Metalanguage: Morphology

Affixation

The process of adding prefixes, suffixes, or infixes to a root to create a new word (e.g., disappear, happiness).

Abbreviation

The shortening of a word to its initial letters or parts, often resulting in a shortened form (e.g., gym from gymnasium).

Shortening

Truncating a word to form a new, shorter version, such as phone from telephone or ad from advertisement.

Compounding

The combination of two or more free morphemes to form a new word (e.g., toothbrush, notebook).

Blending

The merging of parts of two words to create a new word (e.g., smog from smoke + fog, or brunch from breakfast + lunch).

Backformation

The creation of a new word by removing an apparent or actual affix from another word (e.g., edit from editor, burgle from burglar).

Conversion of Word Class

The process of changing a word's grammatical category without adding an affix (e.g., google (noun) to google (verb)).

Initialism

A word formed from the initial letters of a phrase, pronounced as individual letters (e.g., FBI, UN).

Acronym

A word formed from the initial letters of a phrase and pronounced as a single word (e.g., NASA, scuba).

Contraction

The shortening of two words into one by omitting certain letters, often replaced by an apostrophe (e.g., can't for cannot, it's for it is).

Hypocoristic Use of Suffixes

The addition of diminutive or affectionate suffixes to words, often to create informal or playful forms. Common in Australian English (e.g., Aussie for Australian, brekkie for breakfast).