Question

1. (a) Write short notes on any two of the

following : 10

(i) Affixes

(ii) The speech organs

(iii) Diphthongs

(iv) Acronyms

(v) Compounding in English

Answer 1

Lexical affixes (or semantic affixes) are bound elements that appear asaffixes, but function as incorporated nouns within verbs and as elements of nouns. In other words, they are similar to word roots/stems in function but similar to affixes in form.




An acronym (pronounced AK-ruh-nihm, from Greek acro- in the sense of extremeor tip and onyma or name) is an abbreviation of several words in such a way that the abbreviation itself forms a pronounceable word. The word may already exist or it can be a new word. Webster's cites snafu and radar, two terms of World War Two vintage, as examples of acronyms that were created.

According to the strictest definition of an acronym, only abbreviations that are pronounced as words qualify. So by these standards, for example, COBOL is an acronym because it's pronounced as a word but WHO (World Health Organization) is not an acronym because the letters in the abbreviation are pronounced individually. However, opinions differ on what constitutes an acronym: Merriam-Webster, for example, says that an acronym is just "a word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name