What is word formation in english language

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]

See also[edit]

• Neologism

Plan

1. Word-formation.
   General notes.

2. Affixation.

3. Compounding
   (Composition).

4. Reduplication.

5. Phrasal
   verbs.

6. Conversion

7. Substantivation.

8. Adjectivization.

9. Phrasal
   nouns.

10. Shortening.

11. Abbreviation.

12. Back-formation
    (Reversion).

13. Blending.

14. Minor
    types of word-formation: change of stress.

15. Sound
    interchange (Gradation).

16. Sound
    imitation (Onomatopoeia).

17. Lexicalization
    of the plural of nouns.

1. Word-formation

Word-formation
is the process of creating new words from the material available in
the word-stock according to certain structural and semantic patterns
specific for the given language.

Various
types of word-formation in Modern English possess different degrees
of productivity. Some of them are highly-productive
(affixation,
conversion, substantivation, compounding, shortening, forming phrasal
verbs); others are semi-productive
(back-forming,
blending, reduplication, lexicalization of the plural of nouns,
sound-imitation), and non-productive
(sound
interchange, change of stress).

2. Affixation

Affixation
is a word-formative process in which words are created by adding
word-building affixes to stems. Affixation includes preftxation,
i.e.
forming
new words with the help of prefixes, and suffixation,
i.e.
forming new words with the help of suffixes.

From
etymological point of view affixes are classified according to their
origin into native
(e.g.
-er, -nese, -ing, un-, mis-, etc.) and borrowed
(Romanic,
e.g. -tion, -ment, -ance, -re-, sub-, etc.; Greek, e,g. -ist, -ism,
anti-, etc.).

Affixes
can also be classified into
productive (e.g.-er,
-ness, -able, -y, -ize, un- re-, dis- etc.) and non-productive
(e.g.
-th, -hood, -en, -ous, etc.).

Affixes
and a root constitute the meaning of the word, the root morpheme
forming its semantic centre, affixes playing a dependent role in the
meaning
of the word.

Prefixes
and suffixes are semantically distinctive,
they
have their own
meaning. Affixes
and a root constitute the meaning of the word, the root morpheme
forming its semantic centre, affixes playing a dependent role in the
meaning of the word.

Prefixes
change
or concretize the meaning of the word. The main
word-building
prefixes are:

1. prefixes
   with a negative
   meaning (e.g.
   un-, in-, il-, ir-, im-, dis-, de-, non-);

2. prefixes
   with different
   meanings (e.g.
   anti-, co-, counter-, inter-, mis-, over-, en-, post-, pre-, re-,
   self, semi-, sub-, ultra-, super-, undre-).

   Suffixes
   have
   a grammatical meaning they indicate or derive a certain part of
   speech. Most of frequently used suffixes are:

1. noun-forming:
   -er,
   (-or), -tion (-sion), -ity, -ance, -ence, -ment, -ness, -ics, -ture,
   -sure, -age, -ing;

2. verb-forming:
   -ize,
   (-ise), -fy (-ify), -en, -ate;

3. adjective-forming:
   -able,
   -ible, -al, (-ial), -fill, -less, -ive;

4. adverb-forming:
   -ly;
   -ward (-wards).

3. Compounding
(Composition)

Compounds
are
words produced by combining two or more stems, which occur in the
language as free forms. They may be classified proceeding
from different criteria:

-according
to the parts of speech to which they belong (e.g. cut-throat,
shoe-maker- compound
nouns, watch
making , tooth-picker- verbal
compound
nouns; bring
up, sit down —
compound verbs, life-giving,
long-tailed —
compound adjectives, etc.);

-according
to the means of composition used to link their ICs (immediate
constituents) together (e.g. classroom,
timetable, H-bomb, grey-green,
etc);

-according
to the structure of their ICs (e.g. gasometre,
handicraft, Anglo-Saxon, etc.);

-according
to their semantic characteristics (e.g forget-me-not,
up-to-date, son-in-law, etc).

The
classification of compounds according to the means of joining their
ICs together distinguishes between the following structural types:

1. juxtapositional
   (neutral) compounds whose
   ICs are merely placed one after another: classroom,
   timetable, heartache, whitewash, hunting-knife, weekend, grey-green,
   deep-blue, U-turn, etc.;

2. morphological
   compounds whose
   ICs joined together with a vowel or a consonant as a linking
   element, e.g. gasometre,
   sportsman, saleswoman,
   electromotive, postman, etc.;

3. syntactic
   compounds (integrated phrases) which
   are the result of the process of semantic isolation and structural
   integration of free word-groups, e.g. blackboard
   (>black
   board), highway
   (>high
   way), forget-me-not
   (>forget
   me not), bull’s
   eye, go-between, known-all, brother-in-law, upside-down, etc.

The
classification of compounds according to the structure of their ICs
includes the following groups:

Group
1. Compounds consisting of simple stems: railway, key-board,
snow-white, bookshelf, scarecrow, browbeat, etc.

Group
2. Compounds where at least one of the ICs is a derived stem:
chain-smoker, shoe-maker, pen-holder, snow-covered, moon-tit,
price-reduction,
etc.

Group
3, Compounds where at least one of the ICs is a clipped stem:
photo-intelligence, bacco-box, maths- mistress, T-shirt, TV-set,
X-mas, etc.

Group
4. Compounds where at least one of the ICs is a compound stem:
wastepaper-basket, newspaper-ownership, etc.

Note:
Compounds of Group 2 should not be mixed with derivational compounds
(Group 5) in which the second component doesn’t occur as a free
form. Derivational compounds are built by adding a suffix to phrases
of the A+N, N+N, Num+N type.

Cf:
chain-smoker (N + (V = -er)):: slim-waisted ((A + N) + -ed).

In
many English words one can find unstressed stems approaching the
status of derivational affixes. They have generalized meaning and
their combining
capacity is very great. Such morphemes are called semi-affixes.

Semi-affixes
can be used in preposition (semi-prefixes,
e.g.:
half-, ill-, mini-, midi-, maxi-, self-) and in postposition
(semi-suffixes,
e.g.
-man, -land,
-monger, -wright, -worthy, -proof, -like, -way(s)).

4. Reduplication

In
reduplication compounds are made by doubling a stem (often a
pseudomorpheme). Reduplicative compounds fall into three main
subgroups:

1. Reduplicative
   compounds proper whose ICs are identical in their form, e.g.:
   murmur, bye-bye, blah-blah, pooh-pooh, goody-goody, etc.

2. Ablaut
   (gradational) compounds whose ICs have different root-vowels, e.g:
   riff-raff, dilly-dally, ping-pong, chit-chat, singsong, etc.

3. Rhyme
   compounds whose ICs are joined to rhyme, e.g.: willy-nilly,
   helter-skelter, hoity-toity, namby-pamby, walkie-talkie, etc.

5. Phrasal
verbs.

Phrasal
verbs are combinations of a verb and adverb or a verb and preposition
(or verb with both adverb and preposition).

Phrasal
verbs may be either non-idiomatic or idiomatic. Non-idiomatic phrasal
verbs can retain their primary local meaning, e.g.: come in, come
out, come out of, take off, put down, etc. They may also have a kind
of perfective colouring, e.g. add up, eat up, drink up, swallow up,
rise up, etc.

In
idiomatic compounds meaning cannot be derived from ICs, e.g.: bring
up — виховувати,
bear out — підтверджувати,
give in – піддаватися,
fall
out — сваритися,
take in — обманювати,
etc.

In
modern English fiction one can often come across verbs which denote
an action and at the same time modify it in occasional colligations
with prepositions
or adverbs e.g. He
then tiptoed down to dinner. We forced our way into the buffet.

6. Conversion

Conversion
is a special type of affixless derivation where a newly-formed word
acquires a paradigm and syntactic functions different from those of
the original word (by conversion we mean derivation of a new word
from the stem of a different part of speech without the adding of any
formatives).

A
s
a result the two words are homonymous, having the same morphological
structure and belonging to different parts of speech. As
a matter of fact, all parts of speech can be drawn into the
wordbuilding process of conversion to a certain extent. Its
derivational patterns are varied,
the most widespread among them being N —► V, V
N,
A —► V.

For
example: N+V:
a face-to face, a walk-to walk, a
tube — to tube, a pen — to pen. V—>N:
to make-a make, to bite-a bite,
to
smoke — a smoke, to talk — a talk.

A—>V:
narrow-to narrow, empty-to empty, cool-to
cool.

7. Substantiation

Substantivation
is the process in which adjectives (or participles) acquire the
paradigm and syntactic functions of nouns. One should distinguish two
main types of substantivation: complete
and partial.

C

ompletely
substantivized adjectives have
the full paradigm of a noun, i.e. singular and plural case forms.
They may be associated with various determiners (definite, indefinite
and zero articles, demonstrative and possessive pronouns, etc.), e.g.
an
official, the official, officials, the officials, official’s,
officials this official, our officials, etc.
Complete substantivation is often regarded as a pattern of conversion
(A N), though it may be argued, since, as a rule, it is the
result of ellipsis in an attributive phrase: a conservative
politician
—► a
conservative, a
convertible
car
a convertible.

In
the case of partial
substantivation adjectives
do not acquire the full paradigm of a noun. They fall into several
structural-semantic
groups:

1. partially
   substantivized adjectives (PSA) or participles which
   are singular in form though plural in meaning. They are used with
   the definite article and denote a group or a class of people, e.g.
   the
   rich, the accused, the English, the blind, the twing, etc.;

2. PSA
   used
   mostly in the plural and denoting a group or a class of people, e.g.
   reds,
   greens, buffs, blues, etc.

3. PSA
   used
   mostly in plural and denoting inanimate things, e.g. sweets,
   ancients, eatables, etc.

4. PSA
   presenting
   properties as substantive abstract notions, e.g. the
   good, the evil, the beautiful, the singular, etc.

5. PSA
   denoting
   languages, e.g. English,
   German, Ukrainian, Italian, etc.

8. Adjectivization

Premodification
of nouns by nouns is highly frequent in Modern English. Non-adjuncts
should not be considered as adjectives produced by means
of conversion. Nevertheless, some nouns may undergo the process of
adjectivization and function as attributes with idiomatic meanings,
e.g.: coffee-table
(n.) —> coffee-table (adj.) — «Of a large size and richly
illustrated.»

9. Phrasal
nouns

Phrasal
nouns are
built from phrasal verbs as a result of a combined effect of
compounding, conversion, and change of stress. They consist of ICs
identical to those of the corresponding phrasal verbs, but obtain, as
a rule, the single-stress pattern and either solid or hyphenated
spelling, e.g.: to
break
down —> a
breakdown (a break-down).

10. Shortenings

There
exist two main ways of shortening: contraction
(clipping) and
abbreviation
(initial shortening).

Contraction.
One
should distinguish between four types of contraction:

1. Final
   clipping (apocope), i.e. omission of the final part of the word,
   e.g.: doc (< doctor), lab (< laboratory), mag -(<
   magazine), prefab (< prefabricated),
   vegs (< vegetables), Al (< Albert), Nick (< Nickolas), Phil
   (< Philip), etc.

2. Initial
   clipping (apheresis), i.e. omission of the fore part of the word,
   e.g.: phone (< telephone), plane (< aeroplane), story (<
   history), van (< caravan), drome (< airdrome), Dora (<
   Theodora), Fred (< Alfred), etc.

1. Medial
   clipping (syncope), i.e. omission of the middle part of the word,
   e.g.: maths (< mathematics), fancy (< fantasy), specs -(<
   spectacles), binocs
   (< binoculars), through (<thorough), etc.

2. Mixed
   clipping, where the fore and the final parts of the word are dipped,
   e.g.: tec (< detective), flu (<influenza), fridge (<
   refrigerator), stach (< moustache), Liz (< Elizabeth), etc.

Contractions
may be combined with affixation, i,e. by adding the suffixes -y, -ie,
-o, to clippings, e.g.: hanky (<handkerchief), comfy
(<comfortable),
unkie (<uncle), ammo (< Ammunition), etc.

11. Abbreviation

Abbreviations
(initial shortenings) are words produced by shortening the ICs of
phrasal terms up to their initial letters. Abbreviations are
subdivided
into 5 groups:

1. Acronyms
   which are read in accordance with the rules of orthoepy as though
   they were ordinary words, e.g.: UNO /’ju:nou/ (< United Nations
   Organization), UNESCO /’ju:’neskou/ (< United Nations Educational
   Scientific and Cultural Organization), NATO /’neitou/ (< North
   Atlantic
   Treaty Organization), SALT /so:lt/ (<Strategic Arms Limitation
   Talks), STEM /stem/ (< scanning transmission electron
   microscope), radar /reida/ (< radio detecting and ranging), etc.

2. Alphabetic
   abbreviation in
   which letters get their full alphabetic pronunciation and a full
   stress, e.g.: USA /’ju:es’ei/ (< the United States ofAmerica),
   B.B.C. /’bi:’bi:’si:/ (< the British Broadcasting Corporation),
   M.P. /’em’pi:/ {<
   Member
   of Parliament), F.B.I. /’efbir’ai/ (< FederalBureau
   of Investigation), etc.

Alphabetic
abbreviations are sometimes used for famous persons’ names, eg.: B.B.
(< Brigitte Bardot), FDR (< Franklin Delano Roosevelt), G.B.S.
(< George Bernard Shaw), etc.

3)Compound
abbreviations
in which the first IC is a letter (letters) and the second a complete
word, e.g.: A-bomb (<
atomic
bomb), V-day (<

Victory
day), Z-hour (< zero hour), L-driver (< learner-driver), ACD
solution (<acid citrate dextrose solution), etc.

One
or both ICs of compound abbreviations may be clipped, e.g.:
mid-August, Interpol (< International police), hi-fi (< high
fidelity), sci-fic (< science
fiction), etc.

4) Graphic
abbreviations which
are used in texts for economy of space. They are pronounced as the
corresponding unabbreviated words,
e.g.:
Mr.
(< Mister), m. (< mile), fl. (< foot/feet), v. (< verb),
ltd. (< limited), govt. (< government), usu. (< usually),
pp. (< pages, Co (< Company), X-mas
(< Christmas), etc.

5) Latin
abbreviations which
sometimes are not read as Latin words but as separate letters or are
substituted by their English equivalents, e.g.:

i.e.
/ai’i:/-that is, a.m. /ei’em/-before midday, in the morning, e.g.
-for example, Id. -in the same place, cf. -compare, etc.

12. Back-formation
(Reversion)

Back-formation
is the derivation of new words (mostly verbs) by means of subtracting
a suffix or other element resembling it, e.g.: butle < butler,
combust
< combustion, greed < greedy, lase < laser, luminisce <
luminiscent, sculpt < sculptor, etc.

13. Blending

Blending
is the formation of new lexical units by means of merging fragments
of words into one new word, or combining the elements of one word
with
a notional word, e.g.: smog (< smoke+fog), radiotrician
(radio+electrician), drunch (drinks+lunch), cinemagnate
(cinema+magnate), etc.

14. Minor
types of word-formation: change of stress

Several
nouns and verbs of Romanic origin have a distinctive stress pattern.
Such nouns, as a rule, are forestressed, and verbs have a stress on
the second
syllable, e.g. ‘accent (a):: ac’cent (v.), ‘contest (n.):: ‘con’test
(v.), ‘record (n.):: re’cord (v.), etc.

The
same distinctive stress pattern is observed in some pairs of
adjectives and verbs, e.g.: ‘absent (a):: ab’sent (v.) ‘abstract (a)
::ab’stract(v.), etc.

15.
Sound
interchange (Gradation)

Words
belonging to different parts of speech may be differentiated due to
the sound interchange in the root, e.g.: food (a):: feed (v.), gold
(a):: gild (v,), strong (a):: strength (n), etc.

16. Sound
imitation (Onomatopoeia)

Sound-imitative
(onomatopoeic) words are made by imitating sounds produced by living
beings and inanimate objects, e.g.: babble, bang, buzz, crash,
giggle, hiss, moo, purr, rustle, etc.

17. Lexicalization
of the plural of the nouns

There
are cases when the grammatical form of the plural of nouns becomes
isolated from the paradigm and acquires a new lexical meaning. This
leads to the appearance of new lexical units, cf: look “погляд”
::
looks «зовнішність».

REVISION
MATERIAL

1. Be
   ready to discuss the subject matter of word-formation

2. Tell
   about affixation

3. What
   do you know about compounding (composition)?

4. Give
   examples of reduplication

5. What
   are phrasal verbs and phrasal nouns?

6. What
   can you tell about conversion?

7. Comment
   on the substantivation and adjectivization.

8. Tell
   about shortening: contractions and abbreviations.

9. What
   is back-formation?

10. Give
    examples of blending.

11. Comment
    on the minor types of word-formation.

12. What
    is the difference between gradation and onomatopoeia?

13. What
    does «lexicalization of the plural of nouns» stand for ?

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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

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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