The morphemic composition of the word during the development of the language did not always remain unchanged. The historical transformations that have taken place in the language have greatly affected the foundations. The morphemic composition changed as a result of the action of certain processes, which we will discuss in this article.
Historical change of foundation
The main element of word formation in modern Russian is the basis, both derivative and non-derivative. The way it was formed in the course of the history of the development of the language underwent changes. And in some cases, even the morphemic composition of the word changed . At the core, many morphemes have lost their significance. We give an example. At the heart of the word west, earlier the morpheme had the meaning of the prefix. In the course of history, she lost him. Thus, the basis has become a non-derivative.
Read more about changes in morphemic composition
Not necessarily in the course of history the morphemic composition of the word changed, as in the above example. Only in individual cases can we talk about this. In modern language, many words are divided into morphemes in the same way as in the past. But today there are many examples of when they lose touch with the original foundation from which they were formed. In addition, it may be that the word begins to correlate only with a part of the producing base, and not entirely with it. The morphemic composition in these cases has changed. Let's talk about the reasons why such transformations occur.
The reasons for the change in morphological composition
Firstly, the lexical meanings of the fundamentals, previously correlated as producing and derivative, become different. For example, in the Russian language today there is no semantic correlation of words such as porch (part of the house) and wing (birds), since they are currently different in meaning. However, in Old Russian it was observed. The basics of these words are not correlated as derivative and producing.
Another reason why changes in the morphemic structure are observed is the sound composition of words, which also does not always remain unchanged. Here are some examples. The words envelop, pillowcase, ceiling, cloud, shell are of the same root, but they have a different morphological structure. Derivative bases - to envelop (ob-volak-willow), pillowcase (on-dragging-to-a), ceiling (on-dragging). And the cloud and the shell became unproductive, because they have changed the basis due to the loss of sound “in”. The modern and historical morphemic composition of the word, therefore, is not the same in these cases.
Another reason is the loss of related words or correlative productive stems from the dictionary. Here are some examples of non-derivative foundations in modern Russian - coachman, winch, shirt. From the dictionary, at present, relative derivative bases have fallen out (pits - a stop on the road; a swan - a shaft having a cranked handle; rub - a piece of fabric).
The modern and historical morphemic composition of the word in some cases does not coincide due to the influence of the productive type of structure on the structure of words etymologically isolated, that is, unproductive types. For example, an umbrella has a foreign language origin. At first, this word was understood as the root. However, over time, by analogy with the Russian words, the mouth, tail, etc., it began to divide into the base umbrella (non-derivative) and suffix -ik.
The observed historical changes in the morphemic composition of the word in one case or another are called complication, re-decomposition and simplification of the basis. Let's talk about each of them.
Simplification
It represents the transformation into a non-derivative derivative of the basis of a word. In this case, the latter loses its separability into morphemes. Simplification plays an important role in language. Thanks to him, he is enriched with root non-derivative words. New centers of word formation appear in the language . Examples: success - successful, etc., hastily-hurried, etc., to sing - ripe, etc. On the other hand, due to simplification, word-building suffixes become unproductive. Sometimes their complete disappearance is also observed, which changes the morphemic composition even more. Example: in the foundations of the words old, good, which in the modern language are non-derivative, the suffix -r- is not distinguished. The same suffix fell in the word brother.
Reasons for Simplification
Shame, red, palace were simplified. They became unproductive because they lost the connection in meaning with the words from which they were once formed. Examples: shame - vigilant, red (color) - beauty, palace - courtyard.
The morphemic composition of the parts of speech has changed due to phonetic processes at the bases of the following words: motley, oar, deceased. They lost touch with the foundations they came from, and individual morphemes ceased to stand out (motley — to write, oar — to carry, deceased — asleep).
The reasons that lead to simplicity can act simultaneously, intersect. As a result of all these processes, the modern and historical morphemic composition do not coincide. For example, the lack of correlation between the core - food - poison, sound - ringing, bonds - knot - union - language - this is the result not only of the semantic gap observed between these words, but also a consequence of the phonetic changes that have occurred in their foundations.
Redeployment
Redistribution is a redistribution within the word of individual morphemes, which leads to the fact that the basis (remaining derivative) in its composition releases other morphemes. So, for example, liveliness, ardor have a suffix -part (and not -ost), if we talk about living word-formation connections. The fact is that the adjectives from which they are derived (lively, hot) are not used in the modern language. The suffix -nost with respect to the suffix -ost is a derivative. It is a combination of the following two suffixes: - n, which was cut off from the base of the adjective, and - spine.
Education otost derivative -nost is an expression of the peculiar process that accompanies the re-decomposition of the foundations in Russian. It consists in the fact that one word-formation element is absorbed by another, or in the dissolution of one or another of them in the root. For example, at the heart of the rod we can distinguish the suffix -lisch-, which includes another, -l-. The last suffix refers to the word udilo, lost in the modern language.
Re-decomposition can also be between the root and the prefix. For example, in the verb to remove earlier, there was the prefix sn- and the root -a- following it. Today, this word is divided as follows: c-nya (t).
Reorder Value
The process of re-decomposition enriches the language by the fact that new word-formation models and affixes appear, which become productive over time. Most often, new suffixes are formed in this way: - point- (bone-point-a), -inc- (zeal-inc-a), identity (essence). Prefixes (des-, heaven-, under-) appear much less often, which are the result of the merger of two other prefixes (deceive, worthless, underestimate).
Analogy
Different types of analogy very often lead to the redevelopment and simplification of the foundations. By the latter is meant the assimilation of the forms of one word of the forms of another, related grammatically. Thanks to her, the historical morphemic composition of the word is often subjected to change. Analogy is a natural process that is observed in a language. Unproductive types of form and word formation by virtue of its action are likened to certain productive types of forms and words. In this case, the former separability to morphemes or their derivative character is lost.
In modern Russian, a number of forms owe their origin to the operation of an analogy. In particular, these are the endings of middle and masculine nouns -ax, -ami, -om (sel-ah, house-ah, house-am, sel-am). They appeared as a result of the analogy of the forms of feminine nouns (books-am-table-am, not table-ohm). Its result was a redeployment of the basis (instead of books, to books). So the historical morphemic composition has changed.
From the root of the thief, the word was formed to open. This happened through the prefix from -. This word was influenced by another - to create. As a result of the open-create analogy, the first foundation was redecomposed. She began to be conceptualized as an entity with the prefix o-. So a new base of word formation appeared in the language (to create, to create, to create, etc.).
Complication
In some cases, the operation of an analogy or the emergence of words that are related to having a non-derivative basis, complicates the latter. Because of this, it becomes a derivative, that is, it begins to articulate.
The process of complication is the opposite of the process of simplification that we have examined. This is the transformation into a derivative basis of the one that was previously non-derivative. In particular, the word engraving, borrowed by the Russian from the French language, was conceptualized initially as unproductive. But after the late borrowing of the engraver and engraving arose in the system of our language, it "became more complicated." This word has become derivative. It stands out the root of the grave, as well as the suffix -ur-. Many borrowed words underwent such changes . For example, anarchy, Greek in origin, used to have a non-derivative foundation. However, due to the fact that the language was related to her anarchist, anarchist, anarchist, etc., she began to share. Thus formed the non-derivative basis of anarch-, as well as the suffix -and j- .
Morpheme overlay
Apart from the phenomena mentioned above, the superposition of morphemes is also distinguished. It occurs when the parts of those that are combined coincide. For example, it is possible between the base and the suffix ( Dynamo - Dynamo + sheep; Sverdlovsk - Sverdlovsk + sky ). However, overlapping cannot occur if it comes to the root and the prefix ( Irtysh, Zaamurye ).
All of the above changes in the structure of the word (complication, redecomposition, simplification) indicate that the morphemic composition changed during the historical development of the language. All these changes are studied by etymology. Let us conclude with a few words about her.
Etymology
Etymology is the doctrine of the origin of various words. Their occurrence can be established using etymological analysis. It makes it possible to clarify the historical word-formation connections, what the initial morphemic structure of a given word was, as well as the reasons why it has undergone changes since its inception.