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OnWordFormation★PrefaceLearnalanguage;youmustlearnpronunciation,grammar,vocabulary.Amongthethreefactors,vocabularyhasaveryimportantroleinyourlanguage-studying.AfamousscholarWilkinssaid”withoutgrammar,verylittlecanbeconveyed,withoutvocabulary,nothingcanbeconveyed.”Heemphasizedthatinmostcases,thevocabularyismoreimportantthangrammar.AnotherfamouslexicologistMcCarthysaid,whenastudentlearnthesecondlanguage,nomatterhowwellthestudentlearnsgrammar,nomatterhowsuccessfullyhemastersthesecondsofaL2，withoutwordstoexpressawiderangeofmeanings,communicationinthatlanguagecannothappeninanymanfulway.Fromthesetwoexamplesandofcourseincludemanyothercasesthatarenotmentionedherenow,wecanconcludethatifyoudon’tcarevocabularyatall,itisimpossibletolearnalanguageinsomeway.What’smore,youcannotexpressyourrealfeelingnomatteryouarehappy,sad,fortune,oryouareunlucky,becauseyoudon’tknowwhatwordsyoucansayoryoucanwrite.★SummaryEnglishvocabularyhasseveralofWord-formationmethods.Butthethreegreatestwordformationpowersareaffixation,compounding,andconversion.Theothersixkindsofword-formationmethodsincludeblending,clipping,acronymy,back-formation,soundreduplication,andcommunizationofpropernames.★ContextBeforetalkingaboutwordformation,maybeweshouldknowthemorphologicalstructureofEnglishwordsfirst.SowhatwewilldiscussnextismorphologicalstructureofEnglishwords.Itincludesmorphemes,morphsandallomorphs,classifyingmorphemes,identifyingmorphemes,morphemesandword-formation.☆morphemesTraditionally,wordsareusuallytreatedasthebasicandminimalunitsofalanguagetomakesentence,whicharecombinationsofwordsaccordingtosyntacticrules.Structurally,however,awordisnotthesmallestunitbecausemanywordscanbeseparatedintoevensmallermeaningfulunits.Theseminimalmeaningfulunitsareknownasmorphemes.Inviewofword-formation,themorphemeisseenas‘thesmallestfunctioningunitinthecompositionofwords’.Syntactically,however,amorphemeistheminimalformofgrammaticalanalysis.Morphemesareabstractunits,whicharerealizedinspeechbydiscreteunitsknownasmorphs.Theyareactualspoken,minimalcarriersofmeaning.Morphemesvaryinfunction.Accordingly,wecanclassifymorphemesintoseveralgeneralcategories:①FreeversusBoundMorphemes----morphemeswhichareindependentofothermorphemesarefree.Thesemorphemeshavecompletemeaningsinthemselvesandcanbeusedasfreegrammaticalunitsinsentences.Morphemeswhichcannotoccurasseparatewordsarebound.Theyaresonamedbecausetheyareboundtoothermorphemestoformwordsortoperformaparticulargrammaticalfunction.②DerivationalversusInflectionalMorphemes----morphemeswhichareusedtoderivenewwordsareknownasderivationalmorphemesbecausewhenthesemorphemesareconjoined,newwordsarederived.③ContentversusGrammaticalMorphemes----Onasemanticandsyntacticbasis,morphemescanfallintocontentandgrammaticalmorphemes.Contentmorphemesarelexicalmorphemeswhichareusedasweseeabovetoderivenewwords,soalsoknownasderivationalmorphemes.☆MorphemesandWord-formationWeknowthatwordscanbeanalyzedintomorphemes,whicharetheminimalmeaningfulunitsinthecompositionofwords.Inword-formationformation,however,morphemesareconventionallylabeledroot,stem,baseandaffix.Affixesareformsthatareattachedtowordsorelementstomodifymeaningorfunction.Affixesareboundmorphemesbecausenoneofthemcanstandaswordsintheirownright.Accordingtothefunctionsofaffixes,wecandividethemintoinflectionalaffixesandderivationalaffixes.Derivationalandinflectionalaffixesareidenticalwithderivationalandinflectionalmorphemes.Inviewoftheirdistributionintheformationofword,affixescanfallintoprefixandsuffix.Beforewebeginouractualdiscussionofword-buildingprocesses,therearesomebasicconceptsthatneedclarifying:1.Root:arootisthebasicformofawordwhichcannotbefurtheranalyzedwithouttotallossofidentity.2.Stem:astemmayconsistofasinglerootmorphemeoroftworootmorphemes.Itcanbearootmorphemeplusoneormoreaffixationalmorphemes.3.Base:abaseisreferredtoaformtowhichaffixesofanykindcanbeadded.Itcanbearootorastem.☆WordFormationTheexpansionofvocabularyinmodernEnglishdependschieflyonwordformation.Thereisavarietyofmeansbeingatworknow.Themostproductiveareaffixation,compoundingandconversion.⑴AffixationAffixationisgenerallydefinedastheformationofwordsbyaddingword-formingorderivationalaffixestobase.Thisprocessisalsoknownasderivation,bywhichnewwordsarederivedfromoldorbaseforms.Thewordscreatedinthiswayarecalledderivatives.Accordingtothepositionsaffixesoccupyinwords,affixationfallsintotwosubcategories:prefixationandsuffixation.Prefixationincludes:NegativePrefixes(a-,dis-,in-,non-,un-…)ReversativeorPrivativePrefixes(de-,dis-,un,…)PejorativePrefixes(mal-,mis-,pseudo-…)PrefixesofDegreeorSize(arch-,co-,extra-,hyper-,macro-,micro-,mini-,out-,over-,sub-,super-,sur-,ultra-,under-…)PrefixesofOrientationandAttitude(anti-,contra-,counter-,pro-…)LocativePrefixes(fore-,inter-,intra-,super-,tele-,trans-…)PrefixesofTimeandOrder(ex-,fore-,post-,pre-,re-…)NumberPrefixes(bi-,multi-,semi-,tri-,uni-…)ConversionPrefixes(a-,be-,en-…)MiscellaneousPrefixes(auto-,neo-,pan-,proto-,vice-…)Suffixationincludes:Nounsuffixes(denominalnouns,deverbalnouns,de-adjectivenouns,nona