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    Unit 4 Word Formation

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    Nuria Aragón
    Unit 4 discusses various processes of word formation, including: 1) Coinage which creates new terms like aspirin and Google; 2) Borrowing words from other languages like croissant from French and piano from Italian; 3) Compounding by joining words like doorknob and wallpaper. 4) Clipping which shortens words like fax from facsimile and telly from television. 5) Conversion changing a word's class, like using empty as a verb. Many processes can combine to form new words.

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    Unit 4 Word Formation

    Uploaded by

    Nuria Aragón
    35 views4 pages
    Unit 4 discusses various processes of word formation, including: 1) Coinage which creates new terms like aspirin and Google; 2) Borrowing words from other languages like croissant from French and piano from Italian; 3) Compounding by joining words like doorknob and wallpaper. 4) Clipping which shortens words like fax from facsimile and telly from television. 5) Conversion changing a word's class, like using empty as a verb. Many processes can combine to form new words.

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    Unit 4 Word formation

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    Unit 4 discusses various processes of word formation, including: 1) Coinage which creates new terms like aspirin and Google; 2) Borrowing words from other languages like croissant from French and piano from Italian; 3) Compounding by joining words like doorknob and wallpaper. 4) Clipping which shortens words like fax from facsimile and telly from television. 5) Conversion changing a word's class, like using empty as a verb. Many processes can combine to form new words.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    35 views4 pages

    Unit 4 Word Formation

    Uploaded by

    Nuria Aragón
    Unit 4 discusses various processes of word formation, including: 1) Coinage which creates new terms like aspirin and Google; 2) Borrowing words from other languages like croissant from French and piano from Italian; 3) Compounding by joining words like doorknob and wallpaper. 4) Clipping which shortens words like fax from facsimile and telly from television. 5) Conversion changing a word's class, like using empty as a verb. Many processes can combine to form new words.

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    of 4

    Unit 4: Word formation

    Introduction:
    We can very quickly understand a new word in our language (neologisms)and accept the use of
    different forms of a new word.

    • This ability seems to derive from the fact that there is a lot of regularity in the word-
    formation processes in a language.
    • Etymology is the study of the origin and history of word.

    Word formation processes:


    Coinage:
    • Coinage is the invention of totally new terms.
    • The most typical sources are invented trade names for commercial products that become
    general terms for any version of that product.
    • Some examples are aspirin, Kleenex, and zipper. In Spanish, a good example could be mistol.
    • Google is also a very good example: beyond the company, this word has become widely
    used with the meaning “to use the internet to find information”.
    • New words based on the name of person, or a place are called eponyms: sandwich comes
    from the 18th century Earl of Sandwich, who first insisted on having his bread and meat
    together while gambling).
    • More eponyms: Fahrenheit (from the German, Gabriel Fahrenheit), watt (from the Scottish
    inventor, James Watt).

    Borrowing:
    • Borrowing is the process of taking over words from other languages.
    • Examples in English: croissant (French), piano (Italian), lilac (Persian), pretzel (German),
    yogurt (Turkish).
    • Other languages also borrow terms from English in Japanese we find suupaamaaketto
    (supermarket) and taipuraitaa (typewriter).
    • In some cases, the borrowed words may be used with quite different meanings: in
    contemporary German, the English words partner and look in the phrase Partnerlook
    describe two people who are together and are wearing similar clothing. Moreover, there is
    no equivalent use of this expression in English.
    • A special type of borrowing: loan-translation or calque.
    • Direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language.
    • French term gratte-ciel (“scrape-sky), Durch wolkenkrabber (“cloud scracther”), or the
    German Workenkrazter (“cloud scraper”)>a¡ all these are calques for the English skyscraper.
    • English superman is a calque that comes from the German Lehnwort.
    Compounding:
    • Compounding is the joining of two separate words to produce a single form.
    • Common English compound nouns: bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, wallpaper.
    • We can also create compound adjectives: good-looking, low-paid.
    • We can even create compounds of adjective plus noun: fast-food restaurant or full-time job.

    Bleeding (Aka Portmanteau):


    • Blending is a process whereby two separate forms are combined to produce a single new
    term.
    • Blending is usually typically accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and
    joining it to the end of the other words.

    Clipping:
    • Clipping occurs when a word of more than one syllable reduced to a shorter form (e.g.,
    facsimile>fax).
    • More examples: ad (advertisement), bra (brassiere), condo (condominium), fan (fanatic), flu
    (influenza).
    • We also clip each other´s names: Ed, Sam, Mike.
    • Hypocorisms are favoured in Australian and British English: a word is reduced to a single
    syllable, then –y or –ie is added to the end.
    • Examples of hypocorisms: telly (television), brekky (breakfast).

    Backformation:
    • A word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (usually a
    verb).
    • Examples of backformation: Television (noun)> to televise (verb)

    Donation (noun)>to donate (verb)

    Babysitter (noun)>to babysit (verb)

    • A very regular source of backformed verbs in English is based on the pattern worker-work.
    • The main assumption seems to be that if there is a noun ending in –er, then we can create a
    verb for what that noun –er does.
    • An editor will edit, a sculptor will sculpt, and so on.

    Conversion:
    • Conversion entails a change in the function of a word.,
    • This happens when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction). However,
    verbs can also become nouns.
    • My father is a nice person.
    • He can´t father a child.
    • More examples: dirty (adj)> to dirty (verb).
    o Empty (adjc)>to empty (verb)
    • Some words can change their meaning when they change category through conversion: to
    doctor (adulterar)/ a doctor (doctor).
    • Even phrasal verbs can turn into nouns.
    • For example: takeover (take over) and printout (print out), or even wannabe (a person who
    longs to be something but fails to do so).

    Acronyms:
    • Acronyms are new words formed from initial letters of a set of other words.
    • Examples: CD (compact disc), VCR (video cassette recorder).
    • Acronyms are generally pronounced as new single words: NATO, NASA, UNESCO.
    • Some acronyms simply become everyday terms: laser (light amplification by stimulated
    emission of radiation), scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus).
    • Names for organizations are often designed to have their acronym representant appropriate
    term: WAR (“women against rape”)

    Analogy:
    • A process of creating a new word that mirrors an existing one. For example, junkie (drug-
    addicted) and Yankee.

    Derivation:
    • This process is done through the addition of affixes to words.
    • Prefixes: affixes added to the beginning of a word (e.g., un-, mis-)
    • Suffixes: affixes added to the end of the word (e.g., -less, -ish)
    • Infixes: an affix that is incorporated inside another word (e.g., Unfuckinbelievable)
    • Circumfix: an affix that has two parts, one placed at the start of a word, and the other at the
    end. For example: unacceptable, disproportionately, and unfriendly.

    Multiple processes:
    • It is possible to trace the operation of more than one process at work in the creation of a
    particular word.
    • Example: the term deli was borrowed from the German term delicatessen, and then it was
    clipped.
    • Another example: in the expression waspish attitudes, the acronym WASP (“white Anglo-
    Saxon protestant”) has lost its capital letters and gained a suffix (-ish) in the derivation
    process.
    • Many of these words can have a very brief life-span.

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