Definition

Word formation process (also called morphological process) is a means by which new words are
produced either by modification of existing words or by complete innovation, which in turn become
a part of the language.

Types of Word Formation Processes

Different types of word formation processes are employed to create new words. However, all word
formation processes basically bring either inflectional or derivational changes. Therefore, inflection
(also called inflexion) and derivation are the two core processes of word formation. Inflection differs
from derivation to the following extent:

Inflection Derivation
Produces grammatical variants of the same Produces a new word on the basis of an
word. existing word.
Modifies a word to express different
Changes the word class (also called parts
grammatical categories such as tense,
of speech; form class; lexical class;
mood, voice, aspect, person, number,
syntactic category).
gender and case.
Does not change the meaning of a word. Modifies the meaning of the root. For
For example: determine→ determines, example: modern → modernize (to make
determining, determined. modern).

The major word formation processes include but are not limited to the following:

Affixation
It is a word formation process wherein an affix is attached to a root (also called stem; base) to form
a new word. A root is a free morpheme (also called unbound morpheme) that can appear alone. On
the other hand, an Affix is a bound morpheme which never occurs by itself, but is always attached
to some free morpheme and can be either inflectional or derivational. An Inflectional affix modifies
the form/grammatical category of a word, i.e., tense, person, number, gender, case, etc. For
example: rat → rats. Contrariwise, a derivational affix modifies the parts of speech of the root, while
leaving the grammatical category unchanged. In this way there is a change of meaning of the
root. For example: write → writer.

In English there are two types of affixations:

1. Prefixation: In this morphological process words are formed by adding an affix to the front of
a root. The type of affix used in this process is referred to prefix. For example: un +
tidy → untidy
2. Suffixation: In this morphological process words are formed by adding an affix to the end of a
root. The type of affix used in this process is referred to suffix. For example: fear +
less → fearless

Conversion
This refers to the change of function or parts of speech of a word without adding an affix.
Conversion is also called zero derivation or null derivation since the functional change is brought
about by supplementing an invisible affix. Sometimes it is also called functional shift. Typically
conversion is made from “noun to verb” and from “verb to noun”. Less frequently, conversion is also
done from “adjective to verb” and “adjective to noun”. For instance:

Noun to Verb:

 access
 email
 film
 name
 shape

Verb to Noun:

 attack
 alert
 hope
 increase
 visit
 cover

Adjective to Verb:

 brown
 black
 slow

Adjective to Noun:

 crazy
 nasty

Back-formation
Back-formation is a morphological process in which new word is created by extracting affixes from
another word. In this way it is the reverse of affixation, in which affixes are added. Back-formation
is also different from clipping since it brings a change in the parts of speech or the word's meaning.
 For example: the noun insertion has been back-formed into verb insert by removing the suffix ion.

Clipping
As the name suggests, clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced to a
shorter form. With a sharp contrast to back-formation, clipping keeps the original word meaning
intact. These words are very common in everyday speech. For instance: lab is the clipped form
of laboratory. . There are four types of clippings:

1. Back clipping: (also called final clipping; apocope) it involves the truncation of end of a word
as in ad from advertisement.
2. Fore-clipping: (also called initial clipping; apheresis) it is the removal of the beginning of a
word as in phone from telephone.
3. Middle clipping: (also medial clipping; syncope) it is the extraction of the beginning and end
of a word as in flu from influenza.
4. Complex clipping: is removing multiple parts from multiple words as
in cablegram from cabletelegram.

Compounding
Also called composition, by this process two or more than two words are combined together to
create a single word, having a single idea and function. In English there are compound nouns,
compound adjectives, and compound verbs. Customarily compound words are spelt as single word,
or as two or more hyphenated words, and even as two or more separate words. For example:

 life + style → lifestyle

 mother + in + law → mother-in-law
 shopping + mall → shopping mall

There are no specific rules for hyphenated compounds. Generally, some new and original compound
nouns are hyphenated, but the hyphen is ignored when they become more familiar. However, there
are some compound adjectives that are always hyphenated. For instance: state-of-the-art. The
hyphen is often retained when two vowels come together, such as: Co-operation. Hyphens are often
used to tell the ages of people and things, for example: 10-year-old. The general rule is that words
are combined with hyphens to avoid confusion.

Borrowing
This refers to the words adopted from other languages. There are two types of borrowings:

1. Loan-word: By this process a word is borrowed from another language without translating it
into the target language. For example: the phrase tour-de-force is borrowed directly from
French, which means a masterly or brilliant feat.
2. Loan-translation: Also known as calque, a morphological process wherein a word or phrase
from another language is borrowed by literally translating it into the target language. For
 example: the phrase point of view has been translated into English from the French
phrase point de vue.

Coinage
Also called invention, is a morphological process by which new words are invented. Sometimes
popular trademark names of various products are adopted by people so extensively that they
ultimately become the everyday words of language. For example:

 Heroin
 Aspirin
 Escalator
 Xerox
 Kerosene
 Nylon
 Band-Aid
 Vaseline
 Margarine
 Videotape

Again, some words are being invented due to rapid cultural changes and the spread of information
technology, mass media, internet, etc. For example:

 Google
 Blog
 Hotspot
 Netbook
 Tablet
 Tweet
 Emoticon
 Smartphone

Blending
Blending (also called portmanteau) is a morphological process in which the parts of two or more
words are combined together to form a new word. Usually the parts consist of the beginning of one
word and the end of the other word(s). Typically, the meaning of the blended word reverberates
with the meanings of the original words. For example:

 breakfast + lunch → brunch

 motor+hotel → motel

However, blending should not be confused with compounding, which combines two words without
truncation of parts of the roots of the blended words.
 Acronyms
These words are formed with the initial letters or each of the major parts of a word or a longer
phrase. With a few exceptions, acronyms are usually capitalized. Some linguists confuse acronyms
with initialisms, which are also abbreviations formed in the similar manner as the former. In
essence, there is a sharp difference between the two. In language, an acronym is pronounced as a
single word rather than just a sequence of individual letters, which is characteristic of initialisms. For
example:
Acronyms:

 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization → UNESCO

 Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation → Laser
 International Criminal Police Organization → Interpol

Initialisms:

 Personal Computer → PC
 Asian Development Bank → ADB
 Liquid Crystal Display → LCD