Word – formation in OE

According to the morphological structure all OE words are divided into 3 groups: (1) simple (root-words) ● land, sinƺan, ƺod (land, sing, good)

2. derived words (root-mopheme + affixes)

● be-ƺinnan (begin), weorð – uns (worthiness), un-scyd-iƺ (innocent), ƺe-metinƺ (meeting).

3. compound words (stems are made of more than one root-morpheme)

● mann-cynn (mankind), morðe – wearð (northward), feower ⇨ tiene (fourteen), scir-ƺe-refa (sheriff).

By the age of writing many derived words lost their suffixes and turned into simple words.

Ways of word formation

1. word – composition

2. word derivation: with the help of (a) affixes; (b) sound interchanges; (c) word stress; (d) ablaut or vowel gradation.

i ~ a: ridan (v) ~ rad (n) “ride, raid”

e ~ æ: specan (v) ~ spræce (n) “speek, speech”

i) palatal mutation

● dom (n) – deman (v) > domja “domm – deem”

full (adj.) – fyllan (v) < Gt. fullian “full – fill”

longe (adj,) – lenzpy (n) < OMG lange “ong – ength”

ƒ) γowel interchange (OE breaking)

● beran – bearn “bear”

g) consonant interchange

● risan – ræran “rise, rear”

h) Verner’s law + rhotacism

deaf (“death”) – dead (“dead”) (V. law + hardening)

talu (“tale”) – tellan (“tell”) (gemination of con-t)

spræc [k’] – sprecan [k]

speech – speak (spletting of velar consonants)

Word-stress helped to differentiate between some parts of speech being used together with other means of word formation.

● OE Ond – ‘swarian (v) – ‘ond – swaru (n) “answer”

Prefixation was a productive way of building new words in OE. The most frequent were the following prefixes widely used with verbs: -a, -be, -for, -fore, -ƺe, -ofer); un (with nouns and adjectives.

● faran (travel), ā – faran (travel), to – faran (disperse), for – faran (intercept), forð – faran (die), ƺe – faran (attack).

As you see the prefix could change the lexical meaning of the word.

Suffixation was the most productive way of word derivation in OE. Suffixes modified the lexical meaning & could refer the word to another part of speech. There were 2 large groups: (1) suffixes of nouns, (2) suffixes of adjectives. Noun suffixes were divided into (a) agent nouns suffixes; (b) abstract noun suffixes.

Agent noun suf.: -a (unproductive suf.)

● hunta (hunter)

– end (the suf. of Pres. Part).

● freond (friend), hælend (saviour).

It was replaced by the suf. –ere (IE descen)

● scolere (scholar), sutere (shoemaker).

These agent nouns were derived from nouns & verbs.

The suf. –ere denoted Masc nouns.

The corresponding suf. of Fem. was –estre.

● bæcere (Masc.) bæcestre (Fem.) “baker”

The suf. –inƺ was used to build patronymics.

● Centinz (a man from Kent) cyninƺ (head of clan)

Abstract noun suffixes included some survivals of old stem suffixes and numerous later formations:

– the stem suffix –t.

● meaht (might), siht (sight)

-ђ reinforced by the addition of a vowel: -oђ, -aђ, -uђ.

● ђiefђ (theft), huntoђ (hunting), fiscaђ (fishing), ƺeoƺuð (youth).

Another productive suffixes to from abstract noun –nes/-nis

● beorthnes (brightness) blindnis (blindness)

-ung/-ing (to build nouns from verbs)

● bodian – bodung (preach – preaching) (проповедь)

earnian – earnung (earn, earning)

In OE there were a lot of suffixes transformed from root-morpheme: -dom, -hād, -lāc, -scipe, -ræden.

● freodom “free choice” freedom

wisdom “wise judgement”

cildhād “childhood”

wedlāc “wedlock” (супружество)

freondscipe “friendship”

To build adjectives the following suffixes were used: -iƺ, -isc, -ede, -sum, -en (from in), -lic: (from the noun “body”)

● haliƺ (holy) bysiƺ (busy)

mennisc (humen) Enƺlisc (English)

lanƺsum (lasting) hocede (hooked)

sceandlic (disgreceful) woruldlic (worldly)

– The suffix –e added to adjectives was used to from adverbs.

● heard (adj.) – hearde (adv.) (hard)

rot (“glad”) – rotlice (“cheerfully”)

There were also a group of morpheme of intermediate nature to build adjectives: -full, leāc carfull “full of care” slæpleac “sleepless”

– Verb suffixes were few and non-productive.

● -s clæne (adj.) – clænsian (v) “clean”

● -læc neatlæcan “approach”

æfenlæcan “approach of evening” (вечереть)

Word composition was a highly productive way of word-building in OE. It was common to all IE languages especially in Germanic.

Compound nouns had various first components: stems of nouns, adjectives, verbs. The 2^nd components were nouns.

● heafad – mann “leader”

stān – brycƺ “stone bridge”

wid – sæ “wide sea” = ocean

ƺod – dæd “good deed”

bæc – hus baking house

Compound adjectives were build by adding a noun – stem to adjectives or by joining of two adjectives stems or combining the two methods (composition & sufbicxation)

● fela (adj.) – modƺ (adj.) “very brave”

wid – cuf “widely known”

mild (adj.) – heort (n) “merciful”

ān – hyrn ede (suf. of adj.) “with one horn”

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