Vocabulary expansion

Occurrence of new or changed morphemes in a language —

word creation

Borrowing

• All the examples of borrowing that we have seen result in new words in the borrowing language

• This is a form of word creation in that language

Borrowing

• Numerous other processes occur that result in new words in a language

Back formation

peas → pea-s

cheris → cherry-s

Latin buxis → English box ~ box-es

In such examples, the end of the word is reinterpreted as a suffix, and the remainder now identified as the base

Back formation

hawker → hawk (v.)

stoker → stoke (v.)

swindler → swindle (v.)

editor → edit

Mentor → ment(ee)

note apparent analogy to Verb + (-er)

Back formation

Pants → pant ?

Do you accept this form?

What is a pantsuit?

Clipping

Hamburg /er or ham/ burgerZoo /logical gardenAuto /mobile Omni/ busDorm /itoryBra /ssiereVic /tim?Perp /etrator?

Clipping does not observe morpheme boundaries or even syllable boundaries

Clipping in Japanese

orchestra → okesutora ‘oke’

sekuhara (from loan, sexual harassment)

Macudonaludo ‘macu’

Alphabetisms

CIA, USA, FBI, CSUF, RTD, CD

note these words are formed from the names of the first letters used to write the terms, e.g.

CIA = [sijaijei]; USA = [juεsei]

Acronyms

SARS, NATO, SCUBA, AIDS, ROM, FERP

These words are pronounced using typical values represented by the initial orthographic signs used to write the words in the full names

Blending

MOtor + hoTEL → motel SMoke + fOG → smog

BOld = audACIOUS → bodacious

FLash + gUSH → flush

Part of one word is added to part of another word to make a new word

Blending (with clipping)in Jp. and Ch

Jp. iketeru ‘nice’ + menzu (<CH. mian zi) → ike-men ‘nice guy’, ‘cool guy’

Poke-mon < Engl. ‘pocket monster’

in Ch.

chao ji ‘super’ + shi chang ‘market’ → chao shi

Beijing + daxue ‘university’ → Beida

Folk Etymology

• naïve misunderstanding of an unfamiliar word resulting in a more familiar form (hence creates a new etymology)

Garter snake → garden snake

Otchek → woodchuck

Asparagus → sparrow grass

Schamfast (bashful) → shamefaced

Peperoncinis → pepper chilis

Folk etymology in Chinese

Ch: bai ‘bai bai’ → bye-bye

Coining

Kodak, Nylon, Dacron, Orlon

Process whereby words are wholly invented

Functional Shift:

• (used as different part of speech = new word)

Telephone N → V Xerox N → V

Date N → V Impact N → V BrickN → V

Laugh V → N Meet V → N

“But me no buts” ?

“No ifs, ands, or buts” ?

Compounding

• Two or more words put together to form a new word with a meaning different from its elements

blackboard vs. black board

laid-back vs. laid back

callback vs. call back

hatchback

man-eating shrimp vs. man eating shrimp

Historical compounding

wærloga ‘oath-breaker’ (lit. ‘pledge + lie’) → warlock (sorcerer ‘witch’, ‘demon’)

wyfman (lit. ‘wife + person’) → woman

Reduplication

• repetition of a word or part of a word for grammatical or other purposes

Reduplication

• In English, mostly nursery language

ma-ma

wee-wee

pee-pee

doo-doo

Jon-Jon

Reduplication in other lgs.

Tag. lapit ‘approach, lalapit ‘will approach’

sulat ‘write’, susulat ‘will write’

Malayan baik ‘good’; baik-baik ‘well’

bunga ‘flower’; bunga-bunga ‘flower pl.

mata ‘eye’; mata-mata (or memata) policeman’

Reduplication

In Chinese

• Totalizing (sense of ‘all’ or ‘every’)

ren-ren = everyone tian-tian = daily• Nicknames

ya ‘girl’; ya-ya = ‘girl’s nickname’

dong ‘east’; dong-dong = ‘boy’s nickname’

hong ‘rainbow’; hong-hong = ‘girl’s nickname’