Word forms in english language

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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It is not merely by borrowing words from abroad that the English vocabulary has been increased. New words can easily be created in English and are being created almost every day and a large part of the English vocabulary consists of words and terms which the English have formed for themselves out of old and familiar material. There are several ways in which a new word can be made.

#1 Derivation

Derivation which means the formation of a new word out of an existing one by the addition of some prefix or suffix is one of the commonest resources for word formation. During the old English period a host of new words were formed by adding native affixes to existing words. Many of these affixes, such as –ness, -less, -ful, -y etc. are still extensively used to form new words darkness, hopeless, beautiful, windy, greedy etc. We can still prefix the OE. negative prefix un- to almost any descriptive adjective- uncommon, unbending etc. There is another prefix un- which is added to verbs to express the reversal of action, as in undo, untie, uncover etc.

A much more brilliant destiny was reserved for the Old English ending -ise (now -ish). It was chiefly added to names of places or nations to form adjectives, as in Englisc (now English), Scyttisc (now Scottish). Lundenise (now Londonish). In some instances it was added to common nouns to derive adjectives, as in folcisc, cildisc (childish). About 1400 A.D. it began to be used o form adjectives denoting colour, as in greenish, whitish, bluish etc.

The suffix -ly (OE. -lice) is added to adjectives to form adverbs – slowly, slovenhy, firstly, secondly etc. Another extensively used ending is -er (OE, -ere). At first its use was limited to the making of nouns denoting agents from other nouns only, e.g. OE. bocere>boc (book) here. But now we can make agent-denoting nouns in -er from any verb, e.g. writer, reader, speaker etc.

Other extensively used endings are -ing, and -en. -ing can be added to any verb to form participles, gerunds and verbal nouns walking, seeing, doing etc. -En is added to adjectives to form verbs harden, weaken, sweeten, lessen.

#2 Conversion

In English a verb might be formed without any derivative ending from the corresponding noun. Among the innumerable nouns from which verbs have been formed without adding anything to them we may mention ape, awe, cook, husband, silence, time, worship etc. “Nearly every word for the different parts of the body has given rise to a homonym verb, though true it is that some of them are rarely used”. (Jespersen) :- hand, fist, elbow, finger, thumb, breast (oppose), eye, lip (kiss), beard, tongue, jaw (scold), arm, shoulder etc.

A still more characteristic peculiarity of the English language is the freedom with which a form which was originally a verb is used unchanged as a noun, e.g. glance, bend, cut, gaze, reach, drain, burn, dislike, dismay, embrace, dress, build etc.

The Elizabethan period was very fertile in these nouns. In some cases a noun is derived from a verb which was originally derived from a noun, and all this word-making is done without any change in the form of the word. Smoke is first a noun (the smoke from the chimney), then a verb (the chimney smokes, he smokes a cigarette), then a new noun is formed from the verb in the sense of smoking a cigarette”, as in “let me have a smoke”. Let us take another word gossip noun (god-father, idle-talker>verb (to talk idly) > new noun (idle talk).

#3 Composition

Word composition is one of the fruitful resources for forming new words. Compounds are of two types- fixed and free. Fixed compounds tend to be felt as independent units, isolated from the component parts in sound and (or) in meaning”. (Jespersen). Daisy is a typical example of the fixed compound. It was originally dayes eye. But no one nowadays connects daisy with either day or eye. Woman is another good example. It was formed of wif+man; but nowadays it is taken to be an independent word, isolated from the component parts. Other typical instances of fixed compounds are Christmas < Christ+mass; nostril< OE nosu-p(th)yrel; husband < hus (house)+bonda (dweller) etc.

Also Read:

• 141 Most Important Philological Word Notes

Free compounds are such that when the need arises we can form new compounds after the pattern of already existing combinations. Table-lamp is a free compound. After this compound we can form many new compounds, such as table-salt, table clock, table cloth etc. In a free compound each component part is felt as independent of and of equal weight with the other e.g. rail-way, snuff-box, gold coin, headmaster etc. With free compounds we may have even long strings, like railway refreshment room, New Year Eve fancy dress ball etc.

So far as the logical relation of the parts of a compound is concerned very few compounds are of the same type. But in the majority of com pounds the second part expresses a general meaning which is modified and limited to some extent, by the first part. Thus a garden flower is a kind of flower growing in a garden; a flower garden is a kind of garden full of flowers.

There is a special type of compounds in which the first element is a verb and the second an object of the verb. This type seems to have originated in Romanic languages, but has in modern times proved very fertile in English: breakfast, pickpocket, cut-purse, know-nothing, stop-gap, kill-joy, makeshift, break-neck, toss-pot, tell-tale, scare-crow, lack-lustre. These compounds are used as nouns and adjectives- he is a pick-pocket (n); he had his breakfast (n); she has a very rell-tale face: (adj): we had a make-shift dinner (adj).

#4 Backformations

Backformations are the method of forming new words by subtracting something from old ones. They owe their origin to one part of a word being mistaken for some derivative suffix (or rarely prefix). The adverbs sideling, groveling, darkling were formed by adding the suffix -ling. But in such sentences he walks sideling, he lies groveling, I listen darkling etc. the suffix -ling looked exactly like the ending -ing, with the happy result that the verbs to sidle, to grovel, to darkle, were formed from the adverbs by the subtraction of-ing.

But the ending which is often subtracted is -y. The noun greed, the verbs laze, cose and jeopard are derived respectively from greedy, lazy, cosy and jeopardy by the subtraction of -y. By the subtraction of-y the words difficult, pup, cad are obtained respectively from difficulty puppy and cady. Many new words have also been formed by subtracting -er (-ar, or) from several agent-denoting nouns. Thus harbinger, rover, pedlar, burglar, hawker and beggar have called into existence the verbs to harbinge, rove, peddle, burgle, hawk and beg. Such compound verbs as to housekeep, dressmake, merrymake etc. have come to us through the process of backformations from housekeeper, dressmaker, merrymaker (by the subtraction of-y). The verbs to henpeck and to sunburn are backformations from participles henpecked, sunburnt.

#5 Shortening

Many new words have been formed from the existing ones by shortening long foreign words. In some cases the beginning and the end of a word are clipped and only the middle is retained e.g. teck< detective. Sometimes the beginning of a word is clipped and the end is retained, e.g. bus< omnibus, phone< telephone. But more often the beginning is retained, and the rest is cut off e.g. cab<cabriolet, photo< photograph. Some of the shortened words have never passed beyond slang, such as sov (<sovereign), pub (<publichouse), vet (veterinary surgeon), guv (governor) etc. Some of the shortened words have passed into ordinary speech, such as exam (<examination), bike (<bicycle), fad (<fadaise), mob (mobile vulgus), cab (<cabriolet).

#6 Root-creation

There are many words in English which have no etymology. The origin of such words is and will always remain unknown to us Such words are neither inherited from Old English, nor adopted from any foreign languages, nor formed out of any older English or foreign words by any process of composition or derivation. It is to instances of this kind that the name of ‘Root-creation’ may be fitly applied

One of the principal forms of root-creation is ‘Onomatopoeia‘. The word is Greek and literally means ‘name-making. It is one of the well-known figures of speech in which sound echoes sense. The number of such ‘echoic’ words is considerable; for instance, bang, boom, crackle, hiss, hum, simmer, whiz, bowwow, ding-dong, ping-pong, tick-tack, jingle, ruffle, shuffle, rumble, murmur, giggle, fumble, hoot, whoop, twitter, tilter, coo, boo, babble, splash, crash, tinkle, etc.

In many cases, the so-called ‘imitative’ word represents an inarticulate noise and produces a mental effect similar to that produced by the sound. In a similar way, the sound of a word may symbolically suggest a particular kind of movement or a particular shape of an object. A word having long vowels which are usually uttered slowly indicates a slow movement whereas the repetition of the same consonant conveys the idea of repetition of movement.

A syllable ending in a stopped consonant like p, t, or k, and following a short vowel suggests quick, abrupt action. Harsh or violent movements are represented by a series of consonants ‘scr-‘ (as in screech’ and ‘scream’) which are harsh in sound or difficult to utter. A hissing sound is conveyed by sibilants like s, z, as in ‘hiss’, ‘buzz’, ‘miss’, etc. This phonetic symbolism is implied in all root creations in the language. It has, in fact, led to a very large amount of root creation in Middle and Modern English, e.g., flip, flap, flop: flash, flush, hug, blob, dab, fidget, throb, thump, bob, twiddle, hump, zig-zag, flabbergast, etc.

Sometimes root-creation takes place to signify human motives or intentions. Examples are: to ‘chortle’, which is made of ‘chuckle’ and ‘snort’. ‘flurry’ of ‘flaw’ and ‘hurry’, ‘lunch’ of ‘lump’ and ‘hunch’. Lewis Carroll called such words ‘portmanteau‘. The following are also ‘portmanteau’ words :

Squarson= squire + parson

Bakerloo = Baker + Waterloo

Tilk = tea + milk

Brunch = breakfast + lunch

Encyclopedestrin = Encyclopaedia on legs

Flaunt = fly + flout + vaunt.

Galumph = gallop + triumph

Out of these, it must have been clear that in this curious class of new words two or more terms are combined, or, as it were, telescoped into one. This is an old process in language, and verbs like to ‘don’ (do on) or to ‘doff’ (do off) are examples of it in its simplest form. Vulgarisms like ‘need-cessity’ and ‘insinuendo’ are also its examples.

#7 Acoustic

There is another rather modern kind of word-formation, which is known as ‘acoustic’. In this method the first letters of the words create a new word. It is often the result of abbreviating words and grouping them into one in order to be able to speak them simply and hurriedly. Instances are ‘Dora’ (Defence of the Realm Act) and Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation): Unicef, Nato’, Seato’, etc. can be cited as further examples of ‘acoustic’ words.

#8 Ghost Words

Another class of words is known as ‘ghost’ words. We are not sure about the origin of such words. “In a large number of our new words, however, it is difficult to define the definite associations or analyse the elements that give them their expressive meaning.” The old words like ‘bluff’, ‘queer’ and ‘lounge’ are examples of this process, which, in the 18th century, gave us ‘cantankerous’ and ‘humbug’, and other similar words. Sometimes a word has a vague, undefined expressiveness, which seems capable of embodying various meanings and which connotes now differently from that of its original sense, e.g. ‘conundrum’ (originally the appellation of an odd person, to Ben Jonson a whim, then a pun, then its present meaning since the 18th C.); ‘roly-poly’ (a rascal, a game, a dance, a pudding, and finally a plump infant); ‘blizzard’ (the U.S. a ‘poser until the great winter storm of 1880 claimed it as its own).

#9 Re-Duplication

Another method of forming new words is ‘Re-Duplication’, either with variation of the vowel, e.g. ‘see-saw’ (from the sawyer’s movement), ‘shilly-shally’ (from ‘shall I’?) ‘ding-dong’ (from the oscillating noise like that of a bell), or of the consonant, e.g. ‘roly-poly’ (from ‘roll’), ‘namby-pamby’ (from “Namby’, the nick-name of Ambrose Phillips, an early eighteenth-century poetaster). Some of these combinations, such as ‘jim-jams’, ‘helter-skelter’. “hurly-burly’, ‘hugger-mugger’, are of very obscure origin.

#10 Folk-Etymology

Many words owe their modern form to ‘Folk-Etymology’, i.e. the popular tendency to give a more familiar form or sound to an unfamiliar word. Everyone has his own particular game garnered from uneducated speech, such as ‘Bartholomew’, for ‘Bath Oliver’ or ‘ever-fizzing drinks’, but a great number of such corruptions are now current English, e.g. ‘gilly-flower’ from French, ‘giroflee’, ‘touchy’ for ‘tetchy’, ‘shame-faced’, for ‘shame-faced’, ‘livelihood’ for Middle English ‘lifelode’, the leading of one’s life.

#11 Mono-syllabism

Apart from the methods mentioned above, English is rich with monosyllabic words, the origin of which remains untraced. Mention may be made of ‘bad’, ‘lad’, ‘lass’, ‘fit’. (adj.) and ‘fit’ (noun), dad’ (i.e. father), ‘jump’, ‘case’. ‘boy’, ‘girl’, ‘bet’, ‘gloat’, ‘big’, ‘fuss’, ‘hoax’, ‘slum’, ‘job’, ‘chum’, ‘hump’ “blight’, ‘pun’, ‘fun’, etc. A few of them might have originated from children’s playfulness, while others might have sprung from the corresponding linguistic playfulness of grown-up people, forming the fundamental essence of the phenomenon called ‘slang. Slang is now frequently used in our language.

#12 Name of Place

Finally, names of places are also a fruitful source of new words, for the Genius of the Language, when it has a gap in its vocabulary to fill in, is apt to seize on any material ready to its hand. Thus ‘worsted’ (woollen yarn) is from Worstead, a village near Norwich, and ‘canter’, is, of course, an abbreviation of Canterbury. ‘Calico’ is from Calicut.

#13 Telescoping

Telescoping is the method of forming new words by combining two or more terms into one. It is an old process of word-making in the English language, and the verbs like to don (from do +on) and to doff (from do + off) are instances of telescoping in its simplest form. Other examples of telescoping are flurry flaw+hurry: lunch<lumpthunch, flaunt flout vaunt. “Lewis Carrol amused himself by creating words of this kind and has thus added at least two words to the English language chortle, probably formed by suggestions of chuckle and short, and galumph out of gallop and triumphant.

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:

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:

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:

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

Word Forms

Recognize meanings of noun, verb, adjective and adverb forms

Multiple Word Forms vs. Limited Word Forms

Imagination is an example of a noun with verb, adjective and adverb word forms. All share the meaning «the forming of images in the mind that are not actually present». Additional word definitions vary slightly and keep close to the central meaning.

His writing was

MULTIPLE WORD FORMS, SHARED MEANING
CONTEXT	WORD FORM
NOUN
ADJECTIVE
ADVERB

Revolution is an example of a word that has some but not all four word forms. Notice that the adjective and adverb forms have meanings that depart from «rebellion to authority» and take on a meaning closer to «rebellion of mind or feeling».

The singer sang about social

revolted. revolt (V) «rebelled «

revolutionary. (innovative, rebellious)

revolting¹. (disgusting or rebellious)

—none— «in a revolutionary manner»

imagination (N) — the natural ability of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses; the word can be both a count noun (He had quite an imagination! ) when speaking specifically and a noncount noun (He had imagination.) when speaking in general.

rebel (N) — go against or take action against a social convention (the usual way of doing things) or a government or institution

revolt (V) — (1) rebel or break away from authority; (2) turn away in mental rebellion, disgust; (3) rebel in feeling; (4) feel horror. (at) He revolted at seeing their brutality.

¹revolting (Adj) — (1) disgusting, repulsive, distasteful, awful; (2) rebellious They are revolting. (unclear meaning)

revolution (N) — (1) an overthrow of a government, a rebellion; (2) a radical change in society and the social structure; (3) a sudden, complete or marked change in something; (4) completion of a circular movement, one turn.

revolutionary (Adj) — (1) a sudden complete change; (2) radically new or innovative; outside or beyond established procedure, principles; (3) related to a country’s revolution (period); (3) revolving, turning around like a record

«John Lennon» by Charles LeBlanc licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0 (size changed and «poster» filter applied)

Word Form Entry into English

Source of word and the addition of other forms

Word Forms

Historically, a word entered the English language, or was borrowed, primarily as one form—a noun, a verb or an adjective. In time, additional forms were added to the original word so that it could function in other ways. The table below includes words and their approximate entry dates as well as additional word forms and their appearance dates.

There is no formal or exact way of knowing which suffix to add when changing a word from one form to another. The methods of adding suffix forms vary. Some patterns exist, depending on whether the origin of the word is M >uninterested, disinterested and not interested.

A word may not have all four word forms. For example, the noun fun is w >fun (1675-85) and funny (1750-60). But usage of fun as a verb is rare and as an adverb is non-existent.

A word may have two similar forms that co-exist. For example, a word may enter English or be borrowed more than once. The noun chief (leader) entered into usage in M >chef (head cook) from French in 1835-45.

A word may be newly coined (made up) and not yet have other forms. For example, the word selfie is w >twerk can be used as a verb, but can one say a twerk (noun), twerky (adjective) or twerkily (adverb)?

Bright Hub Education

Word Formation

Word formation occurs when compounding, clipping or blending existing words to create new words. Below we will cover the definition of these terms and give you several examples of each.

Compounding Words

Compounding words are formed when two or more lexemes combine into a single new word. Compound words may be written as one word or as two words joined with a hyphen. For example:

• noun-noun compound: note + book → notebook
• adjective-noun compound: blue + berry → blueberry
• verb-noun compound: work + room → workroom
• noun-verb compound: breast + feed → breastfeed
• verb-verb compound: stir + fry → stir-fry
• adjective-verb compound: high + light → highlight
• verb-preposition compound: break + up → breakup
• preposition-verb compound: out + run → outrun
• adjective-adjective compound: bitter + sweet → bittersweet
• preposition-preposition compound: in + to → into

Compounds may be compositional, meaning that the meaning of the new word is determined by combining the meanings of the parts, or non-compositional, meaning that the meaning of the new word cannot be determined by combining the meanings of the parts. For example, a blueberry is a berry that is blue. However, a breakup is not a relationship that was severed into pieces in an upward direction.

Compound nouns should not be confused with nouns modified by adjectives, verbs, and other nouns. For example, the adjective black of the noun phrase black bird is different from the adjective black of the compound noun blackbird in that black of black bird functions as a noun phrase modifier while the black of blackbird is an inseparable part of the noun: a black bird also refers to any bird that is black in color while a blackbird is a specific type of bird.

Clipping Words

Clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced or shortened without changing the meaning of the word. Clipping differs from back-formation in that the new word retains the meaning of the original word. For example:

• advertisement – ad
• alligator – gator
• examination – exam
• gasoline – gas
• gymnasium – gym
• influenza – flu

The four types of clipping are back clipping, fore-clipping, m >gas from gasoline. Fore-clipping is removing the beginning of a word as in gator from alligator. M >flu from influenza. Complex clipping is removing multiple parts from multiple words as in sitcom from situation comedy.

Blending Words

Blending is the word formation process in which parts of two or more words combine to create a new word whose meaning is often a combination of the original words. Below are examples of blending words.

• advertisement + entertainment → advertainment
• biographical + picture → biopic
• breakfast + lunch → brunch
• chuckle + snort → chortle
• cybernetic + organism → cyborg
• guess + estimate → guesstimate
• hazardous + material → hazmat
• motor + hotel → motel
• prim + sissy → prissy
• simultaneous + broadcast → simulcast
• smoke + fog → smog
• Spanish + English → Spanglish
• spoon + fork → spork
• telephone + marathon → telethon
• web + seminar → webinar

Blended words are also referred to as portmanteaus.

Word Formation Sample Downloads

For more complete lists of English words formed through compounding, clipping, and blending, please download the following free printable vocabulary lists:

Learning Vocabulary With Word Forms

How to Use Word Forms to Improve and Broaden Your English Vocabulary

• TESOL Diploma, Trinity College London
• M.A., Music Performance, Cologne University of Music
• B.A., Vocal Performance, Eastman School of Music

There are a wide variety of techniques used to learn vocabulary in English. This learning vocabulary technique focuses on using word forms as a way to broaden your English vocabulary. The great thing about word forms is that you can learn a number of words with just one basic definition. In other words, word forms relate to a specific meaning. Of course, not all of the definitions are the same. However, the definitions are often closely related.

Start off by quickly reviewing the eight parts of speech in English:

Examples

Not all eight parts of speech will have a form of each word. Sometimes, there are only noun and verb forms. Other times, a word will have related adjectives and adverbs. Here are some examples:

Noun: student
Verb: to study
Adjective: studious, studied, studying
Adverb: studiously

Some words will have more variations. Take the word care:

Noun: care, caregiver, caretaker, carefulness
Verb: to care
Adjective: careful, careless, carefree, careworn
Adverb: carefully, carelessly

Other words will be especially rich because of compounds. Compound words are words made up by taking two words and putting them together to create other words! Take a look at words derived from power:

Noun: power, brainpower, candlepower, firepower, horsepower, hydropower, powerboat, powerhouse, powerlessness, powerlifting, powerpc, powerpoint, superpower, willpower
Verb: to power, to empower, to overpower
Adjective: empowered, empowering, overpowered, overpowering, powerable, powered, powerful, powerless
Adverb: powerfully, powerlessly, overpoweringly

Not all words have so many compound word possibilities. However, there are some words that are used to construct numerous compound words. Here’s a (very) short list to get you started:

Exercises for Using Your Words in Context

Exercise 1: Write a Paragraph

Once you’ve made a list of a few words, the next step will be to give yourself the opportunity to put the words you’ve studied into context. There are a number of ways to do this, but one exercise I especially like is to write an extended paragraph. Let’s take a look at power again. Here’s a paragraph I’ve written to help me practice and remember words created with power:

Writing a paragraph is a powerful way to help you remember words. Of course, it takes plenty of brainpower. However, by writing out such a paragraph you will empower yourself to use this words. For example, you might find creating a paragraph in powerpoint on a PowerPC takes a lot of willpower. In the end, you won’t feel overpowered by all these words, you’ll feel empowered. No longer will you stand there powerlessly when confronted with words such as candlepower, firepower, horsepower, hydropower, because you’ll know that they are all different types of power used to power our overpowering society.

I’ll be the first to admit that writing out a paragraph, or even trying to read such a paragraph from memory might seem crazy. It certainly isn’t good writing style! However, by taking the time to try to fit as many words made up with a target word you’ll be creating all sorts of related context to your word list. This exercise will help you imagine what type of uses can be found for all these related words. Best of all, the exercise will help you ‘map’ the words in your brain!

Exercise 2: Write Sentences

An easier exercise is to write out individual sentences for each word in your list. It’s not as challenging, but it’s certainly an effective way to practice the vocabulary you’ve taken the time to learn.

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LIMITED WORD FORMS, VARYING IN MEANING
CONTEXT	WORD FORM
NOUN
ADJECTIVE
ADVERB

Word
formation is a branch of science of the language which studies the
patterns on which a language forms new lexical items (new unities,
new words). Word formation is a process of forming words by
combining root & affixal morphemes. 2 major groups of word
formation: 1) words, formed as grammatical syntagmas, combinations
of full linguistic signs (types: compounding (словосложение),
prefixation, suffixation, conversion, back derivation). 2) words,
which are not grammatical syntagmas, which are not made up of full
linguistic signs. For ex.: expressive symbolism, blending, clipping,
rhyme & some others.

Different
types of word formation:

—
COMPOUNDING
is joining together 2 or more stems.
Types: 1) without a
connecting element (headache, heartbreak); 2) with a vowel or
consonant as a linking element (speedometer, craftsman); 3) with a
preposition or conjunction as a linking element down-and-out
(опустошенный)
son-in-law.
—
PREFIXATION
Prefixes are such particles that can be prefixed to full words. But
are themselves not with independent existence.
—
SUFFIXATION
A suffix is a derivative final element which is or was productive in
forming new words. It has semantic value, but doesn’t occur as an
independent speech use.
—
CONVERSION
(zero derivation) A certain stem is used for the formation of a
categorically different word without a derivative element being
added.(Bag — to bag)
—
BACK DERIVATION
is deraving a new word, which is morphologically simpler from a more
complex word.  ( A babysitter — to babysit    
Television — to televise)
—
PHONETIC SYMBOLISM
is using characteristic speech sounds for name giving. Very often we
imitate by the speech sounds what we hear: (tinkle, splash, t).
—
CLIPPING
Consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts.    
( Mathematics — maths)
—
BLENDING
is blending part of two words to form one word  ( Smoke + fog =
smog)

Словообразование
является
отраслью
науки
о
языке,
который
изучает
модели,
на которой язык
формирует
новые
лексические
единицы
(новые
единицы,
новые слова). Словообразование
является
процесс
формирования
слов,
объединяя корень
и
аффиксальной
морфем.
2
основные
группы
словообразования:
1) слова,
образованные в грамматических
синтагм,
комбинации полной
языковые
знаки
(типа:
рецептуры
(словосложение),
префиксация,
суффиксация,
преобразования, обратно
вывод).
2)
слова,
которые
не являются
грамматическими
синтагм,
которые не составляют
полной
языковых
знаков.
Ex:.
Выразительной
символикой,
смешивания,
обрезание, рифмы и
некоторые
другие.
Различные
типы
словообразования:
—
Рецептура
объединяются
два
или
несколько
стеблей.
Типы:
1)
без
соединительного
элемента
(головная
боль,
горе),
2) с
гласной
или
согласной,
как связующий
элемент
(спидометр,
ремесленник), 3) с
предлога
или союза,
как связующий
элемент
вниз
и
выход
(опустошенный)
сын-в-законе.
—
Префиксация
Префиксы
таких
частиц,
которые могут быть приставкой
к
полной
слова.
Но
сами
по себе
не
с
независимым
существованием.
—
Суффиксация
суффикс
является
производным
Последний
элемент,
который является или был
продуктивным
в
формировании
новых
слов.
Он
имеет
смысловое
значение,
но не встречаются
в виде
самостоятельного
использования
речи.
—
Преобразование
(ноль
вывода)
определенных
стволовых
используется
для
формирования
категорически
другое
слово,
не производный
элемент
добавляется
(сумка
—
к
сумке).
—
НАЗАД
вывод
deraving
новое
слово,
которое морфологически
проще
с
более
сложным
словом.
(Няня
—
в
​​качестве
няни
Телевидение
—
к
телевидению)
—
ФОНЕТИЧЕСКИЙ
СИМВОЛИЗМ
использует
характерные
звуки
речи
для
названия
давать.
Очень
часто мы
подражать
от
звуков
речи,
что мы слышим:
(звон,
заставка, т).
—
Отсечение
Заключается
в
сокращении
слова
одной
из
его
частей.
(Математика
—
математика)
—
Смешивание
смешивание
часть
из
двух слов
в
одно
слово
(Дым
+
Туман
=
смог)

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This process involves morphological processes (then formation of words through combinations of morphemes together with other different processes.

The process of word formation may involve the process whereby roots or stems received inflectional or derivational element (affixes) in order to form the new words.

NB: The roots, stems inflectional or derivational elements are all technique termed as morphemes

                            


MORPHOLOGY

This is a component of grammar (sub branch) of linguistics which deals with the study of morphemes and their difference forms (Allomorphs) and how these units combine together in the formation of words. It also studies the structure and arrangement of words in the dictionary i.e. Morphology is the study of word formation and dictionary use.

DEFINITIONS OF KEY  WORDS

1. Morpheme

This is the smallest grammatical or lexical unit in the structure of a language which may form a word or part of a word

E.g. nation — national 

                     International  

                     Internationally
                      Nationalization
        Kind —  kindness

                   Unkind
                   Unkindness
        Take — takes

                   Taken
                   Taking

        Discuss —  discussion

              Discussions
        A morpheme may represent the lexical meaning or grammatical function.

2. Word

This is the minimal or smallest unit in the structure of a sentence in any language which may constitute on utterance or sentence on its own.

The word is usually formed by either one or several morphemes out it is the smallest unit in the sentence structure.

E.g. Yesterday I met him at Tabata- 6 words

        We can words in a sentence and morphemes in a word

3. Stem

Is that part of a word that is in existence before any inflectional affixes have been added. 

Or, Is that part of the word that inflectional affixes can be attached to.

For example:

— «cat» can take inflectional morpheme-‘S’

— «Worker» can take inflectional morpheme-‘S’

— «Winne» can take inflectional morpheme-‘S’

— «Short» can take inflectional morpheme-‘er’

— «friendship» can take inflectional morpheme-‘S’  

This is a basic part of a word which normally carries lexical meaning corresponding to the concept, object or idea and which cannot be split into further parts
Roots in many languages may also be joined to other roots or take affixes or combing forms
E.g. Man   manly,  house hold, big

      6. Affix

This is a morpheme, usually grammatical which is attached to another morpheme (stem) in the formation of a new word which may change the meaning, grammatical category or grammatical form of the stem.

E.g. Beautiful   Mismanagement Disconnect

The affix maybe added either before, with or after the stem thus are three types of affixes.

i.    Prefix

This is the affix which is added before the stem

E.g.   Disconnect

          Illogical

          Unhappy

Empower

ii.   Infix

This is the affix that is added within the stem. Thus type of affix is rare to be found in English words

E.g. meno   —  meino

iii.  Suffix

This is the affix that is added after the stem.

                        E.g.  Mismanagement
                                Beautiful
                                Dismissal
                                Kingdom

7.      Allomorph

This refers to any of the difference forms of the same morpheme root they all represent the past participle (grammatical function)

The morphemes are classified into several categories basing on several factor such as:-

Occurrence, meaning and function

There are two major types of morphemes

(i)   Free morpheme

This is the morpheme that can stand or occur alone (on its own) as a separate word in the structure of a sentences in any language.

The free morpheme includes all parts of speech i.e. Nouns, Verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, articles

The free morpheme is further divided into two categories

(a) Lexical morpheme

This is the type of frees morpheme which occurs on its own and carries a content of the message being conveyed i.e. It is the free morpheme which represents the actual lexical meaning of the concept, idea, object or action.

The lexical morphemes include the major word classes such as Noun, verbs (main verb), adjective and adverb.

E.g.      House

             Attend

             Large

            Tomorrow

(b)  Functional morpheme / grammatical morpheme

This is the free morpheme which can stand alone as a separate word in a sentence but does not represent the actual lexical meaning of the concept, idea, object or action – it has little meaning when used alone and thus it usually occurs together with the lexical morpheme in order to give the lexical meaning

The functional morphemes includes the minor word classes such as pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections and articles, auxiliary verbs etc

(ii)   Bound morpheme

This is the morpheme which can not normally stand alone as a separate word in the sentence structure as it is attached to another morpheme (lexical) free morpheme in the formation of the new word.

The Bound morpheme represents grammatical function such as word category tense aspect, person, number, participle, comparison etc.

Example ment, ism represents a noun, aly represent.

Adverb

Tense – ed, d, voice, number

Person – es

Aspect – ing – progressive aspect

Comparison – er, est

The Bound morpheme is farther divided in to two categories.

(a)   Derivation morpheme

This is the bound morpheme which is used to form or make new words with different meanings and grammatical categories or class from the stem i.e. It is the morpheme which when added to the stem it changes the meaning and / or the word class of grammatical category of stem/ base Example unhappy, illogical, impossible, empower

National – noun to adjective

Derivation morpheme may occur either before or after or both before and after the stem in the formation of the new words i.e. they may occur either as prefixes or affixes example management, mismanage, mismanagement.

The derivation morpheme may also change the sub classification of the same word class such as concrete noun into abstract noun e.g. Kingdom, friendship, leadership, membership

Deviation morphemes are also used as indicators of word category example simplicity, modernize dare indicators of verb by indicator of adverbs.

(b)  Inflectional morpheme

This is the type of bound morpheme which is not used to produce or form different words with different meaning but rather it is used to change grammatical form of the state i.e. Inflectional morpheme doesn’t change the meaning or word class but it only changes grammatical form of the sentence which represent grammatical function such as to mark the verb for tense aspect, participle voice etc

Example finished, Lorries, oxen

Past tense – finished

Past participle – proven

Number – Lorries, oxen, children

Inflectional morpheme also marks nouns and number.

They mark adverb and adjectives for comparison

E.g. smaller, smallest

FUNCTION OF MORPHEMES

The morphemes are analyzed as having three major functions that are directly linked with their types.

The following are the functions of morphemes:-

E.g. Tree, after, along

2. The morphemes (derivation bound morphemes) are used to change the lexical meaning and / or the grammatical category of the stem. 
This function is called derivation function

3. The morphemes (inflectional morphemes) are used to change the grammatical form or function of the stem without changing the meaning or word class.

This function is known as inflectional function

TASK

Read the following passage and answer the following question 

A thick vegetation cover,  such as tropical forests ,   acts as protection  against physical weathering and also helps to slow the  removal   of the  weathered layer  in deserts and  high mountains the absence of the vegetation   accelerates the rate of weathering plants and animals, however,   play a significant part in rock destruction, notably  by  chemical decomposition through the action of  organic acidic solution the acids develop  from water percolation through party decayed vegetation and animal matter.

Question

1. Identify

I. 7 lexical  morphemes

II. 5 derivation  morphemes

III. 2 inflectional morphemes

PROCESSES OF WORD FORMATION IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The formation of words in English language is archived in several processes or ways. These processes fall into two major categories

(i)   The major processes which includes affixation compounding, Conversion and reduplication.

(ii) The minor processes which includes clipping Blending, Acronym, Borrowing, Back formation, Onomatopoeia, Coining/ coinage

I)   The major processes of word formation

(a) AFFIXATION

The process of word formation whereby new words are formed by attaching or adding the affixes (prefix, infix or suffix) to the stem.

E.g.      Shortly – suffix

            Unusual – prefix

            Belonging – suffix

            Inhuman – prefix

            Dismissal — suffix

(I) Prefixation
This is the process of forming new words by adding affixes before the stem/root. For example dislike , unhappy, amoral, decolonise, redo.

Classification of Prefix

Prefix are classified into several categories basing on the meaning they give when added to the stem   

i.  Negative prefixes

These give the meaning of “NOT” “the opposite of” or “lack of”

                  Impossible – illegal

                  Immobile – illogical

                  Irregular – disobey

                  Disadvantage — amoral

                  Apolitical

ii.     Restorative prefixes

    These give the meaning of “Reverse an action”

          E.g  Undress – deforest

                  Uncover – depopulate

                  Disconnect – devalue

                  Disorganized

                  Decolonize

iii.   Pejorative prefixes

These give the meaning of “unless. False, fake, unimportant. Wrong, badly or bad”

E.g. Malnutrition – pseudo name

      Malpractice – pseudo intellectual

      Misconduct – pseudo scientists

      Mismanage

      Misbehave

iv.   Prefixes of degree or size
These express degree or size in terms of quality or quantity.

E.g. Arch (supreme or highest in rank)

      Super (above or better)

      Sir (over and above) e.g. Sir name

      Sub (lower or less than) e.g. Substandard, subconscious

Over (too much) e.g. Over doss, over it, over confident

Under (too little) e.g. under paid, under look, under cook

Hyper (extremely or beyond) e.g. Hyper actives, Hyper sensitive

Ultra (extremely or beyond) e.g. Ultra modern, ultrasound

Mini (small) e.g. Mini bus, mini skirt

 v.  Prefixes of altitude

These include “Co-“(with or joined)                               

E.g. Co-operate, co- education, co- exist. “Counter” (in opposition to”) e.g. Counter attack, counter- revolution, and counter act

“Anti” (against) e.g. Antivirus, anticlockwise, anti body

“Pro” (instead of or on the side of) e.g. Pronoun, pro capitalism, Pro multiparty.

vi. Locative prefixes

These indicate location

E.g. Super (over or above) superstructure, super building, super imposed

Inter (between or among) international, inter school

Trans (across) Trans Saharan, trans plant, Trans Atlantic

vii.   Prefixes of time and order

These include “fore” (before, front, first) e.g. Foreground, fore legs, fore knowledge, fore head

Pre – (before) e.g.  Pre-mature                

                               Pre- independence

                               Pre- form one

                               Pre- National

                               Pre- judge

                               Pre- war

Post – (after) e.g.   Post- graduate

                              Post – independence
                              Post-election

                Ex – (former) e.g. Ex – president
                                             Ex – wife
                                             Ex – husband
                                             Ex – soldier

                 Re – (again or back) e.g.Re – write

                                                         Re call

                                                         Re evaluate

viii.   Number prefixes

These show number

Uni-/ Mono – (means one) e.g.Uni- cellular

                                                 Mono party

                                            Monolingual

                                       Monocotyledon

                                             Monosyllabic

Bi -/ Bi – (means two, double or twice) e.g. Bilingua

                                                                     Bicycle
                                                                     Ditransitive
                                                                     Dicotyledon
                                                                      Bi- annual

Tri (three) e.g. Triangle

                         Tricycle
                         Trilateral

Multi/ poly (many) e.g. Polyandry 

                                     Polygamy
                                     Multi lingua
                                     Multiparty
                                      Multi disciplinary

ix.    Conversion prefixes

Prefixes used to change a word from noun/adjective to verb

En – (make or become) 

e.g. Enslave

  Enlarge

  Ensure

  Enforce

  Enrich

        Enlightened

Be – (make or become) 

e.g. Befriend

       Be calm

       Be witch

-A- (be or become) 

e.g. a live

       A sleep 

       A rise

x.  Other prefixes   

—   Auto (self) – Auto biography

              Autograph

               Autocracy

— Neo (new or revived) e.g. Neo- colonialism

                                           Neo-man
                                                                 

-Pan (all or worldwide) e.g. Pan-africanism

-Proto (original) e.g. Proto Bantu

                                 Proto language
                                  Proto type

-Semi (half) e.g. Semi-circle

                                           Semi- hemisphere
                                           Semi- final
                                           Semi-model

TASK

1. Provide the meaning of the following prefixes and provide three examples of words/roots/stem which can be use these prefixes.
 i) Sur —
ii) Proto —
iii) Hyper —
iv) Dis —
v) Neo —

2. With examples differentiate between pejorative prefixes and locative prefixes.
3. Use appropriate prefix(es)in each of the following words
       i) Charge
       ii) Type
       iii) possible
       iv) Navigation
       v) Ability

4. i) Give three examples of reversative prefixes
    ii) Write three examples of the prefix poly_
    iii) What is the difference of the prefix «Un» in unhappy, unkind and in uncover, untie

(II) Suffixation

Is the process of adding morphemes after a system/root. So as to form new word. Unlike prefixation, suffixes frequently alter the word class of a root/stem.

Classification of suffix

The suffixes are classified according to the class of the new word formed after the addition of the suffixes.

There are four major types of suffixes

    i)      — Noun suffixes

   ii)      — Adjective suffixes

  iii)       — Adverb suffixes

  iv)       — Verb suffixes-let (small)

Noun Suffixes   

are the suffixes added to the stem or bases of different word classes in the formation of the new word that are noun by category.

This falls into four categories;

(a) Noun to noun suffixes

— star (engaged in or belongs to)

       E.g. – Young –star

                  Gang-star

— eer (engaged in or belongs to)

      E.g. Engineer

             Profiteer

             Racketeer

— let (small)

E.g. Booklet

        Leaflet

        Piglet

— ette (small)

      E.g. Kitchenette

             Cigarette

             Statuette

— ess (small) e.g. Lioness

                        Actress

                        Princess

— hood (in the state or status of) e.g. Brotherhood

                                                         Manhood

                                                         Neighborhood

                                                         Youth hood

                                                         Adulthood

— Ship (in the state or status of) E.g. Friendship

                                              Relationship

— Dom (in the condition) E.g. Kingdom

                         Freedom

                         Boredom

                         Wisdom

— cracy (system of government) E.g. Bureaucracy

                                              Democracy

— ery (behavior of or place an ac

E.g. Slavery

             Machinery

             Peasantry

             Carpentry

                      Concrete – Abstract

(b) Noun to Adjective suffixes are the suffixes added to

— ist (member of) e.g.  Socialist

                                 Idealist

                                 Capitalist

                                 Ratio list

— ism (attitude or political movement)

      E.g. Idealism

             Communism

— ness (quality) or state

      E.g. Happiness

             Cleverness

— ity (state or quality) e.g. Stupidity                           

                                       Ability

                                      Salinity

(c) Verb to Noun suffixes

— er (instrumental or a genitive) e.g. Player

                                                   Reader

                                                   Writer

                                                    Farmer

                                                    Leader

— or (“ ) e.g.    Actor

                     Investigator

                     Incubator

                     Insulator

— al (action of) e.g. Arrival

                           Dismissal

                           Withdrawal

                           Proposal

— age (an activity or)

                  E.g.     Drainage

                              Marriage

                              Passage

                              Leakage

— ment (state or action of)

                  E.g.   Government

                           Treatment

                            Achievement

                            Improvement

— ant (instrumental or adjective) E.g.  Assistant

-ee (passive receiver) e.g. Employee

                                           Payee
                                           Trainee
                                             Appointee
                                            Interviewee

— (a) tion (state or action)

E.g. organization

                   Examination

                   Discussion

                   Globalization

                   Penetration

(ii) Adjective suffixes

They are used to change the bases of different word classes such as noun or verbs in order to form the new words that are Adjective by class.

(a) Verb to Adjective suffixes

— ive (which) e.g. Active

                         Respective

                         Comparative

                         Collective

— able /-ible  E.g.  Manageable

                          Sensible

                          Movable       

                          Honorable 

Noun to Adjective suffixes

— al (of or with)  e.g. National

                              Accidental

                              Criminal

                              Historical

— (ii) an (member of) e.g. Tanzanian

                                         Canadian

— ful (having or with)

      E.g.  Beautiful

              Wonderful

— less (without)

      E.g.      Childless

                  Speechless

                  Harmless

                  Hopeless

                  Useless

— ly (having a quality of)

      E.g.      Manly

                  Friendly

                  Cowardly

— ish (belong to or having the character of)

      E.g.      Selfish

                  Turkish

                  Irish

                  Swedish

— ous (with or worth) e.g. Dangerous

                                        Famous

— ese (a member or citizen of)

      E.g.      Chinese

                  Congolese

                  Japanese

— y (like, with or cover with)

      E.g.      Sandy

                  Muddy

                  Sugar

                  Healthy

                  Creamy

                  Hairy

— like (having a quality or behavior like)

E.g.      Childlike

             Fingerlike

(iii) Verb suffixes

These are the suffixes added to the stems or roots of Noun or adjectives to from the new words which are verbs by class.

These are three types of verb suffixes

-ify (cause or make) e.g. Identify

                                         Simplify
                                          Notify
                                           Classify
                                            Purify

-en (cause or make) e.g. Widen   lengthen

                                         Sharpen    strengthen
                                          Weaken
                                           Sadden
                                           Threaten

-ize/ — ise ( “  ) e.g.  Apologize

                               Colonize
                               Socialize
                               Formalize

(iv)  Adverb suffixes

These are the suffixes which when added to the roots or stems they produce a new word which is an adverb by class

-ly (in the manner of) e.g. quickly

                                          Slowly
                                          Quietly
                                           Happily
                                           Gradually

-ward (in the manner of or in the direction of)

                                    E.g. Backward
                                            Onwards
                                            Inwards
                                            Downwards
                                            Upwards   

 -wise (as far as or in the manner of)

                                       E.g.   Education wise
                                                Clockwise
                                                Cultural wise
                                                Political wise
TASK
1. Form verbs from the following words; family, type, popular, clear.
2. Form adjectives from the following words;expression, problem, progress, crime, courage.
3. With examples differentiate prefixes from suffixes

(b)  COMPOUNDING

This is the process of words formation whereby two or more lexical morphemes are joined or combined together to form a new single word.

            E.g.   Classroom
                      Earth quake
                      Girlfriend
                      Tea spoon
                      Table mat
                      Easy-going
                      Washing-machine
NB:  The new words formed as a result of the process of compounding are technique known as compound words or compounds.

Classification of compound words

The compound words are classified basing on two aspects;

i)  The way they are written
ii) According to the meaning

  i)  The way they are written

— Solid/closed compound

These are the compound words that are written without leaving any space or gap between the bases.

            E.g.  Classroom
                    Teaspoon
                    Earthquake
                    Wallpaper
                    Textbook
                    Payphone

                 
— Hyphenated compounds

These are the compound words that the written with the hyphen separating the two bases.

E.g. Fire-escape
                   High-grade
                   Colour-blind
                   Brother-in-law   
                   Machine-gun

— Open Compounds

These are the compound words that are written by leaving the space (gap) between the two bases.

E.g.  Sewing machine 
                     Town planning
                     Tape measure 
                     Baking powder
                    Washing machine

ii)   According to the meaning

Transparent compounds

These are the compound whose meanings reflect the meaning of separate bases i.e. the compounds whose meanings are directly derived or related to the meaning of the separate bases which make them up.

           E.g.  Classroom
                    Girlfriend  
                    Earthquake
                    Teaspoon 
                    Washing machine

Opaque Compounds

These are the compounds whose meanings differ from the meanings of separate bases i.e. the compounds whose meanings are not derived or not directly related with the meanings of separate bases which make up

E.g. Honey moon                              wide spread
        Daily word                                blue berry
        Pass word                                  call right
        Sweet heart                                cow boy
         Hot cake
        Home sick
        Sugar mummy
        Day dream

Bahrain

These are the compound words whose meanings reflect the physical features or appearance of a person or object being reflected to.

E.g.    Blackboard
                     White fluid
                     Block head
                     Feature weight
                     Red – eyed

Identification of the compound words

There are three ways of identifying the compound words

i. Through the entry in the dictionary 

i.e. any compound word should occupy its own entry in the dictionary. It should be regarded as an independent word in the dictionary.

E.g. Bedroom

Classroom

National park

ii.  Through the word class or category 

i.e. Each compound word has its own class different from other word classes of the words constituting the compound

E.g. play boy – Noun

     Play -Verb

     Boy – noun

Madman – noun

Mad – adjective

Man – noun

Colour blind – adjective

Colour — noun

Blind — adjective

Well – known – adjective

Well – adverb

Known – verb

Through the meaning i.e. some words retain their original meaning after the combination but some of the words convey the meaning that are totally different from the meaning of the original word

E.g. Green fly, Sweet heart, Pass word

(c) CONVERSION

This is the process of word formation (derivation process) whereby a base is assigned a new word category (class) without an addition or reduction of any affix. I.e. it is the process whereby a new word is formed by the change of one class into another without the addition or reduction of affix or syllable such as noun into verb adjective – noun and vice – verse

E.g. Love (N) Love is blind.

                 Love (V) I love you.

Walk (N) The walk to Kilimanjaro was fantastic.

Walk (V) We usually walk on foot to school.

Drink (N) We didn’t get any drink at chalinze.

Drink (V) My parents drink beer daily.

Help (N) I need help.

Help (V) I used to help him.

Work (N) My brother has gone to work.

Work (V) They work day and night.

Doubt (N) I did not have any doubt on her.

Doubt (V) I doubt his ability.

Lower (V) May you please lower your voice?

Lower (Adj) He usually speaks in a lower voice.

Ship (N) She traveled by ship.

Ship (V) Slave traders ship travel to America every year.

Poor (N) we need to help the poor.

Poor (Adj) That poor person has been killed.

NB: There some words which change from noun into verb by either voice in the final consonant or by stress shift

(N) Use /just/

(V) Use /just/

Advice (N) I gave him advice.

Advice (V) I advised him.

Object – (N) give me that object.

Object – (V) why do you object?

Conduct – (N) he didn’t show as any good.

Conduct – (V) conduct discussion.

Protest (N) — The protest was between government and student of Dodoma University.

Protest (V) – The groups of women took to the streets to protest against the arrest.

Present (N) Adj – I was present.

      —   He has brought a nice present.

Present (V) — Present your work.TASK
1. Construct two sentences in each of the following words showing how they can be used in a different word classes without any affixation process
        i) Water
        ii) Import
        iii) Produce
        iv) Class
        v) Cleaning

 2. Write new sentences by changing each of the words in capital in to noun

      I.  What  you PRESENT  to day will automatically affect your future

     II.   We except to  PRODUCE enough crops this year because there is enough rain

    III.   The names of evils doers were BLACKLISTED

    IV.    For the language to develop, it must borrow some vocabularies from other language.

(d) REDUPLICATION

This is the process of word formation where by new words are formed through the repetition of the same or almost the same sounds i.e. It is the process whereby the new word are formed by repeating sound which are either similar or slightly different

E.g.      Hush – hush

            Sing – song

            Tip – top

            Tick – tock

            Ding – dong

            Zig – zag

 Criss – cross

 Poor – poor

 Goody – goody

 See – saw

 Tom – tom

 Bow – Bo

NB: The new words that are formed as a result of reduplication process are known as reduplicative

The reduplication have the following basic uses

1.      To imitate sound

E.g. Ding – dong (sound of the bell)

Ha ha — (sound of laughter)

Bow – bow (dog barking)

Tick – tock (Clock sound)

2.      To make things took more intense than they are.

(To intensify adjectives)

E.g. Tip – top – (top most)

Goody – goody (very good)

3.      To suggest a state of disorder, instability, non-sense

E.g. Niggled – pigged (Un orderly/ mixed up)

Lodge – podge (disorganized)

Wishy – washy (weak)

Locus – pocus (Trickery)

Tick – tacky (cheap an of low quality)

Pool – pool (not working)

4. To suggest alternative movement of things

II.    Minor processes of word information

(e) CLIPPING

This process of word formation whereby one of the syllables are omitted or subtracted from a word and the remaining syllables are regarded as a new word

This occurs when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form which is regarded as a new word.

NB: The removal or emotion of a syllable may take place either at the beginning at the end of the word or both.

(f) BLENDING

This is the process of word formation whereby two or more parts, fragments or elements of two or more different words are put or joined together to form a new.

I.e. it is the process of talking only the beginning part of one word and joining it to (with) the beginning or the end of another word.

Example: 

breakfast + lunch = Bruch

Motorist + hotel =motel

Cellular + telephone = cell phone

Mobile + telephone = mobile

Television + Broad cast = telecast

International + police = Interpol

Transfer + resister = transistor

Information + entertainment = infotainment

Gasoline + alcohol = gas

International + network = internet

Television + marathon = telethon

Motor + pedal = moped

Electronic + mail = email

Smoke + fog = smog

Helicopter + airport = heliport

Parachute + troops = paratroops

Travel + catalogue = travelogue

Binary + Digit = bit

(g) ACRONYM

This is the process of word formation whereby the initial or first letters of different words are put together as a new word.

The words that are formed from the initial letter are technique termed as acronyms.

There are two types of acronyms      

i.     Acronyms pronounced as a sequence of letter

E.g.      C.O.D – cash on delivery

            CID – Criminal Investigation Department

            FBI – Federal bureau

            UN – United Nations

            IPA – International Phonetic Alphabet

            CUF – Civil United Front

            CPU- central processing unit

ii.   Acronyms pronounced as words

E.g.     NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization

TANESCO – Tanzania electricity Supply Company

UNO – United Nations Organization

UNESCO – United nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

AIDS – Acquired immune Deficiency and Syndrome

CUF – Civil United Fronts

TANU – Tanganyika African National Union

TAMWA – Tanzania Media Women Association

(h) BACK FORMATION

This is the process of word formation whereby new words are created or formed by the removal of some parts (affixes) from an existing word.

i.  A conflict

(i)    ………………………………………………………………………………………………….

(ii)   …………………………………………………………………………………………………..

ii.    Abuse

(i)    …………………………………………………………………………………………………..

(ii)   …………………………………………………………………………………………….

iii.  Insult

(i)      ……………………………………………………………………………………………………

(ii)   ……………………………………………………………………………………………………

iv.  Narrow

(i)     ……………………………………………………………………………………………………

(ii)     ……………………………………………………………………………………………

v.    Reject

(i)   ……………………………………………………………………………………………………

(ii)    …………………………………………………………………………………………..

3. Name the word formation processes involved in the formation of the words in brackets

       I.   Mwakifulefule had a  (jacket less)  book

       II.   Mayasa  (parties)  every Saturday night

      III.  Everybody must fight against (aids)

      IV.   Mufungwa  has just got a new (car phone)

      V.    Kagaruki wants  to be a (footballer)

 
NECTA  2012

1.  Read the following complex sentence and then answer the questions that follow.
Tanzania government has been using teacher in trying to transform education system which was inherited from the colonialism in order to match it with its own new goals, aspirations and concepts of development.
Identify the following from the above given sentence.
a. Five stems
b. From 5 stems in part (a) show the roots
c. 5 derivation morphemes
d. 5 inflectional morpheme

2.  a) Provide the adjectival forms the following words and write one Sentence for all
     b)  explain the process involved in the formation of the following groups of words

                        i.     Alcohol, boos, piano, zebra

                        ii.    Loan word, waste basket, water – bird, finger print

                        iii.   Facsimile – fax, cabriolet – cab, advertisement – ad

                        iv.   Telecast, hotel, heliport, brunch

  vi.     Telecast – television, opt- option, enthuse – enthusiasm, emote – emotion

Answers for question 1 & 2 (necta 2012)

1a.       Government
            Education
            Colonialism
            Aspiration
            Development

  b.     Govern
          Educate
          Colony
          Spice
          Develop      

   c.      meant
           ion
           ism
           ion
           met

  d.       -ing
            -en
             -s
             -ed

          
2. a) Breakable
        My pen is breakable.
   b. Measurable
        Ojiki’s thing is measurable
  c.   Mental
        She visited the mental clinic
  d.    Memorable
         Her birthday was a memorable event
  e.    Medical
         She is a medical student 
b)  (i)    Borrowing
     (ii)   Compounding
     (iii)  Clipping
     (iv)   Blending
     (v)    Back formation