The role of Greek and Latin affixes in the formation of neologisms of the English language

This article presents the main ways of word formation in the English language, examines the role of ancient Greek and Latin affixes in the formation of neologisms. The author, using concrete examples, demonstrates the role of the most frequent prefixes and suffixes of ancient Greek and Latin origin in the formation of English neologisms, thereby indicating the connection of the English language with Greek and Latin.

Keywords: word formation, affixation, neologisms, Greek and Latin affixes.

English is the official language in 75 countries around the world. According to modern researchers, 1.35 billion people speak English, which is 17 % of the total population of the planet [4]. English is also the language of international communication: it is taught and studied in the world's most famous universities, most programming languages are based on it, it is used in diplomacy, tourism, trade, logistics, science and other areas of life. These spheres are constantly evolving, new ideas, phenomena, inventions arise that require the introduction of new words or the updating of old ones. This is the reason for the choice of English as the language of world communication, because English, on the one hand, has a simple and understandable grammatical structure, and on the other hand, it has not only a large number of ways of word formation, but also a wide range of morphemes.

In the theory of the English language, there are both basic and secondary ways of word formation.

The main methods include:

1. Word composition. This method is carried out by adding two bases. For example, words such as headache, barefoot were obtained by adding two simple bases, and the words pen-holder, baby-sitter by adding simple and derived bases. There is a neutral way of connecting (adding the words «butt»), for example, eye-brow, sunrise, schoolgirl, and using a connecting element (handicraft, tradesman, mother-of-pearl).

Also, word composition often serves as a means of creating a basis for the further process of word formation [3]. The basis obtained in this way can undergo conversion, reversion or affixation, resulting in a new word (blacklist — to blacklist; daydream — to daydream; babysitter — to babysit; honeymoon — to honeymoon — honeymoon).

2. Affixation. This method is one of the most common ways of word formation and occurs by adding suffixes and prefixes to the base.
3. Conversion, as a word-formation method, consists in the fact that a functional shift of a word from one part of speech to another is carried out, the formation of one part of speech from the basis of another without changing the form to finger from finger; to elbow from elbow.

Also, some researchers distinguish the differentiation of complex words and phrases as one of the methods of word formation. Very productive in modern English are formations like go out, i.e. combinations consisting of a full-valued basis and an incomplete second component [2].

Secondary ways of word formation are:

1. Abbreviation is the formation of a word by cutting off a part of a word that either coincides with a word or is a phrase united by a common meaning. Depending on the part of the word that is cut off (initial, middle or final), there are the following types of abbreviations: 1 — initial (aphesis), i.e. fend from defend, phone from telephone; 2 — medial (syncope), i.e. fancy from fantasy; 3 — final (apocop), for example, veggies from vegetables; 4 — both initial and final, for example, flu from influenza.
2. Mixing (collocation) is the formation of a new word by combining parts of two words. Fusion can be of two types: 1 — additive type, which can be transformed into a phrase consisting of complete bases united by a union and, for example, smog = smoke + fog; 2 — restrictive type, which can be transformed into a phrase, the first element of which serves as a modifier for the second, for example, telecast = television + broadcast; motel = motorist + hotel.
3. Acronym (graphic abbreviation) is the formation of a word from the initial letters of a phrase. There are two main types of abbreviations: 1 — acronyms that read like ordinary English words, for example, UNESCO — the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization; 2 — acronyms with letter reading, for example, USA = the United States of America.

A special subgroup consists of graphic abbreviations of Latin words that are reproduced in English in speech. This group includes the well-known I. E. (Lat. id est, Eng. that is); E.G. (Lat. exempli gratia, Eng. for example); etc. (Latin et cetera, English and so on), etc. The same type of graphic abbreviations also includes the designations of some banknotes accepted on the letter, for example, £ (Lat. libra, Eng. pound), d (Lat. de-narius, Eng. penny), etc.

4. Sound exchange is the formation of a word due to a change in the phonemic composition of its root. The interchangeability of sounds is divided into two groups: 1 — the interchangeability of vowels, for example, food — to feed, in some cases the interchangeability of vowels is combined with suffixation (for example, strong — strength); 2 — the interchangeability of consonants, for example, advice — to advise. The interchangeability of consonants and vowels can be combined together (for example, life — to live) [9].
5. Imitation of sound is the designation of an action or thing by more or less accurately reproducing the sound associated with it, for example, cock–a-dooodle-do = ku-ka-re-ku. Semantically, depending on the source sound, many onomatopoeic words are divided into several very specific groups: 1 — words denoting the sound produced by people in the process of communicating or expressing their feelings, for example, chatter, babble; 2 — words denoting the sound produced by animals, birds, insects, for example, moo, croak, buzz; 3 — words imitating the sound of water, the noise of metal objects, strong movement, movements, for example, splash, clink, whip, swing.
6. Reverse formation (reversion) is the formation of a new word by subtracting a real or assumed suffix from existing words. The process is based on analogy. For example, the word butle was made from butler; baby-sit from baby-sitting.
7. Characteristic stress is the formation of a word by shifting the stress in the original word, for example, absent — ab'sent.

Affixes, with the help of which relatively many neoplasms are created in a certain period, are called productive. These include: suffixes -ing, -y, -her, -ist, -er, -ette, ed, etc.; prefixes anti-, super-, pro-, mis-, re-, etc. With the help of these affixes, new derived words (simple and complex) are created, for example: summitologist (supporter of the summit meeting), superwar (war with the use of atomic weapons); weightlessness (weightlessness), kitchenette (small kitchen), environmentalist (struggling with environmental pollution), a smarty (clever), a cuty (pretty), a lefty (lefty).

In this regard, special attention should be paid to the role of Greek and Latin roots and affixes in the formation of neologisms of the English language. It should be noted that the Greek and Latin languages had a great influence on the formation of the lexical composition of the English language.

Thus, the Latin language had a significant influence through the French language during the conquest of England in the XI century by the Normans. During this period, Latin words such as court (court), religion (religion), saint (saint) and many others appeared in the English language, which exist and are used to this day.

The Greek language, in turn, never directly influenced English; its influence was mainly due to the value attributed to Greek culture in the Middle Ages. Many words of Greek origin were borrowed by English from French, which borrowed it from Latin, which borrowed it from Greek. For example, such commonly used words as angel (angel), drama (drama), music (music), problem (problem), zoo (zoo) and so on have Greek origin.

Borrowed words are not only firmly entrenched in the English language, but have also become a source of affixes that are involved in the process of word formation of the English language at the present time.

So, for example, the affix of un- Latin origin, meaning «one», served to form words that have already become firmly established in the English language, such as, for example, unary (unary), unicorn (unicorn), union (union) and others. However, this affix rarely participates in the formation of neologisms, unlike, for example, the prefix ‘super-'.

References:

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3. Хидекель С. С. Система словообразования в современном английском языке. М.: Высшая школа, 1974. 352 с.
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