English and german are related languages that have

Reference no: EM13381666

English and German are related languages that have different approaches to using borrowed words and coining new words. Compare the following passages taken from a multilingual transit booklet put out by the city of Konstanz (Germany). The underlined German words all use the morpheme fahr ‘drive, travel' to form various words having to do with travelling or driving; the cognate English morpheme, fare, is used in only one case in the English translation.

Werter Fahrgast! (1) Unsere Busse fahren (2) ohne Schaffner. Lösen Sie bitte Ihren Fahrschein (3) beim Fahrer... (4) Ungestempelte Fahrscheine sind im Fahrzeug (5) ungültig! Wer ohne gültigen Fahrausweis (6) angetroffen wird, ist zur Zahlung eines erhöten Fahrgeldes (7) von DM 50,- verplichtet.

Dear Passenger! (1) Our busses have (2) no conductors. Please buy your ticket (3) from the driver... (4) Unstamped tickets are invalid in the vehicle! (5) Passengers found without valid tickets (6) are liable to be charged increased fare (7) of DM 50,-.

(1) Fahrgast: Fahr ‘travel, drive' + Gast ‘guest' = ‘travel guest' = passenger
(2) fahren: fahr + en ‘present plural inflection' = ‘(they) travel'
(3) Fahrschein: Fahr + schein ‘document' = ‘travel document' = ticket
(4) Fahrer: Fahr + er derivational suffix ‘one who...' = ‘one who drives' = driver
(5) Fahrzeug: Fahr + Zeug ‘thing used for...' = "thing used for travelling' = vehicle
(6) Fahrausweis: Fahr + Ausweis ‘pass, card' = ‘travel pass' = ticket
(7) Fahrgeldes: Fahr + Geldes ‘money' = ‘travel money', i.e. fare

Discuss the way German and English differ in their approaches to word formation by answering the following questions:

1. Consider first the seven German words: what word formation processes are involved in making these words? Note that all the morphemes used in these words are native.

2. Like its German cognate, the native English word fare once had a wide range of uses, which are now reflected in PDE only by a few surviving forms like seafarer and farewell. In the above passage, other English words are used to translate the German words with root fahr. Comment on the words passenger, ticket, driver, and vehicle: are they native or borrowed? If borrowed, what language(s) do they come from? Use the OED to answer this question.

3. Can you account for the above differences between German and English in terms of characteristics of English discussed in the textbook and the first lecture?

Reference no: EM13381666

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