A WORDS AND ITS STRUCTURE

changes the meaning unhelpf

7.1 Meaning and structure
As explained in chapter 2, words may have
predictable meaning according to their
Un- is not restricted to adjectives. Un- also
components and how the structure of complex
pefixed remain verbs and adjective.
word forms.
Verbs
Un+ tie untie
Words are listed as lexical item have meaning
Un + fasten unfasten
that is entirely different from one might
Un + dasp undasp
expect.
Nouns
Un + ease unease
This chapter will elaborate about how ---- and
Un+rest unrest
about circumtances under which meaning and
structure appear to diverge.
Un- is not the head of these words. The head
In some words, structure is straightforward.
of these words is the base to which un- is
For example, HELPFUL (derived from the
attached and which is the righthand element.
noun base help by means of the adjective Similiar arguments apply to re- : rearrange,
forming suffix -ful).
repaint, and re-educate. (verbs). It is also right Help + ful
headed.
(N) (Adj. Forming Suffix)
The only prefixes that are unequiovocally
Helpful is actual form of Helpful and *-fulheads are those that change wordclass, such as
help is ill form. The distinction of the both
de- in delouse (deriving verbs from noun) and
form will be discussed in section 7.2.
en- in enfeeble and enslave (deriving noun
In section 7.3 and 7.4 we will discuss about
from adjective)
affixed words and compounds that have more
It is not numerous left-headed derived words
than two components, such as unhelpfulness
and left-headed compunds.
and car insurance premium.
7.3 More elaborate word forms: multiple affixation
The last section, section 7.5 will discuss about
Many derived word contain more than one
compund word that has two interpretation like
affix. Examples are unhelpfulness and
French history teacher ('French teacher of
helplessness.
history' and 'teacher of Freach History)
It is entirely flat when they each consist of
7.2 Affixes as heads
merely a string of affixes plus a root, no
Chapter 5 showed how suffixes heavily
portions of the string being grouped together
outnumber prefixes and in Chapter 6 we saw
as a substring or smaller constituent within the
that most compunds are headed, with the head
word.
on the right (right-headed). Superficially these
The consequence of that analysis is that it
two facts are unconnected
would complicate considerably what needs to
'Greenhouse' (n) means house for plants. The
be said about behaviour of suffixess -ful dan
head of the word is 'house' (n) determines the
-less. However, if the nouns unhelpfulness and
compound's syntactic status (as noun).
helplessness are flat structured, we mus also
'Teacher' (n) means someone who teachs. The
allow -ful dan -less to appear in such a string,
head of the word is '-er' (n). '-er' is the derived
because (for example) the imaginary nouns
word teacher: it determines that teacher is
*sadlessness and *meanlessningness, though
someone who Xs.
they contain -less are nevertheless not words,
In helpful, the affix -ful is what determines
and (one feels) could never be words.
The flat-structure approach misses a crucial
that the whole word is an adjective, and so
counts as it head.
observation: Unhelpfulness with suffix -ful
In *-ful-help violates English expectation not
only by virtue of the fact that it containts the
adjective helpful. Likewise helplessness with
just because the affix is on the wrong side, but
-less by virtue of the fact that it containts
also because the rightmost element is not the
helpless.
head.
-ful and -less need to have special provision
We may expect that prefixed words should be
when they appear inside of complex word
as rare in English as left-headed compounds
rahter than as their rightmost element.
(such as attorney general)
Unhelpfulness and Helplessness can be seen as
Although prefix fewer than suffix, prefix
built up from the root help:
include some that are very common occurance,
a. Successive Processes of Affixation
such as un- (not) and re- (again).
1) helpN + -ful helpfulN
The relationship between helpful and
un- + helpful unhelpfulN
unhelpful:
unhelpful
+
-ness

helpful
Help + ful (suffix -ful changes noun Help into adjective
unhelpfulness
unhelpful
Un + helpful (prefix un- doesn't change adjective helpful, it Njust

2) helpN + -less helplessA

helpless + -ness helplessnessN
b. Tree Diagram
3)
N

The single branch connecting V to N in help. It

is conversion with no affix.
Another tree diagram incorporating adverbial
(Adv) node and also ilustrating noth affixial
and non-affixial head, each italicied element
being the head of the constituent dominated by
the node immediately above it.

Adv

V
V

V
4)

un

help

ful

ness

A
V

N
V

N-A-V are help

nodes to indicate
the
less ness
wordclass of the string.
c. Labbeled Bracketing
[[un-[[helpv]N-ful]A]A-ness]N
[[[helpV]N - less]A-ness]N
Every node has no more than two branches
sprouting downwards. This reflect the fact
that, in English, derivational processes operate
by adding no more than one affix to a base.
In some languages, where material may be
added simultaneously at both ends,
constructing what is sometimes called
circumfix.
Circumfix in English may be a plaussible
candidate is the en-...-en combination that
forms enliven and embolden from live and
bold, but also en- and -en each appears on its
own two; enfeeble and redden.
An alternative analysis as a combination of
prefix and suffix seems preferable.

V
N

un
assert
ive
ly
Some complexrewords de
contain elementsclass
about ify
which one may reasonably argue whether they
are complex or not. In reflection is clearly
divisible into a base reflect and a suffix-ion.
Then it's confusing, is it reflect consist of one
or two morpheme.
Any complex word form consisting of free
root and affixes turns out to be readily
analysable in the simple fashion illustarted
here, with binary brancing and with either the
affix as a head.
Another salient point is that more than one
node in a tree diagram may carry the same
wordclass labe.
It has considerable
implications for the size of the class of all
apossible words in English. Any candidate for
longest sentence status can be lengthened by
embedding it in a context such as Sharon says
that ___.
Given that we can find noun inside nouns,
verbs inside verbs, and so on, it is hardly
surprising that the vocabulary of english, or of
any individual speaker, is not a closed, finite
list.