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Adverbs
Adverbs are the simplest kind of word to make in English. There
are only a few ways of making new adverbs, and one of them dominates
hugely. Most new adverbs are made by adding –ly to adjectives, giving
such as happily and rightfully. This suffix is fully productive, and there
are very few adjectives to which is cannot attach. New words can be
created with this suffix in the expectation that they will be understood
straight away. Indeed, this suffix is super productive, in the sense that it
even adds to existing adverbs, such as slow and wrong, but without any
change in meaning.
The next most common way of making adverbs is by adding the
suffix –wise to nouns and adjectives. The words which result can have
one of two meanings. The first is ‘in the way of or like X’, so clockwise
means ‘going around like a clock’ and stepwise ‘going in steps,
gradually’. The next means ‘with regard to X’, so timewise means ‘with
regards to time’ and foodwise ‘in terms of food’.
Below are a few adverbs made from this suffix, which either aren’t
currently words, or are rather rare:
elsewise
‘differently’
ploughwise
‘back and forth like a plough’
rightwise
‘correctly’
ringwise
‘in the shape of a ring’
This suffix is fairly productive, especially in its second meaning.
Context usually shows which of the two meanings is present, and the
word is generally understood.
The last really productive adverb derivations is the suffix –ward.
This adds on to many different kinds of word, especially nouns and
adjectives, to give a meaning of ‘to or toward X’. Hence homeward
means ‘toward home’ and skyward means ‘into the sky’.
New words might include:
angerward
‘into anger’
selfward
‘to the self’
thoughtward
‘into consideration’
Some may prefer to write this suffix as –wards. This is merely a
dialectal variation without any change in meaning, and so perfectly fine.
Moving now to a less productive way of making adverbs, we come
to the prefix a–. This adds onto nouns, verbs, and some adjectives, to
give words with a meaning like ‘in or on X’. Current examples of this
prefix are: ashore, ahead, afloat, and asleep. It was formerly much more
productive, but now is only a remnant. However, this prefix is still
common enough to be understood as such, as so could be given new life.
New words might include:
ahigh
‘into a higher place’
aland
‘onto land’
aline
‘in a line’
arest
‘at rest’
asight
‘in or into sight’
These adverbs could be just as easily said as a phrase rather than
a single word. But there is no harm in having more than one way of
saying something. The adverbs tend to have a more ‘poetic’ sound, which
only adds to the potential depth and richness of Roots English.
This prefix could also be used to reanalyze aboard and across
which originally came from French. By considering them as being an
English noun with this prefix, they can be kept without worry.
Adjectives
Unlike adverbs there is a multitude of ways to create new
adjectives. However, a few of them tend to dominate and are far more
productive than the others. Some are derivations from regular affixes,
much like we have already seen with adverbs. But some of the most
common share much with zero derivation, in the sense that the results
seem to be two kinds of words at the same time. Even so, it is different
and productive enough to be worth speaking about on its own. We will
also have our first look at compounding, which is very productive in
making adjectives.
We’ll start with the relatively basic un–, which is highly
productive, but with a clear and unambiguous meaning. When this
prefix attaches to an adjective, it makes a new adjective with the simple
meaning of ‘not X’. So unready means ‘not ready’ and unbroken means
‘not broken’. However, not all adjectives take this prefix. If there is no
opposite to a word, or the opposite is a well–known word, then it tends
to not be done, even if it is possible. Unblue is a rare word, though
possible, because it is odd to describe something as having a ‘not blue’
color; and unsoft seems redundant when we have hard. That said, the
prefix is still understandable as negating an adjective, and can be freely
used to derive new words from old.
However, the most significant source for making new adjectives
are the present and part participles of verbs. These are verbs which
mostly end in –ing and –en or –ed, although there are a few irregular
forms. Almost every verb can make the participle, and they are often
used in a verbal way, such as ‘the child is walking home’, ‘the tree has
fallen’ and ‘she has ploughed the field’. However, the participle isn’t only
a part of the verb, but can also act like an adjective meaning ‘doing or
being X’. Each of the above examples can also be used adjectivally, such
as ‘the walking child’, ‘the fallen tree’ and ‘the ploughed field’. We
shouldn’t worry too much about what is happening here to allow these
words to be both verbs and adjectives, but rather take advantage of what
this offers.
As almost every verb can take both a present and past participle
form, it can thus also create not one but two new adjectives, after a
fashion. For the verb know, we can thus have ‘a knowing man’, meaning
‘a man who knows’, and ‘a known man’, ‘a man who is known’. Not
every verb will yield two useful adjectives, as some may sound awkward
or be difficult to use. It is not worthwhile to list all the possible new
adjectives we might get from this derivation, as so many are already used
in everyday speech and writing, that they likely wouldn’t strike us as
new or particular. Words made in this way will be understood without
much worry, and it is enough for us to know that this great resource of
words exists. Whenever we seek to describe something, if we can think in
terms of what it does or what is done to it, we will find that there is
always a participle handy.
Yet the creativeness of participles does not stop there. For not
only can a verb’s participle be made into an adjective, but adverbs and
nouns connected to the verb, can sometimes be included in the adjective
too. The most common examples of this kind of adjective are the quite
standardized prefixes ill– and well–, which add onto participle derived
adjectives to show how the verb in question is or was done. So ‘an ill–fed
cat’ and ‘a well–fed cat’ show not only that the cat has been fed, but how
good or bad that feeding has been. Even though the prefixes used in
making these kinds of adjectives are often split from the main word by a
hyphen or dash, we should not doubt that they are one word. They can
only deliver their meaning as an adjective when placed together like this,
else the participle goes back to seeming like a verb. Note the difference
between the last example and ‘a cat fed well’. This brings us into the
realm of compounding, as many of the adjectives used in this way are
not simple derivatives of verbs. There is no verb *well–feed, for example.
But these two examples are common and have quite standardized
meanings. Let’s look at a wider range of possible adjectives we can make
in this way.
We can take almost any sentence containing a verb and adverb
and make a new adjective from it. If we said ‘the bird flies low’, we can
turn that into ‘a low–flying bird’. Again, there is no verb *low–fly, but
the relationship between the first and second sentence is easy to
understand. That example is quite well–known, but we can make up any
we want, and the same thing holds. The sentence ‘the woman sings
happily’ can give ‘the happily–singing woman’, which though at first
seems a little awkward, gives us no worry with understanding. Indeed,
the sentence ‘the happily–singing woman happily sings her happily–sung
song’ is even more awkward, but still not hard to understand. The
adjectives happily–singing and happily–sung are likely ones you’ve rarely,
if ever, come across, yet an English speaker readily understands what
they mean.
But we needn’t keep just to verb and their adverbs, for it is
possible to combine the verb with related nouns. Most often these nouns
are the object of the sentence—that is, what the action of the verb is
done to—but sometimes also the nouns by which or of which the action
is done. So, if we say that ‘a dog eats meat’, we can call it ‘a meat–eating
dog’. This is already a common adjective, but it lets us see the
possibilities when we think that it is a perfect synonym for ‘carnivorous’.
Other similar words derived from verb plus object are:
heartbreaking
heat–loving
‘thermophilic’
leaf–shedding
‘deciduous (tree)’
mind–blowing
spider–fearing
‘arachnophobic’
As you can see, not all of the above words need definitions. I
expect that even for the others the meaning isn’t too hard to grasp.
We can go one step further with this, and look at adjectives made
from verbs plus nouns that are not their objects. As said above, these
nouns tend to be how or of what the action is done, but there doesn’t
seem to be a definite limit on their relationship. The adjectives may be
more difficult to understand than the ones above, but knowledge of how
they are made still helps us work toward their meaning. Some
possibilities are:
king–born
‘born of a king’
lovestruck
‘struck by love, enamored’
nameknown
‘known by name, famous’
pride–fallen
‘lowered through pride’
wind–sheltered
‘sheltered from the wind’
Finally, let’s look at a closely related but currently less productive
way of making compounds. The above examples join a noun to the
participle of a related verb. The participle here is acting like an adjective,
as we’ve seen. But we can also make new compounds in the same way
only starting with an adjective, and adding a noun which is related. So if
we say that a plant is ‘hungry for water’ we can call it water–hungry, or if
something lasts ‘as long as a life’ it is lifelong. Other words that use this
way of compounding:
box–new
‘new out of the box’
oven–hot
‘hot as, or freshly from, an oven’
sky–blue
‘blue like the sky’
time–short
‘having little time’
war–ready
‘ready for war’
field–fresh
‘(food) fresh from the field’
Some adjectives have been used with this method of compounding
in such a productive way that we now regard them as suffixes in their
own right. But even though we think of them as individual suffixes, it
still makes a lot of sense to analyze them in the same way as above. For
each I will give a couple of current examples, as well a few possible new
words.
The first of these is –ful, which clearly comes from full, and
makes new adjectives with the meaning ‘full of X’. It is currently seen in
words like careful and fearful. New words which might be made from
this include:
boonful
‘advantageous’
fightful
‘combative’
goodful
‘benevolent, doing good’
hapful
‘random’
workful
‘industrious’
The next suffix is –less, which is pretty much the opposite of –ful.
It creates adjectives with the meaning ‘lacking or without X’. Even
though the modern English adjective less has moved somewhat away
from its old meaning, it isn’t too hard to see how they relate. Current
examples of the suffix are shapeless and thoughtless. New words include:
driveless
‘lacking drive, unambitious’
fastless
‘unstable’
feelingless
‘apathetic, indifferent’
mightless
‘impotent’
wonderless
‘mundane, lacking wonder’
A similar but different meaning comes from the suffix –free. Like
–less it also means ‘without X’, but the connotation is typically positive.
A good example of this distinction is between childless, which means
that somebody is lacking a child when they might otherwise want one,
and childfree, which means that somebody neither has children nor
wants them. Although the suffix is actually quite old, the growth in
words derived from it is relatively new, and includes such words as
sugarfree and smoke–free. Potential new words are:
harmfree
‘safe, secure’
meat–free
‘(food) not containing meat’
shamefree
‘not feeling shame’
wantfree
‘never having to want’
workfree
‘not having to labor’
The suffix –worthy, gives new adjectives with the meaning ‘worthy
of or fitting for X’. Unlike most other suffixes making adjectives this one
can add the verbs, though still mainly nouns. It is a relatively old suffix,
but like –free, it is one which has grown in use quite recently. Current
examples include trustworthy and seaworthy. New or interesting words
with this suffix are:
beliefworthy
‘credible’
eatworthy
‘edible’
heedworthy
‘notable’
helpworthy
‘deserving help’
loanworthy
‘worthy to make a loan to’
Although different from the last few examples, –shaped is worth
mentioning due to its productiveness. It comes, as is clear, from the past
participle of shape, but is now an established affix in its own right. It
makes words with the meaning ‘having a shape like X’. Current examples
include heartshaped and bellshaped, but really a great many nouns can
already take this ending. Some of the more interesting or useful ones are:
ballshaped
‘spherical’
layershaped
‘thin and flat’
netshaped
‘reticulate’
rodshaped
‘cylindrical’
tapershaped
‘conical’
The last suffix of this we’ll look at is –like. It is more general than
any of the others, and is slowly becoming the main way of making an
adjective straight from a noun. It gives the meaning ‘having a similarity
to or characteristics of X’, which can be ambiguous as to the way
something is alike. It typically imparts the characteristics of something,
but does not mean that it is actually the thing mentioned. So for a word
like lifelike, it means ‘seeming to have life, but not actually alive’, and for
childlike it means ‘like a child in some way’ but it mostly not used to
describe children. Words currently using this suffix are numerous, and it
is so highly productive, attaching to almost any noun. For this reason, it
is not worth trying to give examples of possible new words. They can be
created and used without worry, as they are easy to understand.
The generalness of the suffix above leads us on to some older
suffixes which also once more general. They do not follow the pattern of
derivation we have been looking at up to now, but must be learnt
individually as suffixes. The first is –ly, which is actually related to –like,
and has much the same meaning. It is currently seen in a number of
words, such as manly and friendly, but it not wholly productive. It seems
most restricted to words describing people or animals, and describes the
way that they are or act. It may be possible to make some new words
from this, but likely not many.
The next suffix of this kind is –y, which was once the main way of
forming general adjectives meaning ‘characterized by’. Unlike –like, the
adjective does not suggest that it isn’t the thing in the noun. So
something called meaty may only have a characteristic of meat, but can
also actually be or contain meat. Likewise, leafy, glassy, hairy, foamy,
and so on, all suggest or allow the actual presence of the thing named.
The suffix is still productive in this way, although maybe less so than in
the past. Some of its area has been taken by other ways of making
adjectives. However, this suffix also attaches to verbs, making adjectives
meaning ‘having a tendency to’. Again, this is still quite productive, and
provides a neat little distinction from adjectives derived from participles.
Runny means ‘likely to run’ while running suggests that the deed is
underway. Further examples include crumbly ‘liable to crumble’ and
sticky ‘tending to stick’. Although not likely to produce many new
words, this could be used to interesting effect.
Now to the last of the general suffixes: –ish. It was the general
way of making adjectives from nouns even further back in time than –y,
but is still productive today in some ways. It can attach to both nouns
and adjectives, but taking a different meaning in each. When attached to
nouns it means ‘like, having the character of’, such as weaselish or
boyish. There are still plenty of adjectives formed in this way, and some
new ones may still be possible. However, when attached to adjectives and
numbers it means ‘more or less like’, such as reddish and sixish. This
meaning has been growing over time, and has slowly taken over. Given
that the earlier meaning has significant competition from other suffixes,
it’s likely that this later meaning will come to dominate in
productiveness.
We’re now nearing the end of how adjectives can be made in
English, and the last few methods will be marginal at best. They are
included because they are interesting and might at some point be useful.
The suffix –some is very old, and not greatly productive today. It
attaches to nouns and verbs, giving adjectives which mean something
like ‘causing or tending toward X’. So worrisome means ‘causing worry’
and burdensome means ‘being a burden’. But the outcomes of this suffix
are sometimes ambiguous, and need to be understood in context. A few
new words can be made from this, including:
cravesome
‘addictive’
heedsome
‘attentive’
muddlesome
‘confusing’
speedsome
‘expedient’
yieldsome
‘profitable’
Lastly, there is a rare, but seemingly growing, way of make
adjectives, which involves phrasal compounds. Yet unlike phrasal verbs,
and compounds built from participles, these are built from auxiliary
verbs and their following verbs. The most common one which most
people will know is can–do. This refers to a person who ‘can do’ a job or
has the attitude for it. Another common one is when films are described
as must–see, because the reviewer or whomever believes that you ‘must
see’ it. But several similar adjectives already exist: can’t–win, might–
have–been, must–buy, would–be, and so on. They all have the same
structure, and it isn’t hard to understand them, even if they’re new to
you. It seems this is an emerging pattern. The question is how far we can
take this, and whether it is of any use to Roots English. I’ll leave that as
an open question.