Metalanguage - Morphology

What is morphology?

The study of words and their parts. Each word is made up of morphemes, the smallest units of meaning in a word.

What are the 10 morphological patterns (also called word formation processes)?

affixation, abbreviation, shortening, compounding, blending, backformation, conversion of word class, initialism, acronym and contraction

Affixation

The use of affixes (prefixes or suffixes) to create new words (neologisms). E.g. 'government' from 'govern' with suffix 'ment'

Abbreviation

Shortened forms of words or phrases, including shortenings, initialisms and acronyms. E.g. 'VCAA' pronounced 'V' then 'car'

Shortening

Abbreviation of a word by reducing its length. E.g. fridge, pram, etc

Compounding

Joining multiple words to create a single one. E.g. bookcase and swimsuit. Some are hyphenated, e.g. sister-in-law

Blending

Combining two or more words, where at least one has undergone abbreviation before being joined. E.g. kidult (kid + adult)

Backformation

Creating a new word by removing what is falsely perceived to be an affix from an existing word. E.g. Televise, which was backformed from television

Conversion of word class

Changing the class or role of a word without changing morphology. E.g. email, which was once only a noun but is not also a verb

Initialism

A form of abbreviation, formed by taking the first letters of words in a string of words and producing them as letters or a combination of letters and other symbols. The initialism cannot be pronounced as a whole word. E.g. VCE

Acronym

A form of abbreviation, formed by taking the first letter of each word in a string of words and pronouncing them as a new word. E.g. ANZAC or LOL

Contraction

A word formed by removing some letters from words and marking the missed letter/s with an apostrophe.