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Chapter Three
Lexicon
1. What is word?

A unit of expression that has universal
intuitive recognition by native speakers,
whether it is expressed in spoken or written
form. – A vague definition.

Three senses are involved in defining “word”,
none of which is satisfactory to cope with all the
situations.
1.1 Three senses of “word”

A physical unit: a cluster of
sound segments or letters
between two pauses or blanks,
eg
Phonological:
 Orthographic: It is wonderful.
 Three words are recognized.

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However, in casual speech or
writing, it often becomes:
Phonological:
 Orthographic: It’s wonderful.
 Are they two words or three?
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A set of forms: walk, walks, walking, walked
How many words are there?
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I usually have dinner at 6 but yesterday I had it
at seven.
How many times did the word “have” occur?
A lexical item or a lexeme

A lexical item is an entry in a dictionary. A
lexeme WRITE includes all of its
grammatical forms:

write, writes, writing, wrote, written

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A grammatical unit:
sentence
clause
phrase
word
morpheme
Problem: blackboard
1.2 Identification of words

Stability: stable linguistic units.


chairman, but not *manchair
Relative uninterruptibility: though we
recognize three components in the word
disappointment, we cannot pause and add
another component in between, as in
*disinterestappointment.

But we can add another word between words:
Paul, (John) and Mary ...

A minimum free form: the smallest unit that
can constitute a complete utterance by itself,
eg
—Is Jane coming tonight?
 —Possibly.
 Hi.
 Wonderful.

1.3 Classification of words

Variable vs. Invariable Words:
Variable words: write, writes, writing, wrote,
written; cat, cats.
 Invariable words: since, when, seldom, through,
etc.


Grammatical vs. Lexical Words:
Grammatical/Function words: conjunctions,
prepositions, articles, pronouns.
 Lexical/Content words: nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs.

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Closed-class vs. Open-class Words:
Closed-class words: New members cannot
normally be added, eg pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions, articles, auxiliaries.
 Open-class words: New members can be added,
eg nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.


Word class: known as Parts of Speech in
traditional grammar.


Noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition,
pronoun, conjunction, interjection, article, etc.
Some new terms in word class:
Particle: infinitive to, negative not, subordinate
units in phrasal verbs “get by”, “look back”, etc.
 Auxiliary: do, have
 Modal verbs: can, will, may, must, etc.


Pro-forms: substitutes for other terms.
Pronoun: he, she, I, they, everyone
 Pro-adjective: Your car is red. So is his.
 Pro-verb: He speaks English better than he did.
 Pro-adverb: He hopes to win and I hope so too.
 Pro-locative: He went there.


Determiner: all the articles, demonstratives,
and quantifiers that appear before the noun
and its modifiers.

As many as three determiners may be used in
each case and there is a fixed order when there
is more than one.
Pre
all
all
Central
her
her
her
Post
many
many
many
all
what a
the
one
a few
both my father’s
Modifier Noun
good
good
good
good
good
good
good
good
ideas
ideas
ideas
ideas
ideas
ideas
idea
idea
ideas
parents
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Predeterminers: all, both; half, one-third,
three-quarters …; double, twice, three
times …; such, what (exclamative)
Central determiners: the; this, these, that,
those; PossP; we, us; you; which, what
(relative), what (interrogative); a, another,
some, any, no, either, neither; each, enough,
much, more, most, less; a few, a little
Postdeterminers: every; many, several, few,
little; one, two, three …; (a) dozen

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*their all trouble
*five the all boys
*all this boy
*all both girls
2. Morphology

Morphology: the study of word-formation,
or the internal structure of words, or the
rules by which words are formed from
smaller components – morphemes.
2.1 Morphemes

The smallest unit of language in terms of
relationship between expression and content,
a unit that cannot be further divided into
smaller units without destroying or
drastically altering the meaning, whether it
is lexical or grammatical.
2.2 Types of morphemes

Free vs. Bound morphemes:
Free morphemes: those that may constitute
words by themselves, eg boy, girl, table, nation.
 Bound morphemes: those that cannot occur
alone, eg -s, -ed, dis-, un-.


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Root: the base form of a word that cannot
be further analyzed without total loss of
identity, eg friend as in unfriendliness.
Roots may be
free: those that can stand by themselves, eg
black+board; nation+-al; or
 bound: those that cannot stand by themselves,
eg -ceive in receive, perceive, conceive.


Affix: the type of formative that can be used
only when added to another morpheme.
Normally divided into
prefix (dis-, un-) and
 suffix (-en, -ify).


Base: a morpheme to which an affix is
added, eg
friend
 friendly
 unfriendly
 unfriendliness

root > base
root/base + suffix > base
prefix + base > base
base + suffix > base?


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Stem: a morpheme or combination of
morphemes to which an inflectional affix
may be added, eg friend+-s; write+-ing,
possibility+-es.
Inflection: grammatical endings, eg plural,
tense, comparative, etc.
Derivation: combination of a base and an
affix to form a new word, eg friend+-ly >
friendly.
2.3 Word-formation
Morphology
Inflectional Derivational/
Morphology
Lexical
Morphology
Inflection


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Nominal forms: boys, boy’s
Verb forms: wants, wanted, wanting
Adjective/adverb forms: smaller, smallest
Compounding

Two or more free roots combine to make a
new word.
Noun compounds: daybreak, playboy, haircut,
windmill
 Verb compounds: brainstorm, lipread, babysit
 Adjective compounds: gray-haired, insect-eating,
dutyfree
 Preposition compounds: into, throughout
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Endocentric & exocentric
Endocentric: one element serves as the head,
the relationship of “a kind of”; eg
self-control: a kind of control
 armchair: a kind of chair
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Exocentric: there is no head, so not a
relationship of “a kind of something”, eg
scarecrow: not a kind of crow
 breakneck: not a kind of neck

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Written forms of compounds
Solid: blackboard, teapot, bodyguard
 Hyphenated: wedding-ring, wave-length
 Open: coffee table, washing machine
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Free variation:
businessman, business-man, business man
 winebottle, wine-bottle, wine bottle
 no one, no-one, noone

Derivation

Class-changing:
N>V: lengthen, hospitalize, discard
 N>A: friendly, delightful, speechless
 V>N: worker, employee, inhabitant
 V>A: acceptable, adorable
 A>N: rapidness, rapidity
 A>V: deafen, sweeten
 Adj>Adv: exactly, quickly
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Class-preserving:
N>N: nonsmoker, ex-wife, booklet
 V>V: disobey, unfasten
 A>A: grayish, irrelevant
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3. Lexical change
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Formation of new words
Phonological change
Morphosyntactic change
Semantic change
Orthographic change
3.1 Word-formation through lexical
change

Invention/Coinage
Mostly brand names:
 Kodak, Coke, nylon, Band-aid, Xerox, Lycra
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Blending
transfer+resistor>transistor
 smoke+fog>smog
 motorist+hotel>motel
 breakfast+lunch>brunch
 modulator+demodulator>modem
 dance+exercise>dancercise
 advertisement+editorial>advertorial
 education+entertainment>edutainment
 information+commercial>infomercial
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Back-formation
diagnose < diagnosis
 enthuse < enthusiasm
 laze < lazy
 liaise < liaison
 reminisce < reminiscence
 statistic < statistics
 televise < television
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burgle, commentate, edit, peddle, scavenge,
sculpt, swindle

air-condition, babysit, brainstorm, brainwash,
browbeat, dry-clean, house-hunt, housekeep,
sightsee, tape-record
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articulate, assassinate, coeducate, demarcate,
emote, intuit, legislate,marinate, orate, vaccinate,
valuate
Abbreviations

Clipping
Back-clippings: ad(vertisement), chimp(anzee),
deli(catessen), exam(ination), hippo(potamus),
lab(oratory), piano(forte), reg(ulation)s
 Fore-clippings: (ham)burger, (omni)bus,
(violin)cello, (heli)copter, (alli)gator, (tele)phone,
(earth)quake
 Fore-and-aft clippings: (in)flu(enza),
(de)tec(tive)
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Acronym
AIDS, Aids: Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome
 ASAP: as soon as possible
 CD-ROM: compact disc read-only memory
 WASP: white Anglo-Saxon protestant
 dink(y): double income, no kids
 nilk(y): no income, lots of kids
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Initialism
AI: artificial intelligence
 a.s.a.p.: as soon as possible
 ECU: European Currency Unit
 HIV: human immunodeficiency virus
 PC: personal computer
 PS: postscript
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RSVP: répondez s’il vous plait (‘please reply’ in
French)
Analogical creation

From irregular to regular:
work: wrought > worked
 beseech: besought > beseeched
 slay: slew > slayed?
 go: went > goed???
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Borrowing

French: administration, parliament, public,
court, crime, judge, army, enemy, officer,
peace, soldier, war, faith, religion, coat,
costume, dress, fashion, jewel, dinner, feast,
fry, roast, supper, toast, customer, money,
price, art, college, music, poet, prose, story,
study
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Latin: admit, client, conviction, discuss,
equal, index, library, medicine, minor
Greek: catastrophe, cosmos, criterion,
idiosyncrasy
Spanish and Portuguese: banana, barbecue,
cafeteria, cargo, chocolate, cigar, cocaine,
cockroach, cocoa, guitar, mosquito, negro,
potato, tank, tobacco, tomato, vanilla
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Italian: aria, bandit, broccoli, casino,
concerto, duet, finale, influenza, mafia,
malaria, paparazzi (singular paparazzo),
piano, pizza, solo, soprano, spaghetti, studio,
umbrella, volcano
Dutch: boss, brandy, cookie, cruise, deck,
dock, dollar, freight, gin, kit, knapsack,
landscape, luck, sketch, slim, smuggle, snap,
trek, yacht
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Arabic: admiral, alchemy, alcohol, algebra,
alkali, almanac, assassin, candy, hazard,
lemon, magazine, safari, sofa, zero
Indian: bungalow, cashmere, curry, ginger,
jungle, mango, polo, pyjamas (or pajamas),
shampoo, swastika, thug, yoga
Chinese: chop suey, chow, chow mein,
ginseng, gung-ho, ketchup (or catchup or
catsup), kung fu, tea, tofu (via Japanese),
typhoon
Types of loan words
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Loanwords:
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au pair, encore, coup d’etat, kungfu, sputnik
Loanblend
coconut: coco (Spanish) + nut (English)
 Chinatown: China (Chinese) + town (English)
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Loanshift
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bridge: meaning as a card game borrowed from
Italian ponte
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Loan translation, or calque
free verse < L verse libre
 black humor < Fr humour noir
 found object < Fr objet trouvé

3.2 Phonological change
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Loss of sound:
loss of the velar fricative /x/ which existed in
O.E.
 loss of sound in fast speech,

eg library, laboratory
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and > ’n in connected speech,
eg rock-’n-roll
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Addition of sound:
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L. studium > O.F. estudie, Sp. estudio, Port.
estudo
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Metathesis: changing the sequence of sound
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English: rascal > rapscallion
O.E. brid > bird, O.E. ox/ax > ask
Assimilation:
impossible, immovable
 irregular, irresponsible
 illogical, illegal
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3.3 Morphosyntactic change
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Morphological change:
third person singular present tense:
 -(e)th: do(e)th, goeth, hath, findeth >
-(e)s: does, goes, has, finds

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the campus of the university >
the university’s campus
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Syntactic change:
He saw you not. > He didn’t see you.
 I know not where to hide my head. > I don’t
know where to hide my head.
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Fusion/blending:
equally good + just as good > equally as good
 It’s no use getting there before nine + There’s
no use in getting there before nine > There’s no
use getting there before nine.
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3.4 Semantic change
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Broadening:
holiday: holy day (religion) > day for rest
 bird: young bird > any kind
 task: tax > work
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Narrowing:
meat: food >
 girl: young person > young woman
 deer: beast > a special kind of animal
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Meaning shift:
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bead: prayer > the prayer bead >
small, ball-shaped piece of glass,
metal or wood
Class shift: conversion to other
word classes

engineer: person trained in
engineering > to act as an
engineer (N>V)

Folk etymology: a popular but mistaken
account of the origin of a word or phrase .
history: Old French < Latin < Greek historia,
meaning 'knowledge through inquiry, record, or
narrative'.
 his story > herstory

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Fake etymology: a kind of folk etymology
Manhattan: man with hat on
 MBA: married but available
 PhD: perhaps have divorced
 golf: Gentlemen Only; Ladies Forbidden
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3.5 Orthographic change

Change of spelling:
Iesus > Jesus
 sate > sat
 Sunne > Sun
