The Russian language is an endless, dynamic phenomenon. He instantly reacts to what is happening around. New words are constantly formed in the language, old concepts go away, and then can return to the language, having a new meaning. This happened, for example, with the word cabman . It left the language with the disappearance of this profession. However, in perestroika times, when a private taxi began to develop, the word returned to colloquial speech. Today, in many cities this is what illegal taxi drivers are called.
How are words formed in Russian? The methods of word formation are different. In the Russian language, there are four main methods, each of which has its own gradations and features.
1. The most productive not only in Russian, but in all Slavic languages is considered the morphological method. It involves creating new words using morphemes. Inside it there are several types of word formation using morphemes. A morpheme is called a significant minimum unit of language, which is part of a word that has its own meaning. From this point of view, the morphological method of word formation is divided into:
- Prefix when affix precedes root. ( Always - forever, pretty - pretty good, go - go, light - dawn ).
- Suffix. The affix is after the root, and joins its base. ( Work is a worker, writing is writing, a weaver is weaving, good is pretty ).
- Attachment suffix ways of word formation, as the name implies, form a new word by simultaneously attaching the prefix and postfix to the base. ( Window - window sill, writing - sign, autumn - in the autumn ). Most often, verbs are formed in this way ( walk - diverge ), nouns ( snow - snowdrop ).
- The non-suffix way of word formation is that the word "discards" the ending and suffix. Most often, verbal nouns are formed this way. ( Heat - heat, scolding - scolding ). But other options are also possible ( Wide - broad, black - black ).
- Addition. Words can be formed by adding whole words ( bed-sofa, pay phone ), the foundations of the word ( salary, gym ), using connecting vowels ( steelworker, tracker ), from the initial letters ( Moscow State University, traffic police , youth theater, Moscow Art Theater ).
There are other ways of word formation.
2. Lexical and semantic. In this case, one well-known word seems to be split into homonyms (different in meaning, but similar in pronunciation or spelling of the word). This method is a vivid confirmation of the dynamism of the language as a phenomenon. The semantics of a word changes, because over time, different meanings of multi-valued words move away or their connection is lost. (A boxer is an athlete and a dog, ether is gas and the term broadcasting, a braid is an instrument, a river braid, a female hairstyle, a sponge is an invertebrate class, a product made of foam rubber ).
3. Morphological and syntactic, in which the word "changes" part of speech. (In the anna (adj.) Room - a bathroom (n.), Ice cream, cake) .
4. Lexical-syntactic, allowing you to form a new word by merging two "old" ( frost-resistant, now, momentary ).
All of the listed word-formation methods are characteristic of the Russian and Slavic languages; they serve as a tool for replenishing the vocabulary. However, not only the newly formed words replenish the vocabulary.
It is worth mentioning such a thing as borrowing from other languages. This phenomenon, on the one hand, is not related to word formation. On the other hand, new words are often formed from borrowed using the listed word-formation methods (especially in colloquial speech). So there was a computer (from a computer), a flash drive (from a flash card).
Word formation, like all other layers of the language, is clearly standardized. Standards are enshrined in dictionaries, textbooks, codes of practice.