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Lecture 5. Word Formation

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46 views

Lecture 5. Word Formation

Uploaded by

an4555786
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Word formation

 Word Formation
 We quickly understand new words in our
language and accept the use of new forms of
that new word.

 There is a lot of regularities in the word-


formation processes in our language.

 We can very quickly understand a new word, a


neologism, and accept the use of different
forms of that new word in the language. This
ability must derive in part from the fact that
there is a lot of regularity in the word-formation
processes in a language

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 Word formation processes

Etymology

Coinage

Borrowing

Compounding

Blending
Clipping
Backformation

Conversion

Acronyms

Derivation

Hypocorisms
Multiple processes 3
Etymology

It is the study of the origin and history of a word.

For example,
The root of ‘English’ is ‘Engl’ which came from the
ancient Germanic tribe, the Angles, who spoke a
language that later became English. The -ish is just
a suffix, that means “language of” in this case.

Hamburger from Hamburg, Germany

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Coinage

Coinage: The Invention of totally new terms.

Sources of coined words:

1- The most typical sources are invented trade names


for commercial products that become general terms
(usually without capital letters) for any version of that
product. Examples, aspirin, nylon, vaseline and zipper,
granola, kleenex, teflon and xerox.

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Coinage

Coinage: The Invention of totally new terms.

2- New words based on the name of a person or a


place are called eponyms, e.g,

Fahrenheit (named after Gabriel Fahrenheit),


Sandwich (named after Earl of Sandwich)

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Borrowing

Borrowing: the taking over of words from other


languages.

The English language has adopted a vast number of


words from other languages, including:
croissant (French),
dope (Dutch),
lilac (Persian),
piano (Italian),
pretzel (German),
sofa (Arabic),
yogurt (Turkish)
and zebra (Bantu).
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Borrowing

Borrowing: the taking over of words from other


languages.

Other languages, of course, borrow terms from English


Arabic: ‫ فيزياء‬،‫ سوبرماركت‬،‫انترنت‬
Japanese suupaa or suupaamaaketto (“supermarket”)
and taipuraitaa (“typewriter”),
Hungarians talking about sport, klub and futbal,
French Le stress, le weekend

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Borrowing

Loan-translation or calque
In this process, there is a direct translation of the
elements of a word into the borrowing language.It is
the meaning or idiom that is borrowed rather than the
lexical item itself.

For example,
French gratte-ciel “scrape-sky”
Dutch wolkenkrabber “cloud scratcher”
German wolkenkratzer “cloud scraper”

all of which were calques for the English


skyscraper.

The Arabic ‫وجهة نظر‬the English Point of 9


Compounding

Compounding: there is a joining of two separate words


to produce a single form.
The meanings of the words interrelate in such a way
that a new meaning comes out which is different from
the meanings of the words in isolation. It is very
common in English & German but Less common in
French & Spanish

For example,
Compound nouns: Bookcase, sunburn, textbook,
fingerprint,
Compound adjectives:
Good-looking, handmade, low-paid, full-time, part-
time, fast-food
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Blending

Blending: Combining two separate forms to produce a


single new term. Blinding is similar to compounding,
but in blending only parts of the words are
combined.

Examples:
• motel = motor + hotel
• brunch = breakfast + lunch
• sitcom = situation + comedy
• telethon = telephone + marathon
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Clipping

Clipping: Shortening a word by deleting one or more


syllables

Examples:
• Facsimile. >> fax
• Hamburger >>. burger
• Gasoline >> gas
• Advertisement >> ad
• Influenza. >> flu
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• Airplane >> plane
Clipping (hypocorism)

A particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and


British English, produces forms technically known as
hypocorisms. In this process, a longer word is reduced
to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to the end.
Examples
• movie (moving pictures). Telly (television)
• Aussie (Australian) hankie (handkerchief)
(nicknames): Lizzie, Tony
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Backformation

Backformation: reducing a word of one type (usually a


noun) to form a word of another type (usually a verb).
Examples:
• Television (n.) televise (v.)
• Donation (n.) donate (v.)

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Backformation

• One of the regular sources of backformed verbs in


English is based on the pattern worker – work If
there is a noun ending in –er then we can create a verb
for what the noun –er does.
• Editor (n.) edit (v.)
• babysitter (n.) babysit (v.)
• sculptor (n.) sculpt (v.)
• option (n.) opt (v.)

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Conversion

• Conversion: the process of changing the function of


a word, such as a noun to a verb (without any
reduction), as a way of forming new words.
• category change / functional shift
Examples:
Butter (n.) she buttered the bread (v.)
Permit (v.) You can't park here unless you have a permit (n.)
Empty (adj.) Paul emptied the glass and washed it (v.)
vacation (n.) They are vacationing in Florida
print out (v.) You need to take a printout of this page. (n.)

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Acronym

• Acronym: A word formed from the initial letters of


other words
Examples:

Some acronyms are pronounced by saying each


separate letter:
• CD = compact disk
• SA = Saudi Arabia
• UJ = University of Jeddah
• ATM = automatic teller machine

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Acronym

• Acronym: A word formed from the initial letters of


other words
Examples:

Some acronyms are pronounced as new single


words:
• UNICEF = United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
• UNESCO = United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization
• NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Agency
• PIN= Personal Identification Number

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Derivation

• Derivation: the process of forming new words by


adding affixes
• Affixes (prefixes, suffixes, & infixes)

e.g.
un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism, -ness.

unhappy, misrepresent, prejudge, joyful, careless, boyish, terrorism,

• disrespectful

• foolishness

• respect, fool are called stem


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Derivation

• There is a 3rd type of affix but it is not normally used


in English e.g.

An infix is an affix inserted inside a stem (an existing


word)

Tell him I’ve gone to Singabloodypore

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Multiple Processes

Multiple Processes: The creation of a particular word


might involve more than one formation process.

Examples:
• Delicatessen (German)
• Delicatessen (English) loanword – borrowing
• Deli (English) Clipping

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References:
Yule, G. (2016). The study of language. Cambridge university press. Chap.5.

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