Word-Derivation:
· sound interchange was employed frequently, but never alone (usually was accompanied by suffixation). Sources of sound-interchange:
- ablaut (OE rīdan (V) rād (N) = NE ride (V) raid (N); OE sinζan (V) sonζ (N) = NE sing (V) song (N), etc.);
- palatal mutation:
o verbs from nouns (doom à deem; food à feed, etc.);
o verbs from adjectives (full à fill; healthy à heal, etc.);
o nouns from adjectives (long à length; strong à strength, etc.);
- consonantal interchanges (death dead; rise rear, etc.).
· word stress wasnot frequent; it helped to differentiate between parts of speech and was used together with other means (e.g. OE andswaru (N answer) andswarian (V answer);
· prefixation was a productive way (unlike in ModE):
- IE prefixes (OE un-(negative));
- Germanic prefixes (OE mis-, be-, ofer-(over-));
- prefixes were widely used with verbs, but were far less productive with the other parts of speech (e.g. OE ζān (to go) ā-ζān (to go away) be-ζān (to go round) fore-ζān (to precede), etc.);
- prefixes often modified lexical meaning (e.g. OE siþ (journey) for-siþ (death));
- there were grammatical prefixes, e.g ζe-:
o was used to build Participle 2 of strong verbs (e.g. OE sitten (to sit) ζesett (sat), etc.);
o turned durative verbs into terminative (e.g. OE feran (to go) ζeferan (to reach), etc.).
· suffixation was the most productive way, mostly applied to nouns and adjectives, seldom to verbs.
Classificationof OE suffixes:
1. Suffixes of agent nouns (-end(OE frēond (friend)), -ere(OE fiscere (fisher)), -estre(feminine) (OE bæcestre (female baker)), etc.);
2. Suffixes of abstract nouns (-t(OE siht (sight)), -þu(OE lengþu (length)), -nes/nis(OE beorhtnes (brightness), blindnis (blindness)), -unζ/inζ (OE earnunζ (earning)), etc.);
3. Adjectival suffixes(-iζ(OE hāliζ (holy)), -isc(OE mannisc (human)), -ede(OE hōcede (hooked)), -sum(OE lanζsum (lasting)) etc.);
4. New suffixes derived from noun root-morphemes (-dōm(OE frēodōm (freedom)), -hād(OE cīldhād (childhood)), -lāc(OE wedlāc (wedlock)), -scipe (OE frēondscipe (frendship)), etc.);
5. New suffixes derived from adjective root-morphemes (-lic(OE woruldlic (worldly)), -full(OE carfull (careful)), -lēas(OE slǽplēas (sleepless)), etc.).