Morphology (Word Formation)
Morphology (Word Formation)
Morphology (Word Formation)
WORD FORMATION
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WORD FORMATION
IN MORPHOLOGY
There are five major morphological processes that affect roots and stems and
which lead to the production of new words.
▫ Affixation
Affixation consists in adding derivational affixes (i.e., prefixes, infixes and
suffixes) to roots and stems to form new words. For example, if the suffix
-able is added to the word pass, the word passable is created. Likewise, if
to the word passable the prefix in- (or rather its allomorph im-) is attached,
another word is formed, namely impassable. Affixation is a very common
and productive morphological process in synthetic languages. In English,
derivation is the form of affixation that yields new words.
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▫ Compounding
Compounding consists in the combination of two or more (usually free) roots to
form a new word. For example, the word blackboard, heartfelt, brother-in-law are
compound words; they are made up of the roots (at the same time words
themselves) black and board, heart and felt, brother, in and law, respectively.
Compounding is a very common process in most languages of the world
(especially among synthetic languages).
▫ Symbolism
Symbolism (or morpheme internal change) consists in altering the internal
phonemic structure of a morpheme to indicate grammatical functions.
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▫ Reduplication
Reduplication consists in the repetition of all or of part of a root or stem to form
new words. If the entire root or stem is repeated, the process is called complete
(or total) reduplication, and the new word is considered as a repetitive
compound.
▫ Suppletion
Suppletion consists in a complete change in the form of a root (i.e., a word) or in
the replacement of root by another morphologically unrelated root with the same
component of meaning in different grammatical contents.
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Word-Formation
Processes in English
In English, the following processes have been used in the formation of new
words. Notice that such processes are not necessarily of a morphological nature.
▫ Acronymy
Acronymy is the process whereby a new word is formed from the initial letters
of the constituent words of a phrase or sentence.
For example, from the initial letters of the words of the phrase North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, the word NATO \ "neIt´U\ is formed.
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▫ Clipping
Clipping is the processes whereby new words are formed by shortening other
words; i.e., by eliminating the initial part, the last part, or both parts, of those
words. E.g., phone from (tele)phone, plane from (air)plane, ad (advert (BrE)) from
ad(vertisement), exam from exam(ination), flu from (in)flu(enza), fridge(esp. BrE)
from refrigerator.
▫ Blending
Blending is the process whereby new words are formed by combining parts of two
words, usually the beginning of one word and the end of another. For example,
smog (smoke + fog), brunch (breakfast + lunch), heliport (helicopter + airport),
motel (motor + hotel), FORTRAN (formula translation), etc.
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▫ Borrowing
Borrowing is the process whereby new words are formed by adopting words from
other languages together with the concepts or ideas they stand for. E.g., tango,
mango, taco, burrito from Spanish; fiancé, very (adapted from Old French verai),
garage from French; pizza, mafia from Italian; and so on.
▫ Eponymy
Eponymy is the process by which a number of words for places, inventions,
activities, etc. have been derived from (or based on) the proper names of persons
somehow connected with such places, inventions, activities, etc.
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▫ Back-formation
Back-formation is the process by which new words are formed by
the deletion of a supposed affix from an already existing word. For
example, the verbs peddle, edit, hawk, enthuse, stoke, swindle,
televise, donate, sculpt, buttle have been created form the pre-
existing nouns peddler, editor, hawker, enthusiasm, stoker, swindler,
television, donation, sculptor and butler, respectively.
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▫ Word Coinage
Word coinage (or invention) is the process whereby new words are
created outright, either deliberately or accidentally, to fit some
purpose. Usually, words are coined to express new ideas, processes,
products, etc. in the language. For example, brand names such as
Xerox, Kodak, Exxon, Kleenex, Nylon, Dacron, etc.; pooch, snob,
nerd, blurb, googol, etc.
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▫ Functional shift
Functional shift (conversion or zero derivation) is the process by
which new words are created by using a word in new functions (i.e.,
by shifting, changing or converting its original grammatical class to
another class), without any change in its form For example, when
the word water is used in the following sentence Give me some
water, please it is used as a noun, which is probably its original (and
more common) use.
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▫ Morphological Misanalysis
Morphological misanalysis (or false etymology) is the process
whereby new morphemes or words are introduced into the language
due to an erroneous analysis of the structure of some words, in which
the language speaker seems to see or hear familiar elements. For
example, the suffix –burger results from misanalyzing the word
hamburger as if it were composed of the word ham plus –burger.
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▫ Eponymy
Eponymy is the process by which a number of words for
places, inventions, activities, etc. have been derived from (or
based on) the proper names of persons somehow connected
with such places, inventions, activities, etc. For example,
Washington, D. C. has been named for George Washington
and District of Columbia for Christopher Columbus.
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