Derivative models of modern German language

The language is constantly developing, improving, having its present, past and future. The enrichment of the vocabulary is one of the most important factors in the development of a language, evidence of its dynamic nature. The vocabulary of the language is in a state of continuous change in accordance with linguistic laws. With the development of society, new objects and phenomena appear, they are imprinted in new words and new meanings.

In modern grammar, the following derivational models of the modern German language are distinguished:

• 1.    Model of root words.

• 2.    Model of non-affix (implicit) word production.

• 3.    Prefix model.

• 4.    Suffix model. Composition model.

Root words have two features: indecomposability of their stems on morphemes and unmotivated. Root German words usually include one or two syllables, for example: Tisch, klug, hier, Abend, oben, nieder, wieder, aber; Dissyllabic root verbs are rare, except for verbs with unique and coherent stems. As for borrowed words with stems indivisible on German soil, they can be not only two-syllable, for example: Perlon, Perkal, but can also include a larger number of syllables, for example: Rendezvous, etc. It is borrowed words that replenish the composition of root words, in while the composition of German root words is stable.

The bases of root words participate in word production as productive bases, and also replenish the fund of word-formation means as semi-affixes and frequency components.

Implicit (non-affix) word production model. In this case, we are talking about the mutual transition of parts of speech (conversion, "morphemic-syntactic" way of word formation). A feature of this model is the difficulty in distinguishing the derivative from the derivative in terms of synchronicity due to the absence of a derivational affix - a derivative marker. Attempts to determine the direction of motivation, i.e. from the standpoint of semantics, do not always lead to the desired results. It seems most rational to consider this model as the functioning of the same basis under conditions of different distribution (i.e., different environments): we are talking about different paradigms corresponding to different parts of speech, and different syntactic compatibility ...

Prefix Model. This model is formally characterized by the fact that the associated word-formation morpheme precedes the generating basis. This pattern is represented in verbs, adjectives. The semantic essence of the model consists in giving the word a certain categorical attribute (supply, removal, negativity, strengthening, etc.). German prefixes are characterized by their clear division into nominal and verb. German prefixes are productive. The number of German prefixes is small, but most of them are ambiguous, i.e. express different categorical features.

Suffix model. Formally, this model is characterized by the fact that the associated derivational morpheme is located after the generating stem. The suffix model is presented in all parts of speech (for example: seid-en, gold-en, Freund-heit, etc.). Its essence lies in the fact that the suffix brings the corresponding lexical unit under a broader semantic category (person, collectiveness, action or state, diminutiveness, etc.); however, many German suffixes are ambiguous, i.e. are able to express different semantic categories (for example: -er denotes different shades of the meaning of persons, inanimate objects, action; -heit has the basic meanings of state and collectiveness with further subdivisions, etc.). Most suffixes are specialized for a certain part of speech and have the ability to translate one part of speech into another (for example: Lehrer - lehren, Zwanziger - zwanzig, etc.).

Suffixes can be productive and non-productive, the number of the former prevails.

Composition is a very common way of word formation in the German language, and its productivity is constantly growing. As part of the composition model, a distinctive and indeterminate addition are distinguished. The first is a combination of two components; they can have a different derivational structure, but the division of a compound word is always binary, for example: Freiheits-liebe (both components are suffix stems), Arbeiter-erholungshiemn (the first component is a suffix, the second is a complex stem). As a rule, the first component determines the second, and the second gives a general morphological and semantic - categorical characteristics of the connection.

The second type of addition includes "imperative names" such as Vergissmeinnicht, Tischleindeckdich, etc., compositional additions and some other types of compounds, for example: Ohnebart (connection of a noun with a preposition).

Difficult words can have varying degrees of rethinking, up to the complete erasure of motivation.

The most widespread and productive definitional term. It plays a large role in the design of lexical units, but is also closely related to syntax: complex words can semantically coincide with phrases, for example: Abteilfenster - Fenster des Abteils, Briefmarkenverkauf - Verkauf von Breifmarken.

• 1.    Doubled formations. They are found in the form of simple doubles (Mama, Papa, Pinkepinke - "money"), rhymed formations (Hokuspokus, Klimbim) and "doubled ablated formations" (Singsang).

• 2.    Contaminated (crossed) words are the product of the merger of several (more often two) words: Erdtoffel - "Kartoffel" from Erd - (- apfel) and (Kar -) - toffel. Often this opportunity is used in fiction to achieve expressive effects: Formular + Larifari = Formularifari, etc.

• 3.    Abbreviated words essentially differ from all other methods of word formation in that for the most part they are derivational variants, not representing a "true" enrichment of the vocabulary. In extreme cases, word-formation synonyms are found in this group.

An overview of this method of word formation will be given in the section on word formation of nouns, since it hardly plays any role in the composition of other parts of speech.

English and German languages have much in common in their wordformation systems. However, the relations between the methods of word formation in these languages are different: affixation is more characteristic of the English language, and word composition for the German language.

To borrowed suffixes, we refer to such derivational elements that are isolated from only slightly assimilated borrowings and form in the German language amenable to analysis of derivational constructions. In view of the relatively large number of different borrowed suffixes, for greater clarity, it seems appropriate to subdivide them according to the grammatical gender of the nouns.

The prefixation of nouns, in contrast to word composition and derivation, is less developed. The number of prefixes is significantly less than the number of suffixes, and semantically they are much poorer. Therefore, the following description of them is given not on the basis of individual word-formative elements - as in the case of suffixation -, but from the word-formative meaning.