II. The formation of words.

A. Derivation.

The forming of words by derivation in the proper sense takes place by means of the addition of sounds, in themselves without meaning or obscured in regard to meaning, to the stem.

We may, however, also reckon as derivation that formation of words which is effected without the addition of sounds. It takes place in two manners; firstly, by a verbal stem, with one of the vowels of the strong verbs which change the vowel, either within the same class of words or passing into another class, receiving an altered signification; secondly, by one and the same verbal body or part of speech passing immediately into another class of words and adopting its inflection. Both sorts may be called improper derivation.

A midde step between derivation and composition is made by those words in which a syllable, in itself significant, appears so far insignificant, as it is extinct as a word used independently, as -ald, -ard, -dom &c.

1) Improper Derivation..

a) The formation of words in connection with variation of sound, which is connected with the change of sound in strong verbs, (as to which the reduplicating classes of verbs are hardly considered, their change of vowel being mostly produced by reduplication,) is the foundation of families of words with a distinction of meaning. Proper derivation may be combined with the improper by means of a termination, when the latter at the same time expresses its effect, whereas a modification of the vowel has no influence upon the meaning. Compare Modern-Highdutch Saenger, MiddleHighdutch singer, from singen, sang.

This derivation concerns Germanic words only, and lies in the rear not only of the English, but partly even of the Anglosaxon tongue, many forms produced by a variation of sound referring to strong verbs which are no longer to be pointed out in Anglosaxon nor even in other Germanic idioms. In English these strong verbs are of course still more frequently absent. Compare broad, Anglosaxon brâd, Old-norse breida, expandere, to which an Anglosaxon bridan, not to be pointed out, would correspond; cram, Anglosaxon the same, Middle-Highdutch krimpfen, alongside whereof an absent Anglosaxon crimpan must have stood.

By changes in the vowel, details whereof are given under Phonetics, the relations of the variations of the vowel have been frequently dimmed in English. We give here by way of example some series of forms of verbs and nouns varying the vowel, attached to different classes of strong verbs.

To the first class of Anglosaxon verbs with the vowels (eo, ë); a (ea), u; u (o) (compare vinnen vann, vunnon vunnen)

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belong: stunt, Anglosaxon styntan, hebetare, from stintan, English stint. bend, band, bond, Anglosaxon bendan, Old-English band, Anglosaxon bend, from bindan, English bind. wend, Anglosaxon vendan, from vindan, English wind. brand, Anglosaxon brand, from beornan, byrnan, brinnan, English burn. drink, drench, Anglosaxon drine and drynce; drencan, from drincan, English drink. spring, Anglosaxon the same, from springan, English spring. string, strong, Anglosaxon string; strang (strong), from an assumed Anglosaxon stringan, Latin stringere. song, Anglosaxon sang (song), from singan, English sing; stench, Anglosaxon stenc, also stanc; stencan, from stinkan, English stink. ground, Anglosaxon grund, from grindan, English grind. foundling, from the Anglosaxon findan, English find.

To the second class of Anglosaxon verbs with the vowels i (eo, ë); a (ä), œ (â, ê); u (o) (comp. bëran boren) bär, bæron belong: birth, bare, bere, a sort of barley in Scotland, Engl. barley; bearn, bier (barrow), Anglosaxon beord; bär; bere; bearn; bær, from bëran, beoran, English bear. tale, Anglosaxon talu, from the assumed tölan, whence tellan alone remains. sale, Old-English sala, with which only the verb sellan still agrees. hollow, Anglosaxon hol, from hëlan, tegere.

To the third class of Anglosaxon verbs with the vowels i (eo, ë); ä (ea), a (ed); i, ë, (compare biddan bäd, bædon - bëden) the following are to reckoned: bed, Anglosaxon bedd from biddan, humi prosterni. trode, Anglosaxon trôd, from trëdan, English tread. set, Anglosaxon settan, settle, Anglosaxon sitel, sëtel; sunset, Anglosaxon siot, sët, occasus, from sittan, English sit. lay, Anglosaxon leegan, from licgan, English lie. speech, Anglosaxon spræc, spæc, from sprëcan, English speak. stick, stake, stock, Anglosaxon sticca; staca; stocc, from Anglosaxon stëcan. Compare English stick.

To the fourth class of Anglosaxon verbs with the vowels a, ea (e); ô, ô; a, ea (a) (compare standan stôd, stôdon standen) are attached: step. staple, Anglosaxon stepë; steppan; stapul, from stapan, gradi.*) fare, Anglosaxon fär, far, and faru, iter, from faran, English fare. grave, Anglosaxon gräf, from grafan, English grave and the like.

To the fifth class of Anglosaxon verbs with the vowels ; â, î; (compare bîtan bât, bîton biten) are attached: drive. drove, Anglosaxon drâf, from drîfan, English drive. shrove, shrift, Anglosaxon scrift, from scrîfan, English shrive. bit, bite, bait, bitter, Anglosaxon bit; bîte; bât, biter, from bîtan, English bite. lid, Anglosaxon hlið, hlid, from hliðan, hlîdan, togene. **) ride, road, Anglosaxon râd, iter, from rîdan, English ride; raise, rear. arouse, Anglosaxon râsjan, ræran, from rîsan, English rise. wroth, Anglosaxon vrâð, from vrîðan, torquere, English writhe. strike, stroke,

*The parallelism of logical development in mercare, French marcher, on the one hand, and step, staple, on the other, is noteworthy; also that the course of development is reversed, the root notion being marketing in the former, and going in the latter.

**) Comp. clothe &c..

Mätzner, engl. Gr. I.

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Anglosaxon strica, linea, strâcjan, palpare from strîcan, English strike.

The sixth class of Anglosaxon verbs, with the vowels eó (ú); eá, u; o (comp. cleófan, clufan cleáf, clufon clofen) is represented by: loose, loss, Anglosaxon lêsan, lŷsan, los, from the Anglosaxon leósan. shoot, shot, Old-norse skot, jactus; scot, Anglosaxon scot, tributum. sheet, Anglosaxon scéte, linteum, from sceótan, English shoot. frost, Anglosaxon the same, from freósan, English freeze; float, Anglosaxon flota; flotjan; fleet, Anglosaxon fleót, sinus; fleet-milk, skimmed milk, Anglosaxon flêt, flos lactis, from fleótan, Anglosaxon fleet.

Many forms of the Germanic family of tongues founded upon verbs which vary the vowel have been lost in English. With the dimming and mixing of forms the language sometimes seeks here, as elsewhere, to arrive at a distinction of the confounded forms by the differentiation of a consonant; comp. singe, Anglosaxon sengan, from sing, Anglosaxon singan.

b) The formation of words by the transfer of an unaltered verbal body to another class of words is in English not to be sharply separated from the formation just treated of, different parts of speech often coinciding with forms attached to verbs which vary the vowel.

But this freer management and interchange of the different parts of speech has, in principle, little in common with that primitive organisation of the word, and is common to the Romance as well as to the Germanic elements of the tongue. It is attached to the licence, practiced to a smaller extent in Anglosaxon than in Old-French, of transferring an underived or even a derived word, without any further derivational termination, to another class of words.

The cases belonging here concern the verb first of all, which readily proceeds from other parts of speech:

1) From substantives. Anglosaxon commonly used, with this formation, the derivational vowel 1 (ë, j): end-jan, ebb-jan, land-jan, vundr-jan &c., whereas Old-French contented itself with annexing a mere inflective termination: branch-ir from branche, brance; bargaign-er from bargaigne; esperment-er from esperment, experiment. English early contented itself with the stem without a vowel of derivation: end, ebb, land, wonder, branch, bargain, experiment, which inflection or the context must shew to be verbs. Modern forms are therefore numerous: oar; mill; milt; lead; beard; bag; father; flea; fleece; worship; Anglosaxon veordscipe, honor; witness, Anglosaxon vîtness, testimonium. air; experience ; reverence; matter; favour; humour; pity; fancy; nurture; bayonet; dungeon. Even proper names serve as verbs, as: hector. Comp. also: You look as if you were Don Diego'd to the tune of a thousand pounds (THE TATLER N. 31.). In the frequent identity of sound in verbs and substantives, many verbs, which in Anglosaxon occurred in another form, have been assimilated to substantives, as: foam, Anglosaxon subst. fàm from fæman; snow, Anglosaxon subst. snâv from snivan, Old-English snewen; comb, Anglosaxon subst. camb, comb, from cemban, Old-English kemben; stone, Anglosaxon subst. stân, from stænan; ground, Anglosaxon subst. grund, from gryndan and others.

2) From adjectives. Anglosaxon often employed the derivational vowel

even here, as in: îdel-jan, ëfen-jan, open-jan, vearm-jan, hvît-jan alongside of hvit-an &c., where English offers idle, even, open, warm, white. Even French formed verbs from adjectives without a derivational termination before the inflection, as palir, cherir &c. Thus we transfer to Germanic and Romance adjectives the verbal notion: black; english; sickly (SHAKSP.); mature; mimic &c. Yet we here often find the adjective termination en employed by preference, as it were as a verbal suffix, as in: meek-en; fatt-en; whit-en; fresh-en; deaf-en; dead-en; thick-en; sweet-en; hard-en &c., as the French forms often have the derivational termination -ish (iss, Latin isc): cher-ish; burn-ish (brunir, burnir) &c.

3) From pronouns this seldom happens, as in thou.

4) From particles: hence (SIDNEY) = to send off; but (L. BYRON); encore (SMART); atone (from at one); in; out; over (DICKENS). Interjections often become verbs, as: holla and hollow; huzzá, hush, whist, hist: Hist along! (MILTON) bring along with the warning of hist! and the like. As verbs arise from substantives, so also substantives often arise from verbs, so that we may believe the infinitive turned into a substantive. This happens not only in Romance words, as the French change developed from changer, pleur from pleurer, like other abstract and concrete substantives, but also in Germanic words It is sometimes not to be settled whether the verb arose from the noun, or reversely. The majority of Romance forms of this sort have been transferred to English, to which, for instance search belongs, Old-French cerche, cherche, now recherche. Thus arise concern; turn; crack; blush; fast (unless shortened from the Anglosaxon fästen), from verbs of the same sound. Here also takes place the assimilation of a substantive, sounding in Anglosaxon differently from the verbal stem, to the verb, as in: heed, Anglosaxon from hedan, subst. hôd; wish, Anglosaxon from vyscan, subst. vûsc; thirst, Anglosaxon from þyrstan, subst purst; kiss, Anglosaxon from cyssan, subst. coss; sweat, Anglosaxon from svætan, subst. svât and many more.

The transition of adjectives into the substantive meaning, with or without the adoption of the inflective forms of the substantive, may likewise be placed here. See p. 270.

2) Derivation Proper.

With derivation proper, which consists in an augmentation of the word, whereby the general conception, lying at the bottom of the root or stem, is more particularly determined, the Germanic is to be separated from the Romance element, although both here and there pass into or blend with one another. We give here the derivational forms of nouns and verbs, referring to the Doctrine of Particles for the formation of particles.

a) Germanic Derivative Terminatons.

The derivative termination or the derivational suffix may be a vowel, if the body of the word is augmented by vowels alone; the suffix is called consonantal, if it contains consonants only, or is formed of a vowel and consonant combined. Purely vowel suffixes are rare, even in Anglosaxon; where they appear in English, they have arisen by the suppression and softening of consonants. But we

consider suffixes according to their form in Modern-English, when we regard the extinct consonant as no longer existing.

We must observe generally that the Germanic derivational suffixes, although often sharply expressed, have remained less fruitful for English than the Romance ones. Many of the former have been lost as such for the linguistic feeling.

Vowel Derivational Terminations.

Here the terminations y (ey) and ow are considered for ModernEnglish.

y, sometimes ey, appears in substantives for the Anglosaxon suffix ig: bod-y, Anglosaxon bod-ig (Old-Highdutch pot-ah); iv-y, Anglosaxon if-ig, (Old-Highdutch eb-ah); penn-y, Anglosaxon pen-ig (for pen-ing, pend-ing); hon-ey, Anglosaxon hun-ig (Old-norse hunâng). Comp. kersey, Swedish kersing, French carisel, -set, creseau.

In adjectives they arise from the Anglosaxon suffix ig, eg; adjectives of this sort are very numerous in Anglosaxon: ic-y, Anglosaxon îs-ig; empt-y, Anglosaxon emet-ig; an-y, Anglosaxon ân-ig, æn-ig; mist-y, Anglosaxon mist-ig; mood-y, Anglosaxon môd-eg; prett-y, Anglosaxon prät-ig, prätt-ig; blood-y, Anglosaxon blod-eg; fenn-y, Anglosaxon fenn-eg, -ig; dizz-y, Anglosaxon dys-ig; speed-y, Anglosaxon spêd-ig; quitt-y, Anglosaxon gylt-ig; hear-y, Anglosaxon hef-ig, and many more. Subsequent formations are very numerous, with which stems not merely Germanic are considered: earth-y, mould-y, bloom-y; brier-y (full of briers); fier-y (fire); word-y (verbose); hast-y; heart-y; hoar-y; tallow-y; willow-y; window-y (having windows); balm-y; spum-y &c., after vowels ey also appears: clay-ey, sky-ey, glu-ey (from glue). The termination imports the being provided with something.

The diminutive termination y, Scottish ie, which partly diminishes (as blame) partly flatters, seems formed from ig: dumm-y; ninn-y (fool), bab-y (babe), nodd-y (fool); especially in proper names: Billy, Betsy, Tibby &c., see p. 177.).

Verbs in y have sometimes been developed from adjectives: blood-y, Anglosaxon blod-eg-jan, cruentare; bus-y, Anglosaxon byseg-jan.

ow rests partly upon v, which also exhibits itself as u in Anglosaxon, partly upon g and h, with or without a vowel before or

after it.

Substantives of this sort are: mead-ow, Anglosaxon mead-u, -eves; mall-ow(s), Anglosaxon meal-ve; pill-ow, Hollandish peul-uw, Latin pulvinus, Anglosaxon pyl-e; wid-ow, Anglosaxon vud-uve; sparrow, Anglosaxon spear-va; swall-ow, Anglosaxon sval-eve, sveal-ve; shad-ow, Anglosaxon scad-u, -ves. ew has arisen here in sin-ew, Anglosaxon sin-eve and sin-u. - bell-ows, Anglosaxon bel-g; borrow, (pledge), Anglosaxon bor-ga; will-ow, Anglosaxon vil-ig; sall-ow, Anglosaxon sal-ig, seal-h; barr-ow, Anglosaxon bear-g, bear-h, bear-ug; farr-ow (litter of pigs), Anglosaxon fear-h, porcus. The termination ough appears in bor-ough, Anglosaxon bur-uh, bur-h, bur-g.

Adjectives in ow arise chiefly from v (u). These end in the strong Anglosaxon form in u, o, weak in va: narr-ow, Anglosaxon