Thẻ ghi nhớ: Word formation processes

Coinage

The process of inventing totally new terms.

Common sources of coinage include invented trade names

for commercial products (e.g. aspirin, nylon, teflon),

misspellings (e.g. Google from googol), new products,

concepts, or activities (e.g. ebay).

Eponyms: new words that are based on the name of a

person or place.

E.g. sandwich came from the 18th century Earl of Sandwich.

Eponyms

New words based on the name of a person or place. Example: sandwich (from the 18th-century Earl of Sandwich).

Borrowing

The process of taking words from other languages.

E.g. croissant from French, piano from Italian.

In some cases, the borrowed words may be used with

quite different meanings.

E.g. the phrase im Partnerlook in German is used to describe

two people who are together and wearing similar clothing.

Loan-translation/calque: the process of directly translating the elements of a word into the borrowing language.

E.g. French word gratte-ciel (literally "scrape-sky") is a

calque for skyscraper.

Loan-translation / Calque

Directly translating the elements of a word into the borrowing language. Example: French gratte-ciel (literally "scrape-sky") for skyscraper.

Compounding

The process of joining two separate words to produce a single form. Can combine nouns, adjectives, or both. Examples: bookcase, textbook, good-looking, low-paid, full-time.

Blending

Taking only the beginning of a word and joining it to the end of another (or combining the beginnings of both). Examples: smog (smoke + fog), motel (motor + hotel), telex (teleprinter + exchange).

Clipping

The process of reducing a word of more than one syllable to a shorter form (usually the beginning).

E.g. gas from gasoline, ad from advertisement.

Clipping can also be applied to given names.

E.g. Sam from Samuel, Ron from Ronald.

Hypocorism: the process of reducing a longer word to a single syllable, then adding -y or -ie to the end.

E.g. movie from moving picture, Aussie from Australian.

Hypocorisms

Reducing a longer word to a single syllable, then adding -y or -ie. Examples: movie (moving picture), Aussie (Australian).

Backformation

Reducing a word of one type (usually a noun) to form a word of another type (usually a verb). Examples: televise (from television), donate (from donation).

Conversion

Changing the function/part of speech of a word without any reduction. Meaning may shift substantially. Examples: bottle, butter, chair, vacation used as verbs; doctor (n - neutral) vs. to doctor (v - negative sense).

Acronymy

The process of forming new words from the initial letters

of a set of other words. The products of the process are

call acronyms. Acronyms are normally pronounced as a

word.

E.g. NATO /ˈneɪtəʊ/ from North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Many acronyms have become everyday terms.

E.g. laser from light amplification by stimulated emission of

radiation.

When acronyms are pronounced as a combination of

individual letters, we have the case of initialism

(alphabetism).

E.g. FBI /ˌef biː ˈaɪ/ from Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Initialism / Alphabetism

Words formed from initial letters pronounced as individual letters. Example: FBI (/ˌef biː ˈaɪ/).

Onomatopoeia

Forming new words by imitating natural sounds. Example: hiss (imitating the sound of snakes).

Reduplication

Repeating a word (or part of it) exactly or with a slight change. Example: chit-chat (from chat).

Derivation / Affixation

The process of producing new words through adding small

bits of language which are call affixes to a word. Thus, the

process is also called affixation.

Types of affixes:

1. Prefixes: added to the beginning of a word.

2. Suffixes: added to the end of a word.

3. Infixes: added inside a word; not common in English.

Multiple processes

Creating a new word through the operation of more than one word-formation process. Example: deli (borrowed delicatessen from German [Borrowing], then clipped [Clipping]).

Free morphemes

can stand alone as single words. These morphemes can be identified as the set of separate word forms such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. E.g. open, tour.

Bound morphemes

cannot stand alone and have to be attached to another form. These morphemes are known as affixes. E.g. re-, -ist.

Lexical morphemes

words that carry the content of the messages we convey (N, V, Adj, Adv). E.g. man, open, long, well. 🡪 can be added to the language easily 🡪 open class.

Functional morphemes

words that perform grammatical functions (determiners, pronouns,prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, etc.) E.g. the, him, on. 🡪 we almost never add new functional morphemes to the language 🡪 closed class.

Derivational morphemes

used to make new words or words of a different grammatical category. E.g. -ness (suffix), pre- (prefix)

Inflectional morphemes

used to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word.