Word Formation

1900, new berlin Ohio, department store worker J Murray Spangler, electric suction
sweeper, could [spangler,spanglerish,spanglerism,] but sold it to William H. Hoover,
“hoover” , vaccum cleanener.
although we never heard of Spangler but we have the ability to cope with new words.

 Neologism: The ability to quickly understand a new word in our language and

accept the use of different form of that word.

Etymology
 The study of the origin and history of a word. (the term comes to us through
Latin)
 we won’t understand the views
o handbook: tasteless innovation
o aviation:horror expressed by a London newspaper in 1909
 but we’ll view it as reassuring signs of vitality n creativeness in the way a
language is shaped.

Coinage
 the invention of totally new terms.
 One of the least common processes of word formation
 older ie:
o aspirin, nylon, vaseline and zipper;
 more recent ie:
o kleenex, teflon and xerox
 most salient contemporary ie:
o google <- misspelling google 100 zeros <- creation of googleplex
o google v.:to use the internet to find information
 New products and concepts (ebay) and new activities (“Have you tried ebaying
it?”) are the usual sources of coinage.
 Ebonyms: New words based on the name of a person or a place. ie:hoover
 other common ebonyms:
o sandwich (from the eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first insisted
on having his bread and meat together while gambling)
o Jeans: (from the Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first
made).
 ome eponyms are technical terms
o fahrenheit (from the German, Gabriel Fahrenheit)
o volt (from the Italian, Alessandro Volta)
o watt (from the Scottish inventor, James Watt)
 Borrowing
 the taking over of words from other languages.(technically !just borrowing)
 English adopted
o croissant (French), dope (Dutch), lilac (Persian),
piano (Italian), pretzel (German), sofa (Arabic),
tattoo (Tahitian), tycoon (Japanese), yogurt (Turkish)
zebra (Bantu).
 en to others
o Japanese: suupaa or suupaamaaketto (“supermarket”) and taipuraitaa
(“typewriter”),
o Hungarian: sport, klub and futbal.
o French: discussing problems of le stress, over a glass of le whisky, during
le weekend.
 sometimes diff meaning
o german: partnerlook -> people together wearing diff clothes
o no equivalent expression in en
 loan-translation or calque
o the process in which a direct translation of the elements of a word into the
borrowing language
o en skyscraper: -> fr gratte-ciel (scrape-sky) -> du wolkenkrabber
(cloud scratcher) -> gr Wolkenkratzer (cloud scraper).
o gr U¨ bermensch -> en superman
o gr lehnwort -> en the term loan-word.
o boyfriend -> ja boyifurendo  -> ch  male friend

Compounding
 a joining of two separate words to produce a single form.
o lehn wort -> lehnwort
 very common in gr & en
 much less common in fr & sp
 in English ie
o compound nouns
o bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook, wallpaper,
wastebasket and waterbed.
o compound adjectives
o (good-looking, low-paid)
o compound adj + n
o fast-food, full-time

Blending
 The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term
o the beginning of word joining it w/ t-end of t-other word
 USA gasohol=> gasoline / alcohol
 Smog => the combined effects of smoke and fog
 Vog => Hawaii , problems w/  fog near the active volcano.
 brunch => breakfast/lunch
 motel => motor hotel
 telecast => television broadcast
 telethon – infotainment -simulcast
 Franglais -> french – anglias, Spanglish,
 in information tech : the beginnings of both words
o telex (teleprinter/exchange), modem (modulator/demodulator).

Clipping
 occurs when a word of more than one syllable (facsimile) is reduced to a shorter
form (fax)
 Examples
o gas(gasoline), ad(advertisement),bra (brassiere), cab (cabriolet), condo
(condominium), fan (fanatic), flu (influenza), perm (permanent wave), phone, plane
and pub (public house).
 English clip names
o Al, Ed, Liz, Mike, Ron, Sam, Tom
 hypocorisms
o the process in which a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y
or -ie is added to the end.
o movie (“moving pictures”), telly (“television”), barbie (“barbecue”), bookie
(“bookmaker”), brekky (“breakfast”) and hankie (“handkerchief”)

Backformation
 Typically, a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of
another type (usually a verb).
 examples
o televise <- television
o donate (from “donation”), emote (from“emotion”), enthuse (from
“enthusiasm”), liaise (from “liaison”),babysit (from “babysitter”).
o opt(option).
 the assumption have been that if a noun ends w/ er then we can create a verb
from it
o an editor will edit, a sculptor will sculpt and burglars, peddlers and
swindlers will burgle, peddle and swindle.
 Conversion [category change – functional shift]
 A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be
used as a verb (without any reduction)
 Examples
o noun to verb
o bottle, butter, chair and vacation have come to be used, through
conversion, as verbs
o unlike impact (n), seem to impact some people’s sensibilities rather
negatively
o verb to noun
o guess, must and spy
o phrasal verbs to nouns
o (to print out, to take over) also become nouns (a printout, a
takeover).
o One complex verb combination to noun
o want to be -> he’s not in the group he is just a wannabe
o v to adj
o (stand up) -> stand-up comedian
o adj to v
o dirty, empty
o adj to n
o crazy, nasty
o compound nouns to verb
o carpool, mastermind, microwave and quarterback
o up and down -> v,
 Some forms change in meaning change meaning
o doctor v, total v, runaround n

Acronyms
 new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words.
o CD (“compact disk”) or VCR (“video cassette recorder”)
 acronyms are pronounced as new single words
o  as in NATO, NASA or UNESCO.
 acronyms simply become everyday terms
o laser (“light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”),
o radar (“radio detecting and ranging”)
o scuba (“self-contained underwater breathing apparatus”)
o zip (“zone improvement plan”) code.
 snafu -> situation normal all fucked up.
 Names for organizations are often designed to have their acronym represent an
appropriate term
o WAR, MADD
 regularly used with one of their elements repeated
o ATM machine, PIN number

Derivation
 Derivation
o it is accomplished by means of a large number of small “bits”(affixes) of
the English language
o the most common word formation process in the production of new En
words
o un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism and -ness
 Prefixes and suffixes
o Prefixes (un-, mis-)
o affixes have to be added to the beginning of the word
o Suffixes (-less, -ish)
o affixes have to be added to the end of the word
o All English words formed by this derivational process have either prefixes
or suffixes, or both
 Infixes
o an affix that is incorporated inside another word
o Hallebloodylujah!, Absogoddamlutely!, Unfuckinbelievable!
 Kamhmu
o A language spoken in south east Asia
o they have see(v),srnee(n) meaning drill, a drill… hiip,hrniip->eat,
spoon
o there is a pattern in these words
o then we can elicit that
o krnap(n) tongs -> kap (v) grasp with tongs

Multiple Process
These word formation processes can be used with each others

 deli : borrowing (delicatessen:gr) -> clipping

 snowball v: compounding -> conversion to v
 from acronyms
o lase: v from laser (conversion)
o WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant): wasp (lowercase)-> waspish
(gained a suffix)
o yuppie: YAP(young urban professional) -> suffix -ie 1984
 Analogy
o whereby new words are formed to be similar in some way to existing
words.
o yuppie: by analogy with the earlier word hippie & yippie(Youth
International Party) & yap(to make shrill noises)
 Perhaps the generally accepted test of the “arrival” of recently formed words in a
language is their published appearance in a dictionary. However
 Noah Webster first dic published 1806
o was criticized for citing words as
o advocate, test as verbs
o and for including such vulgar words like
o presidential advisory