How are words formed? Are there any rules by which words are formed? Let’s find out. This article will walk you through what word formation is, the various types of word formation and the rules to be adhered to when forming words. The number of examples given will make your learning process more effective and easier. Check it out.
Table of Contents
- What Is Word Formation?
- Types of Word Formation with Examples
- Rules to be Followed When Forming Words
- Test Your Understanding of Word Formation
- Frequently Asked Questions on Word Formation in English
The English language is known for its wonderful quality of the way in which words and sentences are formed and used. Formation of new words from an existing root word by adding a syllable or another word is the general process; however, there are multiple ways in which it can be done.
Types of Word Formation with Examples
The formation of words is classified into four types based on how the process of formation is carried out. They are:
- By adding prefixes
- By adding suffixes
- Converting from one word class to another
- Forming compound words
Let us look at each type of word formation in detail.
Adding Prefixes
The term ‘prefix’ refers to one or more alphabets added to the stem of a word, mostly to make it negative. The most commonly used prefixes include ‘in-’, ‘un-’, ‘dis-’, ‘im-’, ‘ir-’, etc. Look at the examples given below for a clearer understanding of how prefixes are used to form new words.
Examples of Word Formation by the Addition of Prefixes
- Discipline – indiscipline
- Just – unjust
- Tidy – untidy
- Respect – disrespect
- Understand – misunderstand
- Comfortable – uncomfortable
- Comfort – discomfort
- Responsible – irresponsible
- Honest – dishonest
- Happy – unhappy
- Polite – impolite
- Experience – inexperience
- Practical – impractical
- Important – unimportant
- Legal – illegal
- Ethical – unethical
- Potent – impotent
Adding Suffixes
A suffix is a short syllable added at the end of a base word. The addition of suffixes usually changes the word class of the particular word. The most common suffixes include ‘-ment’, ‘-ness’, ‘-ity’, ‘-ous’, ‘-tion’, ‘-sion’, ‘-al’, ‘-able’, ‘-ible’, ‘-ive’, ‘-ly’, ‘-ate’, ‘-er’, ‘-or’, etc. Check out the following examples to see how suffixes are added.
Examples of Word Formation by the Addition of Suffixes
- Comprehend (verb) – comprehension (noun) – comprehensible (adjective)
- Inform (verb) – information (noun) – informative (adjective)
- Invest (verb) – Investment (noun) – Investor (noun)
- Write (verb) – writer (noun)
- Authorise (verb) – authorisation (noun)
- Move (verb) – movement (noun)
- Add (verb) – addition (noun)
- Happy (adjective) – happiness (noun)
- Conserve (verb) – conservation (noun)
- Wide (Adjective) – widen (verb)
- Manage (verb) – manageable (adjective) – manager (noun)
- Courage (noun) – courageous (adjective)
- Brave (adjective) – bravery (noun)
- Profit (noun) – profitable (adjective)
- Quick (adjective) – quickly (adverb)
- Happy (adjective) – happily (adverb)
- Sad (adjective) – sadness (noun)
Conversion
The process of conversion focuses solely on changing the word class of the particular word. If you have noticed, you would have seen how some nouns are used to perform the role of a verb or an adjective acting like a noun just by the addition of another word or slightly altering the spelling of the actual word.
Examples of Word Formation by Conversion
- The rich should help the poor.
Adjectives such as ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ are used as nouns by using them with the article ‘the’.
- Everyone is talented.
‘Talented’ – a past participle is used as an adjective in the above sentence. The word is formed by adding the suffix ‘ed’ to the end of the noun ‘talent’.
- There will definitely be a lot of ups and downs in life.
Prepositions ‘up’ and ‘down’ are used as nouns by adding ‘s’ to the end of it.
- He texted me about the meeting only at the last minute.
The noun ‘text’ used to refer to a text message sent on a phone is used as a verb in the sentence by adding an ‘ed’ to the end of the word.
- The financial aid had to be approved before we could make a decision.
The noun ‘finance’ is used as an adjective by adding ‘ial’ to the end of it and the verb ‘decide’ is used as a noun by removing ‘de’ and adding ‘sion’ to the word.
Forming Compound Words
Compound words are formed by combining one part of speech with another to form a specific word class. There are many ways in which compound words are formed. Verbs are combined with adjectives to form compound verbs, a present participle is combined with a noun to form a compound noun, two nouns are combined to form a compound noun, an adjective and a noun are combined to form a compound noun, an adverb is combined with a noun to form a compound noun, an adjective is combined with a past participle to form a compound adjective and so on. Take a look at the following examples and go through the articles on compound nouns, compound words and compound adjectives to understand how they work.
Examples of Word Formation by Compounding
- Over (adverb) + load (noun) – Overload
- White (adjective) + wash (verb) – Whitewash
- Black (adjective) + board (noun ) – Blackboard
- Cup (noun) + board (noun) – Cupboard
- Short (adjective) + hand (noun) – Shorthand
- Swimming (present participle) + pool (noun) – Swimming pool
- Three (adjective) + legged (past participle) – Three-legged
- Break (verb) + Down (preposition) – Breakdown
- Up (preposition) + town (noun) – Uptown
- Copy (verb) + writer (noun) – Copywriter
- Sun (noun) + rise (verb) – Sunrise
- Count (verb) + down (preposition) – Countdown
- Flash (verb) + mob (noun) – Flash mob
- Master (noun) + piece (noun) – Masterpiece
- Round (adjective) + table (noun) – Round-table
Rules to be Followed When Forming Words
Formation of words can be a very interesting exercise, but you have to be really careful when you are adding inflections or affixes. There are a few things you will need to bear in mind when you are forming words. Take a look at the following points to learn what they are.
- Before making any change to the stem of the word, try to analyse what is the kind of meaning you want the word to convey and what role the word will have to play in the sentence.
- In most cases, the beginning of the base word remains the same. Only when prefixes are added the word has a syllable added to the beginning of it. Notice that even in this case, the word is retained as such.
- When suffixes are added, there are many instances where you will have to remove the last one or more alphabets of the word and add the suffix. However, there are words like ‘movement’ where the suffix is just added without any change in the spelling of the base word.
- Here is one way to easily know which suffix has to be added to form a particular word class – most often, nouns end in ‘er’, ‘or’, ‘ist’, ‘ian’, ‘ion’, ‘ment’, ‘ness’, and ‘ity’; verbs end in ‘ise’, ‘ate’ and ‘en’; adjectives end in ‘able’, ‘ible’, ‘ive’, ‘ic’, ‘ed’, ‘ing’ and ‘al’; and adverbs normally end in ‘ly’.
- When words are formed by conversion, be very careful. Make sure you know that you are converting them accurately and using them in the sentence properly.
- When forming compound words, see to it that you hyphenate them if necessary, use the right combination of words and do not just mix and match any word.
- Changing from one tense to another also can also be considered a type of word formation, as the word is inflected to indicate the twelve different tenses in the English language.
- Forming degrees of comparison can also be put under word formation. In this case, the comparative and superlative degrees are formed by adding ‘er’ and ‘est’ to the end of the adjective. The comparative and superlative degrees of polysyllabic words are formed by using ‘more’ and ‘most’, respectively, along with the adjective.
Test Your Understanding of Word Formation
Exercise 1 – Add Prefixes and Suffixes
Add prefixes and suffixes to the following words.
1. Passion____
2. Remember____
3. ____conscious
4. Sense____
5. ____acceptable
6. Entertain____
7. ____representation
8. Neat____
9. Invent____
10. ____interpret
Answers for Exercise 1
1. Passionate
2. Remembrance
3. Unconscious/Subconscious
4. Sensible/Senseless
5. Unacceptable
6. Entertainment
7. Misrepresentation
8. Neatly/Neatness
9. Invention
10. Misinterpret
Exercise 2 – Conversion of Words
Go through the following words and convert them as directed.
1. Money (convert into adjective)
2. Brave (convert into noun)
3. Clean (convert into noun)
4. Prayer (convert into adjective)
5. Resemblance (convert into verb)
6. Slow (convert into adverb)
7. Treat (convert into noun)
8. Confession (convert into verb)
9. Vary (convert into adjective)
10. Beauty (convert into verb)
Answers for Exercise 2
1. Monetary
2. Bravery
3. Cleanliness
4. Prayerful
5. Resemble
6. Slowly
7. Treatment
8. Confess
9. Various/variable
10. Beautify
Exercise 3 – Form Compound Words
Go through the words in the box given below and use them to form ten compound words.
up, table, spend, load, green, machine, case, make, estimate, over, self
1. _______ confident
2. Washing _______
3. Time _______
4. Under _______
5. _______sufficient
6. Up_______
7. _______set
8. Suit_______
9. _______over
10. _______thrift
Answers for Exercise 3
1. Overconfident
2. Washing machine
3. Timetable
4. Underestimate
5. Self-sufficient
6. Upload
7. Upset
8. Suitcase
9. Makeover
10. Spendthrift
Frequently Asked Questions on Word Formation in English
Q1
What is word formation?
Word formation is the process by which new words are formed by adding an affix, another word or converting from one word class to another by removing and adding alphabets.
Q2
What are the four types of word formation?
The four types of word formation include:
- Addition of prefix
- Addition of suffix
- Conversion from one word class to another
- Forming compound words
Q3
Give some examples of word formation.
Here are some examples of the various types of word formation for your reference:
- Practical – impractical (prefix)
- Purpose – purposeful (suffix)
- Silent – silence (conversion)
- Dining + room – Dining room (compound word)
- Small – smaller – smallest (degrees of comparison)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
- ^ a b c d e f g Bauer, L. (1 January 2006). «Word Formation». Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition). Elsevier: 632–633. doi:10.1016/b0-08-044854-2/04235-8. ISBN 9780080448541. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ a b Baker, Anne; Hengeveld, Kees (2012). Linguistics. Malden, MA.: John Wiley & Sons. p. 23. ISBN 978-0631230366.
- ^ a b c d e f Katamba, F. (1 January 2006). «Back-Formation». Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition): 642–645. doi:10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00108-5. ISBN 9780080448541.
- ^ Linguistics : the basics. Anne, July 8- Baker, Kees Hengeveld. Malden, MA.: John Wiley & Sons. 2012. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-631-23035-9. OCLC 748812931.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ a b Aronoff, Mark (1983). «A Decade of Morphology and Word Formation». Annual Review of Anthropology. 12: 360. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.12.100183.002035.
- ^ Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew (2018). An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their Structure (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-4744-2896-5.
See also[edit]
- Neologism
Содержание
Словообразование (word formation [wəːrd fɔ:r’meɪʃ(ə)n]) — образование нового слова от другого слова.
Словообразование и словоизменение (Word Formation and Inflection)
Словообразование противопоставляется словоизменению: Словоизменение — это процесс изменения слова, выражающий грамматическое значение (например, спряжение глагола или образование множественного числа существительного), но при словоизменении слово не приобретает нового лексического значения т.е. это то же самое слово (лексема) в отличных грамматических формах:
-
He is an actor. – Он (есть) актёр.
-
They are actors. – Они (есть) актёры.
В приведённых примерах «is», «are» и «actor», «actors» — это разные грамматические формы тех же слов, эти формы не образуют нового лексического значения.
Способы словообразования (Types of Word Formation)
Деривация (Derivation)
Деривация (derivation [ˌdeɹɪˈveɪʃ(ə)n]) — процесс образования нового слова от другого слова за счет различных аффиксов (приставок и суффиксов).
Различают два вида деривации:
-
Новое образованное слово (дериватив) переходит в другой класс слов:
-
write → writer (писать → писатель)
-
-
Новое слово не переходит в другой класс слов, а только изменяет лексическое значение исходного слова:
-
friend → friendship (друг → дружба)
-
like → dislike (нравиться, любить → испытывать неприязнь)
-
В английском языке, деривация, а именно переход слова в другой класс также происходит без изменения исходной формы слова. Данный процесс называется нулевая деривация (zero derivation) или конверсия (см. ниже):
-
I love you and I can’t live without your love. – Я люблю тебя и не могу жить без твоей любви.
Словосложение (Compounding)
Словосложение (compounding [kəm’paundɪŋ] / composition [ˌkɔmpə’zɪʃ(ə)n]) — это один из способов образования сложных слов (compound words) , состоящий в морфологическом соединении двух или более слов.
Проблемой в лингвистике английского языка является разграничение некоторых сложных слов и словосочетаний, образуя общий термин композиты (Термин «композит» получил распространение только в русскоязычных грамматиках, в том числе и грамматиках по английскому языку):
-
stay-at-home (домосед)
-
dos and don’ts (правила, нормы)
-
I’m reading the how-to-get-anything-you-want guide. – Я читаю книгу о том, как получить всё, что захочешь.
Раздельное или слитное написание композитов не является основанием, используемым при различении сложных слов и словосочетаний. Основным критерием различия между сложным словом и словосочетанием является обособление лексического значения производного сложного слова от исходного словосочетания.
Вторичное словообразование (Back-formation)
Вторичное словообразование / обратное словообразование[1] / редеривация[2] (back-formation) —
Конверсия (Conversion)
Конверсия (conversion [kənˈvə:rʒ(ə)n]) разновидность словообразования, при котором от одной части речи образуется другая без каких-либо изменений в самой форме слова (безаффиксальное образование слова). Наиболее распространенной моделью конверсии является: [существительное ↔ глагол], например: an e-mail (электронная почта) → to e-mail (написать или отправить электронное письмо); to drink (пить) → a drink (глоток; стакан (вина, воды)):
-
I heard her name his name. – Я слышал, как она назвала его имя. (в первом случае «name» — глагол «назвала», а во втором — существительное со значением «имя»),
-
I love you and I can’t live without your love. – Я люблю тебя и не могу жить без твоей любви.
-
Don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk. – «Не говори того, чего не можешь сделать.»
-
He is my best friend. – Он мой лучший друг.
-
I can best them. – Я могу их превзойти (провести / одержать верх).
-
Love betters what is best.[3] – Любовь улучшает лучшее.
-
She lives one floor up. – Она живёт этажом выше.
-
They up the minimum requirements! – Они подняли минимальные требования!
Конверсия прилагательных в существительные может происходить в результате эллипсиса:
-
He’s a good worker but he’s not a very intellectual (person). – Он хороший работник, но не очень умный (человек).
-
The native residents are very hospitable. → The natives are very hospitable. – Местные (жители) очень гостеприимны.
В некоторых случаях происходит временная конверсия прилагательных в существительные. В таких случаях существительное не полностью получает самостоятельное лексическое значение и его полное значение явствует из контекста:
-
Fuel is carried in four tanks, two main tanks and two auxiliariy tanks. → Fuel is carried in four tanks, two main and two auxiliaries. – Топливо перевозится в четырех резервуарах, двух основных и двух вспомогательных.
Употребление прилагательных вместо существительных возможно и без конверсии. Например, некоторые прилагательные могут употребляться вместо существительных, означающих людей и согласуются с глаголом во множественном числе, при этом, прилагательные не принимают формы множественного числа и употребляются с определенным артиклем, например: the rich (богатые), the unemployed (безработные) (см. Субстантивация).
Усечение (Clipping)
Усечение / сокращение (clipping [‘klɪpɪŋ] / truncation [tɹʌŋ’keɪʃ(ə)n] / shortening [‘ʃɔ:ɹtnɪŋ])
-
Инициальное усечение (initial clipping / fore-clipping / apheresis) — усечение начальной части слова:
-
helicopter → copter
-
telephone → phone
-
airplane → plane
-
website → site
-
-
Финальное усечение (final clipping / back clipping / apocope):
-
demonstration → demo
-
doctor → doc
-
examination → exam
-
gasoline → gas
-
-
Срединное усечение (medial clipping / syncope):
-
madam → ma’am
-
mathematics → maths
-
-
Двустороннее усечение (усечение крайних частей слова):
-
influenza → flu
-
refrigerator → fridge
-
-
???:
-
tobacco → baccy
-
reconnaissance → reccy
-
-
Слияние усечений (complex clipping / clipped compound):
-
sci-fi (science fiction)
-
motel (motor hotel)
-
modem (modulator demodulator)
-
Blending
Abbreviations
Acronyms
Eponyms
Coinages
Nonce words
Borrowing
Calquing
1]
Краткий понятийно-терминологический справочник по этимологии и исторической лексикологии. — Российская академия наук, Институт русского языка им. В. В. Виноградова РАН, Этимология и история слов русского языка . Ж. Ж. Варбот, А. Ф. Журавлев . 1998.
2]
Словарь-справочник лингвистических терминов. Изд. 2-е. — М.: Просвещение Розенталь Д. Э., Теленкова М. А. 1976
3]
William Wordsworth. From The Same.
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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.
Word formation is a very important aspect of most languages, and English is no exception. The term «word formation» refers to the processes through which new words are created. Given its significance in the English language and in Cambridge English exams, this short article will outline the basic word formation processes. Let’s go!
- Compounding
- Derivation: prefixes and suffixes
- Conversion
- Blending
- Abbreviation
- Clipping
- Acronyms
- Novel creation
- Creative re-spelling
- Loan words
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Compounding
It means creating a word by adding up two or more different words. Compound words have a new meaning, which is obviously related to the meanings of the other words. For example:
- book + case = bookcase
- sign + post = signpost
- watch + man = watchman
Not all compound words are written together. Sometimes they can by hyphenated (con guión) or separate, such as «traffic lights» or «ice-cream». Some, such as «ice-cream» can be written with our without a hyphen.
Derivation: prefixes and suffixes
This process is normally done through suffixation or prefixation, that is to say, adding a suffix or a prefix. For instance:
- urgent (adjective) + -cy = urgency (noun)
- ir- + responsible (adjective) + -y = irresponsibly (adverb)
- national (adjective) + -ise = nationalise
Conversion
Conversion happens when a word changes from one word class to another. For instance, the verb to google is formed from the noun Google; or the noun read (as in a good read) is formed from the verb to read. For example:
- I emailed this document to John. (emailed is a verb formed from the noun email)
- He was bullied at school as a child. (bullied is a verb formed from the noun bully)
Blending
This involves taking a part of two different words to make a new word, like merging two words based on the sounds of these words. This is extremely popular in the English language, and it produces hundreds of new words every year whose meanings is a mixture of the meanings of the original words. In some cases, these are informal, but there are many that have become a natural part of standard English. Let’s see some examples:
- channel + tunnel = chunnel
- motor + hotel = motel
- work + alcoholic = workaholic
Abbreviation
When we abbreviate a word, we form another word by shortening it or simply by using only part of the word:
- Perambulator –> pram
- Veterinary –> vet
In general, we can talk about two types of abbreviation: clipping and acronyms.
Clipping
This means literally clipping the word, which means «cutting» the word to make it shorter. This normally makes the word more informal and/or appealing. Some examples are:
- advertisement = ad
- hamburger = burger
- demonstration = demo
Acronyms
Acronyms, which are a form of abbreviation, are words formed by using only the first letter(s) of the words. By creating an acronym, we are reducing the meaning of a whole phrase o sentence to a single word. Let’s see some popular examples:
- laughing out loud = LOL
- United Nations = UN
- radio detection and ranging = radar
Novel creation
This basically means coming up with a completely new word without any of the processes above. These words are typically referred to as «neologisms». Some examples are:
- puzzle
- bash
- gimmick
- gadget
Creative re-spelling
This involves spelling a word differently in order to make it more practical, attractive, or to fulfil some particular aim, usually commercial. For example:
- because –> bcoz
- light –> lite
- forever –> 4eva
- Combat –> Kombat
Loan words
In linguistics, a loan happens when we take a word directly from a foreign language. Some examples of loan words in English are:
- solo
- pizza
- tapas
- negro
- carpe diem
- cul de sac
In general, when we loan a word, the spelling doesn’t usually change. However, some other changes may occur, like creating a plural form which doesn’t exist in the original language. As for pronunciation, we usually pronounce them with an «English accent», so it varies slightly from the original pronunciation.
As far as Cambridge English exams go, it’s derivation (prefixes & suffixes) that concerns us most, as it is present in two of the parts of the section of Use of English B2 and Use of English C1.
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