Processes of Word Formation

Relevance of word-formation
to grammar
The rules by which words are
constructed are important to the
:study of grammar for two reasons

,Firstly
They help us to recognize the
grammatical class of a word by its
structure; we are able to tell that
the word organization is a noun from
the fact that it ends in the
. suffix -ation

,Secondly
They teach us that there is a
flexibility in the application of
grammatical rules, whereby the native
speaker may transfer words, with or
without the addition of affixes or
other words, to a new grammatical
. class

Productiveness
A rule of word-formation usually differs
from a syntactic rule in one important
: respect
it is of limited productivity, in the sense
that not all words which result from
the application of the rule acceptable;
they are freely acceptable only when
they have gained an institutional
.currency in the language

Un- is a prefix that

is added to an
.adjective

Examples
wise

excellent

unwise
*unexcellent
less is a suffixthat is added to an
.adjective

selfish

*selfishless

.Cont
The rules of word- formation provide
a constant set of models from
which new words are created from
day to day. The rules themselves
( like grammatical rules) undergo
.change

.Cont
Affixes and compounding processes
can become productive or lose their
productivity; can increase or
decrease their range of meaning or
. grammatical applicability

.Cont
In the language, there are productive
or marginally productive rules of
word-formation, leaving aside dead
processes, even though they may have
fossilized existence in a number of
.words in the language

Examples
The Old English affix th, no longer
used to form new words, survives in
length

long
depth
deep
width
wide

Word-formation processes
English calls upon a number of
devices as a means of forming
new words on the bases of the
old. A form to which a rule of
word-formation is applied
a BASE (as distinct from STEM),
and the chief processes of
English word-formation by
:which the base may be modified are

.Cont
The chief processes of English wordformation by which the base may
:be modified are
AFFIXATION (Derivation)( 1
CONVERSION( 2
COMPOUNDING( 3

A. AFFIXATION (Derivation)
Adding a prefix to the base, with
or without a change of word. class
(. eg: author co-author
Adding a suffix to the base,
with or without a change of
class.
.driver(

(a )

(b )
word)eg: drive

B. Conversion
Conversion is the derivational
process whereby an item is adapted
or converted to a new word-class
without the addition of an affix. In
other words, assigning the base to
a different word-class without
changing its form (zero affixation,
. e.g.: drive (v)--- drive (n)

.Cont
We have seen that new words may be
added to the vocabulary of a language
by derivational processes. New words
also enter a language in a variety of
.other ways

C. Compounding
A compound is a unit consisting of
two or more bases. In other
words, by adding one base to
.
another

Example
Such compound words can be
nouns
eg: blood+test= blood test
adjectives
eg: tax+free= tax-free
Verbs
eg: spring+clean=spring-clean

Examples
Adjective

Noun

Verb

Adjective

bittersweet

poorhouse

whitewash

Noun

headstrong

homework

spoon feed

Verb

____

pickpocket

sleepwalk

.Cont
The right-hand member is the head of
the compound, determining the
syntactic category and meaning of the
.whole
.The left-hand member is the modifier

Example
modifier
head
:For
example
.A morphology article is a kind of article
.A houseboat is a kind of boat
.A boathouse is a kind of house

.Cont
Thus, when the two words fall into
different categories, the class of
the second or final word will be
the grammatical category of the
.compound

Example
noun + adjective = adjective
headstrong, watertight, lifelong
verb + noun = noun
.pickpocket, pinchpenny, daredevil

Examples
noun+ verb = verb
Steamroll
adjective + verb = verb
dryclean

.Cont
On the other hand, compounds
formed with a preposition are in the
category of the nonprepositional
;part of the compound
overtake, hanger-on, undertake,
.sundown, afterbirth

Number of compounds
Though two-word compounds are the most
common in English, it would be difficult
.to state upper limit
:Consider the following
three-time loser
four-dimensional space-time
daughter-in-law

.Cont
Orthographically, Compounds are
written
solid ,eg: bedroom( a)
hyphenated,eg : tax-free( b)
open, eg: reading material( c)

.Cont
There is important distinction
between compounds and phrases.
:We cover the following
STRESS( 1
COMPOSITIONALITY( 2
TENSES AND PLURAL MARKERS( 3

Stress.1
compoun
d
:For example

phras
e

Blackbird as opposed to black bird

the compound has stress on black, while
. the phrase is stressed on bird

Compositionality.2
Moreover, a black bird is necessarily
black, while a blackbird is a
particular species of bird whatever
. its color

Test
Compounds whose first element is an
adjective (greenhouse) can be identified
with the help of a test that illustrated
:in the following example
:Compound with very
.We live next to a very [greenhouse]*
Very with an adjective that is not part of
:a compound
.We live next to a very green house

?Compositionality
This means that the semantics
of this compound is noncompositional, i.e we cant
determine the meaning of the
whole just from the meaning
of the parts. The semantics
. of phrases is compositional

The modifier
has neither
category nor
meaning

black

bird

black bird

black

bird

blackbird

Examples
blackboard
falling star
magnifying glass
looking glass
laughing gas

.Cont
peanut oil
olive oil
baby oil

The first meat from

horses and the other
.is meat for dogs

What about the following

:sentence
.Horse meat is dog meat

.Cont
Some of the meanings of compounds can
.be figured out, but not all
:For example
hunchback
flatfoot (policeman or detective)
turncoat ( a traitor)
Redcoat ( British soldier during
the American Revolutionary War)

.Cont
The point is that blackbird is a
lexicalized compound whose internal
structure is only of historical
significance, unlike a non-lexicalized
. coinage such as morphology article

.Cont
In time, with changes in pronunciation,
even this historical structure becomes
opaque. Thus husband is derived from
.house and bond ( Middle English)

Tense and plural markers.3

A third distinguishing feature of compounds
in English is that tense and plural markers
cannot typically be attached to the first
element, although they can be added to
.the whole
There are some exceptions, however, such)
.(as passers-by and parks supervisor

Test
The player [dropped kick] the ball
*
.through the goal posts
The player [drop kick]ed the ball
.through the goal posts
The [foxes hunter] didnt have a
*
.license
.The [fox hunter]s didnt have a license

INVENTION (Coinage). 4
The invention of totally new terms.
Our fanciful creation of somp
would be one example. Words like
aspirin and nylon, originally
.invented trade names, are others

D. ECHOSIM
Echoism is the formation of words whose
sound suggests their meaning, like hiss
.and quack, whisperetc

CLIPPING.5
Clipping means cutting off the
beginning or the end of a word, or
both, leaving a part to stand for
the whole. The resultant form is
. called a clipped word

.Cont
The clipped form is normally felt
.informal
.For ex
Lab, prof, exam, mikeetc

.Cont
The shortening may occur at

:The beginning of the word( a)

Phone

telephone

Plane

airplane, aeroplane

Bus

omnibus

.Cont
The end of the word )more
:commonly(

ad

advert(isment)

photo

photograph

exam

examination

(b

.Cont
at both ends of the
:)not a common type of

word ( c)
clipping(

Flu

influenza

Fridge

refrigerator (esp. BrE)

ACRONYMY. 6
Acronyms are words formed from the
initial letters ( or larger parts) of words
that make up a descriptive phrase or a
proper name. New acronyms are freely
produced in Modern English, particularly
for names of organizations. There are
:two main types

.Cont
Acronyms which are pronounced as( 1)
sequences of letters can be called
.alphabetisms
: The letters represent full words( a)
C.O.D. Cash on delivery
FBI
Federal Bureau of
Investigation
UN
the United Nations

.Cont
The letters represent elements in a( b)
:compound or just parts of a word
TV
television
GHQ
General Headquarters
ID
identification card
TB
tuberculosis

.Cont
Acronyms which are pronounced as( 2)
word, and are often used with out
:knowing what the letters stand for

Examples
NATO

the North Treaty

Organization

UNESCO
the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and
Cultural Organization

BLENDING. 7
The blend is a type of word formation
which has become popular in English
this century and which now accounts
for a significant proportion of new
words, particularly those deriving
from commercial trade names or
advertising, those which have a
.technical or scientific name

?What is a blend
A blend is any word which is formed by
fusing together elements from two
other words and whose meaning
shares or combines the meanings of
the source words. The elements are
normally the beginning of one and the
. end of the other

For example
Smog

smoke+ fog

Interpol

international police

Motel

motor hotel

Newcast

news broadcast

Brunch

breakfast+ lunch

More Examples
Oxbridge
It is a word which is formed by putting
together the first part of Oxford and
the last part of Cambridge to form a
new inclusive term for both
.universities

.Cont
It is very noticeable that a
fashion for such word
formations began in the 1890s
leading to an increased rate of
.word formation

Example
Electrocute
a blend of electricity and execute, first)
(appeared in 1889
Brunch
a blend taken early at lunchtime, was)
(first recorded in 1896
Travelogue
.travel + monologue, in 1903)

.Cont
The modern usage of blend as a technical
term is quite strict. This is because the
essential feature of a blend is that there
be no point at which you can break the
word with everything to the left of the
breaking being morpheme and every thing
to the right is being a morpheme, and with
the meaning of the blend word being a
function of the meaning of these
.morphemes

Examples
Keypad
Birdcage
Townhouse
They are regarded as compounds
because the elements being put
.together are words in their own right

?What about
Megastar
Cyberspace
Hypertext
They are all compounds because
they are combinations of freestanding words with prefixes or
. suffixes

.Cont
The terminology is complicated by a
subsidiary process in which blends can
give rise to new prefixes which then
affect the classification of later
.creations

Examples
Motorcade ,formed as a blend of
motor and cavalcade, which created
a new suffix cade that has been
.used in many words

.Ex
Similarly, the prefix info- deriving
from information has become
heavily used in terms such as
Infoglut
Infoaut
Infomercial

.Cont
Other examples are
cyber- ( created from cybernetics)
thon ( from marathon )-

Examples
Franglish
Spanglish
Japlish
These blends describe a language
which has been heavily influenced
.by English

.Cont
Brunch
(a blend of breakfast and lunch )
Telex
(from teleprinter and exchange)
Animatronics
(animated+ electronics)
Camcorder
(camera+ recorder)

.Cont
The boundary between the first and
second components of blends can
.occur at various points

.Cont
Smog
Sm[oke f]og
Boost
Boo[st hoi]st

.Cont
Because
(by+ cause)
Goodbye
(God +be [with] +you)
Intercom
internal+ communication)
Motel
(motor+ hotel)

For example
Interpol

Newcast

international police

news broadcast

Backformation
Typically, a word of one type
(usually a noun) is reduced to form
another word of one type (usually
a verb). A good example of
backformation is the process in
whereby the noun television first
came into use and the verb
.televise was created from it

:Examples

edit
donate
emote

(from editor)
(from donation)
(from emotion)

Borrowing
One of the most common sources
of new words in English is the
process simply labeled borrowing,
that is, the taking over of words
.from other languages

.Cont
The English Language had adopted a
vast number of loan-words from
other languages, including alcohol
(Arabic), boss (Dutch), croissant
(French), lilac (Persian), piano
. (Italian) and yogurt (Turkish)

.Cont
Other languages borrow terms from
English, as can be observed in the
Japanese use of suupaamaaketto
.(supermarket)