I intraduction chapter I theoretical

unaccented a - without an accent or stress
unbolt v - to remove the bolt of, to unlock
unconcern n - lack of concern
undo v - to reverse the effect of doing
unfailing a - not failing, constant
These few examples show that the negative prefix un - may be used in the following patterns:
I. un - + an adjective stem un - + Part. I stem un - + Part. II stem with the meaning ‘not’, ‘without’, ‘the opposite of'
II. un - + a verbal stem - with the meaning of ‘to reverse the action as
the effect of. '
III. un - + a verbal stem which is derived from a noun stem - with the
reversative meaning ‘to release from'
IV. un - + a noun stem shows the lack of the quality denoted
Examples for model I: uncertain, unfair, unbelievable, unconscious, unbalanced, unknown, unborn, unbecoming'; for model II: unbend, unbind, unpack, unwrap; for model III: unhook, unpack, unlock, unearth.
With noun bases (model IV) un - is used very rarely. For example, unpeople 'people deprived of a semblance of humanity', unperson 'public figure who has lost his influence'.
These instances of semantic overlap show that the meaning, or rather the variety of meanings, of each derivational affix can only be established when we collect many instances of its use and then observe its functioning in the structure of word-formation models derived from the collected examples. It would be incorrect to claim that there is a specific meaning associated with a particular model, since they are often polysemantic and the affixes are homonymic. This is also evident in the following examples. A very productive pattern is out- + V = Vt. The meaning is "to do something faster, better, longer than someone or something." For example, surpass, outgrow, outlast, outnumber, outplay. The number of possible combinations is almost unlimited. The spelling, whether it is hyphenated, combined, or separated, is optional in many cases. When it is formed not from verbs, but from names of persons, it means "to surpass that person in something called his special characteristic." A classic example is "to out-Herod Herod" (Shakespeare) 'to surpass sb. in cruelty.
On the other hand, the same formal scheme out-+V can occur with the locative out - and produce nouns such as outbreak or outburst. The second element here is actually a deverbal action noun.
The above examples do not exhaust the possibilities of models with out - as the first element. Out - can be used with verbal nouns and their derivatives (outstanding), with nouns (outfield), with adjectives (outbound) and adverbs (outright).
The more productive the affix, the more likely it is that some semantic variation exists along with the usual scheme. Thus - ee is freely added to verbal bases to form nouns meaning "one who V-ed," as addressee, divorcee, employee, evacuee, examinee, often in parallel with agentive nouns in - er, as employer, examiner. Sometimes, however, it is added to intransitive verbs; in these cases, the V+-ee scheme means "One who V-s" or "One who V-ed," as, for example, escapee, retiree. In the case of bargee 'the person who runs the barge' the base is a noun.
It can also happen that, because of affix homonymy, words which look like antonyms are actually synonyms. A good example is analyzed by V. K. Tarasova. The adjectives combustible and flammable are not antonyms, as one might assume from their morphological appearance (cf. informal: formal, inhospitable: hospitable), but synonyms, since combustible is "easily inflammable." They are also interchangeable in non-technical texts. Flammable can be used figuratively as "easily agitated." In technical texts, Flammable is preferred.
The point is that there are two prefixes in-. One is a negative prefix, and the other can indicate inward movement, intense action or, as in the case of inflame, inflammable and inflammation, have a causal function2.
It is impossible to draw a sharp distinction between form elements expressing only lexical and only grammatical meaning, and this difficulty is not solved by introducing along with the term motivation the term word-formation meaning.
To summarize: the word-formation scheme is a structural-semantic formula, more or less regularly reproduced, it reveals the morphological motivation of the word, the grammatical particle meaning, and in most cases helps to assign the word to some lexico-grammatical class; the components of lexical meaning are mainly supplied by the stem.
D) ALLOMORPHS
The combinative form allo - from the Greek allos 'different' is used in linguistic terminology to denote set factors whose contributors together constitute a structural unit of language (allophones, allomorphs). So, for example, -ion/-sion/-tion/-ation in §5.6 are positional variants of the same suffix. To show this, they are here taken together and separated by /. Now they are no longer distinguished by means or characteristics, but show a slight difference in sound form, depending on the last phoneme of the preceding base. They are regarded as variants of the same morpheme and are called its allomorphs. Descriptive linguistics studies the patterns within the distributed members of the family of many features and factors of speech, that is, their frequency, particularly in relation to each other within utterances. Thus, the method of solving this problem is based primarily on the ideas of distributive analysis. An allomorph is described as a positional change of a morpheme occurring in a particular environment and characterized by means of a complementary distribution. Complementary distribution is said to occur when linguistic variants cannot be in the same environment. Thus, bases ending in consonants usually take the form - ation (liberation); bases ending in pt, however, take the form - tion (decomposition), the latter t being merged with the suffix. The different morphemes are characterized by means of a contrastive distribution, that is, if they occur in the same environment, they have special meanings. The suffixes - capin a position and - ed, for example, are special morphemes, now no longer allomorphs, since adjectives in - capin a position mean 'able to be': measurable 'able to be measured', whereas - ed as an adjective suffix has a resultant force: 'marked by means of due proportion,' as in the measured splendor of classical Greek art; hence, additionally, 'rhythmic' and 'normal in motion,' as in the measured form of verse, the measured step. In some cases the distinction is not always very clear: - ic and - ical, for example, are special affixes, the first being simple, the second establishing; it is claimed that they are characterized through contrastive distribution. But many adjectives have both forms - ic and - ical, often with no difference in meaning. COD believes that the suffix -ical indicates a more vague reference to what is denoted by means of the base: comedian paper however a comical story. However, the difference between the two is not always very stark. Allomorphs can occur even among prefixes. Their form depends on the initials of the stem with which they can assimilate. A prefix including im- occurs before bilabial (impossible), its allomorph ir- before r (improper), il- before l (illicit). The prefix in- occurs before all other consonants and vowels (indirect, impossible). Two or more sound varieties of base, existing under situations of complementary distribution, may also be represented as allomorphs, as, for example, in longy a:: duration n, excite v:: excitation n. In American descriptive linguistics, allomorphs are treated on a purely semantic basis, so that now not only simple [ız] in dishes, [z] in desires and [s] in books, which can be allomorphs within the sense above, but also formally unrelated [n] in oxen, the vowel change in tooth: : enamel and suffix 0 in many sheep, are considered allomorphs of identical morpheme because of their similarity of grammatical meaning. This does require a serious rethinking, for in this approach morphemes cease to be linguistic means that unite the two basic elements, form and meaning, and become natural abstractions. The term morpheme itself (from the Greek morphē "form") becomes a misnomer, since all references to form are lost. Allomorphs, therefore, as we have shown, are phonetically conditioned positional versions of an identical derivative or practical morpheme (suffix, root or prefix), identical in meaning and characteristic and differing in sound only insofar as their complementary distribution produces multiple phonetic effects of assimilation.