SUPORT DE CURSDISCIPLINA: LIMBA ENGLEZĂ CONTEMPORANĂ

Anul II Semestrul I

TITULARUL DISCIPLINEI: lector drd. Mirela Copca

TEMA NR.1 : MORPHOLOGY ( Inflection and Derivation )

Syllabus: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. Derivation2.3. Classification of affixes ( suffixes and prefixes )

3. Derivation and conversion.3.1 Conversion.3.2. Conversion between nouns and verbs (to bottle, a command). 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 defined4.2 Classification of compounds

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

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, whichdeals with the internal structure of words, and SYNTAX, which deals with the way words arecombined 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 incombination with the adjectival suffix -al), circul- (as in circulate, circulation, circulatory,circular), approb- (as in approbate, approbation, approbatory, approbator), simul- (as insimulant, 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 asINFLECTIONAL ENDINGS, and the process of combining these endings with roots is calledINFLECTION. 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 andPASSIVE. 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 (hestopped); 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 ina sentence. In English, the opposition he/him/his is a case opposition: he is used to indicate thesubject (NOMINATIVE CASE), him to indicate the object (OBJECTIVE or ACCUSATIVECASE), and his to indicate the possessor (POSSESSIVE or GENITIVE).

GENDER: an inflectional category in substantives that refers to the tripartite distinction betweenMASCULINE, FEMININE, and NEUTER. In English, only the third person singular pronounsshow gender distinctions, e.g., he, she, and it; moreover, the distinction is based on sex. In otherlanguages, 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 inflection applies

Inflectional categoryRegular affix used to express category

Nouns Number -s, -es: book/books, bush/bushes

. Possessive -'s, -':  the cat's tail, Charles' toe

Verbs 3rd person singular present-s, -es: it rains, Karen writes, the water sloshes

. past tense -ed: paint/painted

. perfect aspect-ed: paint/painted ('has painted) (past participle)

.progressive or continunous aspect

-ing: fall/falling, write/writing (present participle)

Adjectivescomparative (comparing two items)

-er: tall/taller

.superlative (comparing +2 items)

-est: tall/tallest

 

 Regular and irregular inflectional morphology

Here are some ways English inflectional morphology is irregular:

Type of irregularity

Noun plurals Verbs: past tense Verbs: past participle

Unusual suffixoxen, syllabi, antennae

, taken, seen, fallen, eaten

Change of vowelfoot/feet, mouse/mice

run/ran, come/came, flee/fled, meet/met, fly/flew, stick/stuck, get/got, break/broke

swim/swum, sing/sung

Change of vowel with unusual suffix

brother/brethren/ feel/felt, kneel/kneltwrite/written, do/done, break/broken, fly/flown

Change in base/stem form  (sometimes with unusual suffix)

,send/sent, bend/bent, think/thought, teach/taught, buy/bought

send/sent, bend/bent, think/thought, teach/taught, buy/bought

Zero-marking (no suffix)

deer, sheep, moose, fish

hit, beat hit, beat, come

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

AffixClass(es) of word to which affix applies

Nature of change in meaning

Examples

Prefix 'non-'

Noun, adjective Negation/oppositeNoun: non-starter   Adj.: non-partisan

Suffix '-ity'

Adjective Changes to nounelectric/electricity   obese/obesity

Prefix 'un-'

Verb   Adjective

Reverses action   opposite quality

tie/untie, fasten/unfasten   clear/unclear, safe/unsafe

Suffix '-ous'

Noun Changes to adjectivefame/famous, glamor/glamorous

Prefix 're-' Verb Repeat action tie/retie, write/rewrite

Suffix '-able'

VerbChanges to adjective;   means 'can undergo action of verb'

print/printable, drink/drinkable

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)-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 prefixesNegative 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 : irresponsiblenon- (non-economic, non-profit)un- (unacceptable, undemocratic)

Non-negative prefixes I1) 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 – a respect in which English differs from many other languages – is that 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) worksuseless (the) workersuntruthfulness (we) picked

interview (the) childrencuriosity John’s (house)passivizeTerrorism

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

(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 ConversionCases 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 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 analysed 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.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.

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-sharpener4. V+N: watch dog, a rattlesnake5. ADJ+N: blackboard

b) exocentric:

1. N + N: ladybird (buburuza), blockhead (netot), butterfly (fluture)2. ADJ+N: hotdog, blackleg

5. Minor word-formation processes

1. Clipping2. Blending3. Graphical Abbreviations4. 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 abbreviationsNew 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 meaningthan 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 happinessCommon 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 follwing 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/sSuch 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 noune.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, Japonese, 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 nounsThey 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 ironcountable (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).