complex words

COMPLEX WORDS
1. Definition:
A word made up of two or more morphemes. Contrast with simple word.
Complex words is all the word which consist of one freemorph and one or more boundmorph.
The complex word is the root word with either another stand alone word or with the attachment of a prefix or suffix.
For example : lock + able = lockable
or un + lock = unlock
Comlpex word may consist of (1) a base (or root) and one or more affixes (for example, quicker), or (2) more than one root in a compound (for example, blackbird).
"A morphologically complex word is semantically transparent if its meaning is obvious from its parts: hence 'unhappiness' is semantically transparent, being made up in a predictable fashion from 'un,' 'happy,' and 'ness.' A word like 'department,' even though it contains recognizable morphemes, is not semantically transparent. The meaning of 'depart' in 'department' is not obviously related to the 'depart' in 'departure.' It is semantically opaque."
(Trevor A. Harley, The Psychology of Language: From Data to Theory. Taylor & Francis, 2001)
"Let us consider the complex word blender. What can we say about its morphology? One aspect we can mention is that it consists of two morphemes, blend and er. Besides, we can say that blend is the root, since it is not further analysable, and at the same time the base to which the suffix -er is attached. To conclude, if we carry out morphological analysis, we usually show what morphemes a word consists of and describe these morphemes in terms of their type."
(Ingo Plag et al, Introduction to English Linguistics. Walter de Gruyer, 2007)
COMPLEX WORD is a word consisting of a base and one or more derivational elements: unlikely (un-, like, -ly); vitality (vit-, -al, -ity). In origin and structural type, there are four kinds of complex word in English: (1) Vernacular. Formed on ‘native’ principles, but including some long-established words of Latin, GREEK, and French background: darkness, womanhood, beefy, priestly. Such words may have equivalents in the GERMANIC LANGUAGES : English unmanly, German unmännlich. (2) Romance. Formed on Latinate principles. Many such words are structurally (though not phonologically) identical or similar in English and the Romance languages: English impossible, discrimination; French impossible, discrimination; SPANISH impossible, discriminación. (3) Greek. Formed on principles adapted from classical Greek through NEO-LATIN. Many such words are structurally similar in English and Greek: English dogmatic, magnetism, Greek dogmatikós, magnetismós. (4) Hybrid. A mix of the above: uncreative mixes vernacular un- with Latin cre- and -ative; ethically mixes Greek eth- and -ic with Latin -al and vernacular -ly. See COMBINING FORM, COMPOUND-COMPLEX WORD, DERIVATIONAL, PREFIX, SUFFIX, WORD-FORMATION.
Words in English presents a comprehensive account of present-day word formation in English. Starting with a discussion of some basic issues, including the definition of 'word', motivation, lexicalization, productivity, the relevance of historical information and the usefulness of dictionaries and other data-bases, the book then moves on to describe in detail a variety of prefixing, suffixing and compounding patterns - all illustrated with copious up-to-date examples. Other topics that are explored in-depth include diminutives, backformation and other effects of reanalysis, Latin and Greek based formations and sound symbolism.
Years spent editing articles written by attorneys (whose writing is purposefully vague) and physicians (whose writing is full of specialized language) have taught me the value of using simple words in place of complex ones.
The use of unfamiliar or complex terms interferes with comprehension and slows readers down. Readers may even skip terms they don’t understand, hoping to find their meaning in the rest of the sentence.
Readers are not impressed by the use of complex words; they’re frustrated by them. Take “use” and “utilize.” According to the Oxford Dictionaries, the word “use” means, “take, hold, or deploy (something) as a means of accomplishing a purpose or achieving a result.” While “utilize” means to “make practical and effective use of.” And though there is a distinction between the two words, there is rarely an occasion to use “utilize” instead of “use.”
2. A list complex terms
Here is a list of some other complex terms and their simpler alternatives.

Advantageous — helpful
Ameliorate — improve
Cognizant — aware
Commence — begin, start
Commensurate — equal
Consolidate — combine
Deleterious — harmful
Disseminate — issue, send
Endeavor — try
Erroneous — wrong
Expeditious — fast
Facilitate — ease, help
Inception — start
Implement — carry out
Leverage — use
Optimize — perfect
Prescribed — required
Proficiencies — skills
Promulgate — issue or publish
Proximity — near
Regarding — about
Remuneration — reward, payment
Subsequently — after or later
Although I try to use simpler words in my own writing, doing so is not always possible. Sometimes I need a complex word to communicate a more precise meaning. Other times, complex words cannot be avoided due to the subject matter. As a general rule, I use simpler words as the basis of my writing and save the more complex words for when they’re absolutely necessary—or if I’m trying to impress another editor.
The study reported here examined the manner in which children represent morphologically complex words in the lexicon. Children in grades 1 to 5 completed a fragment completion task to assess the priming effects of morphologically related words. Both inflected and derived words (e.g. needs and needy, respectively) were more effective primes than control words (e.g. needle) that share similar orthography and phonology with the target word (e.g. need). These effects were consistent across the developmental period studied. Further, equivalent priming effects from the inflected and derived forms suggest that these word types are represented similarly in the developing lexicon.
PMID: 18416867
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Italian speakers tend to stress the second component of German morphologically complex words such as compounds and prefix verbs even if the first component is lexically stressed. To improve their prosodic phrasing an automatic pronunciation teaching method was developed based on auditory feedback of prosodically corrected utterances in the learners' own voices. Basically, the method copies contours of F0, local speech rate, and intensity from reference utterances of a German native speaker to the learners' speech signals. It also adds emphasis to the stress position in order to help the learners better recognise the correct pronunciation and identify their errors.
This study explored whether the length of a complex word modifies the role of morphological structure in lexical processing: Does morphological structure play a similar role in short complex words that typically elicit one eye fixation (e.g., eyelid) as it does in long complex words that typically elicit two or more eye fixations (e.g., watercourse)? Two eye movement experiments with short vs. long Finnish compound words in context were conducted to find an answer to this question. In Experiment 1, a first-constituent frequency manipulation revealed solid effects for long compounds in early and late processing measures, but no effects for short compounds. In contrast, in Experiment 2, a whole-word frequency manipulation elicited solid effects for short compounds in early and late processing measures, but mainly late effects for long compounds. A race model, incorporating a headstart for the decomposition route, in case whole-word information of complex words cannot be extracted in a single fixation can explain the pattern of results.
Keywords: Morphological processing; Eye movements; Word length; Finnish; Compound words
3. Parts of complex words
Complex/ˈkɒmpleks/
▶adjective
• 1 consisting of many different and connected parts.
• 2 not easy to understand; complicated.
• 3 Mathematics (of a number) containing both a real and an imaginary part.
▶noun
• 1 an interlinked system; a network.
■ a group of similar buildings or facilities on the same site.
• 2 Psychoanalysis a related group of repressed or partly repressed emotionally significant ideas which lead to abnormal mental states or behaviour.
■ informal a feeling of disproportionate anxiety about something.
• 3 Chemistry an ion or molecule in which one or more groups are linked to a metal atom by coordinate bonds.
▶verb Chemistry make (an atom or compound) form a complex with another.
– DERIVATIVES
complexation noun (Chemistry),
complexity noun (pl. complexities),
complexly adverb.
– ORIGIN C17 (as n.): from L. complexus, from complectere ‘embrace, comprise’, later assoc. with complexus ‘plaited’; the adjective is partly via Fr. complexe.
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press.


On Simple Theories of a Complex World
by Willard Van Orman Quine
Written in 1960 for J. H. Woodger's seventieth birthday. In company with other such papers, it appeared in "Synthese" (Volume 15, 1963), and afterward in J. R. Gegg and F. T. C. Harris, eds., "Form and Strategy in Science" (Dodrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1964). Subsequently reprinted in Quine's own "The Ways of Paradox" (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1966).]
It is not to be wondered that theory makers seek simplicity. When two theories are equally defensible on other counts, certainly the simpler of the two is to be preferred on the score of both beauty and convenience. But what is remarkable is that the simpler of the two theories is generally regarded not only as the more desirable but also as the more probable. If two theories conform equally to past observations, the simpler of the two is seen as standing the better chance of confirmation in future observations. Such is the maxim of the simplicity of nature. It seems to be implicitly assumed in every extrapolation and interpolation, every drawing of a smooth curve through plotted points. And the maxim of the uniformity of nature is of a piece with it, uniformity being a species of simplicity.
Simplicity is not easy to define. But it may be expected, whatever it is, to be relative to the texture of a conceptual scheme. If the basic concepts of one conceptual scheme are derivative concepts of another, and vice versa, presumably one of two hypothesis could count as simpler for the one scheme and the other for the other. This being so, how can simplicity carry any peculiar presumption of objective truth? Such is the implausibility of the maxim of the simplicity of nature.
Corresponding remarks apply directly to the maxim of the uniformity of nature, according to which, vaguely speaking, things similar in some respects tend to prove similar in others. For again similarity, whatever it is, would seem to be relative to the structure of one’s conceptual scheme or quality space. Any two things, after all, are shared as members by as many classes as any other two things; degrees of similarity depend on which of those classes we weight as the more basic or natural.
Knowledge of morphologically complex words such as derived nominals and derived adjectives is a late linguistic attainment. Given the importance of these words for academic success, instructional programs are needed to ensure that children and adolescents are able to learn their meanings using appropriate strategies.
John Stonham introduces new data from the morphology of the Nuuchahnulth language of Vancouver Island, Canada. It is the first such study of any language within the Wakashan family and will prove an important tool for researchers in Native American languages and to theoretical linguists interested in the numerous complex morphological phenomena encountered in this language family. Notorious for its extremely complex morphological structure, Nuuchahnulth provides instances of a number of important theoretical issues which have arisen recently in morphological theory. These include (i) the nature and extent of incorporation, and specifically a wide range of types of incorporation-like properties; (ii) reduplication, including affix-triggered reduplication and the challenge which double reduplications in Nuuchahnulth pose for constraint-based approaches such as Optimality Theory; (iii) templatic morphological structures, utilized in a number of areas of Nuuchahnulth grammar and involving a number of patterns; and (iv) the issue of the status of the word itself, a long-standing debate in the linguistic literature.






4. Diagram of complex words:

Complex words

Affix word compound word

Stem word + an affix Made of two or more words
E.g. ice-cream, armchair
Prefix+stem Stem+suffix
Un+pleasant Good + ness
Unpleasant Goodness

This study examined to what extent advanced and beginning readers, including dyslexic readers of Dutch, make use of morphological access units in the reading of polymorphemic words. Therefore, experiments were carried out in which the role of singular root form frequency in reading plural word forms was investigated in a lexical decision task with both adults and children. Twenty-three adult readers, 37 8-year-old children from Grade 3, 43 11-year-old children from Grade 6, and 33 11-year-old dyslexic readers were presented with a lexical decision task in which we contrasted plural word forms with a high versus low frequency of the singular root form. For the adults, it was found that the accuracy and speed of lexical decision is determined by the surface frequency of the plural word form. The frequency of the constituent root form played a role as well, but in the low-frequency plural words only. Furthermore, a strong developmental effect regarding the accuracy and speed of reading plural word forms was found. An effect of plural word form frequency on word identification was evidenced in all groups.
The singular root form frequency also had an impact of the reading of the plural word forms. In the normal reading and dyslexic children, plurals with a high-frequency singular root form were read more accurately and faster than plurals with a low singular root frequency. It can be concluded that constituent morphemes have an impact on the reading of polymorphemic words. The results can be explained in the light of a word experience model leaving room for morphological constituency to play a role in the lexical access of complex words as a function of reading skill and experience and word and morpheme frequency.
from Applied Psycholinguistics




CONCLUSION

A word made up of two or more morphemes. Contrast with simple word.
Complex words is all the word which consist of one freemorph and one or more boundmorph.

The complex word is the root word with either another stand alone word or with the attachment of a prefix or suffix.
For example : lock + able = lockable
COMPLEX WORD is a word consisting of a base and one or more derivational elements: unlikely (un-, like, -ly); vitality (vit-, -al, -ity).



TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.Definition .......................................................................................... 1
2.A list complex terms ......................................................................... 3
3.Parts of complex words .................................................................... 5
3.1. On simple Theories of a complex words ................................... 7
4. Diagram of complex words .............................................................. 9
5. Conculsion ....................................................................................... 12


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