Introduction to Linguistics Ms. Suha Jawabreh Lecture 13

Word-formation Processes What is a word-formation process? word formation is the creation of a new word.

Word-formation Processes 1. Coinage 2. Borrowing 3. Blending 4. Clipping 5. Acronyms

Morphological Processes 1. Derivation 2. Conversion 3. Backformation 4. Compounding

Derivation What is derivation? Derivation is the process of creating a new word out of an old word, usually by adding a prefix or a suffix. Examples: Happy un+happy = unhappy (un- is a prefix) Happy happi+ness = happiness (-ness is a suffix)

-What is a prefix? A prefix is a word part added to the beginning of a word to create a new word with a different meaning. Examples: inactive prejudge rewrite misrepresent Dislike

-What is a suffix? A suffix is a word part added to the end of a word to create a new word with a different meaning. Examples: joyful careless boyish sadness terrorism

-All English words formed by this derivational process use either prefixes or suffixes, or both. -mislead has a prefix. - disrespectful has both a prefix and a suffix. - foolishness has two suffixes.

Types of Affixes 1. A prefix 2. A suffix 3. An infix

-What is an infix? - An infix is an affix that is added to the middle of a word. -English does not use infixes. -some vulgar words, like bloody, are used as infixes in informal English. Examples: Kangabloodyroo Absogoddamlutely

Conversion (zero-derivation) -What is conversion? Conversion is the creation of a word from an existing word without any change in form. Examples: (from nouns to verbs) 1. vacation(N) to vacation (V) 2. butter (N) to butter (V)

(From verbs to nouns) to impact (V) impact (N) to guess (V) guess (N) (from adjectives to verbs) empty to empty dirty to dirty (from adjectives to nouns) crazy a crazy nasty a nasty

Backformation What is backformation? The process by which a new word is formed by removing an affix. Examples: television televise donation donate editor edit

Hypocorism What is hypocorism? Hypocorism is a special type of backformation where a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then –y or -ie is added. Examples: telly (television) brekky (breakfast)

Compounding Compounding is joining of two separate words to produce a single form. Examples: bookcase fingerprint sunburn textbook

Multiple Processes -More than one process can be involved in the creation of a particular word. Examples: -deli Delicatessen = 1. Borrowing Deli = 2. back clipping -to snowball (v.) Snow+ball = compounding Snowball (n.) to snowball = conversion

Other Examples - to lase (v.) Laser = acronym Laser to lase (v.) = backformation

Creating new words by analogy - Words can be formed in a similar way to existing words. Example : yuppie YUP = acronym ( young urban professional) Yupp+ie = analogy to hypocorism ( the addition of –ie)

Study questions page 71 Questions number 4 & 5