium, vac < vacuum cleaner.
demo < demonstration> condo < condominium>
disco < discotheque>
b. Initial clipping – the final part is retained.
E.g. phone < telephone,
plane < aeroplane.
c. The middle is retained. E.g. Liz < Elizabeth ,
flu < influenza, tec < detective.
d. The middle is left. E.g. fancy < fantasy,
maths < mathematics,

Liz (¬ Elizabeth)
Mike (¬ Michael)
Trish (¬ Patricia)

2.Blending

Blending is a word-formation process of forming a new lexeme from parts of two or more
other words.
E.g. smog < smoke + fog, brunch < breakfast + lunch.

3.Graphical abbreviations
New lexical units formed from the initial letters of the words and pronounced as one word –
acronyms. E.g. UNESCO, AIDS, NATO, laser, radar.
New lexical units formed from the initial letters of the words with alphabetic reading. E.g.
BC, SOS, TV, VIP, VAT.
An acronym is pronounced as a word if the consonants and vowels line up in such a way as
to make this possible, otherwise it is pronounced as a string of letter names. Examples:
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization), AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), scuba (self-contained
underwater breathing apparatus), radar (radio detecting and ranging),
4. Backformation: A suffix identifiable from other words is cut off of a base which has
previously not been a word; that base then is used as a root, and becomes a word through
widespread use. Examples: pronunciate (< pronunciation < pronounce), self-destruct (< self-
destruction < destroy), burgle (< burglar), burger (< hamburger). This differs from clipping in
that, in clipping, some phonological part of the word which is not interpretable as an affix or
word is cut off (e.g. the '-essor' of 'professor' is not a suffix or word; nor is the '-ther' of 'brother'.
In backformation, the bit chopped off is a recognizable affix or word ('ham ' in 'hamburger'), '-
ion' in 'self-destruction'. Backformation is the result of a false but plausible morphological
analysis of the word; clipping is a strictly phonological process that is used to make the word
shorter. Clipping is based on syllable structure, not morphological analysis. It is impossible for
you to recognize backformed words or come up with examples from your own knowledge of
English, unless you already know the history of the word. Most people do not know the history
of the words they know; this is normal.
Basic terminology with definitions and examples
 MORPHEME = the smallest meaningful unit of language (any part of a word that
cannot be broken down further into smaller meaningful parts, including the whole word
itself). The word 'items' can be broken down into two meaningful parts: 'item' and the
plural suffix '-s'; neither of these can be broken down into smaller parts that have a
meaning. Therefore 'item' and '-s' are both morphemes.
 FREE MORPHEME = a morpheme that can stand alone as an independent word (e.g.
'item').
 BOUND MORPHEME = a morpheme that cannot stand alone as an independent word,
but must be attached to another morpheme/word (affixes, such as plural '-s', are always
bound; roots are sometimes bound, e.g. the 'insul-' of 'insulate' or the '-ceive' of 'receive'.
 BASE = an element (free or bound, root morpheme or complex word) to which
additional morphemes are added. A base can consist of a single root morpheme, as with
the 'product' of 'production'. But a base can also be a word that itself contains more than
one morpheme. For example, we can use the word 'production' as a base to form the word
'overproduction';
 STEM = an element ( free or bound morpheme or complex word) to which additional
(inflectional morphemes ) are added. To make 'walkers', we add the plural morpheme, '-s'
in this case, to the stem 'walker'.
 ROOT = a (usually free) morpheme around which words can be built up through the
addition of affixes. The root usually has a more-specific meaning than the affixes that
attach to it. Ex.: The root 'kind' can have affixes added to it to form 'kindly', 'kindness',
'kinder', 'kindest'. The root is the item you have left when you strip all other morphemes
off of a complex word. In the word dehumanizing, for example, if you strip off all the
affixes -- -ing, -ize, and de-, human is what you have left. It cannot be divided further into
meaningful parts. It is the root of the word.
 AFFIX = a bound morpheme which attaches to a base (root or stem). PREFIXES attach
to the front of a base; SUFFIXES to the end of a base; An example of a prefix is the 're-'
of 'rewrite'; of a suffix, '-al' of 'critical'.

INFLECTION = the process by which affixes combine with roots to indicate basic
grammatical categories such as tense or plurality (e.g. in 'cat-s', 'talk-ed', '-s' an d'-ed' are
inflectional suffixes). Inflection is viewed as the process of adding very general meanings to
existing words, not as the creation of new words.

 DERIVATION= the process by which affixes combine with roots to create new words
(e.g. in 'modern-ize', 'read-er', '-ize' and '-er' are derivational suffixes). Derivation is
viewed as using existing words to make new words. The inflection/derivation difference
is increasingly viewed as shades of gray rather than an absolute boundary. Derivation is
 much less regular, and therefore much less predictable, than inflectional morphology. For
example, we can predict that most English words will form their plural by adding the
affix <-s> or <-es>. But how we derive nouns from verbs, for example, is less
predictable. Why do we add <-al> to 'refuse', making 'refusal', but '-ment' to 'pay' to make
'payment'? 'Payal' and 'refusement' are not possible English words. We have to do more
memorizing in learning derivational morphology than in learning inflectional
morphology.
 CONTENT WORD : A morpheme that has a relatively more-specific meaning than a
function morpheme; a morpheme that names a concept/idea in our record of experience
of the world. Content morphemes fall into the classes of noun, verb, adjective, adverb.
 FUNCTION WORD : A morpheme that has a relatively less-specific meaning than a
content morpheme; a morpheme whose primary meaning/function is to signal
relationships between other morphemes. Function morphemes generally fall into classes
such as articles ('a', 'the'), prepositions ('of', 'at'), auxiliary verbs ('was eating', 'have
slept'), etc.
 SIMPLE WORD = a word consisting of a single morpheme; a word that cannot be
analyzed into smaller meaningful parts, e.g. 'item', 'five', 'chunk', 'the'.
 COMPLEX WORD = a word consisting of a root plus one or more affixes (e.g. 'items',
'walked', 'dirty').
 COMPOUND WORD = a word that is formed from two or more simple or complex
words (e.g. landlord, red-hot, window cleaner).
 ALLOMORPHS = the different forms (pronunciations) of a single morpheme. Ex: the
plural morpheme in English is {-s}. Its allomorphs are / s /, / z /, /iz/.

TEMA NR. 2 : THE NOUN. GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES.

1.Definition and classification.

2.The grammatical category of number.

3.The grammatical category of case.

4.The grammatical category of gender.

1.Definition and Classification

There are different ways of classifying nouns according to content; these classifications take into
consideration semantic, morphological or syntactical aspects of nouns.
The semantic criterion Common nouns
Proper nouns
1.Common nouns designate “objects”(beings, things, materials, abstractions, etc.) of the same
category/kind, by using a general name.

Ex. man cat plant people air

child fox tree crew happiness
Common nouns are characterized by having number contrast (having both sing. and plural
forms) and by being countable or non-countable.
2.Proper nouns designate “objects” different from all the others belonging to the same category,
by using a specific name.
- are written with initial capital letters;
- do not have a determiner before them;
a. they include beings (names of persons and animals), geographical names, names of historical
events, of heavenly bodies, of literary, scientific or artistic works, of diff. titles (honours,
professional, cultural) ,

b. social status/jobs, professions,

c. titles of books, names of companies, institutions, or names of brands,

d. languages and nationalities,

e. names of papers and magazines, of ships,

f. the months of the year, the days of the week,

g. other unique things, etc.

Concrete nouns designate material ‘objects’ (beings – persons or animals, plants, things,
phenomena, etc.) the existence of which can be noticed by senses

Ex. Michael wolf rose water

Sun teacher rain wool

Abstract Nouns designate actions, states, feelings, qualities, relations, etc., considered as
notions.

Examples :

confidence regularity health love intelligence time anger

beauty knowledge age courage hope childhood youth
disgust magic peace justice darkness luck silence
realism safety fun
2. The category of number

The English noun has 2 numbers: singular and plural.

The singular is that form of the noun which denotes either one object (a book) or an indivisible
whole (money). The plural is that form of the noun which indicates more than one object (book).
When we are talking of the category of number in nouns, there are 2 aspects that should be taken
into account:

I. Formation of the plural number

a) regular plural forms: Nouns generally form their plural in a regular predictable way by
adding –s to the simple form, to the singular form, e.g. books, days

In adding –s some spelling rules should be observed:

- nouns ending in a sibilant sound in the singular (spelt with –s, -ss, -x, -ch, -sh, -zz) add –
es, in the plural (pronounced (iz):

e.g. class/es, churh/es, box/es, wish/es, watch/es

Exceptions: when -ch is pronounced (k) epoch/s, stomack/s, monarch/s

- nouns ending in –y following a consonant form their plural by dropping the –y and
adding –es:

e.g. country-countries, duty-duties

- nouns ending in –y following a vowel form their plural by adding –s

e.g. play-plays, boy-boys

- twelve nouns ending in -f(e) add –es with -f changing into –v:

e.g. calf/ calves, life, knife, half, leaf, loaf, self, shelf, thief, wife, wolf, elf

Exception: roof/s, chief/s, handkerchief/s

- nouns ending in –o, add – es

e.g. potato/es, tomato/es, hero-/es

Exception: piano/s , soprano/s, radio/s, photo/s, zero/s

b) Irregular plural forms: there are nouns preserved from Old English which form their plural
as they did in Old English by means of internal vowel changes or mutation, e.g. man/men,
woman/women, tooth/teeth, goose/geese, foot/feet, mouse/mice, mouse/lice or by adding –en to
the singular , e.g. child/children, ox/oxen, brother/brethren (fellow members of a religious
society)

c) Foreign plurals: a few nouns of Latin or Greek origin retain their original plural forms, they
form the plural according to the languages, were borrowed from:

- is > -es: e.g. crisis/crises, basis/bases, analysis/analyses, thesis/these, parenthesis/parentheses

- um >-a: e.g. symposium/symposia, stratum/strata, medium/media, erratum/errata

- on > -a: e.g. criterion/criteria, phenomenon/phenomena

- us >- i: e.g. fungus/fungi, nucleus/nuclei, radius/radii, stimulus/stimuli

- a >- ae: e.g. formula/formulae, alga/algae, larva/larvae, vertebra/vertebrae

- ex >- ices: e.g. index/indices, appendix/appendices, matrix/matrices

There is tendency for some foreign nouns adopted in English to develop regular plural forms,
without losing the original forms. When both forms are used the foreign one is more formal,
which means that formulae occurs in technical and scientific texts while formulas in everyday
speech.

There is quite a large number of nouns (not necessarily of Latin origin) which have double
plural forms implying changes of meaning:

e.g. SINGULAR PLURAL

arm (braţ) arms (braţe; arme)

cloth (material) cloths(stofe, materiale);

colour (culoare) colours (culori; drapel)

glass (sticlă, pahar) glasses (pahare, ochelari)

II Countability

The most common manifestation of the category of number is reflected in the notion of
countability with presupposes the possibility of counting objects. From the point of view of
countablility, English nouns can be divided into 2 classes:

1. countable nouns are those nouns that can be counted, those nouns that can be distinguished
as separate entities. Count nouns have the following characteristics:
- they are variable from the point of view of number, they have both numbers in the singular
and in the plural, eg. student/s, man/men, criterion/criteria
- since they can distinguished one entity from others, they can be individualized by means of
determiners who cause quantifiers and/or number; thus they may be preceded by the following
determiners:

- in the sg: both art. : a(one), the determinatives, each, every, this/that, no, the numeral one;
- in the plural: the article: the, the determinatives, these/those, once, any, no, many, a few,
several, numbers from 2 onwards
- they agree in number both with the verb and with the determiners. Thus, a singular noun
requires a singular verb and a singular determiner, while a plural noun requires a plural verb and
a plural determiner. Those nouns that meet the 3 conditions mentioned above are countable
nouns.

a) individual (common) nouns, eg. student/s

Such nouns have the 3 characteristics mentioned above, eg. This book is interesting. Those books
are interesting. The vast majority of nouns in English follow this pattern.

b) collective nouns are those nouns that semantically collect a number of similar objects
(usually of persons) into one group. Such nouns are: army, assembly, audience, board, class,
committee, family, flack, government, group, jury, party, staff, team. These nouns are variable in
form, meaning that they have both numbers singular and plural. In this respect they behave like
individual nouns proper. A singular noun may take agree with a singular or a plural verb, a
family – several families.
- a singular noun takes a singular verb when it refers to the group as a whole as a unit. The
noun behaves like an individual noun
e.g. The average family which now consists of 4 members at most, is a great deal smaller than it
used to be.

The committee is preparing its support.

Our team is in the second division.

Note that in this case the nouns are preferred to by inanimate singular pronoun it, which.

- a singular noun may take a plural verb when the speaker or writer is thinking more of the
individual members/persons that make up the group (than of the group itself).
- when such a noun in the singular refers to the separate members of a collectivity, it
behaves like a collective noun, as if it were plural, the consequence being that...
Although singular in form the noun agrees with a plural verb and it also referred to by the
animate plural, pronouns they, who.

e.g. My family are being and supportive; they are always ready to help me. I don’t know any
other family who would do so much (the members of my family).

The team are playing very well, aren’t they?

 The government are discussing the new development scheme (reference is made to the
individuals that make up the act).

c) Some nouns with the same form for the singular and the plural have no special form for
the category of number: considering that the basic form is that of the singular, we can say that
they receive (unmarked nouns) a zero ending in the plural. In spite of the fact that they are no
variable in form, they are considered to be countable nouns because they meet the others 2
conditions, verbs and determiners with such nouns are either singular or plural according to the
meaning expressed by the nouns.

- some nouns ending in –s : means , series, species (also headquarters, works (factory)

e.g. A new means of transport is the hovercraft.

The fastest means of transport are not always the most comfortable.

This is a rare species.

- some nouns denoting animals (sheep , deer, also aircraft)

e.g. There is a stray sheep on the road. There are some stray sheep on the road.

- some names of nationality : Chinese, Japanese, Swiss.

III Uncountable /no-count us are invariable in form, having only one form either singular or
plural.

They agree with the verb and determiners only in the singular or only in the plural.

Classification of uncountable/no-count/ invariable nouns.

The nouns which are generally treated as uncountable nouns in English can be decided into the
following groups:

a) singular uncountable nouns

They have the following characteristics:

- they are invariable in form having one form : singular (they have no plural)

- since they don’t express the opposition between singular and plural they cannot be determined
by means of quantifiers or numerals. They cannot be used with the indefinite article a or with the
determiners each, many, few, these, those. The only determiners that can be used with
uncountable nouns are: the, this / that, some/anywhere, much, a little.

- they agree with the verb and the determiners only in the singular. In point of meaning the nouns
can be divided into:
(i). mass/material nouns: they denote concrete things looked upon as a whole, as indivisible
entities which can not be counted as : bread, butter, chalk, coffee, fish, gold, oil, salt, snow, steel,
water, etc.

e.g. Water is pleasant to drink when cold,

Steel is much more resistant than copper.

He loves to drink wine.

Fruit is good to eat. Let’s have some fruit for desert.

Some other uncountable nouns denote a whole composed of various units: equipment, furniture,
jewellery, luggage, baggage, money, machinery.

e.g. Where is your luggage?

The money is in the wallet.

Note: moneys: fonduri monetare, incasari.

(ii). abstract nouns: the class of abstract nouns is more extensive in English than in Romanian,

e.g. advice, applause, business, cruelly, evidence, homework, income, information, injustice,
knowledge, progress, strength, trouble, thunder (most of them are countable in Romanian).

e.g. His advice is always good.

He felt his strength was failing.

Your information is not reliable.

His progress in English is highly satisfactory.

Her knowledge of history is poor.

Note: Knowledge may take the indefinite article when is used in a particular sense.

e.g. He has a good knowledge of mathematics.

Businesses – intreprindere, localuri sedii de intreprindere

Uncountable nouns (both mass and abstract ones) can be individualized , quantified by means of:

1. partitive expressions like: a piece of, an item of, a bit of, an act of,
eg. a piece of chalk, a piece/word of advice, an act of cruelty/ injustice, a piece /stroke of
luck
 2. by referring to a piece / part of a certain shape or to a container
e.g. a loaf of bread, a sheet of paper, a flash of lightning, a bar of soap

Some uncountable nouns in –s: news, as well as nouns denoting sciences in –ics, (physics,
linguistics, mathematics, athletics); some diseases (measles, mumps, rickets); some games
(billiards, darts, dominoes)

e.g. Near is the news /BBC announcement.

Draughts is an easier game than chess.

Some uncountable nouns can become countable ones, and therefore, can be used in the plural or
can be preceded by the indefinite article a (one) whom they refer to varieties of things or when
they denote a particular kind of things.

e.g. The steels of this plant are of very good quality.

Many different wines are made in France.

Various fruits were on display at the greengrocer’s.

The fishes of the Black Sea are good.

- glass: uncountable (the material). e.g. Windows are made of glass.

countable (the container). e.g. Give me a glass of water.

- Paper: uncountable (the material). e.g. The box was wrapped in paper.
countable (test). e.g. He has written a good paper.

- Iron: uncountable (the material). e.g. This tool is made of iron

countable (tool, implement used for smoothing clothes). e.g. He has got a new
iron.

- Youth: uncountable (the state of being young ). e.g. The enthusiasm of youth.
countable (a young person). e.g. Half a dozen of youths were waiting outside.

b) Plural Invariable Nouns (Pluralia tantum)

They are invariable in form, having only one form, that of plural, they only occur in the plural
and are never used at the singular.

- they agree with the verb and determiners (the, these/those) only in the plural

- in point of meaning, the nouns included in his group refer to...

a. summation plural: article of dress or instruments/tools who are composed of similar parts
e.g. clothes, jeans, pants, tights, trousers, shorts, binoculars, glasses, scales, scissors, tangs.

These trousers are too long for you.

Where are the scissors?

The nouns can be individualized/ quantified by means of the partitive expression a pair of.

Other nouns that only occur in the plural: firewall, goods, dregs, procedings, wages, annals,
outskints, surroundings. In many cases there are forms without –s, sometimes with a difference
of meaning, there are some nouns with have difference meanings when used in the singular and
in the plural as invariables

Nouns in - s have two meanings in the plural

e.g. content-contents; compass-compasses; custom-customs; brain-brains; colour-colours;

damage-damages; effect-effects; ground/s

c) Nouns of multitude (unmarked plural, zero plural)

There are some nouns who with the verb in the plural although they are not marked formally for
the plural , they have a form in the singular

e.g. cattle, people, police, youth, clergy

The cattle are grazing in the field.

There are a lot of people in the street.

The youth of today do not know what they want.

Note: do not confuse the noun of multitude “people” (=human beings) with the countable noun a
people (=nation) who is regular.

There is also a noun of multitude “youth’ (=young people) with countable noun youth (=young
person)

d) substantivized adjective and participle

(i) adjective and past participle used with the definite article

There aren’t very many substantivized adjective of this kind in English, the construction is not
productive. Most other adjective can not be used in this way.

e.g. we cannot say: the foreign (=the foreign people), but we can say the happy ( = the happy
people), the old, the rich, the poor, the sick, the wounded.

The rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

(ii). also adjective of nationality ending in –sh, -ch, -the British, the English, the Scotch, The
Dutch, the Spanish, the French.

e.g. The Scots have the reputation of being thrifty.

3. The category of Case

Case is the grammatical category that indicates the relationship between certain parts of
speech (in particular between nouns). The grammatical category of case can be marked, in
synthetic languages by inflections and in analytical languages by word –order or prepositions.

Old English was characterized by a great number of inflections with the consequence that
there were four cases with distinct endings. In the course of its historical development, the
English noun has lost its former case system. Thus, case which morphologically is a very
complex grammatical category in many European languages such as German, Russian,
Romanian and many other languages, is not very significant for the English noun. The
morphological structure of the noun is uniform irrespective of its relations and functions. As a
result of the general tendency towards analytical instead of synthetic forms, case inflections
disappeared. The English noun has, however, the -s ending in the Genitive.

The loss of distinct case forms has been compensated by a stricter word order in the
sentence and the use of a large number of prepositions. The question that arises is whether the
disappearance of case inflections is general among grammarians.

Those who pursue a formal approach restrict of number of English cases to two:

- the common case (Nominative, Dative, Accusative) - “unmarked”

- the possessive case (Genitive) – “marked in –s”

Those who pursue a functional approach (besides form, the category of case implicitly
entails context and syntax) consider that there are 3 cases in English:

- the Nominative – used for subjects

- the Genitive – used to indicate possession (This case in frequently termed “possessive”
although the purpose of its meaning is wider than possession (in the normal sense of the world).

- the Objective – Dative and Accusative – used for objects of a verb or preposition.

A. The Nominative case is the case of nouns that display the function of a Subject,
predicative or apposition in the sentence.
B. The Accusative Case is used with nouns that express the function of Direct Object or of
adverbial modifier. The old distinctive inflections for the Accusative case have disappeared, their
function being taken over by strict word order:
e.g. The hunter killed the lion.

The lion killed the hunter.

A noun in the Accusative case is used after:

a) transitive verb to denote the objective that undergoes the change. If there is only one object in
the sentence, it gets the position immediately after the verb.

e.g. I read a book last night.

After some ditransitive verbs which may have 2 objects:

- the verbs to ask, to envy, to forgive may be followed by 2 objects in the Accusative

e.g. The teacher asks the people several questions.

- V+ objective animate + objective inanimate: the verbs to give, to hand, to offer, to pay, to read,
to show, to tell, to throw, to write, to wish are usually followed by an indirect objective in the
Dative and a direct object in the Accusative.

e.g. I gave John my book.

b) some intransitive verbs changing them into transitive ones.

e.g. some intransitive verbs having the same root as the noun in the Accusative (a Cognitive
Object): to smile a bright smile, to live a bad life, to fight a terrible fight.

C. The Dative Case is used with nouns that display the function of Indirect Object. In
present day English, the dative is marked either by prepositions (to, sometimes for) or by strict
word-order among the nouns of the sentence. A noun in the Dative case is used after the
following parts of speech.

a) verbs:

- transitive

- intransitive

- some intransitive verbs followed by an indirect object of person: to happen, to occur, to

propose, to submit, to surrender, to yield,
e.g. It happened to my brother.

An idea occurred to John.

- some transitive verbs followed by 2 objects (If the indirect object is placed before the direct
objective, the prepositions to is omitted).

e.g. I paid the money to the cashier. I paid the cashier the money.

I am writing a letter to my friend. I am writing my friend a letter.

There are a number of verb obligatory followed by the preposition. In these cases with the
preposition to the indirect object is placed before the direct object: to address, to announce, to
propose, to relate, to repeat.

e.g. I introduced him to my mother. I introduced to my mother all my friends.

- V + DO + (FOR). A direct object and an indirect object preceded by the preposition FOR: to
buy, to allow, to do, to leave, to make, to order, to reserve, to save, to speak (The preposition
FOR is omitted if the indirect object is placed before the direct object)

e.g. She brought a present for her mother. / She brought her mother a present.

She made a new dress for her daughter. / She made his daughter a new dress.

b) some nouns: attitude, cruelty, kindness, help, promise, duty

e.g. Her attitude to animals surprised us. He kept his promise to his friend.

c) some adjectives of the same semantic field: cruel, kind, good, polite, helpful, grateful, rude

e.g. Don’t be cruel to animals.

I am grateful to the friends who help me.

She advised me to be kind to her.

d) Also adjectives involving a comparison: corresponding, equal, equivalent, similar, superior,

inferior, prepositional.

e.g. The result was not equal to his efforts.

Man is superior to animals.

D. The Genitive Case.

The noun in the Genitive case expresses the idea of possession and discharges the syntactic
function of an attribute. There are 2 forms of Genitive:

I. The Synthetic Genitive

Form in English, the genitive is marked by the ending -s preceded by an apostrophe’. In present-
day English there are 2 ways of marking the synthetic genitive in writing:

- the apostrophe + the ending ‘s are added to the singular form of nouns:
e.g. the girl’s name

and to unmarked plural noun or irregular in the plural:

e.g. the men’s clothing, the children’s toys.

- the apostrophe is added to the plural form of regular nouns (the boy’s teacher) to proper
names ending in –s (Dickens’novels).
The Group genitive (Possessive): Compounds as well as noun phrases denoting one idea are
generally treated as one word and the genitival suffixes are attached to the last elements of the
group who may not be known rather than to the head.

e.g. the queen England’s throne.

The group genitive is not normally acceptable following a clause.

e.g. A mum’s son I know has just been arrested.

In a group of words made up of a noun apposition the genitive mark is added to the apposition.

e.g. Have you seen my brother Jimmy’s car?

Two nouns coordinated by and representing the possessors of the same object take ’s after the last
word.

e.g. Tom and Mary’s parents (Tom and Mary are the possessors of the same object, are
brothers).

If they represent the possessors of different object, each noun receives the suffix.

e.g. Tom’s and Mary’s parents.

Jason’s and Shakespeare’s plays.

The position of the noun in the Genitive case.

a) The noun in the genitive – the determiner usually precedes the determined, the noun in the
nominative.

e.g. This is Mary’s bag.

b) The genitive with ellipsis

The noun in the genitive can appear by itself, the noun modified by the ‘s genitive may be
omitted. This is possible when:

- the determined noun has been mentioned previously and the speaker wants to avoid the
repetition (if the context makes its identity clear).

e.g. This is Tom’s book. Mary’s is on the table.

- the determined noun denotes residence, establishment institutions, buildings, represented by

such nouns as shop, office, house, place, cathedral, store.

e.g. She went to the chemist’s shop.

I went into a stationer’s shop to buy a postcard. I was at the Brown’s yesterday. St Paul’s
cathedral is one of the sights.

c) N+N Genitive

The noun in the syntactic genitive can follow the determiner noun in a Double Genitival
Construction. The double genitival is a construction which consists of the two types of genitive:
the prepositional Genitive (frmed with preposition of) combined with the syntactic Genitive. The
double genitive is used with the following values:

(i). a partitive meaning

e.g. A cousin of his wife’s (one of his wife’s cousins).

He is a friend of John’s (one of John’s friends).

The determined nouns must have indefinite reference (indefinite article), it must be seen as one
of an unspecified member of items attributed to the post-modifier.

(ii). The double genitive differs in meaning from the prepositional genitive.

- a description of genitive (a description made by some body else about genitive):

e.g. A description of Galsworthy’s (one of genitive’s description, a description made by

genitive)
- a description or emotional implication it expresses various shades of subjective attitude the
speaker’s contempt, arrogance, dislike (The noun is determined by the demonstrative).

e.g. That child of Ann’s is a nuisance. That remark of John’s was misplaced.

The uses of the synthetic genitive

The synthetic genitive is generally used in the following categories of nouns.

a) animate nouns, mainly with nouns denoting living beings:

- nouns denoting persons and proper names:

e.g. the boy’s book

- collective nouns (who indicate in effect a body of people):

e.g. The government’s decision; the company’s officials

- indefinite pronouns referring to persons (somebody, nobody, everybody, another, either):

e.g. nobody’s fault, everyone’s wish

-large animals:

eg. the lion’s mouth.

b) Some clauses of inanimate nouns:

- geographical names (names of continents, countries, cities, looked upon in a political or

economic sense.

e.g. Europe’s future; London’s museums

- nouns denoting institutions:

e.g. the school’s program.

-natural phenomena:

e.g. the sun’s rays, the earth’s atmosphere

- nouns denoting units of time (temporal nouns):

e.g. New Year’s Eve, a day’s journey

- nouns denoting distance, measure, value:

e.g. a mile’s distance, a pound’s worth of sugar.

- personifications:

e.g. Love’s lost, life’s joys.

- set phrases:

e.g. in my mind’s eyes, at one’s fingers’ end, the one’s heart’s content

The meanings of the genitive

1. possessive: this value, most frequently associated with the syntactical genitive

e.g. my father’s car = my father has a car.

The boy’s book = the boy has a book.

2. subjective (the determiner is a subject while the determined noun is the object):

e.g. the girl’s story= the girl told a story.

3. objective (the determiner is an object):

e.g. the prisoner’s release= release the prisoner.

4. classifying. The previous examples the genitive (the first name) has a particular meaning

e.g. my father’s car- my father is a particular individual some genitive expression have a class
meaning.

It is equivalent to relative adjective. The use of the indefinite article changes the noun in the
genitive into a relative adjective.

e.g. children’s magazine – a magazine for children

a woman’s college – a college for women.

II Analytical Genitive (The prepositional genitive)

In the middle English, the analytic means of expressing the genitive (the preposition OF +Noun)
placed after the determined noun, came to complete with the syntactical form, and today the
Accusative has replaced the syntactical genitive in some of its uses.

The analytic genitive is used with the following types of nouns:

 - inanimate nouns: the title of the book, the roof of the house, the bend of the river, the
member of the faculty.
- some geographical names:
- in appositions: the city of London, the golf of Mexico.
- when the geographical names are looked upon from a partly geographical point of view:
The boundaries of Switzerland are...
- animate nouns may take the Analytical Genitive instead of Synthetic Genitive
- for the sake of emphasis (when we went to emphasize the animate noun the proper
names, much as in titles), the focus of information falls on the last word: Shakespeare’s
plays= The complete works of W Shakespeare; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
- When the determiner (the noun in the genitive) is a part of a complete noun phrases, and
it is determined in its turn.
e.g. The name of the man over there, at the table, who came yesterday.

The Synthetic Genitive may follow one another in a sentence if both possessors are animate: a
syntactic genitive may gave another Synthetic Genitive

e.g. Mary’s brother’s friend.

My cousin’s wife’s first husband.

But the use of the Synthetic Genitive with both nouns is rarely found in speech.

It is preferred to express to former genitive by a prepositional constructions, the latter by the

Synthetic Genitive. In some cases there is a functional similarity between a Synthetic Genitive
and an Analytical Genitive (the S.G. and the A.G. are in free variation). Thus, both structures are
possible in: The gravity of the Earth / The Earth’s gravity. The S.G. is used in newspapers
headlines, perhaps for reasons of space economy:

eg. Fire at U.C.L.A. Institute’s roof damaged. While the subsequent news item begins “The roof
of a science institute was damaged last night”.

4. The category of Gender

Jespersen defines gender in the following way”by the term gender we mean any grammatical
division (presenting some analogy to the distinction between masculine, feminine and neutral
whether that division is) either based on the natural division into the 2 sexes (M and F) or that
between animate and inanimate”.

Some grammarians make the difference between grammatical gender and natural gender. In most
European languages gender, to a large extent, is grammatical.

The irrelevance (the arbitrary character) of any kinf of meaning to gender can be illustrated by
comparing the genders of some inanimate nouns in several languages. Let us compare the gender
of the nouns SUN and MOON in some the Romance languages and German. In the Romance
languages sun is Masculine and moon is Feminin (R- soare, Fr- soleil, It-sole, Sp-it sol; R- luna,
Fr- la luna, It- le luna); but in German, sun is feminine and moon is masculine (die Sonnes, der
Mond).

In English, gender is to a large extend natural in that the connection between the
biological category sex and the grammatical category gender is very close; in so far as sex
distinction determine English gender. Thus, nouns denoting beings (persons, sometime animals)
are either masculine or feminine (depending on whether they denote male or female beings)
while inanimate nouns are neuter.

In most European languages gender is a grammatical category, being marked formally –

on the one hand the masculine and feminine nouns have distinctive endings, on the other hand,
articles and adjectives agree with the noun in gender. Unlike in such languages, in English the
gender is rarely marked for formally.

The grammatical category of gender is marked in 3 ways in English:

1) Lexically; 2) morphologically; 3) using gender markers.

1) Lexically, the masculine and the feminine can be indicated by means of different words:
- For personal nouns: man/woman; boy/girl; brother/sister, etc
- For animate nouns (higher animate when sex difference is felt to be relevant):
stallion/mare; cook/hen.
2) Morphologically: by means of specific derivational suffix which is added to the masculine in
order to form the feminine.

-ess: prince-princess; host-hostess; actor-actress; duke-duchess

-ine: hero-heroine

These derivational suffixes are not productive, however they are not regular, we can not form
teacheress, doctoress on the patern host /hostess.

The usual derivational suffix applied to animate nouns in –ess

e.g. Lion/lioness; tiger/tigress

3) A number of nouns denoting a person’s stares, function, profession has a single form used
both for masculine and feminine (the Common Gender or the Dual gender):

e.g. artist, cook, cousin, doctor, enemy, foreigner, friend, guest, librarian, neighbour, pupil,
speaker, student, teacher, writer, worker. Take out of the contrast, such nouns can be ambiguous
(we do not know whether they are M and F). The gender of such nouns can be identified by
means of words that mark gender. (“gender markers”).
a) the gender of such nouns is usually identified in a context by means of pronouns with refer to
nouns and who have different gender forms in the 3-rd person singular (personal and reflexive
pronouns, possessive adjective).

e.g. “The teacher asked the pupil a few more questions.” - the sentence is ambiguous to the
gender of the 2 nouns, but it can be distinguished if we add:…

“…. as she wanted to give him a better mark.”

When such nouns are used generically (neither gender is relevant), a Masculine reference
pronoun may be used (another solution would be to use he or she),

e.g. He any student calls, tell him.

With nouns denoting large animals the choice of the pronoun can be a matter of sex (he replaces
male animals, she-female animal). When used generically, such nouns denoting large animals are
usually considered masculine being replaced by the pronoun he.

The pronoun it usually replaced small animals and optionally all animals even when sex is
known.

A bull-can be he, it

A cat- can be he, she, it.

e.g. The horse was restive at first, but the soon be come manageable. Gender in animals is
chiefly observed by people with a special concern (e.g. Fat animals are called she or he when
they are thought of as having personality intelligence by their owners, but not always by other
people).

b) Besides pronouns, disambiguation with respect to gender is also possible by using some words
marking gender (gender markers such as boy/girl, man/woman, male/female.

e.g. boy friend/girl – friend, salesman/saleswoman, policeman/policewoman.

This is not very productive because there are many words in which the distinction do not work.

Others, chairman, for instance, do not change: in Great Britain a woman who presides over a
committee is still called a chairman “Madam Chairman” although there is a tendency to replace
words like this by forms like chairperson.

With large animals, he/she, cock/hen can be used as gender workers.

e.g. he-goat; she-goat; cock-sparrow/hen-sparrow.

2. The stylistic use of the grammatical category of gender

Normally masculine nouns denoting inanimate things, are usually replaced by it.

a) Some nouns denoting inanimate things, which are neuter in everyday speech, are
sometimes personified in literature.
The masculine gender is usually ascribed to nouns denoting strength, violence, harshness; e.g.
wind, ocean, sun, while the feminine gender is ascribed to nouns denoting delicacy, tenderness or
less violent forces: nature, liberty, moon.

Let us compare 2 sentences, one from literature when the moon is personified and the other in a
neutral style.

e.g. The moon has risen. How pale and ghostly the roofs looked in her silvery light!

The moon has no particular importance, except to the earth which it attends as satellite.

Sometimes, the distinctions depend on the author’s imagination and intention. In other words,
English writers are quite free to refer nouns and lifeless things to any gender when personified.
An example in point is “The Nightingale and the Rose” where Oscar Wilde makes the
Nightingale of the feminine gender and the Rose tree of the masculine gender.

e.g. the rose-three shook his head and said: “My roses are yellow “.

b) In everyday speech, there are a number of derivations from the normative pattern.

- nouns such : ship, boat, car often used as feminine (are often referred to as her, she) the speaker
conveying the fact he regards them with affection, that he considers as close or intimate to him.

e.g. The ship struck an iceberg which tore a large hole in her side.

- names of countries when looked upon from the political or economic point of view.

As geographical units, names of countries are treated as nominate:

e.g. Looking at the map we see France. It is one of the largest countries in Europe.

As political /economic units, names of countries are often feminine.

e.g. France has been able to increase her deports by 10% cent.

- the nouns: baby, infant, child can be neuter and referred to by it:

e.g. She began nursing her child again.

Another is not likely to refer to her baby as it, but it would be quite possible for somebody who
is not emotionally connected with the child to replace such nouns by it.
A flea and a fly in a flue

Were imprisoned, so what could they do?

Said the flea: ‘Let us fly’.

Said the fly: ‘Let us flee’.

So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

Good luck and see you ! Just 2 hours of “playing with words” ! ( and one or two theoretical
issues, of course).