The
available linguistic literature on the subject cites various types
and ways of forming words. Earlier books, articles and monographs on
word-formation and vocabulary growth in general both in the Russian
language and in foreign languages, in the English language in
particular, used to mention morphological, syntactic and
lexico-semantic types of word-formation. At present the
classifications of the types of word-formation do not, as a rule,
include lexico-semantic word-building. Of interest is the
classification of word-formation means based on the number of
motivating bases which many scholars follow. A distinction is made
between two large classes of word-building means:
To
Class I belong the means of building words having one motivating
base. To give an English example, the noun catcher
is
composed of the base catch-
and
the suffix -er, through the combination of which it is
morphologically and semantically motivated.1
Class
II includes the means of building words containing more than “ one
motivating base. Needless to say, they are all based on compounding
(cf. the English compounds country-club,
door-handle, bottle-opener, etc.,
all having two bases through which they are motivated).
Most linguists in special
chapters and manuals devoted to English word-formation consider as
the chief processes of English word-formation affixation, conversion
and compounding.
Apart from these a number of
minor ways of forming words such as back-formation, sound
interchange, distinctive stress, sound imitation, blending, clipping
and acronymy are traditionally referred to Word-Formation.
Another
classification of the types of word-formation worked out by H.
Marchand is also of interest. Proceeding from the distinction between
full linguistic signs and pseudo signs 2
he considers two major groups: 1)
words
formed as grammatical syntagmas, i.e. combinations of full linguistic
signs which are characterised by morphological motivation such as
do-er,
un-do, rain-bow; and
2)
words
which are not grammatical syntagmas, i.e. which are not made up of
full linguistic signs. To the ‘ first group belong Compounding,
Suffixation, Prefixation, Derivation by a Zero Morpheme3
and Back-Derivation, to the second — Expressive Symbolism,
Blending, Clipping, Rime and Ablaut Gemination,* Word-Manufacturing.5
It is characteristic of both groups that a new coining is based on a
synchronic relationship between morphemes.
1See
‘Semasiology’, §§
17, 22, pp.
25-30.
2 See
also ‘Word-Structure’, §
3, p.
92.
3 Another
term for “conversion.»
4 These
are based on the principle of coming words in phonetically variated
rhythmic twin forms, e. g. bibble-babble, shilly shally,
boogie-woogie, claptrap, etc.
5 This
is the coining of artificial new words by welding more or less
arbitrary parts of given words into a unit, e. g. Pluto
(‘pipeline
under the ocean’), Cominch
(‘Commander-
in-chief), etc.
108
§ 2. Word-Formation.
Definition.
Basic
Peculiarities
In
the present book we proceed from the understanding
of Word-Formation and
the classification of word-formation types as found in A. I.
Smirnitsky’s book on English Lexicology.
Word-Formation
is the system of derivative types of words and the process of
creating new words from the material available in the language after
certain structural and semantic formulas and patterns. For instance,
the noun driver
is
formed after the pattern v+-er,
i.e.
a verbal stem +-the noun-forming suffix -er. The meaning of the
derived noun driver
is
related to the meaning of the stem drive-
‘to
direct the course of a vehicle’ and the suffix -er
meaning
‘an active agent’: a driver
is
‘one who drives’ (a carriage, motorcar, railway engine, etc.).
Likewise compounds resulting from two or more stems joined together
to form a new word are also built on quite definite structural and
semantic patterns and formulas, for instance adjectives of the
snow-white
type
are built according to the formula п+а,
etc.
It can easily be observed that the meaning of the whole compound is
also related to the meanings of the component parts. The structural
patterns with the semantic relations they signal give rise to regular
new creations of derivatives, e.g. sleeper,
giver, smiler or soat—blасk,
tax-free,
etc.
In
conformity with structural types of words described above1
the
following two types of word-formation may be distinguished,
word-derivation and word-composition (or compounding). Words created
by word-derivation have in terms of word-formation analysis only one
derivational base and one derivational affix, e.g. cleanness (from
clean),
to overestimate
(from
to
estimate), chairmanship (from
chairman),
openhandedness (from
openhanded),
etc.
Some derived words have no derivational affixes, because derivation
is achieved through conversion 2,
e.g. to
paper (from
paper),
a
fall
(from
to
fall), etc.
Words created by word-composition have at least two bases, e.g.
lamp-shade,
ice-cold, looking-glass,” daydream, hotbed, speedometer, etc.
Within
the types, further distinction may be made between the ways of
forming words. The basic ways of forming words in
word-derivatiоn,
for instance, are affixation
and conversion.
It
should be noted that the understanding of word-formation as expounded
here excludes semantic word-building as well as shortening, sound-
and stress-interchange which traditionally are referred, as has been
mentioned above, to minor ways of word-formation. By semantic
word-building some linguists understand any change in word-meaning,
e.g. stock
— ‘the
lower part of the trunk of a tree’; ’something lifeless or
stupid’; ‘the part of an instrument that serves as a base’,
etc.; bench
— ‘a
long seat of wood or stone’; ‘a carpenter’s table’, etc. The
majority of linguists, however, understand this process only as a
change in the meaning 3
of a word that may result in the appearance of homonyms, as is the
1
See
‘Word-Structure’, §
11, p.
103.
2 See
‘Conversion’, §
16,’p.
127,
see
also ‘Word-Structure’, §
7, p.
96.
3 See
also ‘Semasiology’, §
22, p.
30;
§§ 25, 26, 39, pp.
34-47.
109
case
with flower
— ‘a
blossom’ and flour
— ‘the
fine meal’, ‘powder made from wheat and used for making bread’;
magazine
— ‘a
publication’ and magazine
— ‘the
chamber for cartridges in a gun or rifle’, etc. The application of
the term word-formation
to the process of semantic change and to the appearance of homonyms
due to the development of polysemy seems to be debatable for the
following reasons:
As
semantic change does not, as a rule, lead to the introduction of a
new word into the vocabulary, it can scarcely be regarded as a
wordbuilding means. Neither can we consider the process a
word-building means even when an actual enlargement of the vocabulary
does come about through the appearance of a pair of homonyms.
Actually, the appearance of homonyms is not a means of creating new
words, but it is the final result of a long and labourious process of
sense-development. Furthermore, there are no patterns after which
homonyms can be made in the language. Finally, diverging
sense-development results in a semantic isolation of two or more
meanings of a word, whereas the process of word-formation proper is
characterised by a certain semantic connection between the new word
and the source lexical unit. For these reasons diverging
sense-development leading to the appearance of two or more homonyms
should be regarded as a specific channel through which the vocabulary
of a language is replenished with new words and should not be treated
on a par with the processes of word-formation, such as affixation,
conversion and composition.
The
shortening of words also stands apart from the above two-fold
division of word-formation. It cannot be regarded as part of either
word-derivation or word-composition for the simple reason that
neither the derivational base nor the derivational affix can be
singled out from the shortened word (e. g. lab,
exam, Euratom, V-day, etc.).
Nor are there any derivational
patterns new shortened words could be farmed on by the speaker.
Consequently, the shortening of words should not be regarded as a way
of word-formation on a par with derivation and compounding.
For the same reasons, such
ways of coining words as acronymy, blending, lexicalisation and some
others should not be treated as means of word-formation. Strictly
speaking they are all, together with word-shortening, specific means
of replenishing the vocabulary different in principle from
affixation, conversion and compounding.
What
is said above is especially true of sound- and stress-interchange
(also referred to as distinctive stress). Both sound- and
stress-interchange may be regarded as ways of forming words only
diachronically, because in Modern English not a single word can be
coined by changing the root-vowel of a word or by shifting the place
of the stress. Sound-interchange as well as stress-interchange in
fact has turned into a means of distinguishing primarily between
words of different parts of speech and as such is
rather
wide-spread in Modern English, e.g. to
sing
— song,
to live — life, strong
— strength,
etc.
It also distinguishes between different word-forms, e.g. man
— men,
wife
— wives,
to know
— knew,
to leave
— left,
etc.
Sound-interchange
falls into two groups: vowel-interchange and consonant-interchange.
110
By
means of vowel-interchange we distinguish different parts of speech,
e.g. full
— to
fill, food
— to
feed, blood
— to
bleed, etc.
In
some
cases vowel-interchange is combined with affixation, e.g. long
— length,
strong
— strength,
broad — breadth, etc.
Intransitive verbs and the corresponding transitive ones with a
causative meaning also display vowel-interchange, e. g. to
rise
— to
raise, to sit
— to
set, to lie
— to
lay, to fall
— to
fell.
The
type of consonant-interchange typical of Modern English is the
interchange of a voiceless fricative consonant in a noun and the
corresponding voiced consonant in the corresponding verb, e.g. use
— to
use, mouth
— to
mouth, house
— to
house, advice
— to
advise, etc.
There
are some particular cases of consonant-interchange: [k]
— [t∫]:
to speak
— speech,
to break
— breach;
[s]
— [d]:
defence
— to
defend; offence
— to
offend; [s]
— [t]:
evidence
— evident,
importance
— important,
etc.
Consonant-interchange
may be combined with vowel-interchange, e.g. bath
— to
bathe, breath
— to
breathe, life — to live, etc.
Many
English verbs of Latin-French origin are distinguished from the
corresponding nouns by the position of stress. Here are some
well-known examples of such pairs of words: ´export
n
— to
ex´port
v;
´import
n
— to
im´port
v;
‘conduct
n
— to
con’duct v;
‘present
n — to
pre’sent v;
´contrast
n
— to
con´trast
v;
´increase
n
— to
in´crease
v,
etc.
Stress-interchange
is not restricted to pairs of words consisting of a noun and a verb.
It may also occur between other parts of speech, for instance,
between adjective and verb, e.g. ´frequent
a
— to
fre´quent
v;
´absent
a — to ab´sent
v,
etc.
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Words in English public website
Ling 216
Rice University
Prof. S. Kemmer
Types of Word Formation Processes
Compounding
Compounding forms a word out of two or more root morphemes. The words
are called compounds or compound words.
In Linguistics, compounds can be either native or borrowed.
Native English roots are
typically free morphemes, so that means native compounds are made out of
independent words that can occur by themselves. Examples:
mailman (composed of free root mail and free root man)
mail carrier
dog house
fireplace
fireplug (a regional word for ‘fire hydrant’)
fire hydrant
dry run
cupcake
cup holder
email
e-ticket
pick-up truck
talking-to
Some compounds have a preposition as one of the component words as in the
last 2 examples.
In Greek and Latin, in contrast to English, roots do not typically stand
alone. So compounds are composed of bound roots. Compounds formed in
English from borrowed Latin and Greek morphemes preserve this
characteristic. Examples include photograph,
iatrogenic, and many thousands of other classical words.
Note that compounds are written in various ways in English:
with a space between the elements; with a hyphen between the
elements; or simply with the two roots run together with no separation.
The way the word is written does not affect its status as a
compound. Over time, the convention for writing compounds can change,
usually in the direction from separate words (e.g. email used to be written with a hyphen.
In the 19th century, today and tomorrow were sometimes still written to-day and to-morrow. The to originally was the preposition to with an older meaning ‘at [a particular period of time]’.
Clock work changed
to clock-work and finally to one word with no break
(clockwork). If you read older literature you might see some
compound words that are now written as one word appearing
with unfamiliar spaces or hyphens between the components.
Another thing to note about compounds is that they can combine words
of different parts of speech. The list above shows mostly noun-noun
compounds, which is probably the most common part of speech
combination, but there are others, such as adjective-noun (dry
run, blackbird, hard drive), verb-noun (pick-pocket,
cut-purse, lick-spittle) and even verb-particle (where
‘particle’ means a word basically designating spatial expression that
functions to complete a literal or metaphorical path), as in
run-through, hold-over. Sometimes these compounds are
different in the part of speech of the whole compound vs. the part of
speech of its components. Note that the last two are actually nouns,
despite their components.
Some compounds have more than two component words. These are formed
by successively combining words into compounds, e.g. pick-up truck,
formed from pick-up and truck , where the first component,
pick-up is itself a compound formed from
pick and up. Other examples are ice-cream
cone, no-fault insurance and even more complex compounds like
top-rack dishwasher safe.
There are a number of subtypes of compounds that do not have to do
with part of speech, but rather the sound characteristics of the
words. These subtypes are not mutually exclusive.
Rhyming compounds (subtype of compounds)
These words are compounded from two rhyming words. Examples:
lovey-dovey
chiller-killer
There are words that are formally very similar to rhyming compounds,
but are not quite compounds in English because the second element is
not really a word—it is just a nonsense item added to a root word to
form a rhyme. Examples:
higgledy-piggledy
tootsie-wootsie
This formation
process is associated in English with child talk (and talk addressed
to children), technically called hypocoristic language. Examples:
bunnie-wunnie
Henny Penny
snuggly-wuggly
Georgie Porgie
Piggie-Wiggie
Another word type that looks a bit like rhyming compounds
comprises words that are formed of
two elements that almost match, but differ in their vowels.
Again, the second element is typically a nonsense form:
pitter-patter
zigzag
tick-tock
riffraff
flipflop
Derivation
Derivation is the creation of words by modification of a root without
the addition of other roots. Often the effect is a change in part of
speech.
Affixation (Subtype of Derivation)
The most common type of derivation is the addition of one or more affixes to a
root, as in the word derivation itself. This process is called
affixation, a term which covers both prefixation and suffixation.
Blending
Blending is one of the most beloved of word formation processes in
English. It is especially creative in that speakers take two words
and merge them based not on morpheme structure but on sound structure.
The resulting words are called blends.
Usually in word formation we combine roots or affixes along their
edges: one morpheme comes to an end before the next one starts. For example, we
form derivation out of the sequence of morphemes
de+riv+at(e)+ion. One morpheme follows the next and each one has
identifiable
boundaries. The morphemes do not overlap.
But in
blending, part of one word is stitched onto another word, without any
regard for where one morpheme ends and another begins. For example,
the word swooshtika ‘Nike swoosh as a logo symbolizing
corporate power and hegemony’
was formed from swoosh and swastika. The swoosh
part remains whole and recognizable in the blend, but the tika part is
not a morpheme, either in the word swastika or
in the blend. The blend is a perfect merger of form, and also of
content. The meaning contains an implicit analogy between the
swastika and the swoosh, and thus conceptually blends them into one
new kind of thing having properties of both, but also combined
properties of neither source. Other examples include glitterati (blending
glitter and literati) ‘Hollywood social set’, mockumentary (mock and
documentary) ‘spoof documentary’.
The earliest blends in English only go back to the 19th century, with
wordplay coinages by Lewis Carroll in Jabberwocky. For example, he
introduced to the language slithy, formed from lithe and
slimy, and galumph, (from gallop and
triumph. Interestingly galumph has survived as a word in
English, but it now seems to mean ‘walk in a stomping, ungainly way’.
Some blends that have been around for quite a while include brunch
(breakfast and lunch), motel (motor hotel), electrocute (electric and
execute), smog (smoke and
fog) and cheeseburger (cheese and hamburger).
These go back to the first half of the twentieth
century. Others, such as stagflation (stagnation and inflation),
spork (spoon and fork), and carjacking (car and hijacking) arose
since the 1970s.
Here are some more recent blends I have run across:
mocktail (mock and cocktail) ‘cocktail with no alcohol’
splog (spam and blog) ‘fake blog designed to attract hits and
raise Google-ranking’
Britpoperati (Britpop and literati) ‘those knowledgable about current British pop music’
Clipping
Clipping is a type of abbreviation of a word in which one part is
‘clipped’ off the rest, and the remaining word now means essentially the same
thing as what the whole word means or meant. For example, the word
rifle is a fairly modern clipping of an earlier compound
rifle gun, meaning a gun with a rifled barrel. (Rifled means
having a spiral groove causing the bullet to spin, and thus making it
more accurate.) Another clipping is burger, formed by clipping
off the beginning of the word hamburger. (This clipping could
only come about once hamburg+er was reanalyzed as ham+burger.)
Acronyms
Acronyms are formed by taking the initial letters of a phrase
and making a word out of it. Acronyms provide a way of turning a phrase into a word. The classical acronym is also
pronounced as a word. Scuba was formed
from self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. The
word snafu was originally WW2 army slang for Situation
Normal All Fucked Up. Acronyms were being used more and more by
military bureaucrats, and soldiers coined snafu in an
apparent parody of this overused device. Sometimes an acronym uses not just the first letter, but the first syllable of a component word, for example radar, RAdio Detection And Ranging and sonar, SOund Navigation and Ranging. Radar forms an analogical model for both sonar and lidar, a technology that measures distance to a target and and maps its surface by
bouncing a laser off it. There is some evidence that lidar was not coined as an acronym, but instead as a blend of light and radar. Based on the word itself, either etymology appears to work, so many speakers assume that lidar is an acronym rather than a blend.
A German example that strings together the initial syllables of the
words in the phrase, is Gestapo , from GEheime STAats POlizei
‘Sectret State Police’. Another is Stasi, from STAats
SIcherheit ‘State Security’.
Acronyms are a subtype of initialism. Initialisms also include words made from the initial letters of a Phrase but NOT pronounced as a normal word — it is instead pronounced as a string of letters. Organzation names aroften initialisms of his type. Examples:
NOW (National Organization of Women)
US or U.S., USA or U.S.A. (United States)
UN or U.N. (United Nations)
IMF (International Monetary Fund)
Some organizations ARE pronounced as a word:
UNICEF
MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)
The last example incorporates a meaning into the word that fits the nature of the organization. Sometimes this type is called a Reverse Acronym or a Backronym.
These can be thought of as a special case of acronyms.
Memos, email, and text messaging (text-speak) are modes of communication
that give rise to both clippings and acronyms, since these
word formation methods are designed to abbreviate.
Some acronyms:
NB — Nota bene, literally ‘note well’. Used by scholars making notes
on texts. (A large number of other scholarly acronyms from Latin are
used, probably most invented in the medieval period or Renaissance,
not originally in Latin)
BRB — be right back (from 1980s, 90s)
FYI — for your information (from mid 20th century)
LOL — laughing
out loud (early 21st century) — now pronounced either /lol/ or /el o
el/; has spawned compounds like Lolcats).
ROFL — rolling on the floor laughing
ROFLMAO — rolling on the floor laughing my ass off
Reanalysis
Sometimes speakers unconsciously change the morphological boundaries of a word, creating a new morph or making an old one unrecognizable. This happened in hamburger, which was originally Hamburger steak ‘chopped and formed steak in the Hamburg style, then hamburger (hamburg + er), then ham + burger
Folk etymology
A popular idea of a word’s origin that is not in accordance with its real origin.
Many folk etymologies are cases of reanalysis in which the word is not only reanalysis but it changes under the influence of the new understanding of its morphemes. The result is that speakers think it has a different origin than it does.
Analogy
Sometimes speakers take an existing word as a model and form other words using some of its morphemes as a fixed part, and changing one of them to something new, with an analogically similar meaning. Cheeseburger was formed on the analogy of hamburger, replacing a perceived morpheme ham with cheese.
carjack and skyjack were also formed by analogy.
Novel creation
In novel creation, a speaker or writer forms a word without starting
from other morphemes. It is as if the word if formed out of ‘whole
cloth’, without reusing any parts.
Some examples of now-conventionalized words that were novel creations
include blimp, googol (the mathematical term),
bling, and possibly slang, which emerged in the last 200
years with no obvious etymology. Some novel creations seem to display
‘sound symbolism’, in which a word’s phonological form suggests its
meaning in some way. For example, the sound of the word bling
seems to evoke heavy jewelry making noise. Another novel creation whose sound seems
to relate to its meaning is badonkadonk, ‘female rear end’, a
reduplicated word which can remind English speakers of the repetitive
movement of the rear end while walking.
Creative respelling
Sometimes words are formed by simply changing the spelling of a word
that the speaker wants to relate to the new word. Product names
often involve creative respelling, such as Mr. Kleen.
© Suzanne Kemmer
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