What is the definition of word formation

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For the geological formation, see Word Formation. For the study of the origin and historical development of words, see Etymology.

In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term^[1] that can refer to either:

• the processes through which words can change^[2] (i.e. morphology), or
• the creation of new lexemes in a particular language

Morphological[edit]

A common method of word formation is the attachment of inflectional or derivational affixes.

Derivation[edit]

Examples include:

• the words governor, government, governable, misgovern, ex-governor, and ungovernable are all derived from the base word (to) govern^[3]

Inflection[edit]

Inflection is modifying a word for the purpose of fitting it into the grammatical structure of a sentence.^[4] For example:

• manages and managed are inflected from the base word (to) manage^[1]
• worked is inflected from the verb (to) work
• talks, talked, and talking are inflected from the base (to) talk^[3]

Nonmorphological[edit]

Abbreviation[edit]

Examples includes:

• etc. from et caetera

Acronyms & Initialisms[edit]

An acronym is a word formed from the first letters of other words.^[5] For example:

• NASA is the acronym for National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• IJAL (pronounced /aidʒæl/) is the acronym for International Journal of American Linguistics

Acronyms are usually written entirely in capital letters, though some words originating as acronyms, like radar, are now treated as common nouns.^[6]

Initialisms are similar to acronyms, but where the letters are pronounced as a series of letters. For example:

• ATM for Automated Teller Machine
• SIA for Singapore International Airlines^[1]

Back-formation[edit]

In linguistics, back-formation is the process of forming a new word by removing actual affixes, or parts of the word that is re-analyzed as an affix, from other words to create a base.^[3] Examples include:

• the verb headhunt is a back-formation of headhunter
• the verb edit is formed from the noun editor^[3]
• the word televise is a back-formation of television

The process is motivated by analogy: edit is to editor as act is to actor. This process leads to a lot of denominal verbs.

The productivity of back-formation is limited, with the most productive forms of back-formation being hypocoristics.^[3]

Blending[edit]

A lexical blend is a complex word typically made of two word fragments. For example:

• smog is a blend of smoke and fog
• brunch is a blend of breakfast and lunch.^[5]
• stagflation is a blend of stagnation and inflation^[1]
• chunnel is a blend of channel and tunnel,^[1] referring to the Channel Tunnel

Although blending is listed under the Nonmorphological heading, there are debates as to how far blending is a matter of morphology.^[1]

Compounding[edit]

Compounding is the processing of combining two bases, where each base may be a fully-fledged word. For example:

• desktop is formed by combining desk and top
• railway is formed by combining rail and way
• firefighter is formed by combining fire and fighter^[3]

Compounding is a topic relevant to syntax, semantics, and morphology.^[2]

Word formation vs. Semantic change[edit]

There are processes for forming new dictionary items which are not considered under the umbrella of word formation.^[1] One specific example is semantic change, which is a change in a single word’s meaning. The boundary between word formation and semantic change can be difficult to define as a new use of an old word can be seen as a new word derived from an old one and identical to it in form.

References[edit]

See also[edit]

• Neologism

In linguistics (particularly morphology and lexicology), word formation refers to the ways in which new words are formed on the basis of other words or morphemes. This is also known as derivational morphology.

Word formation can denote either a state or a process, and it can be viewed either diachronically (through different periods in history) or synchronically (at one particular period in time).

In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, David Crystal writes about word formations: 

«Most English vocabulary arises by making new lexemes out of old ones — either by adding an affix to previously existing forms, altering their word class, or combining them to produce compounds. These processes of construction are of interest to grammarians as well as lexicologists. … but the importance of word-formation to the development of the lexicon is second to none. … After all, almost any lexeme, whether Anglo-Saxon or foreign, can be given an affix, change its word class, or help make a compound. Alongside the Anglo-Saxon ​root in ​kingly, for example, we have the French root in royally and the Latin root in regally. There is no elitism here. The processes of affixation, conversion, and compounding are all great levelers.»

Processes of Word Formation

Ingo Plag explains the process of word formation in Word-Formation in English:

«Apart from the processes that attach something to a base (affixation) and processes that do not alter the base (conversion), there are processes involving the deletion of material. … English Christian names, for example, can be shortened by deleting parts of the base word (see (11a)), a process also occasionally encountered with words that are not personal names (see (11b)). This type of word formation is called truncation, with the term clipping also being used.»

(11a) Ron (-Aaron)
(11a) Liz (-Elizabeth)
(11a) Mike (-Michael)
(11a) Trish (-Patricia)
(11b) condo (-condominium)
(11b) demo (-demonstration)
(11b) disco (-discotheque)
(11b) lab (-laboratory)

«Sometimes truncation and affixation can occur together, as with formations expressing intimacy or smallness, so-called diminutives:»

(12) Mandy (-Amanda)
(12) Andy (-Andrew)
(12) Charlie (-Charles)
(12) Patty (-Patricia)
(12) Robbie (-Roberta)

«We also find so-called blends, which are amalgamations of parts of different words, such as smog (smoke/fog) or modem (modulator/demodulator). Blends based on orthography are called acronyms, which are coined by combining the initial letters of compounds or phrases into a pronounceable new word (NATO, UNESCO, etc.) Simple abbreviations like UK or USA are also quite common.»

Academic Studies of Word-Formation

In the preface to the Handbook of Word-Formation, Pavol Stekauer and Rochelle Lieber write:

«Following years of complete or partial neglect of issues concerning word formation (by which we mean primarily derivation, compounding, and conversion), the year 1960 marked a revival—some might even say a resurrection—of this important field of linguistic study. While written in completely different theoretical frameworks (structuralist vs. transformationalist), both Marchand’s Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation in Europe and Lee’s Grammar of English Nominalizations instigated systematic research in the field. As a result, a large number of seminal works emerged over the next decades, making the scope of word-formation research broader and deeper, thus contributing to better understanding of this exciting area of human language.»

In «Introduction: Unravelling the Cognitive in Word Formation.» Cognitive Perspectives on Word Formation, Alexander Onysko and Sascha Michel explain:

«[R]ecent voices stressing the importance of investigating word formation in the light of cognitive processes can be interpreted from two general perspectives. First of all, they indicate that a structural approach to the architecture of words and a cognitive view are not incompatible. On the contrary, both perspectives try to work out regularities in language. What sets them apart is the basic vision of how language is encapsulated in the mind and the ensuing choice of terminology in the description of the processes. … [C]ognitive linguistics concedes closely to the self-organizing nature of humans and their language, whereas generative-structuralist perspectives represent external boundaries as given in the institutionalized order of human interaction.»

Birth and Death Rates of Words

In their report «Statistical Laws Governing Fluctuations in Word Use from Word Birth to Word Death,» Alexander M. Petersen, Joel Tenenbaum, Shlomo Havlin, and H. Eugene Stanley conclude:

«Just as a new species can be born into an environment, a word can emerge in a language. Evolutionary selection laws can apply pressure on the sustainability of new words since there are limited resources (topics, books, etc.) for the use of words. Along the same lines, old words can be driven to extinction when cultural and technological factors limit the use of a word, in analogy to the environmental factors that can change the survival capacity of a living species by altering its ability to survive and reproduce.»

Sources

• Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Onysko, Alexander, and Sascha Michel. “Introduction: Unravelling the Cognitive in Word Formation.” Cognitive Perspectives on Word Formation, 2010, pp. 1–26., doi:10.1515/9783110223606.1.
• Petersen, Alexander M., et al. “Statistical Laws Governing Fluctuations in Word Use from Word Birth to Word Death.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 15 Mar. 2012, www.nature.com/articles/srep00313.
• Plag, Ingo. Word-Formation in English. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Stekauer, Pavol, and Rochelle Lieber. Handbook of Word-Formation. Springer, 2005.

It’s
a process of creating new words from material available in the
language after a certain structural and semantic formulas and
pattern, forming words by combining root & affix morphemes.

2 Types of word formation:

1)
Compounding (словосложение)

2)
Word – derivation

Within
the types further distinction may be made between the ways of forming
words. The basic way of forming words is word-derivation affixation
and conversion apart from this shortening and a number of minor ways
of formal words such as back-forming, blending, sound imitation are
traditionally referred to formation.

Different types of word
formation:

Affixation
is
the formation of new words by means of suffixes and prefixes to
stemsbasis.

Affixes may be grouped

1) according to their
linguistic origin. We distinguish affixes of Germanic origin (full,
less), of Romanic origin (ion), of Greek origin (ise, izm);

2) according to the parts of
speech. We distinguish noun forming, adj. forming and verb forming
affixes;

3)
according to semantic functions. They may denote persons, quality,
negation. Many suffixes originated from separate words: hood
originated for the noun hood, which meant state or condition; full –
полный
(adj. In O.E) now it is suffix. Suffixes may change the part of
speech: critic (al).

All
suffixes are divided into lexical
and grammatical.

Lexical
suffixes build new word. Productive
affixes. For
ex: read-readable, happy-happiness, act-actor.

Grammatical
suffixes change the grammatical form of a word. Often used to create
neologisms and nonce-words (I
don’t like Sunday evenings: I feel so mondayish).

For ex: finish-finished, say-says, rose-roses.

Some
productive suffixes:

Noun
forming – er,
ing, is, ist, ance

Adj
– forming – y,
ish, ed, able, less

Adv
– forming – ly

Verb – forming — Ize, /ise,
ate

Prefixies
—
Un, die, re

Conversion
(zero derivation) it is one of the major ways of enriching EV &
referrers to the numerous cases of phonetic identity of word forms of
2 words belonging to different part of speech.. The new word has a
meaning which differs from that of original one though it can ><
be associated with it. nurse
(noun) to nurse – to feed

A certain stem is used for the
formation of a categorically different word without a derivative
element being added.

Bag
– to bag, Back – to back , Bottle – to bottle This
specific pattern is very productive in English

The
most popular types are noun →verb or verb→noun To
take off – a take off

Conversion
can be total
or partial.
Partial: the then
president (тогдашний).
An adverb is used as an adjective, only in this particular context.
Total: work
– to work

Conversion
may be the result of shading of English endings. The historical
changes may be briefly outlined as follows: in O.E. a verb and a noun
of the same root were distinguished by their endings. For ex: the
verb ‘to love’ had a form (Old Eng.) ‘lufian’. This verb had
personal conjunctions. The noun ‘love’ had the form ‘lufu’
with different case endings. But in the course of time, the personal
and case endings were lost. There are numerous pairs of words (e. g.
love, n. — to love, v.; work, n. — to work, v.; drink, n. — to
drink, v., etc.) which did, not occur due to conversion but coincided
as a result of certain historical processes (dropping of endings,
simplification of stems) when before that they had different forms
(e. g. O. E. lufu, n. — lufian, v.).

The
two categories of parts of speech especially affected by conversion
are nouns and verbs. Verbs made from nouns are the most numerous
amongst the words produced by conversion: e. g. to
hand, to back, to face, to eye, to mouth, to nose, to dog, to wolf,
to monkey, to can, to coal, to stage, to screen, to room, to floor,
to blackmail, to blacklist, to honeymoon,
and very many others.

Nouns
are frequently made from verbs: do (e. g. This
is the queerest do I»ve ever come across.
Do — event, incident), go (e. g. He
has still plenty of go at his age.
Go — energy), make,
run, find, catch, cut, walk, worry, show, move,
etc. Verbs can also be made from adjectives: to
pale, to yellow, to cool, to grey, to rough
(e. g. We
decided to rough it in the tents as the weather was warm),
etc.

Other
parts of speech are not entirely unsusceptible to conversion as the
following examples show: to
down, to out (as in a newspaper heading Diplomatist Outed from
Budapest), the ups and downs, the ins and outs, like, n, (as in the
like of me and the like of you).

Compounding
& word comparison. Compound
words are made of 2 derivational stems. The types of structure of CW:
neutral,
morphological &syntactic.

In
neutral
compound
the process is released without any linking elements sunflower.
There
are three types of neutral compounds simple compounds went a compound
consist of a simple affixes stems.

Derivate/
derivational compound
— has affixes babysitter.

Contracted
–
has a shorten stems. TV-set

Morphological
C –
few
in number. This type is non productive. Represented by words, where 2
stems are combined by a linking vowel/ consonant Anglo-Saxon,
statesman, craftsmanship.

Syntactic
C
– formed of segments of speech preserving articles, prepositions,
adverbs. Mother-in-law

Reduplication.
New
word are made by stem ether without any phonetic changes Bye-Bye
or variation of a root vowel or consonant ping-pong

Shortening.
There
are 2 ways of producing them:

1.
The word is formed from the syllable of the original word which in
term may loose its beginning –phone,
its ending vac
(vacation) or
both
fridge.

2.
The word is formed from the initial letter of a word group BB,
bf – boyfriend. Acronyms are
shorten words but read as one UNO
[ju:nou]

TYPES OF WF

Sound
imitation – words
are made by imitating different links of sounds that may be produced
by animals, birds…bark
– лаять,
mew – мяукать…some
names of animals, birds & insects are made by SI coo-coo
– кукушка,
crow – ворона.

To
glide, to slip are
supposed to convey the very sound of the smooth easy movement over a
slippery surface.

Back
formation a
verb is produced from a noun by subtraction (вычитание)
bagger
– to bag, babysitter – to babysit

Blending
— Is
blending part of two words to form one word (merging into one word),
combining letters/sounds they have in common as a connecting element.
Smoke
+ fog = smog, Breakfast + lunch = brunch, Smoke + haze = smaze
(дымка)

—
addictive type: they are transformable into a phrase consisting of
two words combined by a conjunction “and” smog
→ smoke & fog

—
blending of restrictive type: transformable into an attributive
phrase, where the first element serves as modifier of a second.
Positron
– positive electron,
Medicare
– medical care

Borrowings.
Contemporary
English is a unique mixture of Germanic & Romanic elements. This
mixing has resulted in the international character of the vocabulary.
In the comparison with other languages English possesses great
richness of vocabulary.

All languages are mixtures to
a greater or lesser extent, but the present day English vocabulary is
unique in this respect.

A brief look on various
historical strata of the English vocabulary:

1) through cultural contacts
with Romans partly already on the continent and all through the
influence of Christianity a very early stratum of Latin-Greek words
entered the language.

Their origin is no longer felt
by the normal speaker today in such word: pound, mint, mustard,
school, dish, chin, cleric, cheese, devil, pepper, street, gospel,
bishop.

The
same can be said about some Scandinavian words (from about the 10^th
century) that today belong to the central core of the vocabulary.

It
means that their frequency is very high. They,
their, them, sky, skin, skill, skirt, ill, dies, take… They
partly supersede the number of OE words OE
heofon – heaven (sky) Niman – take
Steorfan – die

A
more radical change & profound influence on the English
vocabulary occurred on 1066 (Norman Conquest). Until the 15^th
cent., a great number of French words were adopted. They belong to
the areas of court,
church, law, state.

Virtue, religion,
parliament, justice, noble, beauty, preach, honour…

The
influx of the words was the strongest up to the 15^th
cent., but continued up to the 17^th
cent.

Many French borrowings
retained their original pronunciation & stress

Champagne,
ballet, machine, garage…

Separate, attitude,
constitute, introduce…

Adjectives in English –
arrogant, important, patient

Sometimes with their
derivatives:

Demonstrative –
demonstration

Separate – separation

17-18 cc. due to the
establishing of cultural, trade relations many words were borrowed
from Italian, Spanish, Dutch, French.

Italian:
libretto,
violin, opera

Spanish:
hurricane, tomato, tobacco

Dutch:
yacht,
dog, landscape

French:
bouquet,
buffet

From the point of view of
their etymology formal words are normally of classical Romanic
origin, informal – Anglo-Saxon.

Nowadays many Americanisms
become familiar due to the increase of transatlantic travel & the
influence of broadcast media.

Even
in London (Heathrow airport) “baggage”
instead of “luggage”

The present day English
vocabulary is from being homogeneous.

6.
Neologisms new
word expressions are created for new things irrespective of their
scale of importance. They may be all important and concern some
social relationships (new form/ state)
People’s republic. Or
smth threatening the very existence of humanity nuclear
war
or the thing may be short lived. N
is
a newly coined word, phrase/ a new meaning for an existing word / a
word borrowed from another language.

The
development of science and industry technology: black
hole, internet, supermarket.

The
adaptive lexical system isn’t only adding new units but readjust
the ways & means of word formation radio
detection and ranging – RADAR

The
lex. System may adopt itself by combining several word-building
processes face-out
(noun) – the radioactive dust descending through the air after an
anatomic explosion. This
word was coined by composition/ compounding & conversion.

Teach
–in (n) –a student conference/ series of seminars on some burning
issue of the day, meaning some demonstration on protest. This
pattern is very frequent lis–in
, due-in
means protest demonstration when fluking traffic. Bionies
– the
combination of bio & electron.

Back
formation:
air-condion
– air-conditioner – air-conditioning

Semi-affixes
(могут
быть
как
самостоятельные
слова)
chairman
used
to be not numerous and might be treated as exceptions now, evolving
into separate set.

Some
N abscessed with smth and containing the elements mad
& happy: powermad, moneymad, auto-happy.

Conversion, composition,
semantic change are in constant use when coining N

The
change of meaning rather an introduction of a new additional meaning
may be illustrated by the word NETWORK
– stations for simultaneous broadcast of the same program.

Once
accepted N may become a basis for further word formation. ZIP
– to zip – zipper –
zippy.

The
lex. System is unadaptive system, developing for many centuries and
reflecting the changing needs, servicing only in special context.
Archaism
& historisms.

Archaism
–
once common but are now replaced by synonyms. Mostly they are poetic:
morn
– arch, morning – new word, hapless – arch, unlucky – modern.

Historism
– when
the causes of the word’s disappearance are extralinguistic, eg. The
thing named is no longer used. They are very numerous as names for
social relations, institutions, objects of material culture of the
past, eg. many types of sailing craft belong to the past: caravels,
galleons.A
great many of
H
denotes various types of weapons in historical novels: blunderbuss
— мушкетер,
breastplate. Many
of them are in Voc in some figurative meaning: shiel
– щит,
sword. – меч.

7.
Homonymy.
Different
in meaning, but identical in sound or spelling form

Sources:

1.
The result of split of polysemy capital
– столица,
заглавная
буква

Homonymy
differs from polysemy because there is no semantic bond (связь)
between homonyms; it has been lost & doesn’t exist.

2.
as the result of leveling of grammar in flections, when different
parts of speech become identical in their forms. Care
(in OE) — caru(n), care (OE) – carian (v)

3.
By conversion
slim – to slim, water – to water

4.
With the help of the same suffix fro the same stem. Reader
– the person who reads/a book for reading.

5.
Accidentally. Native words can coincide in their form beran
– to bear, bera (animal) – to bear

6.
Shortening of different words. Cab
(cabriolet, cabbage, cabin)

Homonyms can be of 3 kinds:

1.
Homonyms proper (the sound & the spelling are identical)
bat – bat
— flying
animal (летучая
мышь)
— cricket bat (бита,
back — part of body, away from the front, go to back

2.
Homophones (the same sound form but different spelling)
flower – flour, sole – soul, rain – reign, bye-by-buy

3.
Homographs (the same spelling)
tear [iə] – tear [εə, lead [i:] – lead [e]

Homonyms in English are very
numerous. Oxford English Dictionary registers 2540 homonyms, of which
89% are monosyllabic words and 9,1% are two-syllable words.

So,
most homonyms are monosyllabic words. The trend towards
monosyllabism, greatly increased by the loss of inflections and
shortening, must have contributed much toward increasing the number
of homonyms in English.

Among the other ways of
creating homonyms the following processes must be mentioned:

From
the viewpoint of their origin homonyms are sometimes divided into
historical and etymological. Historical
homonyms are those which result from the breaking up of polysemy;
then one polysemantic word will split up into two or more separate
words. Etymo1ogiсal
homonyms are words of different origin which come to be alike in
sound or in spelling (and may be both written and pronounced alike).

Borrowed
and native words can coincide in form, thus producing homonyms (as in
the above given examples). In other cases homonyms are a result of
borrowing when several different words become identical in sound or
spelling. E.g. the Latin vitim — «wrong», «an immoral
habit» has given the English vice — вада
«evil conduct»; the Latin vitis -«spiral» has
given the English »vice» — тиски
«apparatus with strong jaws in which things can be hold
tightly»; the Latin vice — «instead of», «in
place of» will be found in vice — president.

8.
Synonymy.

A
synonym – a word of similar or identical meaning to one or more
words in the same language. All languages contain synonyms but in
English they exist in superabundance. There no two absolutely
identical words because connotations, ways of usage, frequency of an
occurrence are different. Senses of synonyms are identical in respect
of central semantic trades (denotational meaning) but differ in
respect of minor semantic trades (connotational). In each group of S
there’s a word with the most general meaning, with can substitute
any word of the group. TO
LOOK AT — to glance – to stare

Classification:

Weather the different in
denotational/ connotational component

1.
Ideographic
synonyms. They
bear the same idea but not identical in their referential content,
different shades of meaning or degree. BEAUTIFUL
– fine, handsome – pretty,
to
ascent – to mount – to climb.

2.
Stylistic
synonyms. Different
in emotive and stylistic sphere.

child girl happiness	Infant maid bliss	Kid
neutral	elevated	colloquial
To die	To kick the bucket

Eat
— Devour (degradation),
Face
— muzzle
(морда)

Synonymic condensation is
typical of the English language.

It
refers to situations when writers or speakers bring together several
words with one & the same meaning to add more conviction, to
description more vivid. Ex.:
Lord & master, First & foremost, Safe & secure,
Stress & strain, by force & violence

Among
synonyms there’s a special group of words –
euphemism used
to substitute some unpleasant or offensive words. Drunk
– marry

According to interchangability
context S are classified

3.
Total
synonyms
An extremely rare occurrence. Ulman: “a luxury that language
can hardly afford.” M. Breal spoke about a law of distribution in
the language (words should be synonyms, were synonyms in the past
usually acquire different meanings and are no longer
interchangeable). Ex.: fatherland
— motherland

4.
Contextual
synonyms.
Context can emphasize some certain semantic trades & suppress
other semantic trades; words with different meaning can become
synonyms in a certain context. Ex.: tasteless
– dull, Active – curious, Curious – responsive

Synonyms can reflect social
conventions.

Ex.:

clever	bright	brainy	intelligent	Dever-clever
neutral	Only speaking about younger people by older people	Is not used by the higher educated people	Positive connotation	Stylistically remarked

5.
Dialectical
synonyms.
Ex.:
lift – elevator, Queue – line, autumn – fall

6.
Relative
some
authors classify group like:
like – love – adore, famous- celebrated – eminentthey
denote different degree of the same notion or different shades of
meanings and can be substituted only in some context.

Antonymy.
Words
belonging to the same part of speech identical in speech expressing
contrary or contradictory notion.

Комиссаров
В.Н.
classify them into absolute/
root (late/early)they
have different roots
,
derivational (to
please-to
displease) the
same root but different affixes. In most cases “-“ prefixes from
antonyms an,
dis, non.
Sometimes they are formed by suffixes full
& less.
But they do not always substitute each other selfless
– selfish, successful – unsuccessful .the
same with “-“ prefixes
to appoint – to disappoint.

The
difference is not only in structure but in semantic. The DA
express
contradictory notions, one of then excludes the other active
– inactive. The
AA
express
contrary notion: ugly
–
plain – good-looking – pretty –
beautiful

Antonimy
is
distinguished from complementarily
by being based on different logical relationshipd for pairs of
antonyms like
good – bad, big – small.
He
is good (not bad). He is not good (doesn’t imply he is bad).
The negation (отрицание)
of one term doesn’t implies the assertion of the other.

John
Lines suggests proper
hot-warm
– tapped – cold &
complementary antonyms only
2 words negative and assertion not
male — female.

There’s
also one type of semantic opposition conversives
words
denote one reference as viewed from different points of view that of
the subject & that of the object.
Bye
– sell, give — receive

Conversness
is
minor image relations of functions husband
– wife, pupil – teacher, above – below, before — after

9.
Phraseology.
Phrasiological units/ idioms – motivated word group. They are
reproduced as readymade units. Express a singe notion, used in
sentence as one part of it.

Idiomaticy
—
PU when the meaning of the whole
is
not deducible from the sum of the meanings of the parts. Stability
of PU implies that it exist as a readymade linguistic unit, which
doesn’t allow of any variability of its lexical component of gr.
Structure.

In
ling. literature the term
Phraseology is
used for the expressions where the meaning of one element is depended
on the other. Vinogradov: “irrespective of structure and properties
of the units”. Smernitsky: “it denotes only such set expressions
which do not possess expressiveness or emotional coloring”. Arnold:
“it says that only denotes such set expressions that are
imaginative, expressive and emotional”. Ammosova call them fixed
context units – we
can’t substitute an element without changing the meaning of the
whole. Ahmanova insists on the semantic intearity of such phrases:
“prevailing over the structural separates of their element”.
Kuning lays stress on the structural separatness of the elements in
the PU on the change of meaning in the whole as compared with its
elements taken separately with its elements and on a certain minimum
stability.

Phraseology
(Webster’s
dictionary) mode of expression peculiarities of diction. That is
choice and arrangement of words and phrases characteristic of some
author.there are difficult terms. Idioms word equivalents & these
difficult units or terminology reflects certain differences in the
main criteria used to distinguish.

The
features: 1.
lack of semantic motivation 2. Lexical & grammatical stability

Semantic
classification:2
criteria: 1). The degree of semantic isolation 2). The degree of
disinformation

1.
Opaque in meaning (трудный
для
понимания)
the meaning of the individual words can’t be summed together to
produce the meaning of the whole.to
kick the bucket = to die It
contains no clue to the idiomatic meaning of this expression.The
degree of semantic isolation is the highest.

The 3 typesof PU:

1.
Phraseological fusions. The degree of motivation is very low. one
component preserves its direct meaning Ex.:
to pass the buck = to pass responsibility – свалить
ответственность,

2.
Phraseological unities. Clearly motivated. Transparent both
components in their direct meaning but the combination acquires
figurative sense to
see the light = to understand, old salt — морской
волк

3.
Phraseological combinations. There is a component used in its
direct meaning. There are lots of idioms (proverbs, saying). To
be good at smth.:
Curiosity
killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back
Idioms institutionalized formulas of politeness:How
do you do?Good-bye (God be with you) How about a drink?

Structural classification
of PU

Prof. A.I. Smirnitsky worked
out structural classification of phraseological units, comparing them
with words. He points out one-top units which he compares with
derived words because derived words have only one root morpheme. He
points out two-top units which he compares with compound words
because in compound words we usually have two root morphemes.

Among
one-top units he
points out three structural types;

a)
units of the type «to give up» (verb + postposition type), e.g. to
art up, to back up, to drop out, to nose out, to buy into, to
sandwich in etc.;

b)
units of the type «to be tired» . Some of these units remind the
Passive Voice in their structure but they have different prepositions
with them, while in the Passive Voice we can have only prepositions
«by» or «with», e.g. to
be tired of, to be interested in, to be surprised at etc.
There are also units in this type which remind free word-groups of
the type «to be young», e.g. to be akin to, to be aware of etc.
The difference between them is that the adjective «young» can be
used as an attribute and as a predicative in a sentence, while the
nominal component in such units can act only as a predicative. In
these units the verb is the grammar centre and the second component
is the semantic centre;

c)
Prepositional- nominal phraseological units. These units are
equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions,
adverbs, that is why they have no grammar centre, their semantic
centre is the nominal part, e.g.
On the doorstep (quite near), on the nose (exactly), in the course
of, on the stroke of, in time, on the point of
etc. In the course of time such units can become words, e.g.
tomorrow,
instead etc.

Among
two-top units
A.I. Smirnitsky points out the following structural types:

a) attributive-nominal such
as: a month of Sundays, grey matter, a millstone round one’s neck
and many others. Units of this type are noun equivalents and can be
partly or perfectly idiomatic. In partly idiomatic units (phrasisms)
sometimes the first component is idiomatic, e.g. high road, in other
cases the second component is idiomatic, e.g. first night. In many
cases both components are idiomatic, e.g. red tape, blind alley, bed
of nail, shot in the arm and many others.

b) verb-nominal phraseological
units, e.g. to read between the lines , to speak BBC, to sweep under
the carpet etc. The grammar centre of such units is the verb, the
semantic centre in many cases is the nominal component, e.g. to fall
in love. In some units the verb is both the grammar and the semantic
centre, e.g. not to know the ropes. These units can be perfectly
idiomatic as well, e.g. to burn one’s boats,to vote with one’s
feet, to take to the cleaners’ etc.

Very close to such units are
word-groups of the type to have a glance, to have a smoke. These
units are not idiomatic and are treated in grammar as a special
syntactical combination, a kind of aspect.

c) phraseological repetitions,
such as : now or never, part and parcel , country and western etc.
Such units can be built on antonyms, e.g. ups and downs , back and
forth; often they are formed by means of alliteration, e.g cakes and
ale, as busy as a bee. Components in repetitions are joined by means
of conjunctions. These units are equivalents of adverbs or adjectives
and have no grammar centre. They can also be partly or perfectly
idiomatic, e.g. cool as a cucumber (partly), bread and butter
(perfectly).

Phraseological units the same
as compound words can have more than two tops (stems in compound
words), e.g. to take a back seat, a peg to hang a thing on, lock,
stock and barrel, to be a shaddow of one’s own self, at one’s own
sweet will.

Syntactical classification
of PU

Phraseological
units can be classified as parts of speech. This classification was
suggested by I.V. Arnold. Here we have the following groups:

a) noun phraseologisms
denoting an object, a person, a living being, e.g. bullet train,
latchkey child, redbrick university, Green Berets,

b) verb phraseologisms
denoting an action, a state, a feeling, e.g. to break the log-jam, to
get on somebody’s coattails, to be on the beam, to nose out , to
make headlines,

c) adjective phraseologisms
denoting a quality, e.g. loose as a goose, dull as lead ,

d) adverb phraseological
units, such as : with a bump, in the soup, like a dream , like a dog
with two tails,

e) preposition phraseological
units, e.g. in the course of, on the stroke of ,

f) interjection phraseological
units, e.g. «Catch me!», «Well, I never!» etc.

In I.V.Arnold’s
classification there are also sentence equivalents, proverbs, sayings
and quatations, e.g. «The sky is the limit», «What makes him
tick», » I am easy». Proverbs are usually metaphorical, e.g. «Too
many cooks spoil the broth», while sayings are as a rule
non-metaphorical, e.g. «Where there is a will there is a way».

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PRONUNCIATION OF WORD FORMATION

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF WORD FORMATION

Word formation is a noun.

WHAT DOES WORD FORMATION MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Definition of word formation in the English dictionary

The definition of word formation in the dictionary is the formation of words, for example by adding prefixes or suffixes to roots.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH WORD FORMATION

TRANSLATION OF WORD FORMATION

Find out the translation of word formation to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «WORD FORMATION»

The term «word formation» is regularly used and occupies the 58.863 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

Principal search tendencies and common uses of word formation

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10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «WORD FORMATION»

Discover the use of word formation in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to word formation and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «WORD FORMATION»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term word formation is used in the context of the following news items.

REFERENCE

« EDUCALINGO. Word formation [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/word-formation>. Apr 2023 ».

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Definition

Word Formation Process (also called Morphological Process) is a means by which new words are produced either by modification of existing words or by complete innovation, which in turn become a part of the language.

Types of Word Formation Processes

Different types of word formation processes are employed to create new words. However, all word formation processes basically bring either inflectional or derivational changes. Therefore, inflection (also called inflexion) and derivation are the two core processes of word formation. Inflection differs from derivation to the following extent:

Inflection	Derivation
Produces grammatical variants of the same word.	Produces a new word on the basis of an existing word.
Modifies a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case.	Changes the word class (also called parts of speech; form class; lexical class; syntactic category).
Does not change the meaning of a word. For example: determine→ determines, determining, determined.	Modifies the meaning of the root. For example: modern → modernize (to make modern).

The major word formation processes include but are not limited to the following:

Affixation

It is a word formation process wherein an affix is attached to a root (also called stem; base) to form a new word. A root is a free morpheme (also called unbound morpheme) that can appear alone. On the other hand, an Affix is a bound morpheme which never occurs by itself, but is always attached to some free morpheme and can be either inflectional or derivational. An Inflectional affix modifies the form/grammatical category of a word, i.e., tense, person, number, gender, case, etc. For example: rat → rats. Contrariwise, a derivational affix modifies the parts of speech of the root, while leaving the grammatical category unchanged. In this way, there is a change of meaning of the root. For example: write → writer.

In English there are two types of affixations:

1. Prefixation: In this morphological process words are formed by adding an affix to the front of a root. The type of affix used in this process is referred to as prefix. For example: un + tidy → untidy
2. Suffixation: In this morphological process words are formed by adding an affix to the end of a root. The type of affix used in this process is referred to as suffix. For example: fear + less → fearless

Conversion

This refers to the change of function or parts of speech of a word without adding an affix. Conversion is also called zero derivation or null derivation since the functional change is brought about by supplementing an invisible affix. Sometimes it is also called functional shift. Typically conversion is made from “noun to verb” and from “verb to noun”. Less frequently, conversion is also done from “adjective to verb” and “adjective to noun”. For instance:

 Noun to Verb:  

• access
• email
• film
• name
• shape

Verb to Noun:

• attack
• alert
• hope
• increase
• visit
• cover

Adjective to Verb:

• brown
• black
• slow

Adjective to Noun:

• crazy
• nasty

Back-formation

Back-formation is a morphological process in which new word is created by extracting affixes from another word. In this way, it is the reverse of affixation, in which affixes are added. Back-formation is also different from clipping since it brings a change in the parts of speech or the word’s meaning. For example: the noun insertion has been back-formed into verb insert by removing the suffix ion.

Clipping

As the name suggests, clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced to a shorter form. With a sharp contrast to back-formation, clipping keeps the original word meaning intact. These words are very common in everyday speech. For instance: lab is the clipped form of laboratory. . There are four types of clippings:

1. Back clipping: (also called final clipping; apocope) it involves the truncation of end of a word as in ad from advertisement.
2. Fore-clipping: (also called initial clipping; apheresis) it is the removal of the beginning of a word as in phone from telephone.
3. Middle clipping: (also medial clipping; syncope) it is the extraction of the beginning and end of a word as in flu from influenza.
4. Complex clipping: is removing multiple parts from multiple words as in cablegram from cabletelegram.

Compounding

Also called composition, by this process two or more than two words are combined together to create a single word, having a single idea and function. In English, there are compound nouns, compound adjectives, and compound verbs. Customarily compound words are spelt as a single word, or as two or more hyphenated words, and even as two or more separate words. For example:

• life + style → lifestyle
• mother + in + law → mother-in-law
• shopping + mall → shopping mall

There are no specific rules for hyphenated compounds. Generally, some new and original compound nouns are hyphenated, but the hyphen is ignored when they become more familiar. However, there are some compound adjectives that are always hyphenated. For instance: state-of-the-art. The hyphen is often retained when two vowels come together, such as: Co-operation. Hyphens are often used to tell the ages of people and things, for example: 10-year-old. The general rule is that words are combined with hyphens to avoid confusion.

Borrowing

This refers to the words adopted from other languages. There are two types of borrowings:

1. Loan-word: By this process, a word is borrowed from another language without translating it into the target language. For example: the phrase tour-de-force is borrowed directly from French, which means a masterly or brilliant feat.
2. Loan-translation: Also known as calque, a morphological process wherein a word or phrase from another language is borrowed by literally translating it into the target language. For example: the phrase point of view has been translated into English from the French phrase point de vue.

Coinage

Also called invention, is a morphological process by which new words are invented. Sometimes popular trademark names of various products are adopted by people so extensively that they ultimately become the everyday words of language. For example:

• Heroin
• Aspirin
• Escalator
• Xerox
• Kerosene
• Nylon
• Band-Aid
• Vaseline
• Margarine
• Videotape

Again, some words are being invented due to rapid cultural changes and the spread of information technology, mass media, internet, etc. For example:

• Google
• Blog
• Hotspot
• Netbook
• Tablet
• Tweet
• Emoticon
• Smartphone

Blending

Blending (also called portmanteau) is a morphological process in which the parts of two or more words are combined together to form a new word. Usually, the parts consist of the beginning of one word and the end of the other word(s). Typically, the meaning of the blended word reverberates with the meanings of the original words. For example:

• breakfast + lunch → brunch
• motor+hotel → motel

However, blending should not be confused with compounding, which combines two words without truncation of parts of the roots of the blended words.

Acronyms

These words are formed with the initial letters or each of the major parts of a word or a longer phrase. With a few exceptions, acronyms are usually capitalized. Some linguists confuse acronyms with initialisms, which are also abbreviations formed in the similar manner as the former. In essence, there is a sharp difference between the two. In language, an acronym is pronounced as a single word rather than just a sequence of individual letters, which is characteristic of initialisms. For example:
Acronyms:

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization → UNESCO
• Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation → Laser
• International Criminal Police Organization → Interpol

Initialisms:

• Personal Computer → PC
• Asian Development Bank → ADB
• Liquid Crystal Display → LCD

Reduplication

Reduplication (also called cloning; doubling; duplication; repetition; tautonym) is a word formation process in which a new word is created by repeating all or part of a root or a stem, often with a change of vowel or initial consonant. Reduplication is not a major means of creating lexemes in English, but it is perhaps the most unusual one. Based on their usage, the techniques of reduplication could be classified in the following manner:

1. Repetition without Change: bye-bye, tick-tick
2. Rhyming Reduplication: ding-dong, super-duper, bow-wow
3. Repetition with Change of Vowel: tiptop, chitchat, flip-flop, ping-pong, dilly-dally, wishy-washy
4. Repetition with Change of Initial Consonant: teeny-weeny

 

 

 

References

“English Word Formation Processes.” Really Learn English. 2016. Really-Learn-English.com.

14 July 2016 <http://www.really-learn-english.com/word-formation-processes.html>.

 “Inflection.” Wikipedia. 2016. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 14 July 2016

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflection>.

“Morphological Derivation.” Wikipedia. 2016. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 14 July 2016

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_derivation>.

Yule, George. The Study of Language. 2^nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1996.

“Word Formation.” Wikipedia. 2016. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 14 July 2016

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_formation>.

Also found in: Wikipedia.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Word Formation

 

(1) The process or result of forming new words, called derived words, from words or word groups with the same root. Word formation occurs through formal means established within a given language that give a new or more precise meaning to the original elements. Such means include joining affixes to stems (Russian stol-ik, “little table”; za-stol’-n-yi, “at table”), joining several stems (uzko-kolei-nyi, “narrow-gauge”; gromko-govorit-el’, “loudspeaker”), transferring stems from one word class to another (rul’, “rudder”; rulit’, “to steer”; zoloto, “gold”; zolotoi, “golden”), and alternation within the stem (glukhoi, “remote”; glush’, “backwoods”).

Word formation is a means of deriving (generating) linguistic units in order to create a new one-word name having a semantic and formal connection with the original unit. It is an important means of supplementing vocabulary and forming specialized terms.

(2) The study of “how words are made” (L. V. Shcherba), how they are patterned, and by what unit (word or word group) their meaning is determined. Word formation is the branch of linguistics that examines derived words synchronically and diachronically and in terms of their origin and functioning, their productivity or unproductivity, and their use in different styles of speech.

Word formation has traditionally been considered a branch of lexicology or a branch of grammar equal in importance to morphology and syntax, or it has been assigned to morphology. Usually viewed as an independent linguistic (onomasiological) discipline, word formation ascertains and describes the structure and meaning of derived words, the components, classification, and patterns of derived words, and the basic devices and means of derivation. Word formation studies the alignment of derived words in series and families, as well as derivational meanings and categories. It establishes the structural and organizational principles of the derivational system as a whole. Word formation is distinct from inflection and the derivation of word forms.

REFERENCES

Vinogradov, V. V. “Slovoobrazovanie v ego otnoshenii k grammatike i leksikologii.” In the collection Voprosy teorii i istorii iazyka v svete trudov I. V. Stalinapoiazykoznaniiu. Moscow, 1952.
Arutiunova, N. D. “O poniatii sistemy slovoobrazovaniia.” Filologicheskie nauki, 1960, no. 2.
Kubriakova, E. S. Chto takoe slovoobrazovanie. Moscow, 1965.
Obshchee iazykoznanie. Moscow, 1973.
Zemskaia, E. A Sovremennyi russkii iazyk: Slovoobrazovanie. Moscow, 1973.

E. S. KUBRIAKOVA

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.