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THE WORD FORMATION PROCESSES IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
ARTICLES ON SCIENCE (A MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY)
A Thesis
Submitted to Faculty of Letters and Humanities
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Degree of Sastra One (S1)
FARAADISA LILA ARISTY
1113026000114
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
JAKARTA
2018
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ABSTRACT
Faraadisa Lila Aristy, The Word Formation Processes in National Geographic
Articles on Science (A Morphological Study). A Thesis: English Letters
Department, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, State Islamic University Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2018.
This research aims to find out the word formation processes used in
National Geographic articles on science and how they are formed as an existence
words or a new word in dictionary. The writer took six articles that are found from
nationalgeographic.com, in February 2018 as the corpus. The study is using
qualitative method by collecting the selected words to twenty three data which is
classifying the kinds of word formation processes based on George Yule and the
data will be described descriptively.
The research uses structural morphology theory to analyze the data
through four steps by identifying morpheme, then, analyzing the word formation
processes, morphophonological process, and dictionary. The writer found 23 data
that has analyzed, and the most common processes are twelve compounding,
seven derivation, two acronym, and two initialism. Moreover, there are seven
kinds of word formation which are not found such as coinage, backformation,
borrowing, blending, clipping, multiple processes and conversion.
Keywords: Word formation, Structural Morphology, National Geographic.
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APPROVAL SHEET
THE WORD FORMATION PROCESSES IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
ARTICLES ON SCIENCE (A MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY)
A Thesis
Submitted to Faculty of Letters and Humanities
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Degree of Sastra One (S1)
Faraadisa Lila Aristy
1113026000114
Approved By:
Advisor,
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
JAKARTA
2017
iii
LEGALIZATION
Name : Faraadisa Lila Aristy
NIM : 1113026000114
Title : The Word Formation Processes in National Geographic Articles on
Science (A Morphological Study)
The thesis entitled above has been defended before the Letters and
Humanities Faculty’s Examination Committee on January 17th, 2018. It has
already been accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
strata one.
Jakarta, January 17th, 2018
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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by
another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the
award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institutes of higher
learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in this text.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most Gracious
Alhamdulillahirabbil’Alamin, all praises and gratitude be to Allah SWT,
the Lord of the Universe, with His guidance and blessing that helped the writer in
accomplishing this thesis. Blessing and peace be upon the greatest and the last
prophet Muhammad SAW, his family, and his companions.
I would like to take this opportunity to give sincerest gratitude to my
beloved parents, Mr. Abdul Latief Syukri and Mrs. Lina Arifin, for all their
endless prayer, love, advice, patience, motivation, and support in financially and
spiritually during the process of making this thesis. I also want to give gratitude to
my advisor, Mrs. Sholikatus Sa’diyah, M.Pd. who spared the precious time to help
and guide me in completing this thesis.
I also would like to deliver gratitude who has given their supports and
motivations in accomplishing this thesis to the following person:
1. Prof. Dr. Sukron Kamil, M.Ag., the Dean of Letters and Humanities
Faculty.
2. Drs. Saefudin, M.Pd., the Head of English Letters Department.
3. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum., the Secretary of English Letters Department.
4. All the Lectures in English Letters Department for teaching and guiding
her patiently during her study from the first until the last semesters.
5. All members of English Language and Literature Department 2013,
especially the members of Baling; Dini Zakiah, Steffi M. Atsa, Dhita
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Novianti, Aninda Aghnia Isnaini, Nanda Saraswati, Dimas Fajar
Adriansyah, Ahmad Syopian, and Yudhistira T. Wiratama, who always
belongs to the writer from the beginning to the very end of thesis, thanks
for the supports, the silly things, friendship, and togetherness.
6. To her best friends; Amalia Nur Sabrina, Putri Ayu Firdina, Lisya Vernita
Fanny, Amalia Dhaifina who always gives the support and motivate the
writer to accomplish this thesis.
7. To Tomcat’s Fam; Rimasyah Kartasasmita, Dea Rizki Darmawan, Gusti
Rahmad Rizaldy, Benni Adam, Fachrul Rozi, Rezky Fadlillah, Ayu W.
Inayah, Dhella Oktafianty, Dwi Harwanto, Fiona Marlina, and Irwan Budi
thanks for the support, friendship, and memories.
The suggestion and criticism will be accepted to improve this thesis.
Hopefully, this thesis will be beneficial for all the people who read it.
Jakarta, December 2017
Faraadisa Lila Aristy
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LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 2.1 Steps of the Structural Morphology………………………………… 11
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LIST OF TABLE
Table 3.1 Classification of the Data Collected………………………………….. 22
Table 3.2 Sample data that will be analyzed……………………………………. 24
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................i
APPROVAL SHEET .......................................................................................ii
LEGALIZATION ............................................................................................iii
DECLARATION ..............................................................................................iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...............................................................................v
LIST OF FIGURE ...........................................................................................vii
LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................ix
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ....................................................................1
A. Background of the Study .................................................................1
B. Focus of the Study ...........................................................................4
C. Research Question ...........................................................................4
D. Objective of the Study .....................................................................4
E. Significance of the Study .................................................................5
F. Research Methodology ....................................................................5
1. The Method of the Research ...................................................5
2. The Technique of Data Collecting and Data Analysis ............6
3. The Instrument of the Research ..............................................6
4. The Unit of Analysis ..............................................................7
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................8
A. Previous Research ...........................................................................8
B. Concept ............................................................................................10
1. Morphology ............................................................................10
2. Theory of Morphology ...........................................................11
3. Word and Lexeme ..................................................................12
4. Morpheme ...............................................................................13
5. Word-formation Processes .....................................................14
a. Coinage ..............................................................................15
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b. Borrowing ..........................................................................16
c. Compounding .....................................................................16
d. Blending .............................................................................17
e. Clipping ..............................................................................17
f. Backformation ....................................................................18
g. Conversion .........................................................................18
h. Acronym ............................................................................19
i. Derivation ...........................................................................20
j. Multiple Processes ..............................................................20
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS ......................................................22
A. Data Description .............................................................................22
B. Data Analysis ..................................................................................23
CHAPTER VI CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ............................51
A. Conclusions .....................................................................................51
B. Suggestions ......................................................................................52
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................53
APPENDICES ..................................................................................................56
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Language as an important role for human beings, that the language as a
tool to obtain effective communication in everyday life. As human beings,
according to Webster we use the language to communicate with peoples, which is
aim to propose the idea, thought and express their emotions. According to Yendra
(2), language as a system of communication that is used by human in verbal and
written. To communicate use verbal language is considered informal, because it is
not as complicated as written language. However, the written language is
considered to formal than verbal language, such as electronic news, in order to
make the readers can easily understand information that is given by the author.
According to Chaer (53), in the society, the relation of language with human
makes the language is not constants and always changes. In general, the language
can be system of sounds that has meaning and it makes the language is always
changing and evolving.
In many languages, the word as the unit of systems writing, it can be the
unit that is important for the occurrence and classification of main stress (Bauer 4-
6). The language as a system of writing that has meaning, and it has a grammatical
words which able to arrange the words. However, the language is not only a single
system but it is some subsystems such as subsystem phonology, morphology,
syntax, and semantic. According to Chaer (36), in linguistic, subsystem and
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grammatical has a listed from the lowest level to the highest level. One of levels
as morphology, there is a level of morphemes and also a word, the word as a field
of morphology into the biggest unit that the word examining the structure and
how the words are formed. Furthermore, Aronoff and Fudeman discussed (2) that
the branch of linguistics, morphology refers to the mental system that relates to
the word formation. In general, the word formation processes occurred by the
merger of other morphemes into the words, in which, morphemes as the minimal
parts that arrange into the words.
The process of word formation is not only to examine the existence words
but also to establish the new words. Yule distinguished (52-56) that there are ten
kinds of word formation processes such as coinage, borrowing, compounding,
blending, clipping, backformation, conversion, acronyms, derivation and multiple
processes. For instance, the word formation that occurs in National Geographic
news, such acronyms, the word WWF (World Wildlife Fund) is created by a first
letter of each word but it cannot be pronounced as words itself. Then, derivation,
the word connection is a derivation from affixation. When the morpheme connect
is a verb and added by suffix –ion, it joined together with the morpheme connect
and creates a new word connection. And then, the word lab is clipping from
laboratory which has more than two syllables, and takes the first syllables from
that word then creates a new word lab. In general, the diverse writing needs
completely a grammatical that the language uses a letter of words as a basic
element for writing, in which, creates a letter into a word then composes those
words into a sentence.
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The word formation processes occurred by the merger of other morphemes
into words, in which, morphemes is about using the smallest unit that arrange into
the words. The morphemes as known as free morphemes and bound morphemes.
When the words can stand alone, it can be said free morphemes, and when the
words cannot stand alone that means it can be said bound morphemes. For
instance, when the word unstable, it can be classified as prefix un- and base of the
word stable. In which, the prefix un- is bound morphemes because it means ‘not’
and it cannot stand alone, and then base of word stable is free morphemes.
Besides, when the word formation processes is more common, then it will be
pretended to be more effective (Katamba 66-67). Hence, the word formation
processes according to Bauer (84) is the productivity from the affixes that given
by freely, it defined as the possibility to arrange with affixes as a new complex
word.
As told above, this research concerns to analyze about how the words are
formed in National Geographic articles on science. It is the largest scientific and
educational institutions in the world and it has an improvement in academic
writing differs from other institutions, because National Geographic creates the
contents even in highly visual and storytelling to attract the reader attentions.
Besides, the writer will analyze using Structural Morphology Theory that relates
to word formation processes. The purpose is not only to understand the words but
also to know how the words are formed in electronic news. This research will
elaborate the process of word formation that contains in National Geographic
articles on science.
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B. Focus of the Study
According to the discussion above, this research will analyze using
Structural Morphology Theory that focused on how the words are formed in the
word formation processes. The process of word formation that will be analyzed
such as coinage, borrowing, compounding, blending, clipping, back formation,
conversion, acronym, derivation, and multiple processes.
C. Research Question
Based on the background of the study above, the issues that arise to be
formulated as follows:
1. What are the kinds of word formations that appear in National Geographic
articles on science?
2. How does the word formations processes occur in National Geographic
articles on science according to Structural Morphology Theory?
D. Objective of the Study
According to the research questions, this research aim to the following:
1. To find out the kinds of word formation that appears in National
Geographic articles on science.
2. To analyze the word formation process that occurs in National Geographic
articles.
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E. Significance of the Study
Theoretically, the research hopefully can be useful for people who study
in Linguistics that concerns about the word formation processes, in order to
increase the knowledge of morphology, especially to understand the formation of
a new word. Practically, this research is expected to be useful for people who do
not study in Linguistics to understand about language and the process of word
were formed.
F. Research Methodology
1. The Method of the Research
The research is using qualitative method, it aims to describe and examine
the data that relates to study of word formation in Morphology. This research
will conducted using qualitative approaches because the data will analyze
descriptively, Litosseliti stated (52) that qualitative approaches is useful in the
research, by focusing to answer sets research of problems in clearly and detail
because the qualitative approaches are concerns with structures and patterns.
2. The Technique of Data Collecting and Data Analysis
The data collecting of the research is using documentation technique
which based on written sources. According to Arikunto (158) that finding
information with method of data collected, it through the books, newspaper,
magazines and other literary works. The writer obtains the information about
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the same research and the data collecting relevant to problem that will
examines, the technique of collecting data as follows:
1. Searching the articles on nationalgeographic.com.
2. Reading the articles on nationalgeograohic.com.
3. Collecting the data from National Geographic articles on science
that contains a new form of word.
After the data has been collected, the next steps are data analysis as
follows:
1. Writing down the words on data card. Then, using random sampling
to filter out some of the data that makes the data analysis easier.
2. Analyzing and identifying the data using Structural Morphology
Theory for the process of word formation.
3. Classifying the data based on the kinds of word formation.
4. Finding the words meaning in oxforddictionary.com and
dictionary.cambridge.org.
5. Drawing a conclusion about the word formation processes of the
data that has been analyzed.
3. The Instrument of the Research
This research uses data card as an instrument to classify the words that
are found in National Geographic articles on science and
oxforddictionary.com and dictionary.cambridge.org, according to Subroto
(34) data cards is relevant data that written in the card. Then, marks the words
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that contain the kinds of word formation, and examines the data using
Structural Morphology Theory.
4. Unit of Analysis
The unit analysis of this research is electronic news which taken from
National Geographic articles on science in February 2018. The title of the
articles as follows:
1. Partial Solar Eclipse and 6 More Can’t-Miss Sky Events in February.
Published February 1st, 2018.
2. Pictures Show a Decade of SpaceX Making Spaceflight History.
Published February 6th, 2018.
3. Elon Musk’s Tesla in Space Could Crash Into Earth. Published
February 15th, 2018.
4. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot May Soon Dissapear… Published February
21st, 2018.
5. Weird Life Found in Earth’s Driest Soil. Published February 26th,
2018.
6. Universe’s First Stars Detected? Get the Facts. Published February
28th, 2018.
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Previous Research
This research will analyze about word formation that has been done before
without existences of the same discussion. There are some relevant previous
studies that related to this topic. In this section, the writer will review four
previous studies to this research. The first research was written by Bahrul Hanif
(2015) that entitled “The Analysis of Word Formation of Soccer Terms in The
Jakarta Post’s Articles”. The research use morphological study that focused on
the word formation in soccer terminology, which is The Jakarta Post as the data
analysis. The researcher took twelve different articles of soccer terms in The
Jakarta Post 2014 – 2015, then, the data contained the types of word formation
will be classified into a table. Based on the data analysis, the research have found
7 types of word formation which are derivation, compound, initialism,
reduplication, acronym, clipping, and blending.
The second research made by Novia Fajriani (2015) entitled “English
Word Formation Analysis in The Jakarta Post’s Sci-Tech Articles 2014”. The
study is focused on the formations of words in the articles of The Jakarta Post,
and the writer chose 9 articles that related to technology terms on January –
March 2014. The research is analyzed by using four different dictionaries online
which are Oxford Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary, Merriam-Webster
Dictionary, and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. The writer found
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57 words in the articles and chosen 27 words that classified on 8 types of word
formation which are eponyms, acronyms, inflection, compounding, initialism,
derivation, blending, and clipping. The third research made by Wei Liu and
Wenyu Liu (2014) that was came from Journal of Arts and Humanities in China.
The study is entitled “Analysis on the Word-formation of English Netspeak
Neologism”. The purpose of the study is to know typical of netspeak neologism
with the types of word formation, the data collected was examined by empirically
where the data chosen from www.wordspy.com. The website is offered people to
classify all the new words in different categories, and the writers chose the parts
of internet in computer category as the data analysis. And also, the writers found
210 words in the data that contained the processes of word formation which are
compounding, blending, affixation, acronyms, conversion, clipping, old words
with new meaning, and coinage.
The last research is from International Journal of Education and Research
in Malaysia that was written by Siti Zubaidah Binti Mustafa, Mageswari D/O
Kandasamy, and Mohamad Subakir Mohd Yasin (2015). The research entitled
“An Analysis of Word Formation Process in Everyday Communication on
Facebook”. The purpose of the research is to describe the word formation process
that is used by Malaysian Facebook users in everyday communication. The users
using the most common word formation which are abbreviation such as clipping,
acronyms, and combination of letters, then, blending and the use of emoticons on
Facebook.
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As the previous studies above, the writer found the same topic that will be
analyzed using Structural Morphology Theory on the word formation processes.
The writer is interested to analyze about the process of word formation that is
occurred in electronic news, especially on National Geographic articles on
science, and it is not yet found in the previous research.
B. Concept
1. Morphology
Morphology is one of the branches of linguistics, which means
morphology as the study of word structures or the forms of words. According
to Aronoff and Fudeman (2), morphology as a branch of linguistics that related
to the internal structure of words and how the word formed. Also, Lieber (2)
stated that morphology is the study of word formation that involves how the
new words are coined in the language and how the kinds of word formed it
depends on how the words are used in sentences. Moreover, Katamba (3)
argued that until nineteenth-centuries, morphology did not appear as a different
sub-discipline of linguistics in the field of the word structures, and also, in
twentieth-century, morphology had controls in linguistics.
However, according to Yule (62-63), morphology is originally used in
biology, the term of morphology meant the study of forms but in the middle of
the nineteenth-century, morphology also used to analyze and describe the types
of basic elements in a language. It can be concluded that morphology as told
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above is one of the fields of linguistics which concerns to word structures and
each of word formation has the types.
2. Theory of Morphology
The theory of morphology is classified into two types, which are structural
morphology and generative morphology. Ba'dulu and Herman (14) has
discussed that structural morphology relates to how the language is produced
by the speaker. Meanwhile, generative morphology uses a different approach
which focuses to the competence theory. This research will focus on the
structural morphology, because the data based on when the speaker produced
the language.
The structural morphology has four steps to analyze the word, which are
(1) list of morphemes, (2) word formation, (3) morphophonological process,
and (4) dictionary (Ba'dulu and Herman 25). These steps will put into a table
belows:
Figure 2.1 Steps of the Structural Morphology (Ba'dulu and Herman 17)
List of Morphemes
Word Formation
Morphophonological
Process
Dictionary
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The first step is identifying all of the morphemes, either free morpheme or
bound morpheme, from the data that has been collected. The second is word
formation, which describes how the process morphemes of a language arranged
in a group to form a word in a language. The third step is morphophonological
process, which explains how the process of morphophonolgy which occurs in
the merger of morphemes, such as assimilation, deleting, adding, substitution,
and changing. The last step is dictionary.
3. Word and Lexeme
As the linguists defined about morphology above, the words are related to
the morphology. According to Lieber (3) that a word as a set of language that
consist of one or more morphomes, and the word itself in language can be
stand alone. Harley (4) defined that a word is the minimal elements of language
that has meaning. In general, the word can be described as smallest unit of
language that has meaning and consists of more than one morpheme. In which,
the word are divided into single words and complex words, for instance, the
word chair is a simplex word because it consists only one morpheme, but the
word unplug is a complex word which consists of more than one morpheme,
with prefix un- and root plug.
Lexeme occurs in the words which has basic units of language, it includes
to the lexical category which are noun, verb, and adjective. In Hippisley and
Stump’s book, Spencer argued (27) that generally, the term of word as similar
as the term of word-form, and the term lexeme as the important aspect of word
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in language. Moreover, Lieber (5) stated that lexeme as parts of words that
distinct only in the end of grammatical which are singular, plural, present, past,
and participle in forms of a noun, verb, and pronoun, and lexeme itself can be
counted. Which means the term lexeme is component of words that differ only
at the end of grammatical, and belongs to the lexical category. For instance, the
words print, prints, printing, printed are from the verb lexeme ᴘʀɪɴᴛ and those
words can be seperated into a minimal unit –s, -ing, and –ed, the minimal unit
of word defined as morphemes. And then, the next paragraph will discuss
about morphemes from the linguists.
4. Morpheme
As explained before, morphology is a study that related to word and the
word is related to morpheme. According to Yule (63) that morpheme is a
minimal unit that has meaning and grammatical function, that refers to indicate
the shape of past tense or plural. Lieber (32) also defined that morphemes as a
shape of words that has meaning in the minimal units of word. It can be
understood by defining morpheme from the linguists that the term morphomes
is described as a minimal part of the word that has meaning and it cannot be
divided by the words. For example, the word reopened has one minimal unit of
meaning that is the word open, and re- includes to minimal unit of meaning
which means ‘again’ to indicate repetition, and a minimal unit of grammatical
on the word reopened is –ed which means to explain time in the past.
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Morphemes can be classified into two parts which are free morphemes and
bound morphemes. Based on Minkova and Stockwell (69) has discussed that
free morphemes as the words that can stand alone, and differs from bound
morphemes as the words that cannot stand alone by its own words.
Furthermore, Yule (63) argued that two kinds of morphemes has a big
differences which are free morphemes is morphemes itself as an individual
words that can stand alone, then, bound morphemes is the morphemes that
cannot stand alone and generally by adding to other forms. For example, the
word undressed and tourists, free morphemes in that words are dress and tour
because as an individual words, those word can stand alone without by adding
any forms. It differs from bound morphemes such as un-, -ist, -ed, -s, those are
classified as affixes which means that all of prefixes and suffixes are included
in bound morphemes and it cannot stand alone without joined in base word.
From the definiton above, it can be concluded that free morphemes as an
independent words that can be rised by itself without any affixes, and bound
morphemes cannot be rised by itself without joined to the base word, it also
affected the meaning of the words. After describing the definition of two parts
of morphemes, the next sub-topic will discuss and describe about word
formation in morphological theory.
5. Word-formation Processes
In morphology, there is a process of word formation that occurred by the
merger of other morphemes into the words. This is a decision the process of
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word formation in our language, there are words that are not listed in the
dictionary, and how peoples are predicting it use the rules of word formation
and explain the word-formation processes. Yule (52) stated that in people’s
language, they can be easily understood by accepting different forms to create
a new word. The definition of word formation itself according to Meyer (151),
it is describing the methods of new lexicon by adding in language. It means
that the word formation processes occurred by adding a new words in
language. In Yule’s book, he classified the kinds of word formation processes
as follows:
a. Coinage
The processes of word formation at least common in English and
become invention of newly terms known as coinage (Yule 52). Yule also
stated that the invented trades name are the most typically used by
commercial products and occurs to be general terms in language. Lieber
(51) argued that the possibility coinage to invent the new word, but it is
infrequently to coinage totally new words instead choosing bases and
affixes into the new combinations. It means that coinage is creating new
terms of products and become general words in our everyday language.
For instance, teflon, kodak, kleenex, aspirin and vaseline. The word kodak
that is used for the term camera in everyday language. However, there is
some complicated technical origin such as teflon -> te(tra)-fl(our)-on, but
it tends to be general terms after the coinage in language.
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b. Borrowing
Borrowing is kinds of word formation processes to create new
word by taking over of words from other languages (Yule 54). While,
Meyer (180) argued that borrowing is a method to obtain the new word
from connection with another language. English is the most borrowed
from Latin, Greek, and French. Also, other languages had denoted words
into the dictionary. For instance, the word croissant is taking over from
French, and the word sofa is borrowed from Arabic. Moreover, Yule also
added the other languages had borrowed from English terms such as in
Japan, the word suupaamaaketto has borrowed from the terms of English
which is supermarket. In general, the term of borrowing is taken from
other languages to make a new word especially in English.
c. Compounding
The definition of compounding according to Booij (75) that a
process creating of new words by joining of two words into the larger
ones. However, Yule (54) defined that compounding is the merger of two
separate words to generate a single pattern. This means that compounding
has pairs of word which can obtain a new word and meaning. Also,
Minkova and Stockwell (9) has discussed about compounding that the
important to produce of new word is inserting two words by composing
those words become clearly words. From the definition above, it can be
concluded that compounding is the one of word formation processes which
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obtains a new word from combining two separate words. From the
explanation, it can take an example, the word bookcase is noun form, it
merger from the word book + case that means a cabinet with shelves to
keep books. Then, the word fast-food is compound adjectives from fast
(adj.) + food (noun) that means a quick meal from restaurant which served
foods.
d. Blending
The word formation processes that combining parts of lexeme and
morphemes into a new shape of lexeme called blending (Lieber 53).
According to Yule (55), that blending is a way to produce a new term of
word by combining the two words at the beginning of word and the other
last word. So that, blending as the result from a new form of word which
two words are combined at the beginning one and the end of others word.
For examples, telecast occurred by combining two words between
television and broadcast because it is not formed through the same
morphemes at two words but it is formed from the beginning of word and
the one last word.
e. Clipping
The definition of clipping is reducing the word into one or two
syllables (Harley 95). Generally, the word is clipped relates to the word
that people are commonly used. Moreover, in Meyer’s book (181) stated
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that the shortening of words into one known as clipping. It means that
clipping occurs when the word is cut either the beginning or the ending
into the short form more than one syllable. For examples, from Yule’s
book (55) as follows: the word influenza is reduced into flu which the
word flu is syllable that is stressed. And then, the word facsimile is
reduced into fax which have one syllable is taken from the base word.
f. Backformation
Backformation is one the process of word formation that obtained
the new word by deleting the end of word (Plag 37). Besides, Yule (56)
stated that the reduction word from one type to another type which usually
a noun and the other one is a verb. So that, the backformation as a new
word that created by removing suffix and usually a noun form is reduction
into a verb form. The examples of backformation such as seduct is
reduction from the word seduction which created by removing suffix –ion.
The word emote is reduction from a noun form emotion by reducing –ion
to be a verb form emote.
g. Conversion
Conversion is kinds of the word formed by changing of base
category. The strong statement from Yule (56) that the functional of word
is changed by a noun form to a verb form which usually used without any
reduction. Furthermore, Minkova and Stockwell (8) has discussed about
19
conversion that the converted between a noun form into a verb form and it
is not a new one in lexicon. It can be concluded that conversion is a way of
word formed by changing a noun into a verb and there is no reduction on
it, but generally create a new verb from a noun has broad meanings. For
instance, verb to bread is conversion from noun bread because it is
changing the category of base from a noun into a verb such ‘to put bread
(crumbs) on something which means food categorized by mixing and
baking flour, water and yeast, or to clown is conversion from clown such
‘to act like a clown’. Hence, the new word meaning is more predictable
when it conversion from noun to verb.
h. Acronym
Carstairs-McCarthy (65) argued that acronym is combining the
first letter from each words but it does not mean that string of first letter
can be said an acronym. It means that the acronym is the shortening of
words and the pronounced is like a word not letter by letter. In Yule’s
book the study of language (55) has discussed that the acronyms formed a
new word by the first letters of other words, but it can be disappeared
become in daily terms such as the word radar is acronyms from the daily
terms ‘radio detecting and ranging’.
However, the word CD is form of acronyms that is called
initialisms, by combining each first letters from ‘compact disk’ where the
pronounced is like a letter by letter of each word. According to Lieber
20
(53), initialisms are composed from the first letters of word which are
similar to acronyms, but the pronounced is like letter by letter. In addition,
sometimes the speaker is not recognized from some new acronyms or
initialisms meaning, generally they direct to use it.
i. Derivation
Derivation is the way of correlates with lexemes through
affixation. Booij (51) argued that to proccess derivation of the base
function, the language users is enable to create a new lexeme. In which,
lexemes has lexical category such as noun, verb, and adjective. Yule (57)
defined that derivation is the word formation processes by producing a
new word that is found in English word. In general, derivation as the
process of new word formed by adding affixation which the category and
meaning differs from the base. For example, the verb lexeme PERFORM is
derived that relates to noun performance and performer which each words
are contains suffix –ance and –er.
j. Multiple Processes
Multiple processes is the word formation process where the
possibilities to seek the movements of create the specific word with more
than one process (Yule 58). It means that to create a new word, it should
be combined using more than one process of word formation. For
example, the term snowball is compounding in which the word snow +
21
ball were combined into noun form snowball, then, it can be conversion to
be a verb form.
22
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH FINDINGS
A. Data Description
In this data description, the writer would like to analyze the data which are
collected from National Geographic articles on Science in February 2018. They
are “Partial Solar Eclipse and 6 More Can’t-Miss Sky Events in February” on
February 1st, 2018, “Pictures Show a Decade of SpaceX Making Spaceflight
History” on February 6th, 2018, “Elon Musk’s Tesla in Space Could Crash Into
Earth” on February 15th, 2018, “Jupiter’s Great Red Spot May Soon Disappear…”
on February 21st, 2018, “Weird Life Found in Earth’s Driest Soil” on February
26th, 2018, and “Universe’s First Stars Detected? Get the Facts” on February 28th,
2018.
The data have been collected and classified into four kinds of word
formation which are derivation, acronym, compounding, and initialism.
Moreover, it will be analyzed using the Structural Morphology Theory and
focused on the word formation processes. The following is the table of data
description that is collected from National Geographic articles on science in
February 2018 which has been classified.
Table 3.1 Classification of the Data Collected from National Geographic
Articles on Science in February 2018
No. Article Kinds of Word Formation Data
1. Partial Solar Eclipse
and 6 More Can’t-
Derivation Pollution
Sunlight
23
Miss Sky Events in
February (February
1st, 2018)
Compounding Nightfall
Sky-watchers
2. Pictures Show a
Decade of SpaceX
Making Spaceflight
History (February 6th,
2018)
Compounding
Spaceflight
Milestone
3. Elon Musk’s Tesla in
Space Could Crash
Into Earth (February
15th, 2018)
Derivation Collides
Encounter
Compounding Crash-landing
Earth-crossing
Acronym NEOs
4. Jupiter’s Great Red
Spot May Soon
Disappear…
(February 21st, 2018)
Derivation Vaguely
Compounding
Mega-storm
Spacecraft
Superheats
Acronym NASA
5. Weird Life Found in
Earth’s Driest Soil
(February 26th, 2018)
Derivation Membranes
Compounding Windswept
Initialism
ATP
UV
6. Universe’s First Stars
Detected? Get the
Facts (February 28th,
2018)
Derivation Photons
Galaxies
Compounding Frameworks
B. Data Analysis
This analysis will be used the documentation technique to analyze the
data. From data collected, the data will be identified in data card to analyze based
on the kinds of word formation and the Structural Morphology Theory. Moreover,
the data that have been collected are assembled into a table. As a support this
research, Oxford Dictionary of English and Cambridge Dictionary are the main
dictionary to find out the words has already listed or not.
24
From 23 words that are found in six articles, all of the data puts into the
table below for sampling data that will be analyzed.
Table 3.2 Sample Data that will be analyzed
No. Kinds of Word Formation Data
1.
Derivation
Pollution
Collides
Encounter
Vaguely
Membranes
Photons
Galaxies
2.
Compounding
Sunlight
Nightfall
Sky-watchers
Spaceflight
Milestone
Crash-landing
Earth-crossing
Mega-storm
Spacecraft
Superheats
Windswept
Frameworks
3. Acronym NEOs
NASA
4. Initialism ATP
UV
The principals of structural morphology can be classified into four steps in
organizing the process of developing a word:
25
1. Derivation
Data 1
Word : Pollution
Sentence : “Looking toward the western horizon from a dark region
with low light pollution.”
News : Partial Solar Eclipse and 6 More Can’t-Miss Sky Events in
February (February 1st, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Derivation
In the word pollution obviously consists of two morphemes, they are
pollute+-ion. The morpheme pollute is a free morpheme that can stand alone
without by adding the morphemes –ion. Then, the morpheme –ion is suffix that is
a bound morpheme that also cannot stand alone, because it linked to the free
morpheme pollute, and it located at the end of a word.
The word pollution is classified as derivation. When the affixes –ion is
linked to the root pollute. It is obviously that the word pollution has base pollute
List of Morphemes
Word Formation
Morphophonological
Process
Dictionary
26
and has been derived by added the affixes –ion while the word classes is changed
from verb to noun.
There is morphophonological process in the word pollution, because the
pronunciation does not the same as the base pollute. This derivation has been
listed in oxforddictionary.com which has a meaning the presence in or
introduction into the environment of a substance which has harmful or poisonous
effect. Pollution is damage caused to water, air, etc. by harmful substances or
waste (dictionary.cambridge.org).
Data 2
Word : Collides
Sentence : “It collides with the planet nearest and dearest to all our
hearts.”
News : Elon Musk’s Tesla in Space Could Crash Into Earth
(February 15th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Derivation
The word collides consists of two morphemes, there are collide and –s.
The morpheme collide is a free morpheme that can stand alone as a word without
by adding –s. Then, the morpheme –s is a suffix, it added to the morpheme collide
which placed at the end of the morpheme, because –s is a bound morpheme that
cannot stand alone and has no meaning.
The kind of word formation in the word collides directs to derivation. It
occurs when the suffix –s is attached to the root collide. It is clearly that the word
27
collides derived from collide, even when the suffix added to the base collide, the
word classes is still the same as verb form.
There is no morphophonological process in the word collides, because the
pronunciation is still the same as base. The word collides has been listed in
oxforddictionary.com, it has a meaning hit by accident when moving. In
dictionary.cambridge.org, collides is especially of moving objects to hit
something violently. This word has already been confirmed as an official word in
both dictionaries.
Data 3
Word : Encounter
Sentence : “The car’s next particularly close encounter with Earth
will occur in 2091.”
News : Elon Musk’s Tesla in Space Could Crash Into Earth
(February 15th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Derivation
In the word encounter, it has three morphemes which can be seen from en-
+count+–er. The morpheme –en is a prefix which is a bound morpheme that
cannot stand alone and has no meaning without attached to the morpheme count.
Then, the morpheme count is a free morpheme which is the root of the word
encounter that can stand alone and has a meaning without by adding suffix –en
and –er, and the morpheme –er is a suffix which is a bound morpheme that also
cannot stand alone and has no meaning without attached to the morpheme count.
28
The word encounter is classified as derivation. It happens when the affixes
–en and –er are attached to the word count which creates a new word encounter
which has a different meaning. Then, it does not change the word classes as verb
form.
There is no morphophonological process in the word encounter, because it
does not change the pronunciation as when base count. The word encounter has
been listed in oxforddictionary.com, it has a meaning unexpectedly be faced with
or experience something hostile or difficult. In other dictionary, encounter is to
experience something, especially something unpleasant
(dictionary.cambridge.org).
Data 4
Word : Vaguely
Sentence : “And that shape, Orton says, is much less stable than its
current, vaguely oval configuration.”
News : Jupiter’s Great Red Spot May Soon Disappear… (February
21st, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Derivation
This word vaguely consist of two morphemes, there are vague+-ly. The
first morpheme vague is a free morpheme that can stand alone as word, and the
second the suffix –ly is a bound morpheme that cannot stand alone without joined
to other words. These two morphemes cannot be divided into smaller pieces
which has meaning.
29
The word vaguely is classified as derivation. This word formation happens
when the suffix –ly joined together with the free morpheme vague which creates a
new word vaguely, the word classes is still the same as adjective form. It is clearly
that the word vaguely has base vague.
In the word vaguely has no morphophonological process, because the
pronunciation vaguely has no special change as base vague when it pronounced.
The word vaguely has already been listed in dictionary, the word vaguely means
in a way that is uncertain, indefinite or unclear; roughly (oxforddictionary.com).
Vaguely is not clearly expressed, known, described, or decided
(dictionary.cambridge.org). It has been confirmed as an official word of English.
Data 5
Word : Photons
Sentence : “The primordial hydrogen gas is absorbing photons at
rates that are at least two times higher than predicted.”
News : Universe’s First Stars Detected? Get the Facts (February
28th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Derivation
The word photons has more than one morpheme, there are photon+-s.
First, the free morpheme is photon that can stand alone as word. Second, the
suffix –s is a bound morpheme that joined to the free morpheme photon, because
it cannot stand alone as word without joined to other morphemes. So, it can be
30
said the word photons has two morphemes and it cannot be divided into smaller
pieces which has meaning.
The kind of word formation in this word directs to derivation which occurs
when the suffix –s is joining to the free morpheme photon, and it creates a new
word photons which the word classes is still the same as noun form.
The morphophonological process does not occur in this word, because the
pronunciation has no special change and it still the same as the base photon when
it pronounced. The word photons has been listed in oxforddictionary.com which
has a meaning a particle representing a quantum of light or other electromagnetic
radiation. While, in dictionary.cambridge.org has a meaning a single unit of light.
Data 6
Word : Galaxies
Sentence : “For instance, it’s possible the detection is a sign of
galaxies behaving in unpredicted ways.”
News : Universe’s First Stars Detected? Get the Facts (February
28th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Derivation
The word galaxies consists of two morphemes, there are galaxy and –es.
The morpheme galaxy is a free morpheme that can stand alone as a word without
by adding –es. Then, the morpheme –es is a suffix, it added to the morpheme
galaxy which placed at the end of the morpheme, because –es is a bound
31
morpheme that cannot stand alone and it cannot be divided into smaller pieces
which has meaning.
The kind of word formation in the word galaxies directs to derivation. It
occurs when the suffix –es is linked to the root galaxy. It is clearly that the word
galaxies derived from galaxy, even when the suffix added to the base galaxy, the
word classes is still the same as noun form.
There is no morphophonological process in the word galaxies, because the
pronunciation is still the same as base. The word galaxies has been listed in
oxforddictionary.com, it has a meaning a system of millions or billions of stars,
together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction. In
dictionary.cambridge.org, galaxies is one of the independent groups of stars in the
universe. This word has already been confirmed as an official word in both
dictionaries.
Data 7
Word : Membranes
Sentence : “They also saw evidence of a molecule called ATP–cells’
universal currency for storing and transporting energy–as
well as the building blocks for cell membranes.”
News : Weird Life Found in Earth’s Driest Soil (February 26th,
2018)
Word
Formation
: Derivation
32
The word membranes has more than one morpheme, there are
membrane+-s. First, the free morpheme is membrane that can stand alone as
word. Second, the suffix –s is a bound morpheme that cannot stand alone without
joined to the free morpheme membrane. So, it can be said the word photons has
two morphemes and it cannot be divided into smaller pieces which has meaning.
The kind of word formation in this word directs to derivation which occurs
when the suffix –s is joining to the free morpheme membrane, and it creates a new
word membranes which the word classes is still the same as noun form.
The morphophonological process does not occur in this word, because the
pronunciation has no special change and it still the same as the base membrane
when it pronounced. The word membranes has been listed in
oxforddictionary.com which means a microscopic double layer of lipids and
proteins forming the boundary of cells and organelles. Meanwhile, membranes is
the outer covering of a cell (dictionary.cambridge.org). This word usually used to
substances and structures in the body.
2. Compounding
Data 8
Word : Sunlight
Sentence : “But thus ethereal light is actually caused by sunlight
reflecting off ancient dust suspended between the planets.”
News : Partial Solar Eclipse and 6 More Can’t-Miss Sky Events in
February (February 1st, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
33
The word sunlight consists of two morphemes. It is clearly because there
are two free morphemes that each word can stand alone and have a meaning, they
are sun and light. Based on kinds of morpheme that sun and light are free
morphemes, because they can stand alone without by adding any forms and they
cannot divided into smaller pieces which has a meaning.
The word sunlight is classified as compounding of word formation. The
word sun is a free morpheme that merges with the other free morpheme light. It
creates into a new word which is sunlight as compound noun. From the process
before, it can be said that the head of a compound word is light.
In this word, there is no morphophonological process which means the
word sunlight has created by merging two words. It merges the words sun and
light without deleting or changing any letters and the pronunciation of the word
sunlight is still the same as when it was separated by the words sun and light.
The word sunlight is listed in oxforddictionary.com which has a meaning
as light from the sun. Meanwhile, in dictionary.cambridge.org sunlight is the light
that comes from the sun. This word has been confirmed as an official word of
English.
Data 9
Word : Nightfall
Sentence : “Look for the Alpha Centaurids after local nightfall on the
8th and before dawn the next day.”
News : Partial Solar Eclipse and 6 More Can’t-Miss Sky Events in
34
February (February 1st, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
The word nightfall obviously consists of two morphemes. It can be seen
from kinds of morphemes that the morphemes night and fall are free morphemes,
because those two morphemes can stand alone as word and have a meaning.
Moreover, the word night and fall have the different word classes which are verb
and noun form.
The kind of word formation in the word nightfall is compounding which
divides into two morphemes, they are night and fall. It happens when the word
night joined together with another free morpheme fall which creates a new word
nigthfall as compound noun.
There is no morphophonological process in the word nightfall, because the
pronunciation is still the same as when they are split into night and fall. In
oxforddictionary.com, nightfall is the onset of night; dusk. In another dictionary,
nightfall has a meaning the time in the evening when it becomes dark
(dictionary.cambridge.org). This word also has been listed in both dictionaries,
usually used for describe days and times of day.
Data 10
Word : Sky-watchers
Sentence : “Sky-watchers in the Southern Hemisphere will get to
watch a modest meteor shower on this night...”
35
News : Partial Solar Eclipse and 6 More Can’t-Miss Sky Events in
February (February 1st, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
In the word sky-watchers consists of more than one morpheme, there are
sky+watch+–er+–s. First, the morpheme sky is a free morpheme, because it can
stand alone without by adding any forms. Second, watch also is a free morpheme
that can stand alone and has a meaning. Last, the morphemes –er and –s as a
suffix which is a bound morpheme that cannot stand alone, because it attached to
the morphemes sky and watch. It can be concluded that the word sky-watchers has
four morphemes.
The kind of word formation in the word sky-watchers is categorized as
compounding. It happens when the word sky merges into watch which classifies
as free morpheme. Meanwhile, the suffixes –er and –s joined to the word sky-
watch, it gives different form, and it creates a new word sky-watchers. This word
can be seen in oxforddictionary.com that the head of a compound word is sky.
The word sky-watchers have no morphophonological process, because like
the pronunciation sky-watchers, it is still the same when the word sky and watch
were separated, it does not change or delete any letters. Sky-watchers has already
been listed in oxforddictionary.com which has a meaning observe or monitor the
sky, especially for celestial objects or aircraft. Meanwhile, sky-watchers is not
listed in dictionary.cambridge.org.
36
Data 11
Word : Spaceflight
Sentence : “Which has been pushing boundaries for commercial
spaceflight as part of CEO Elon Musk’s vision to one day
put humans on Mars.”
News : Pictures Show a Decade of SpaceX Making Spaceflight
History (February 6th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
The word spaceflight obviously consists of two morphemes, which are
space+flight. The first morpheme space is a free morpheme that can stand alone
as word without by adding other morphemes, and the second morpheme flight
also is a free morpheme that can stand alone without joined to the morpheme
space. These two morphemes cannot be divided into smaller pieces which has a
meaning.
The word spaceflight is classified as compounding, which occurs when the
free morpheme space merges into the morpheme flight which also classifies as
free morpheme, and it creates a new word spaceflight as compound noun, which
can be seen in dictionary that the head of a compound word is flight.
There is no morphophonological process in this word, because this
processes does not have a special change in deleting or adding any letters, it only
merge two words into the one word without changing the pronounce when the
word spaceflight is separated into space and flight.
37
This word has been listed in dictionary. In oxforddictionary.com,
spaceflight is a journey throough space. However, spaceflight is not listed in
dictionary.cambridge.org. It is easy to know the meaning of spaceflight, because
it is a well-known word. Usually, this word is used to describe space travel.
Data 12
Word : Milestone
Sentence : “The milestone moment for SpaceX included the launch
from Florida’s Cape Canaveral, as well as near-
simultaneous landings of the Falcon Heavy’s reusable side
boosters.”
News : Pictures Show a Decade of SpaceX Making Spaceflight
History (February 6th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
The word milestone consists of more than one morpheme, they are mile
and stone. The first morpheme mile as a free morpheme that can stand alone as
word without by adding any forms, the second morpheme stone is also as a free
morpheme that can stand alone without attached to the morpheme mile. So, it can
be said that the word milestone has two morphemes and cannot be divided into a
smaller pieces which has a meaning.
The kind of word formation of the word milestone directs to compounding.
It happens when the word mile joined into the word stone and creates the new
word milestone as compound noun. From the process before, it can be said that
the head of a compound word is stone.
38
This word has no morphophonological process, which means there is no
specific change in that word especially the pronunciation, it still the same as when
the word milestone are separated into two words mile and stone. The word
milestone has been listed in oxforddictionary.com, this word means a stone set up
beside a road to mark the distance in miles to a particular place. Milestone is a
stone or post at the side of the road that shows the distance to various places,
especially to the nearest large town (dictionary.cambridge.org), and it has been
confirmed as an official word of English.
Data 13
Word : Crash-landing
Sentence : “Rein and his colleagues calculated that there’s virtually no
chance of the car accidentally crash-landing on Mars.”
News : Elon Musk’s Tesla in Space Could Crash Into Earth
(February 15th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
The word crash-landing obviously consists of three morphemes. The first
morpheme is crash as a free morpheme that can stand alone as word without join
to other morphemes, and the second morpheme is land that also as a free
morpheme, the last morpheme is –ing is a suffix as bound morpheme that cannot
stand alone without joined to the morphemes crash and land. So, it can be said
that the formation of the word crash-landing has three morphemes which are
crash+land+–ing.
39
The word crash-landing is categorized as compounding, that occurs when
the free morpheme crash merges to the word land which also as a free morpheme.
Meanwhile, the suffix –ing joined to the word crash-land then it creates a new one
crash-landing. Moreover, the word crash-landing as compound verb and the head
of compound word is land.
As the process before, there is no morphophonological process because the
pronunciation of the word crash-landing is still the same as when they are
separated into the words crash and land. This word crash-landing has been listed
in oxforddictionary.com which has a meaning (of an aircraft) land roughfly in an
emergency, typically without lowering the undercarriage. Meanwhile, in
dictionary.cambridge.org crash-landing is to land an aircraft suddenly because of
an emergency sometimes resulting in serious damage or injuries.
Data 14
Word : Earth-crossing
Sentence : “Both numbers, perhaps not surprisingly, are roughly in
line with what scientist expect for the class of small bodies
on Earth-crossing orbits termed Near-Earth Objects, or
NEOs.”
News : Elon Musk’s Tesla in Space Could Crash Into Earth
(February 15th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
The word earth-crossing obviously consists of three morphemes, which
are earth+cross+–ing. The morpheme earth is a free morpheme that can stand
40
alone without by adding other morphemes. However, the morpheme cross is also
as a free morpheme that can stand alone as a word, and the morpheme –ing is a
suffix which is a bound morpheme that cannot stand alone without joined to the
free morpheme cross. These three morphemes cannot be divided into smaller
pieces which has a meaning.
The word earth-crossing is classified as compounding. This formation
occurs when the word cross merged to the word earth, and the suffix –ing joined
to the word earth-cross and it creates a new word earth-crossing which has a
different meaning. Furthermore, this word as a compound noun which has the
head of compound word is earth.
This word does not have a morphophonological process, because there is
no special change in deleting any letters in the word earth-crossing, and the
pronunciation is still the same as when they are split into earth and cross. The
word earth-crossing is not listed in oxforddictionary.com and
dictionary.cambridge.org.
Data 15
Word : Mega-storm
Sentence : “Scientists aren’t quite sure what happen to the shrinking
mega-storm.”
News : Jupiter’s Great Red Spot May Soon Disappear… (February
21st, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
41
The word mega-storm consists of more than one morpheme, they are mega
and storm. The first morpheme mega as a free morpheme that can stand alone as
word without by adding any forms, the second morpheme storm is also as a free
morpheme that can stand alone without attached to the morpheme mega. So, it can
be said that the word mega-storm has two morphemes and cannot be divided into
a smaller pieces which has a meaning.
The kind of word formation of the word mega-storm directs to
compounding. It happens when the word storm joined into the word mega and
creates the new word mega-storm. From the process before, it can be said that the
head of a compound word is storm.
This word has no morphophonological process, which means there is no
specific change in that word especially the pronunciation, it still the same as when
the word mega-storm are separated into two words mega and storm. The word
mega-storm is not listed in oxforddictionary.com and dictionary.cambridge.org.
Data 16
Word : Spacecraft
Sentence : “When the Voyager spacecraft flew by in the 1970s,
scientists estimated that observation put the Spot at just
14,500 miles wide.”
News : Jupiter’s Great Red Spot May Soon Disappear… (February
21st, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
42
The word spacecraft obviously consists of two morphemes, which are
space+craft. The first morpheme space is a free morpheme that can stand alone as
word without by adding other morphemes, and the second morpheme craft also is
a free morpheme that can stand alone without joined to the morpheme space.
These two morphemes cannot be divided into smaller pieces which has a meaning.
The word spacecraft is classified as compounding, which occurs when the
free morpheme space merges into the morpheme craft which also classifies as free
morpheme, and it creates a new word spacecraft as compound noun, which can be
seen in dictionary that the head of a compound word is craft.
There is no morphophonological process in this word, because this
processes does not have a special change in deleting or adding any letters, it only
merge two words into the one word without changing the pronounce when the
word spacecraft is separated into space and craft.
This word has been listed in dictionary. In oxforddictionary.com,
spaceflight is a vehicle used for travelling in space. However, spacecraft is a
vehicle used for travel in space (dictionary.cambridge.org). It is easy to know the
meaning of spacecraft, because it is a well-known word. Usually, this word is
used to describe space travel.
Data 17
Word : Superheats
Sentence : “It used to measure several Earths across, it stretches deep
into the planet’s atmosphere, and it somehow superheats
the air above it to temperatures hotter than lava.”
43
News : Jupiter’s Great Red Spot May Soon Disappear… (February
21st, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
In the word superheats consists of more than one morpheme, there are
super+heat+–s. First, the morpheme super is a free morpheme, because it can
stand alone without by adding any forms. Second, heat also is a free morpheme
that can stand alone and has a meaning. Last, the morphemes –s as a suffix which
is a bound morpheme that cannot stand alone, because it attached to the
morphemes heat. It can be concluded that the word superheats has three
morphemes.
The kind of word formation in the word superheats is categorized as
compounding. It happens when the word super merges into heat which classifies
as free morpheme. Meanwhile, the suffixes –s joined to the word superheat, it
gives different form, and it creates a new word superheats. This word can be seen
in ed.oxforddictionary.com that the head of a compound word is heat.
The word superheats have no morphophonological process, because like
the pronunciation superheats, it is still the same when the word super and heat are
separated, and it does not change or delete any letters. Superheats has already
been listed in oxforddictionary.com which has a meaning heat a liquid under
pressure above its boiling point without vaporization. Meanwhile, superheats is
not listed in dictionary.cambridge.org.
44
Data 18
Word : Windswept
Sentence : “Chile’s Atacama Desert is about as close as you can get to
Mars without hitching a ride on a rocket: salty, windswept,
and so bone dry, it’d be easy to mistake it for being
lifeless.”
News : Weird Life Found in Earth’s Driest Soil (February 26th,
2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
The word windswept consists of more than one morpheme, they are wind
and swept. The first morpheme wind as a free morpheme that can stand alone as
word without by adding any forms, the second morpheme swept is also as a free
morpheme that can stand alone without attached to the morpheme wind. So, it can
be said that the word windswept has two morphemes and cannot be divided into a
smaller pieces which has a meaning.
The kind of word formation of the word windswept directs to
compounding. It happens when the word wind joined into the word swept and
creates the new word windswept. From the process before, it can be said that the
head of a compound word is swept.
This word has no morphophonological process, which means there is no
specific change in that word especially the pronunciation, it still the same as when
the word windswept are separated into two words wind and swept. The word
windswept has been listed in oxforddictionary.com, this word means of a place
exposed to strong winds. In dictionary.cambridge.org has a meaning of places,
45
open to and not protected from strong winds. This word has been confirmed as an
official word of English.
Data 19
Word : Frameworks
Sentence : “I will be more comfortable once we’ve had a chance to try
and think about how to fit this into frameworks about how
we understand dark matter and galaxies...”
News : Universe’s First Stars Detected? Get the Facts (February
28th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Compounding
The word frameworks obviously consists of three morphemes, which are
frame+work+–s. The morpheme frame is a free morpheme that can stand alone
without by adding other morphemes. However, the morpheme work is also as a
free morpheme that can stand alone as a word, and the morpheme –s is a suffix
which is a bound morpheme that cannot stand alone without joined to the free
morpheme work. These three morphemes cannot be divided into smaller pieces
which has a meaning.
The word frameworks is classified as compounding. This formation occurs
when the word frame merged to the word work, and the suffix –s joined to the
word work, then, it creates a new word frameworks which has a different
meaning. Furthermore, this word as a compound noun which has the head of
compound word is frame.
46
This word does not have a morphophonological process, because there is
no special change in deleting any letters in the word frameworks, and the
pronunciation is still the same as when they are split into frame and work. The
word framworks has been listed in oxforddictionary.com which means an essential
supporting structure of a building, vehicle, or object. Frameworks is a system of
rules, ideas, or beliefs that is used to plan or decide something
(dictionary.cambridge.org).
3. Acronym
Data 20
Word : NEOs
Sentence : “’I did a quick estimate that Earth collides with several
Roadster-size NEOs every year, and such collisions are
usually unremarkable,’ she says.”
News : Elon Musk’s Tesla in Space Could Crash Into Earth
(February 15th, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Acronym
The word NEOs consist of four morphemes, it is short for Near-Earth
Objects. There are three free morphemes that can be stand alone which are; the
first morpheme near is a free morpheme and the second morpheme earth that also
as a free morpheme, the last morpheme is object. The morpheme –s is a suffix
which is a bound morpheme that cannot stand alone without joined to the
47
morpheme object. So, the formation in the word NEOs has four morphemes which
are near+earth+object+-s.
The word NEOs is classified as acronym. Furthermore, the
morphophonological process occurs in this word which means the word NEOs
takes from the first letters of each word which are near, earth, and objects. Then,
it created by omitting the others letters into a new word NEOs. The pronounced is
like saying a word.
The word NEOs is not listed in oxforddictionary.com, but NEOs is
abbreviation for near-earth object: an object in space such as an asteroid, comet,
or meteoroid that sometimes passes close to the earth (dictionary.cambridge.org).
Data 21
Word : NASA
Sentence : “…suggest the storm once spanned more than 30 degrees
in longitude and was more of a “Great Red Sausage,” says
Glenn Orton of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.”
News : Jupiter’s Great Red Spot May Soon Disappear… (February
21st, 2018)
Word
Formation
: Acronym
The word NASA comes from National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, it consists more than two morphemes in this word. There are
nation+-al+aeronautics+space+administration. First, the morpheme nation,
aeronautics, space and administration is also as a free morpheme that can stand
48
alone without joined into the other morpheme. Second, the morpheme -al as a
bound morpheme which is a prefix that cannot stand alone without attached to the
morpheme nation. So, it can be concluded that the formation of word NASA has
five morphemes.
The word NASA is classified as acronym, which occurs when the word
NASA takes from the initial word National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
So, it creates a new word NASA. The pronounced is like saying a word and it has a
morphophonological process. Moreover, the word NASA has already been listed in
oxforddictionary.com and dictionary.cambridge.org. NASA abbreviation for
National Aeronautics and Space Administration: the US government organization
that is responsible for space travel and the scientific study of space
(dictionary.cambridge.org).
4. Initialism
Data 22
Word : ATP
Sentence : “They also saw evidence of a molecule called ATP–cells’
universal currency for storing and transporting energy–as
well as the building blocks for cell membranes.”
News : Weird Life Found in Earth’s Driest Soil (February 26th,
2018)
Word
Formation
: Initialism
49
The word ATP consist of two morphemes, it is short for Adenosine
triphosphate. There are two free morphemes that can be stand alone which are;
the first morpheme adenosine is a free morpheme and the second morpheme
triphosphate that also as a free morpheme. So, the formation in the word ATP has
two morphemes which are adenosine+triphosphate.
The word ATP is classified as acronym. Furthermore, the
morphophonological process occurs in this word which means the word ATP
takes from the first letters of the word adenosine and triphosphate. Then, it
created by omitting the others letters into a new word ATP. The pronounced is like
saying letter by letter.
The word ATP has already been listed in oxforddictionary.com and
dictionary.cambridge.org. ATP is adenosine triphosphate: an important chemical
in the cells of living organisms that stores energy and releases it when it is needed
(dictionary.cambridge.org).
Data 23
Word : UV
Sentence : “Just a bit of moisture, and life can persist and make that
area–with very little water, high UV irradiation rates, and
chemical stresses–a habitat, at least a transient one.”
News : Weird Life Found in Earth’s Driest Soil (February 26th,
2018)
Word
Formation
: Initialism
50
The word UV consists of one morpheme, it is short for Ultraviolet. The
morpheme ultraviolet is a free morpheme that can stand alone as a word.
The word UV is classified as acronym. Furthermore, the
morphophonological process occurs in this word which means the word UV takes
from the first letters of the word Ultra and Violet, then, it created by omitting the
others letters into a new word UV. The pronounced is like saying a letter by letter
in a word not like saying a word.
The word UV has been listed in oxforddictionary.com and
dictionary.cambridge.org which means abbreviation for Ultraviolet, this word
usually used for giving out light.
51
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
From the previous chapters, the writer deduces a conclusion of this
research that there are 23 data has been collected that contained the kinds of word
formation in six articles from National Geographic articles on science, in
February 2018. This research has explained the study of morphology and word
formation processes based on George Yule. The writer collected 23 data that has
been analyzed in previous chapter from National Geographic articles on science.
Based on analyzing the data, not all the kinds of word formation occurred
in data analysis. However, there are seven from ten kinds of word formation
processes that are not found in this research such as coinage, borrowing,
backformation, clipping, blending, multiple processes and conversion. From 23
data that has been analyzed, there are 7 derivation, 12 compounding, 2 acronym,
and 2 initialism.
There are four steps in structural morphology to analyze the word
formation processes. Those are identifying morpheme, word formation,
morphophonological process and dictionary. However, in some word formations
that are analyzed have no morphophonological process or no changes in
pronunciation.
52
B. Suggestions
The writer would like to suggest to the readers to do the same research
about the word formation processes in morphological study, in order to increase
the knowledge about developing the new kind of word. For further discussion,
there are many interesting aspects for the process of word formation that can be
analyzed.
For the object of this research the writer selected a written language from
six articles on science in nationalgeographic.com to be analyzed. Moreover, it is
very important to have a further understanding about the words and its form. The
writer suggests to do further research about the word formation process on spoken
language as in talk show, movie, or songs.
53
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Ba'dulu, Abdul Muis and Herman. Morfosintaksis. Jakarta: PT. Rineka Cipta,
2005. Print.
Bauer, Laurie. English Word-Formation. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
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Booij, Geert. The Grammar of Words An Introduction to Linguistic Morphology.
United States: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.
Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew. An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and
Their Structure. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002. Print.
Chaer, Abdul. Linguistik Umum. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta, 2003. Print.
Fajriani, Novia. English Word Formation Analysis in the Jakarta Post's Sci-Tech
Articles 2014. Jakarta: UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, 2015. Pdf.
Hanif, Bahrul. The Analysis of Word Formation of Soccer Terms in the Jakarta
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Harley, Heidi. English Words: A Linguistic Introduction. UK: Blackwell
Publishing, 2006. Pdf.
Hippisley, Andrew and Gregory Stump, The Cambridge Handbook of
Morphology. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pdf.
Katamba, Francis. Morphology. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. Pdf.
Lieber, Rochelle. Introducing Morphology. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2009. Print.
Litosseliti, Lia, ed. Research Methods in Linguistics. London: Continuum, 2010.
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Liu, Wei and Wenyu Liu. "Analysis on the Word-formation of English Netspeak
Neologism." Journal of Arts & Humanities (2014): 22-30. Pdf.
Meyer, Charles F. Introducing English Linguistics. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2009. Print.
Minkova, Donka and Robert Stockwell. English Words: History and Structures.
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Mustafa, Siti Zubaidah Binti, Mageswari D/O Kandasamy and Mohamad Subakir
Mohd Yasin. "An Ananlysis of Word Formation Process in Everyday
Communication on Facebook." International Journal of Education and
Research (2015): 261-274. Pdf.
Plag, Ingo. Word-Formation in English. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2003. Pdf.
Subroto, Edi. Pengantar Metode Penelitian Linguistik Struktural. Surakarta:
Sebelas Maret University Press, 1992. Print.
Yendra. Mengenal Ilmu Bahasa (Linguistik). Yogyakarta: Deepublish, 2016. Pdf.
Yule, George. Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pdf.
—. The Study of Language. Third Edition. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2006. Pdf.
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Oxforddictionary.com
Dictionary.cambridge.org
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eclipse-meteors-moon-space-science/. accessed on March 5th, 2018 00.27.
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pictures-milestones-space-science/. accessed on March 5th, 2018 00.34.
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roadster-orbit-earth-sun-space/. accessed on March 5th, 2018 00.36. Web.
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10-years-space-science-spd/. accessed on March 5th, 2018 00.45. Web.
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56
APPENDICES
Partial Solar Eclipse and 6 More Can’t-Miss Sky Events in
February
Get ready to see sprinkling of meteors, a Martian showdown, a “false down,” and
more amazing celestial sights.
- See more at: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/skywatching-guide-
february-solar-eclipse-meteors-moon-space-science/
By Andrew Fazekas P U B L I S H E D F E B R U A R Y 1 , 2 0 1 8
The coming month heralds the return of a cosmic pyramid, a series of
stunning lunar pairings, and a partial solar eclipse. You’ll even have the
chance to spy on Mars meeting up with its mythical rival.
So, dust off those binoculars and mark your February calendar!
Z O D I A C A L L I G H T— F E B R U A R Y 2 - 1 6
Starting today at about an hour after sunset and for the following two
weeks, keen sky-watchers in the Northern Hemisphere can hunt down one of
the most elusive astronomical phenomena: the zodiacal light.
Best seen from rural areas, this pyramid-shaped light is easily
mistaken for the glow from a far-off city just over the horizon, and it is
sometimes called the false dawn. But this ethereal light is actually caused by
sunlight reflecting off ancient dust suspended between the planets. The best
time to catch the ghostly sky light is about an hour after sunset, looking
toward the western horizon from a dark region with low light pollution.
A L P H A C E N T A U R I D S — F E B R U A R Y 8
Sky-watchers in the Southern Hemisphere will get to watch a
modest
meteor shower on this night, as Earth plows through a cloud of debris left
behind by an unknown comet.
Known as the Alpha Centaurids, this annual shower seems to
radiate
57
from the constellation Centaurus—home to the closest star to our sun, the
red
dwarf Proxima Centauri. (What’s more, this nearby star hosts a potentially
habitable planet.)
The shower is usually just a trickle, with rates of about half a dozen
shooting stars an hour. However, these rates can sporadically increase to
about 25 meteors an hour. Look for the Alpha Centaurids after local
nightfall
on the 8th and before dawn the next day.
M O O N M E E T S S A T U R N — F E B R U A R Y 1 1
Early risers on the 11th should look for the waning crescent moon
posing next to the ringed planet Saturn, which will be hanging low in the
southeast sky an hour before sunrise.
M A R S A N D A N T A R E S — F E B R U A R Y 1 2
At dawn, look toward the southeastern sky for two distinctly
orangehued dots of light—the red planet Mars and the red giant star
Antares. One of
the brightest stars in the constellation Scorpio, Antares means “rival of
Mars,”
a Greek name based on the star’s similar color and brilliance in our skies.
But while Mars is about a third the size of Earth, Antares is so large
that if it replaced our sun, its outer atmosphere would reach beyond the
red
planet’s orbit.
On the 12th, the apparent gap between the two bright objects will be
only five degrees, equal to the width of your three middle fingers held at
arm’s
length. In reality, Mars is about 140 million miles away from Earth, on
average, while Antares is a whopping 600 light-years distant.
PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE — FEBRUARY 1 5
In the late afternoon on the 15th, a partial solar eclipse will greet
58
skywatchers across Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Antarctica.
During the eclipse, the moon will glide between Earth and the sun and
block part of the solar disk. How big a bite the moon takes out of the sun will
depends on your location. The farther south you go, the more of the solar orb
will get covered up during the peak.
The best place to see the event from land will be near the southern tip
of South America. For instance, the eclipse will cover up to 40 percent of the
sun over the city of Ushuaia, Argentina, while Buenos Aires will get to see
only 17 percent coverage. You can find out what time the eclipse will peak for
different cities along its path at EclipseWise.com.
Remember to always use proper eye protection while viewing the sun,
even during an eclipse.
MOON HITS A BULL’S EYE — FEBRUARY 2 3
This evening, look for the first quarter moon as it glides through the
constellation Taurus, the bull. The bull’s eye, the bright orange star
Aldebaran, will be less than five degrees to the lower right of the moon for
most sky-watchers. And for observers in northeastern North America,
Europe, and northern Asia, the star will be so close it’ll be briefly hidden by
the moon during what’s called a lunar occultation.
M O O N M E E T S R E G U L U S — F E B R U A R Y 2 8
As soon as darkness falls on the 28th, look for the majestic
constellation Leo to rise above the eastern horizon. The nearly full moon
will
seem to perch just above the star Regulus, which marks the heart of the
heavenly lion. The star will even appear to glide behind the moon for
observers in most of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States.
Clear skies!
Andrew Fazekas, the Night Sky Guy, is the author of Star Trek: The
Official Guide to Our Universe and host of NG Live! Mankind to Mars
presentations. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook.
59
Picture Show a Decade of SpaceX Making Spaceflight
History
While chasing CEO Elon Musk’s dream of sending humans to Mars, the private
company has set a number of industry records.
- See more at: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/spacex-falcon-heavy-
launch-pictures-milestones-space-science/
By Michael Greshko P U B L I S H E D F E B R U A R Y 6 , 2 0 1 8
Against a bright blue sky and the clamor of roaring applause, SpaceX's
Falcon Heavy rocket completed a (mostly) successful first flight on February 6,
2018. The huge rocket is now the most powerful launch vehicle in operation,
rivaling the capabilities of the Saturn V rocket that sent humans to the moon
during the Apollo era.
The milestone moment for SpaceX included the launch from
Florida's
Cape Canaveral, as well as near-simultaneous landings of the Falcon
Heavy's
reusable side boosters. However, the central core—which was supposed to
land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean—failed to properly fire its
engines
and slammed into the sea at about 300 miles an hour.
Still, the rocket's upper stage and payload, a cherry-red Tesla
Roadster, are now orbiting Earth and preparing for a final engine fire that
will
place the electric sports car and its dummy-astronaut passenger into orbit
around the sun.
Falcon Heavy's overall success caps a decade of firsts for SpaceX,
which has been pushing boundaries for commercial spaceflight as part of
CEO
Elon Musk's vision to one day put humans on Mars. Here are some of the
other records SpaceX has set during the new race to space.
Michael Greshko writes online science news stories on everything from animal
behavior to space and the environment.
60
Elon Musk’s Tesla in Space Could Crash Into Earth
Each long loop around the sun brings the sports car a bit closer to a fiery meeting
with our home world, researchers calculate.
- See more at: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/spacex-falcon-heavy-
tesla-roadster-orbit-earth-sun-space/
By Nadia Drake
P U B L I S H E D F E B R U A R Y 1 5 , 2 0 1 8
Launched last week aboard SpaceX’s new Falcon Heavy rocket, Elon
Musk’s interplanetary Tesla Roadster is currently on a lazy cruise around the
sun. But the car’s journey may come to an end in the not-too-distant future
when—in a twist of karmic fate—it collides with the planet nearest and
dearest to all our hearts.
“The Tesla will likely impact the Earth within a few tens of millions of
years,” says Hanno Rein of the University of Toronto.
At least, that’s Rein’s best guess, which is based on simulations
probing the future wanderings of the 2008 Tesla Roadster. The car, hitched to
the second stage of the Falcon Heavy and carrying a dummy named Starman,
is already listed as a “solar system body” in a catalogue maintained by NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (Watch Musk react to the Falcon Heavy launch.)
Rein and his collaborators recently decided to spin that body’s orbit
forward by several million years and see which paths the car might take as it
loops around the sun on the solar system’s most epic road trip. Currently in
an orbit that intersects the paths of both Earth and Mars, the Roadster will be
kicked around a bit by close encounters with these planets early on.
While that makes it a bit tricky to determine the car’s far-future path
with precision, if scientists run enough simulations, they can see which
eventual outcomes are the most likely. Regardless of where its exact demise
occurs, the Roadster only has a few tens of millions of years to live, the team
says.
61
I N C R E A S I N G L Y C L O S E E N C O U N T E R S
The Roadster’s near future, however, is certain. The car’s next
particularly close encounter with Earth will occur in 2091, when it will be
within one lunar distance of our planet. It may even be easily visible with the
right kind of telescope; though it’s not large enough to be readily
distinguished from the myriad objects that routinely blow by us, the car’s
reflectance—or spectrum—should set it apart.
“It will have a lot of close encounters with Earth initially,” Rein says.
“A bit later, it will also have close encounters with Venus and Mars. During
every close encounter, it will change its orbit a little.”
Rein and his colleagues calculated that there’s virtually no chance of
the car accidentally crash-landing on Mars. But there is a six-percent chance
the Tesla will collide with Earth in the next million years, and a 2.5-percent
chance of it colliding with Venus. Both numbers, perhaps not surprisingly, are
roughly in line with what scientists expect for the class of small bodies on
Earth-crossing orbits termed Near-Earth Objects, or NEOs.
After that initial million-year timeframe passes, each time the car
zooms by, its chance of colliding with one of the two sister planets goes up,
Rein says, such that there’s an 11-percent chance of it smashing into Earth
after three million years.
“The probability of a collision increases with time, because the
collision rate is relatively constant,” Rein explains.
S T A R - C R O S S E D S P A C E C A R ?
Renu Malhotra, an expert in planetary dynamics at the University of
Arizona, says the work Rein and his colleagues have done is solid. Despite
being a rather unique object out in deep space, the Roadster behaves about
the same as a natural object of about the same mass and size.
“I did a quick estimate that Earth collides with several Roadster-size
NEOs every year, and such collisions are usually unremarkable,” she says.
62
But Malhotra suspects the most likely demise for the Roadster will be
a collision with none other than the biggest star in its vicinity, perhaps within
a few million years, rather than tens of millions.
“I would think that the most probable end is collision with the sun,”
she says. “And the second most probable end is collision with Earth, as is the
case for NEOs."
Don’t fear, though. Even if the Roadster does eventually reunite with
its home world, it will happen so far in the future that you won’t be around to
care, and it won’t present any sort of threat to the planet anyway. The car is so
small that most of it will likely burn up upon entry in Earth’s atmosphere—
whatever that may be like at that far future point.
“It's possible that some debris could survive entry. It would get very
hot but is also coming in so fast it might not have time to all melt,” says Jonathan
McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “I
think bets are it would all melt, but definitely not a sure thing.”
Nadia Drake is a science journalist who writes the National Geographic blog No
Place Like Home.
63
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot May Soon Disappear…
...or it may not. Scientists aren’t quite sure what will happen to the shrinking
mega-storm.
- See more at: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/jupiter-great-red-
spot-disappear-10-years-space-science-spd/
By Nadia Drake
P U B L I S H E D F E B R U A R Y 2 1 , 2 0 1 8
Aside from its size, the planet Jupiter is perhaps best known for the
roiling vermilion tempest that swirls south of its equator. The storm, which is
big enough to comfortably swallow Earth, is appropriately (if not creatively)
known as Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
The Great Red Spot has been a fixture of Jupiter’s cloudy visage for
centuries and is among the most recognizable features in the solar system.
But it won’t always be there. In fact, the Great Red Spot is shrinking, and
recently, news stories reported that it could vanish within the next 10 or 20
years.
Wait—is that true? Let’s find out.
So, Jupiter. Big storm there, eh?
Yep. The Great Red Spot is in fact a gigantic storm. It used to measure
several Earths across, it stretches deep into the planet’s atmosphere, and it
somehow superheats the air above it to temperatures hotter than lava.
How long has it been there?
It’s unclear. But we do know that it’s been visible since at least the
early 1800s, and is perhaps the same storm people spotted in the 1600s. At a
minimum, it’s in the neighborhood of 200 years old.
How come it’s still around? Storms on Earth don’t last near
as long.
It’s true: While some storms stick around for a while on other planets,
storms on Earth generally tend to be mercifully short. Neptune (which is
stormy in general) had a similarly large, obvious spot darkening its face for a
64
couple of years around the time the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by in 1989 (it
was gone when the Hubble Space Telescope took a look in 1994). And Saturn
grew a storm so tremendously large that it completely wrapped around the
planet and smashed into itself. That one only hung around for about a year,
though.
Scientists aren’t exactly sure what’s fueling Jupiter’s massive,
persistent storm (this is an area of active research), but they suspect that its
position between two jet streams may be helping stabilize and prolong its
existence.
But it’s shrinking.
Yes.
Since when?
Since as long as we’ve been observing it. Older observations, from the
late 1800s, suggest the storm once spanned more than 30 degrees in
longitude and was more of a “Great Red Sausage,” says Glenn Orton of
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But the storm’s shape is changing, most
significantly in width, and as time marches on it’s becoming less oval and
more circular.
Way back when, the storm stretched more than 25,000 miles across.
When the Voyager spacecraft flew by in the 1970s, scientists estimated that
the Spot was just 14,500 miles wide. In 2014, a Hubble Space Telescope
observation put the Spot at just 10,250 miles across, and by last spring, it
spanned just 10,140 miles.
So when will it disappear entirely?
Truth is, scientists have no idea. But if you measure the rate at which
the Great Red Spot has been shrinking, and extrapolate linearly from that, it
looks like the spot will vanish completely in about 70 years, says Amy Simon
of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Problem is, “we know for certain it doesn’t work like that at all,” she
says.
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So what’s the deal with this 10 to 20 year timeframe?
That’s the approximate time at which the storm—if it continues
shrinking at its current rate—will become roughly circular. And that shape,
Orton says, is much less stable than its current, vaguely oval configuration.
“It’s unlikely that the GRS will be stable if it’s ‘narrower’ than it is ‘tall,’
although another opinion is that it might stabilize in a circular form,” Orton says.
So, once it reaches circularity, it’s anyone’s guess what happens next.
The storm could equilibrate and continue sticking around, or it could
dissipate. “I’m unaware of any theoretical models for the Great Red Spot
dynamics in this state,” Orton says. “This is all guesswork, so it puts future
observers on notice to see what’s going to happen to this unique vortex.”
Simon says that the storm’s fate depends on what’s powering it, and
whether further changes are happening slowly or quickly.
“Slow changes allow for the storm to adjust in various ways, while
sudden changes would more likely cause disruption,” she says. “Based on the
current info we have, I would guess if it were to stabilize it will likely happen
in the next decade or less.”
So we don’t really know when the Great Red Spot will
disappear….?
Nope. But it is changing, and obviously so.
Nadia Drake is a science journalist who writes the National Geographic blog No
Place Like Home.
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Weird Life Found in Earth’s Driest Soil
Extreme microbes detected in the hyper-arid Atacama Desert hint at the ways
organisms might eke out a living in the Martian underground.
- See more at: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/weird-life-found-
earth-driest-soil-atacama-desert-mars-science/
By Michael Greshko P U B L I S H E D F E B R U A R Y 2 6 , 2 0 1 8
Chile's Atacama Desert is about as close as you can get to Mars without
hitching a ride on a rocket: salty, windswept, and so bone dry, it'd be easy to
mistake it for being lifeless.
But a new study confirms that within these seemingly barren soils, life
is waiting patiently for its chance to thrive. A few feet beneath the Atacama's
surface, exceptionally hardy strains of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes
have adapted to withstand punishing dryness, damaging ultraviolet radiation,
and extreme saltiness.
Most of the time, these critters are inactive, but when liquid water
makes its infrequent appearance, the microbes awake from their slumber and
shudder to life. (Find out how weird our home world really is in One Strange
Rock, premiering March 26 on National Geographic.)
The discovery, published today in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, demonstrates the incredible abilities of life on Earth to
thrive in surprising places. What's more, the find hints at how life may have
eked out a living on Mars after the planet's surface largely dried up billions of
years ago. Perhaps Martian microbes have even hung on until today, waiting
deep underground for the exceptionally rare dribble of water.
R O U S E D B Y R A I N
In comparison to Mars, which hasn't seen rain in eons, the Atacama
may look paradise. But by Earth standards, the Chilean desert is hellishly dry.
Some areas receive less than a quarter inch of rain a year, or less than one percent
of the 20th-century average for annual rainfall in the continental
United States. It's been so dry for so long, salts brought in on the wind have
accumulated without being washed away.
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To withstand bouts of dryness, organisms could feasibly dehydrate
themselves and go inactive, but it's hardly a given that this hibernation will
work. While the organisms may be protected from some damage, because
they're inactive, their natural repair mechanisms aren't working.
“It's kind of darned if you do, darned if you don't,” says National
Geographic grantee Penelope Boston, the director of NASA's Astrobiology
Institute.
Previous studies had found signs of microbial life in the Atacama's
hyper-arid soils, but it was possible that these microbes were wind-borne
interlopers that promptly died in the harsh landscape. To tell whether
anything truly lives there, researchers would need to track the soils over time,
to see how they responded to changes in their environment.
In March 2015, a team led by Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist
at Technical University Berlin, ventured into the Atacama weeks after a years'
worth of rain fell in the region and triggered floods and dramatic flower
blooms in some areas.
The team dug trenches up to three feet deep in areas they chemically
determined were otherwise untouched by humans. They returned in 2016 and
2017 to collect more samples, to see how any microbes present changed as the
desolate landscape dried out once again.
Back in the lab, team biologists examined the soil and found DNA,
which revealed that wetter areas closer to Chile's coastline had larger, more
diverse microbial populations than drier spots farther inland. They also saw
evidence of a molecule called ATP—cells' universal currency for storing and
transporting energy—as well as the building blocks for cell membranes.
As the soils dried out after the 2015 rains, researchers watched as ATP
levels decreased—exactly what you'd expect to see if microbes awakened by
rain had reentered hibernation.
The findings are a testament to “the amazing adaptability of life even
to sustain itself...where it rains sometimes only once a decade,” says
SchulzeMakuch. “Just a bit of moisture, and life can persist and make that area—
with very little water, high UV irradiation rates, and chemical stresses—a habitat,
at least a transient one.”
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D R I L L I N G F O R C L U E S
Researchers say that the results could help inform future searches for
life on Mars, but let there be no mistake: Mars is even less hospitable than the
Atacama.
The red planet's far thinner atmosphere and lack of a planetary
magnetic field mean that solar and cosmic radiation easily reaches the
surface. These rays can damage cells directly and spawn powerful oxidants,
including the chemicals that make up bleach.
“These things just eat up organic compounds, so it's very unlikely that
any life exists on the surface of Mars,” says study co-author Samuel Kounaves,
a Tufts University chemist and former lead scientist for NASA's Phoenix Mars
lander.
Future missions to Mars will have to dig many feet underground to
have a shot at finding life. At least one mission in the queue fits this bill: The
European Space Agency's ExoMars rover, due to land in 2020, has a drill
capable of digging more than six feet underground.
In the meantime, research will continue in the Atacama and other dry
spots on Earth, giving scientists valuable, if imperfect, clues to the nature of
our rust-colored neighbor.
“They’re absolutely critical,” says Boston of these earthly sites. “But
none of them are Mars.”
Michael Greshko writes online science news stories on everything from animal
behavior to space and the environment.
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Universe’s First Stars Detected? Get the Facts.
Painstaking new work suggests that the burning balls of gas started forming about
180 million years after the cosmos burst into being.
- See more at: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/first-stars-universe-
big-bang-edges-space-science/
By Nadia Drake P U B L I S H E D F E B R U A R Y 2 8 , 2 0 1 8
Stars are our constant companions in the night sky, but seas of
twinkling lights weren’t always a feature of the cosmos. Now, scientists
peering back into deep time suggest that the earliest stars didn’t turn on until
about 180 million years after the big bang, when the universe as we know it
exploded into existence.
For decades, teams of scientists have been chasing—in fact, racing—to
detect the signatures of these first stars. The new detection, from a project
called EDGES, is in the form of a radio signal triggered when light from those
stars began interacting with the hydrogen gas that filled primordial empty
space.
If the signal stands up to scrutiny, the detection simultaneously opens
up a new line of cosmological inquiry and offers a few conundrums to tackle.
“The era of cosmic dawn has been entirely uncharted territory until
now,” says physicist Cynthia Chiang of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in
South Africa. “It's extremely exciting to see a new glimpse of this slice of the
universe's history, and the EDGES detection is the initial step toward
understanding the nature of the first stars in more detail.”
C O S M I C D A W N
Shortly after the universe was born, it was plunged into darkness. The
first stars turned on when hot gas coalesced around clumps of dark matter, then
contracted and became dense enough to ignite the nuclear hearts of
infant suns.
As those early stars began breathing ultraviolet light into the cosmos,
their photons mingled with primordial hydrogen gas, causing it to absorb
background radiation and become translucent. When that happened, those
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hydrogen atoms produced radio waves that traveled through space at a
predictable frequency, which astronomers can still observe today with radio
telescopes.
The same process is going on in modern stars as they continue to send
light into the cosmos. But the radio waves produced by those first stellar
gasps have been traveling through space for so long that they’ve been
stretched, or redshifted. That’s how astronomers identified the fingerprints of
the earliest stars in radio waves detected by a small antenna in Western Australia.
“The first indication of the signal emerged within weeks of turning on
the instrument in 2015,” says Judd Bowman of Arizona State University, a
coauthor of the study presenting the results in Nature. “At first we assumed it
was a problem with the instrument, because it was larger than anything we
expected.”
Bowman and his team spent the last two years working to rule out any
possible errors that might mimic a signal from the end of the cosmic dark
ages.
“As we progressed through dozens of tests, we gained confidence that
it is really a signal from the sky,” he says. “But it is important for another
team with a different instrument to confirm the detection.”
Chiang, who is on one of the other teams searching for the same signal,
agrees: “They rightfully suggest that the next step is to confirm the
measurement with other experiments,” she says.
“This type of measurement is incredibly difficult because of the
extreme sensitivity to systematic errors, and the EDGES team has done an
impressive and thorough job at investigating low-level instrumental effects.”
F R O M L I G H T T O D A R K
If the signal is real, it presents a challenge for some scientists who’ve
been thinking about how the early universe worked. For starters, the time
frame during which these earliest stars emerged lines up well with some
theories, but it’s not exactly bang on with others.
“It’s very weird in a variety of ways,” says UCLA’s Steven Furlanetto,
who studies how galaxies form and produce stars. “That may be an indication
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of exotic physics, which would be extremely exciting to a whole lot of people.”
For instance, it’s possible the detection is a sign of galaxies behaving in
unpredicted ways.
In previous work, Furlanetto and his colleagues started with actual
observations of the earliest known galaxies, and then rewound the cosmic
clock using computer models, searching for the age at which a signal from the
first stars might appear. The universe’s first galaxies are thought to be small,
fragile, and not that great at birthing stars, so Furlanetto wouldn’t expect the
signal to peak until about 325 million years after the big bang.
But if the first stars had already furnished enough light to make their
presence known 180 million years after the big bang, those early galaxies
must be doing something different.
“The simplest explanation would be that at early times, these very
small things are able to form stars more efficiently than they do at other
times,” he says. “This is pretty dramatically different in terms of our physical
understanding of galaxies.”
As well, the primordial hydrogen gas is absorbing photons at rates that
are at least two times higher than predicted. That’s problematic for some
ideas about the temperature of the early universe. It means that either the
primordial gas was colder than expected, or background radiation was hotter.
Intriguingly, a second paper appearing today in Nature suggests that
interactions with dark matter are one way to cool the gas to a temperature
where it could absorb more photons.
Dark matter makes up the bulk of the universe’s mass, but it doesn’t
behave like normal matter and has proven tricky to understand. It regularly
evades direct detection, and scientists are struggling to pin down, what,
exactly it is and how it has influenced the structure of the universe through
time.
“It would be extremely exciting if this was a signal of dark matter, and
it's not impossible,” says Tracy Slatyer of MIT.
But, she notes, it’s way too early to accept that conclusion. An alternate
possibility is that there are simply more photons for the hydrogen gas to
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absorb, though it’s not obvious where all those photons would come from in
the early universe. So she and others are waiting for independent
confirmation of the EDGES result before diving too deep into the possible
dark matter scenarios.
“I will be more comfortable once we’ve had a chance to try and think
about how to fit this into frameworks about how we understand dark matter
and galaxies,” Furlanetto says. “Because it is so unusual in comparison to our
expectations, I do worry that it is something entirely unrelated. I have no idea
what that could be.”
Nadia Drake is a science journalist who writes the National Geographic blog No Place
Like Home.