Week 5 word-formation

Word-formation Quiz

Please identify the word-formation processes involved in the making of the following words:
A. compound B. derivative C. blend D. acronym E. initialism
F. clipping G. analogy H. conversion (不变) I. back-formation J. eponymy 跟人名相关 K.
retronym 形容词加名词

( C ) 1. electrocute
( H ) 2. profit
( C ) 3. Carjack 最早可能是 ing 形势
( A ) 4. pick-up truck
( A ) 5. finger-pointing/ saber-rattling/ muscle-flexing
( E ) 6. NGO
( B ) 7. assertion
( ) 8. edit
( B ) 9. disbelieve
( J ) 10. Shylock
( H ) 11. startup
( ) 12. pro (team)
( D/E? ) 13. lidar
( ) 14. revisit
( D ) 15. AIDS
( B ) 16. scholarship
( F ) 17. burger
( C/G ) 18. skyjack
( K ) 19. acoustic guitar
( A? ) 20. Biogenesis 不是 affix 是 combining form

WFH: work from home, no confined as n, v.

What is morphology? 形态学

n Morphology refers to the structure, form, or variation in form (including formation,
change, and inflection) of a word or words in a language; the branch of linguistics that
deals with this.
主要两种研究：Word formation and inflection（现存英语 inflection 很少）
n In linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes
contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word’s meaning 语义变化.
The boundary between word formation and semantic change can be difficult to define as
a new use of an old word can be seen as a new word derived from an old one and
identical to it in form.
e.g. profit and startup
n Inflection is a grammatical term meaning a change in the form of a word, usually
 modification or affixation, signaling change in such grammatical functions as tense,
voice, mood, person, gender, number, or case.

Morpheme (I) 词素/语素

n The morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of language, not divisible or
analyzable into smaller forms. The term morpheme is derived from Greek morphe
(form) and –eme which denotes the smallest unit or the minimum distinctive feature
of some class of things. (Lexeme, morpheme, phoneme) 和音节无关
n One morpheme----nation (only one morpheme and an individual word)
n Two morphemes----nation+al
n Three morphemes----nation+al+ize (-ize,-fy, -ate)
n Four morphemes----de+nation+al+ize
n Five morphemes----de+nation+al+iz+ation
Nation 之外的成分就是前缀后缀

Morpheme (II)
n A morpheme is a two-facet language unit which possesses both sound and meaning. It
is therefore different from a phoneme, which only conveys sound distinction.
n A morpheme is not identical with a syllable 跟音节相关 since the latter has nothing
to do with meaning. A morpheme may be represented by one syllable, like boy or
child, or by two or more syllables, as in la/dy, croc/o/dile and sal/a/man/der 蝾 螈
【gerrymander 人名的结合，把选区化成了蝾螈状】.
n Often the syllabic structure of a word and its morphemic structure do not correspond,
as shown in the above examples where a morpheme is represented by more than one
syllable.

Allomorph
n A morpheme may take various shapes or forms. For example, the inflectional
morpheme –(e)s of books, horses, potatoes has the same meaning “more than one,”
yet it has three different phonological forms 语音角度: -s, -z, -iz. The three forms are
variants of the same morpheme –s. They are called allomorphs.
n Allomorph refers to any of two or more actual representations of a morpheme, such
as the plural endings –s. ----Oxford
n Allomorphs also occur among prefixes. Their form then depends on the first letter of
the word to which they will be added. A prefix like im- occurs before p, b, or m; its
allomorphs are ir- before r, il- before l, in- before all consonants and vowels.

Classification of Morphemes
n Free morpheme: A free morpheme is one that can be uttered alone with meaning. It
can exist on its own without a bound morpheme. A free morpheme is word, in the
traditional sense. Man, faith, read, write, red are free morphemes.
就是一个单独的词
n Bound morpheme: A bound morpheme cannot stand by itself as a complete utterance.
有时候也会有一些演变，比如说 super,cyber It must appear with at least one other
 morpheme, free or bound, for instance im- in impossible and –ly in happily.
Inflectional elements and affixes are bound morphemes.带 hypen 就是 bound，不带
就是 free

Roots
Morphemes may be divided into roots (root morphemes) and affixes (affixational
morphemes).
n Root: it is the basic unchangeable part of a word, and it conveys the main lexical
meaning of the word.
work, workable, worker, worked, working
a. Free root: In English, many roots are free morphemes, such as girl, sun, talk, red. A
word consisting of one free root is a simple word.
b. Bound roots: Quite a number of roots derived from foreign sources, especially from
Greek and Latin, belong to the class of bound morphemes, such as –tain in words like
contain, detain or retain, and –ceive in conceive, deceive or receive.
A root, whether it is free or bound, generally carries the main component of meaning in a
word. Notice what the following words have in common:
revive, vitamin, vital, vivacious, vivid

infix-bloody, absblo? 骂人的

Affixes
n Affix is an addition to the base 词基 form or stem 词干 or a word in order to modify
its meaning or create a new word.
n Prefix is an element placed at the beginning of a word to adjust or qualify its meaning
(e.g. ex-, non-, re-) or (in some languages) as an inflection.
n Suffix is a morpheme added at the end of a word to form a derivative 改变词性 (e.g.
–ation, -fy, -ing, -itis).
n Infix is a formative element inserted in a word. (a derivational or inflectional affix
appearing in the body of a word (as Sanskrit -n- in vindami “I know” as contrasted
with vid “to know”) )
Prefix Meaning Examples
a-, an- without, lack of, not amoral, acellular, abyss, achromatic, anhydrous

anti- against, opposite of anticlimax. antiaircraft, antiseptic, antibody

anti-mask anti-vesser

co- with, together co-pilot, co-worker, co-exist, co-author

de- down, off, away from devalue, deactivate, debug, degrade, deduce
dis disinvite
ex- out of, from, former extract, exhale, excavate, ex-president

hyper- over, more, beyond hyperactive, hypersensitive, hypercritical

il-, im-, in-, ir- not, without illegal, immoral, inconsiderate, irresponsible

in- in, into insert, inspection, infiltrate

non- not, without nonentity, nonaggressive, nonessential, nonfiction
no meaning nonbook nonhero
nonconversation
post- after, behind postmortem, posterior, postscript, postoperative
pre-covid days

pre-, pro- before, forward precede, predict, project, prologue

sub- under, lower submarine, subsidiary, substandard

un- not, lacking, opposite of unfinished, unskilled, ungraceful, unfriendly

uni- one, single unicorn, unicellular, unicycle, unilateral

前缀多 后缀少 前缀后缀加起来比 bio combining 少

Suffix Meaning Example

-acy state or quality privacy, fallacy, delicacy

-al act or process of refusal, recital, rebuttal

-ance, -ence state or quality of maintenance, eminence, assurance

-dom place or state of being freedom, kingdom, boredom

-er, -or one who trainer, protector, narrator

-ism doctrine, belief communism, narcissism, skepticism

agism racism heightism
-ist one who chemist, narcissist, plagiarist

-ity, -ty quality of inactivity, veracity, parity, serenity

-ment condition of argument, endorsement, punishment

-ness state of being heaviness, sadness, rudeness, testiness

-ship position held fellowship, ownership, kinship, internship

-tion state of being concession, transition, abbreviation

-like 可以放在任何后面 专名后面

-esque 放在作家后面
-ish
Suffix Meaning Example

-able, -ible capable of being edible, presentable, abominable, credibl

-al pertaining to regional, grammatical, emotional, coast

-esque reminiscent of picturesque, statuesque, burlesque

-ful notable for fanciful, resentful, woeful, doubtful

-ic, -ical pertaining to musical, mythic, domestic

-ious, -ous characterized by nutritious, portentous, studious

-ish having the quality of fiendish, childish, snobbish

-ive having the nature of creative, punitive, divisive, decisive

-less without endless, ageless, lawless, effortless

-y characterized by sleazy, hasty, greasy, nerdy, smelly

Root, stem and base

n All three words are terms used in linguistics to designate that part of a word that
remains when all affixes have been removed.
n A root is a form which is not further analysable, either in terms of derivational or
inflectional morphology.
n A stem is of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology. Inflectional
affixes are added to it: it is the part of the word-form which remains when all
inflectional affixes have been removed. undesirable[s], desire[d], greenhouse[s] (two
roots)
n A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added. This means that any
root or stem can be termed a base. Desirable [desire: both base and root], undesirable
[desirable—base; desire--root]

Combining form
n A form of a word normally used in compounds in combination with another element
to form a word (e.g. Anglo-‘English’in Anglo-Irish, bio-‘life’ in biology, -graphy
‘writing’ in biography， sino—china).
n Combining form is used to denote an element that contributes to the particular sense
of words (as with bio- and -graphy in biography), as distinct from a prefix or suffix
that adjusts the sense of or determines the function of words (as with un-, -able, and
-ation)
auto- is a combining form

Examples of combining forms (I)

n noun combining form
n -speak used to form especially nonce words denoting a particular kind of jargon
*architectspeak* *Californiaspeak**campusspeak*
From George Orwell doublespeak
n -plex
1 : a figure of a given power *googolplex*
2 : a building divided into an often specified number of spaces (as apartments or movie
theaters) *fourplex* *multiplex*
n -phobia
1 : exaggerated fear of *acrophobia*
2 : intolerance or aversion for *photophobia*
n -athon: event or activity lasting a long time *talkathon*

Examples of combining forms (II)

adverb combining form
n -meal : by a (specified) portion or measure at a time *piecemeal*
n -style : being in the style of *a Beaujolais-style wine*
n -wise
n 1 a : in the manner of *crabwise* *fanwise* b : in the position or direction of
*slantwise* *clockwise*
n 2 : with regard to : in respect of *dollarwise*

New combining forms

Something: twentysomething
n -tastic: informal Forming adjectives denoting someone or something regarded as an
extremely good example of their particular type：‘poptastic’‘funtastic’
n -licious: informal Forming adjectives denoting someone or something delightful or
extremely attractive: ‘babelicious’‘bootylicious’
n -meister: Denoting a person skilled or prominent in a specified area of activity:
‘funk-meister’‘gag-meister’ spinmeister/spindoctor—political aids, presenting
positive views of something (put a positive/negative spin on sb)
n Amagaden, apocalypses,
n Gate (water gate)

How to distinguish affixes and combining forms

Combining forms are similar to affixes but can have a bit more lexical substance to them.
Unlike affixes, combining forms are substantial enough to form a word simply by
connecting to an affix, such as when the combining form cephal- joins with the suffix -ic
to form cephalic.
A combining form can also differ from an affix in its being derived from an independent
word. Delicious, fantastic For example, para- is a combining form in the word paratrooper
because in that word it represents the word parachute.
Para- is a prefix, however, in the words paranormal (beyond) and paramedic (relating to a
profession and helping more highly trained people). A combining form can also be
distinguished historically from an affix by the fact that it is borrowed from another
language in which it is descriptively a word or a combining form, such as the French mal
giving English the mal- in malfunction.
Paparazzi—razzi as a combining form, vediorazzi

The making of new words

n According to John Algeo, there are six basic etymological sources for new words:
creating (coin 生 造 词 quack 小 说 中 创 造 metrosexual, retrosexual 也 不 是 ),
borrowing, combining, shortening, blending 又加又见, and shifting.
纯粹的 aversion, symbol,一个单词缩略
 Backformation:要从历史角度看 先 editor 再 edit
Blend—Chimerican, Haylor
n Each of those six, however, has a number of important subtypes, so the total number
of distinct sources is large.
n 有些书把 borrowing 也当成，我们认为两种方式 一借二造

Creating
n Some new words are made from nothing or, at least, not from existing words. This
source is the least productive of the six; most new words derive in one way or another
from old words. The purest kind of creating would be to make a word completely
from scratch, creation ex nihilo [out of nothing].
Open dictionary—create own words

Combining
n A far more productive source of new words—indeed, by most counts, the most
productive of all—is to combine existing words or word parts (technically known as
morpheme) into a new form. Such combinations are said to be of two types:
compounds and derivatives.

Word-formation processes
1. compounding
2. derivation
3. conversion
4. shortening (clipping, acronymy, initialism, & back-formation)
5. eponymy 人名地名商标名都可以
6. genericide
7. onomatopoeia
8. retronymy