Word Formation: Lengua y Cultura Inglesa III - 2021

Word Formation
O Lengua y cultura inglesa III_2021

The term “Word Formation”
Word formation does not have a clear universally
accepted usage, it is sometimes referred to all
processes connected with changing the form of
the word by, for example, affixation (preffixes-
suffixes), which is a matter of morphology.
In its wider sense word formation denotes the
processes of creation of new lexical units.
What is it Word Formation ?
O In linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word.
O Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic
change, which is a change in a single word's meaning.
O The boundary between word formation and semantic
change can be difficult to define: a new use of an old word
can be seen as a new word derived from an old one and
identical to it in form.
Process about Word Formation

Affixation
O In English grammar and morphology, affixation is the process
of adding a morpheme—or affix—to a word to create either a
different form of that word or a new word with a different
meaning; affixation is the most common way of making new
words in English.
O Uses of Affixes
O An affix is a word element of English grammar used to alter the
meaning or form of a word and comes in the form of either a
prefix or a suffix. Prefixes include examples like "un-," "self-,"
and "re-," while suffixes come in the form of ending elements like
"-hood," "-ing," or "-ed."
O While prefixes typically maintain the word class (such as noun,

verb, or adjective) of the word it's modifying, suffixes oftentimes
change the form entirely, as is the case with "exploration"
compared to "explore" or "highlighter" compared to "highlight."
Clipping
Clipping is the word formation process which consists of the reduction of a word to one of
its parts.
Clipping are also known as “shortenings” and mainly consists of the following types:
Back clipping – Fore clipping – Middle clipping – Complex clipping
OBack clipping
It is the most common type, in which the begining is retained.
Example: ad (advertisement)
Doc (doctor) – gas (gasoline) – memo (memorándum) gym (gymnastics )
Pop ( popular) exam (examination)
OFore-clipping
Retains the final part
Example: phone ( telephone) – chute (parachute) – gator (alligator)
OMiddle clipping
In middle clipping or syncope, the middle of the word is retained
Example: flu (influenza) – tec (detective) jams (pyjamas)
OComplex clipping
Are also used in compounds. One opart of the original compound most often
remains intact.
Example: calegram (cabletelegram) op art (optical art)
Acronymy/Acronium
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations such as NATO, LASER AND
IBM that are formed using the initial letters of words or Word parts in a
phrase or name.
Acronyms and initialisms are usually pronounced in a way that is distinct
from that of the full forms for which they stand: as the names of the
individual letters (as in IBM) word ( as in NATO) or combination (as in
IUPAC)
Categories of Acronymy as examples:

O Containing only initial letters
FNMA: (Fannie Mae) Federal National Mortgage Association
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
O Containing non-initial letters
Amphetamine: Alpha-methyl- phenethylamine
Gestapo: Geheimestaatspolizei ( secret state pólice)
O Pronounced only as the names of letters

BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid
O Recursive acronyms , in which the abbrevation

itself is the expansión of the initial
VISA : Visa International Service Association
GNU: GNU´s Not Unix
BLENDING
A blend is a word formed from parts of two other words. These parts are
sometimes , but not always, morphemes
Formation of blending: Most blends are formed by one of the following
methods
For example:
O The beginning of one word is added to the end of the other
Brunch (Breakfast and Lunch)
O The beginnings of two words are combined
Cyborg ( Cybernetic And Organism)
O One complete word is combined with part of another word
Guesstimate (Guess and Estimate)
O Two words are blended around a common sequence of
sounds
Californication ( from a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is a
blend of California and Fornication)
BACK FORMATION
Back-Formation refers to the process of creating a new lexeme
(less preciseley, a new “word”) by removing actual or supposed
affixes. The resulting neologism is called a back-formation.
Back-formations are shortened words created from longers words,
thus back-formations may be viewed as a sub-type of clipping
For example:
The noun resurrection was borrowed from Latin and the verb
resurrect was then back formed hundreds of years later from it by
removing the -ion suffix. This segmentation of resurrection into
resurrect+ion was possible because English has many examples of
Latinate words.
Another example: the verb burgle from the older English noun burglar
Borrowing
It is just taking a word from another language. The borrowed words are
called loan words. A loanword is a word directly taken into one language
from another with little or no translation.
For example:
Saku/schakul from school
However ,if the frecuency of use of words is considered, words from Old
and Middle English occupy the vast majority
Examples:
Biology – Boxer – Ozone from German
Jacket – Yoghurt – Kiosh from Turkish
Pistol – Robot from Czech
Coinage
Is the invention of totally new words
The typical process of coinage usually involves the extensión of a
product name from a specific reference to a more general one
For example: klennex- xerox , kodak, google
These started as names of specific products, but now they are used as
the generic names for different brands of these types of products or as
verbs.
Inflection
In linguistics, inflection is the modification of a word to express
different gramatical categories such as tense,gramatical mood,
gramatical voice, aspect,person,number,gender and case
An inflection expresses one or more grammatical categories with an

explicitly stated prefix, suffix or infix.
For example: the English word “cars” is a noun inflected for: number,
specifically to express the prural; “s” is a inflectional suffix
Whereas “car” is not an inflection.
The word ‘visits’ is a verb inflected for tense and person (we know it is
third person singular, simple present)
Derivation
It is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word
Example: happi-ness and un-happy from happy
or determination from determine
Derivation stands in contrast to the process of inflection, which uses
another kind of affix in order to form gramatical variants of the same
word, as:
Determine/determine-s/determin-ing/determin-ed
Derivation is the process of forming a new words by means of affixation
(Prefix, and Suffix)
A derivational suffix usually applies to words of one syntactic category and
changes them into words of another syntactic category.
For example: the English derivational suffix-ly changes adjectives into adverbs
(slow-slowly)
Examples of english derivational patterns and their suffixes:
Adjective to Noun: ness (slow-slowness)
Adjective to Verb: ise (modern-modernize) ize (archaic-archaicize)
Adjective to Adjective: ish (red-reddish)
Adjective Adverb: ly (personal-personally)
Noun to Adjective: al (recreation-recreational)
Noun to verb: fy (glory-glorify)
Verb to Adjective: able (drink-drinkable)
Verb to Noun: (abstract) ance (deliver-deliverance)
Verb to Noun (concrete) er (write-writer)
Compounding
A compound is a lexeme (a word) that consists of more than one other
lexeme. It can be categorized in to two i.e endocentric and exocentric
Endocentric compound: consists of a head i.e the categorical part
that consists the basic meaning of the whole compound, and modifiers,
which restrict this meaning.
Example: doghouse where house is the head and dog is the modifier (it
is understood as a house intended for a dog)
Endocentric compound: tend to be of the same part of speech(Word
class) as their head, as in the case of doghouse.
Watch this video for a complete explanation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrFoV1DjsRY
O Exocentric compounds are compounds in which either

the morphosyntactic properties or the semantic category
of the whole word do not correlate with one of its
constituents.
O For instance, a ‘fat-belly’ is not a type of belly, but a
person with a fat belly.
O A scarecrow is not a crow but a figure made to look like
a person, that is dressed in old clothes and put in a field to
frighten birds away.
English language allows several types of combinations of different
word clases:
Noun + Noun: lipstick - teapot
Adjective + Noun: fast-food - soft drink
Verb + Noun: breakfast – sky-dive
Noun + Verb: sunshine – babysit
Noun + Adjective: capital-intensive - waterproof
Adjective + Adjective : deaf-mute – bitter-sweet
Knowing the origin of words
allows us to use the language
in a more appropriate way and
thus avoid misunderstandings.

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Word Formation

O Lengua y cultura inglesa III_2021

Process about Word Formation

O While prefixes typically maintain the word class (such as noun,

Back clipping – Fore clipping – Middle clipping – Complex clipping

Categories of Acronymy as examples:

O Pronounced only as the names of letters

O Recursive acronyms , in which the abbrevation

For example: klennex- xerox , kodak, google

An inflection expresses one or more grammatical categories with an

O Exocentric compounds are compounds in which either

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