Introduction to LinguisticsMs. Suha Jawabreh

Lecture 13

Word-formation Processes

What is a word-formation process?

word formation is the creation of a new word.

Word-formation Processes

1. Coinage

2. Borrowing

3. Blending

4. Clipping

5. Acronyms

Morphological Processes

1. Derivation

2. Conversion

3. Backformation

4. Compounding

Derivation What is derivation?

Derivation is the process of creating a new word out of an old word, usually by adding a prefix or a suffix.

Examples: Happy un+happy = unhappy (un- is a prefix)Happy happi+ness = happiness(-ness is a suffix)

-What is a prefix?

A prefix is a word part added to the beginning of a word to create a new word with a different

meaning.

Examples: inactive prejudge rewrite misrepresentDislike

-What is a suffix?

A suffix is a word part added to the end of a word to create a new word with a different

meaning.

Examples:

joyful carelessboyishsadnessterrorism

-All English words formed by this derivational process use either prefixes or suffixes, or both.

-mislead has a prefix.

- disrespectful has both a prefix and a suffix.

- foolishness has two suffixes.

Types of Affixes

1. A prefix

2. A suffix

3. An infix

-What is an infix?

- An infix is an affix that is added to the middle of a word.

-English does not use infixes.

-some vulgar words, like bloody, are used as infixes in informal English.

Examples: KangabloodyrooAbsogoddamlutely

Conversion (zero-derivation)

-What is conversion?

Conversion is  the creation of a word from an existing word without any change in form.

Examples: (from nouns to verbs) 1. vacation(N) to vacation (V) 2. butter (N) to butter (V)

(From verbs to nouns) to impact (V) impact (N) to guess (V) guess (N)

(from adjectives to verbs) empty to emptydirty to dirty

(from adjectives to nouns)crazy a crazy nasty a nasty

Backformation

What is backformation?

The process by which a new word is formed by removing an affix.

Examples: television televise donation donate editor edit

Hypocorism

What is hypocorism?

Hypocorism is a special type of backformation where a longer word is reduced to a single syllable , then –y or -ie is added.

Examples: telly (television) brekky (breakfast)

Compounding

Compounding is joining of two separate words to produce a single form.

Examples: bookcasefingerprintsunburn textbook

Multiple Processes -More than one process can be involved in the creation of a

particular word.

Examples: -deli Delicatessen = 1. BorrowingDeli = 2. back clipping

-to snowball (v.)

Snow+ball = compounding Snowball (n.) to snowball = conversion

Other Examples

- to lase (v.)Laser = acronym Laser to lase (v.) = backformation

Creating new words by analogy

- Words can be formed in a similar way to existing words.

Example : yuppie

YUP = acronym ( young urban professional)

Yupp+ie = analogy to hypocorism ( the addition of –ie)

Study questions page 71

Questions number 4 & 5