A Comparison and Contrast of Word—formation Between English and Chinese

【Abstract】A comparison and contrast of word-formation between English and Chinese is beneficial for teachers and students， in thatthose two languages not only have much in common in the way of creating words， but also possess their own special methods of word-formation.

【Key words】word-formation； Chinese； English； comparison and contrast

【作者簡介】张媛（1991- ），女，汉族，舞阳县人，西京学院外国语学院，助教。

Words， known as a combination of sounds， forms and meaning， are too hard to remember without the skillful methods， especially for second language learners. This paper analyses various ways ofChinese and English word-formation so that similarities and differences are found betweenthe two languages.

Similar major means of word-formation

Word-formation is beneficial for vocabulary enlargement， the common ways of which are affixation， blending， shortening， conversion and so on.

Affixation

Affixationrefers to adding derivational affixes to roots to product new words. According to the positions where affixes occur， they are divided into two subcategories： prefixes and suffixes.

Most English prefixes modify the meaning of stems without changing their word class， and therefore the following classification of English prefixes is based on sense.

negative prefixes

They are used for expressing the negative or opposite meaning. For example：

a-： as in atypical， asocial.

dis-： as in disagree， disable.

un-： as inunfair， unusual.

pejorative prefixes

mal-： as in maladaptive， malpractice.

mis-： as in mistake， mistrust.

prefixes of degree or size

extra-： as in extramarital， extraordinary.

hyper-： as in hyperactive， hypertension.

micro-： as in microwave， microfilm.

prefixes of orientation and attitude

anti-： as in antibody， antichrist.

pro-： as in prodemocracy.

locative prefixes

fore-： as in forehead， forecast.

inter-： as in intermediate， interaction.

prefixes of time and order

ex-： as in ex-husband， ex-wife.

re-： as in recreate， rewrite.

number prefixes

bi-： as in bicycle， biaxial.

tri-： as in triangle.

multi-： as in multimedia， multicultural.

conversion prefixes

en-： as in enrich， enable.

a-： as in asleep， alive.

miscellaneous prefixes

auto-： as in automatic， autonomy.

neo-： as in neoclassical， neologism.

Contrast to prefixes， suffixes in English work in the opposite way， which means they mainly transform the word class instead of the meaning of stems. Here are four categories of suffixes.

noun suffixes

-er （-or， -ee， -ist）： as in worker， visitor， employee， pianist.

-ion： as in action， solution.

-hood： as in childhood， fatherhood.

（2） verb suffixes

-ize/ise： as in realize， symbolize.

-en： as in lighten， broaden.

（3） adjective suffixes

-ous： as in curious， ambitious.

-ish： as in foolish， childish.

（4） adverb suffixes

-ly： as in quickly， slowly.

-ward： as in backward.

Chinese， as a non-morphological language， is incomparable with English suffixes above. That is to say， Chinese affixes are limited in quantity. The role of Chinese affixes is mainly to change the grammatical function of the bases， rather than the semantic meaning of words.

Some functional prefixes may phonetically help balance words in pronunciation and grammatically indicate the plural form of pronouns， for example： 老-（phonetic prefix）： 老虎， 老乡，老爷…；阿-（phonetic prefix）： 阿姨， 阿三…；最-（grammatical prefix）： 最好， 最多… most of the other prefixes contain various semantic meanings， just like the following ones： 次- （next to/poor）： as in次要， 次日；非- （not）： as in非法， 非正常；反- （against）： as in反攻， 反抗， 反射；双- （double/two）： as in 雙层， 双方.

Unlike English suffixes forming different classes of word， Chinese suffixes basically constitute nouns， as shown in the following cases： -员 （member/person）： as in 演员， 会员；-学 （subject）： as in 文学，哲学；-室（room）： as in 办公室，教室；-品（object）： as in物品，化妆品；-子/头/儿（meaningless）： as in孩子，一会儿，老头子.

1.2 Blending

Blending is a process of word-formation in which a new word is formed by combining the meanings and sounds of two words， one of which is not in its full form or both of them are not in their full forms （Wang Aiguo， 1997）. Here are two typical kinds of English and Chinese blends.

English blends：

head + trail

smoke + fog → smog motorist + hotel → motel

head + head

situation + comedy → sitcom communication + satellite → comsat

Chinese blends：

女孩当新娘→ 嫁把新娘接来→ 娶

Shortening

Shortening， also called abbreviation， is a way to produce new words through cutting down original words or phrases without changing their semantic meaning. With a strong new creative ability， word shortening is especially remarkable in scientific or newspaper style.

In English， shortening includes three categories.1. Clipping： bike = bicycle， plane = airplane.2.Initialisms： British Broadcasting Company = BBC； Voice of America = VOA.3.Acronyms： North Atlantic Treaty Organization = NATO

Chinese shortening word-formation could be concluded as follow：

abstraction of Chinese characters：

科技 = 科學技术 环保 = 环境保护

combination of Chinese characters：

海内外 = 海内、海外 离退休 = 离休、退休

shortening with numbers and common characters：

三包=包修、包换、包退

Conversion

Conversion is also known as word-class shift or functional shift， converting a word from one part of speech to another without changing its morphological structure. In other words， the word formed in this way is only grammatically new.

English words produced by conversion are primarily nouns， adjectives and verbs. Take the following words for example： The word “doubt” can be used as a verb or a noun in different contexts.The word “white” has two grammatical uses. One is taken as an adjective to describe something in this color； the other is to be used as a noun， referring to a kind of color.Adjectives can also convert to verbs； take “clean” for example： The floor is clean （adj.）. Would you please clean （v.） the floor？

Comparing with English， conversion in Chinese word-formation is more flexible in that the word class and the sentence constituents are not in the one-to-one correspondence relationship. Look at the following sentences：

这样可以增长见识（The word“见识”is a noun.）

我要见识一下这个传奇人物。（Here the word “见识” convert from a noun to a verb.）

Some adjectives in Chinese （not all of them） could be used as predicates，for example：

他的脸色苍白；他神色慌张。

Unique word-formation in English and Chinese

The unique word-formation in English： back-formation

Back-formation refers to the removal of endings of some existed words to create new words， of which the process is the opposite of suffixation in some degree. Generally， words produced through back-formation are verbs. Take the word “edit” for example， it stems from the ancient word “editor”， extracting the core of that word by dropping the ending “-or”. There are numerous words produced in this method， such as peddler→peddle，burglar→burgle.

The unique word-formation in Chinese： overlapping

Overlapping is one of common means to form new words in Sino Tibetan languages. This special way of word-formation in China can be called the repetition of words in a certain format. Specifically， here are some styles of overlapping.

AA-style （words in this style are mostly kin terms）： 妈妈，抱抱等.

AAB-style： 毛毛雨、悄悄话等.

BAA-style： 亮晶晶、热乎乎等.

AABC-style： 楚楚动人、心心相印等.

BCAA-style： 可怜巴巴、浓烟滚滚等.

AABB-style： 干干净净、明明白白等.

ABAB-style： 讨论讨论、琢磨琢磨等.

A一A-style： 想一想、看一看等.

Conclusion

Through a comparison and contrast of word-formation between English and Chinese， it is obvious that two languages have much in common in the way of creating words， though they have their own special methods of word-formation. The similarities and differences between English and Chinese not only shed a light on vocabulary learning， but also enlighten the development of vocabulary in the long run.

References：

[1]Quirk，R.，et al.（1985）.A comprehensive grammar of the English language.London and New York：Longman Group Limited.

[2]Wang Aiguo.（1997）.“A comparison of Word-formation between English and Chinese”.Journal of Civil Aviation University of China.2.