Word Formation

Definition:
 Word formation refers to the ways in which new words are
formed on the basis of other words.
OR
 The process by which new words are produced either by
modification of existing words or by complete innovation.

 Neologisms:
Word History:
The word's roots are quite old, ultimately tracing back to ancient
Greek neos, meaning "new," and logos, meaning "word."

Definition:
A neologism is a newly-created word used in expressions.
OR
A neologism is a new word or expression in a language.

Importance:
Neologisms remind us that language is not something set in
stone, but an evolving body of work, subject to adjustment,
deletions, additions, and change. As new things are invented,
as slang becomes acceptable, and as new technologies
emerge, new words must fill in the gaps in language.

Purpose:
 To create new meanings of some abstract or material ideas that
are evolving in new environments.
Example:
 Twitter
The onomatopoeic word “twitter” was first used
by Geoffrey Chaucer.
 Freelancer
Sir Walter Scott, in his novel Ivanhoe, devised the term
“Free Lancers” for people hired as militants.
 Yahoo
Yahoo is one of the most popular terms in today’s internet
world. The word first appeared in Jonathan Swift’s
novel Gulliver’s Travels.

 Entymology:
Word History:
The word etymology derives from the Greek word ἐτυμολογία
(etumología) , itself from ἔτυμον (étumon), meaning "true sense
or sense of a truth", and the suffix -logia, denoting "the study
of".
Definition:
The history of a word or word element, including its origins and
derivation.
OR
The branch of linguistic science that treats the history of words
and their components.
Importance:
Etymology can help you understand your native language
better. It can also teach you about the common root of words in
several different languages.That often means that you can
recognise words in other languages without being told exactly
what they mean.
Purpose:
To understand the interconnectedness of language and culture,
as well as the interconnectedness of history with language. 
  Borrowing:
Definition:
The process of speakers adopting words from a source
language into their native language. 
OR
The process by which a word from one language is adapted for
use in another.
Examples:
 Dope (Dutch)
 Piano (Italian)
 Tattoo (Tahitian)
 Jewel (French)
 Yougurt (Turkish)
 Sofa (Arabic)
Explanation:
In linguistics, borrowing (also known as lexical borrowing).The
main reason for borrowing is to provide a word from the source
language variety when there is no suitable existing word in the
target language. English language, still, continues to expand its
vocabulary by means of loanwords from other languages.
Loan-Translation:
It can be defined as a word-for-word translation from one
language into another.
Explanation:
When you take a phrase in French and then literally translate
root-for-root or word-for-word into English, that's loan-
translation.

 Compounding:
Compounding derives a new word by joining two morphemes
that would each usually be free morphemes.
 For example:
If I take the free morpheme green, an adjective, and combine it
with the free morpheme house, a noun, I get the new
word greenhouse. 
Other Examples:

 Bookcase
 Doorknob
 Fingerprint
 good-looking
 low-paid

Explanation:
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or
sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding,
composition or nominal composition is the process of word
formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding
occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a
longer word or sign.Compounding is the morphological
operation that—in general—puts together two free forms and
gives rise to a new word. The importance of compounding
stems from the fact that there are probably no languages
without compounding, and in some languages (e.g., Chinese) it
is the major source of new word formation.

 Blending:
A type of word formation in which two or more words are
merged into one so that the blended constituents are either
clipped, or partially overlap.
OR
It can aslo be defined as mixing two or more words together.
For Example:

 Smoke + Fog = Smog

 Breakfast + Lunch = Brunch

Explanation:
Blending is the skill of being able to combine sounds together
to make words. This means that students are able to identify
the different sounds in words and correctly pronounce new
words by recognising letter and sound patterns. Blending is
a crucial skill in learning to read since being able to mentally
join speech sounds together to make words helps students to
decode unfamiliar words using letter-sound patterns when
reading. Difficulties with the ability to blend is a hallmark of the
struggling reader.

 Clipping:
Word formation by removing some segments of an existing word to
create a synonym.

OR
It is one of the ways new words are created in English. It
involves the shortening of a longer word, often reducing it to
one syllable.
For Example:

 Maths ( Mathematics)
 Flu ( Influenza)
 Ad (Advertisement)

Explanation:
Clipping is the process of forming a new word by dropping one
or more syllables from a polysyllabic word, such as cellphone
from cellular phone. In other words, clipping refers to part of a
word that serves for the whole, such as ad and phone from
advertisement and telephone, respectively. A clipped form
generally has the same denotative meaning as the word it
comes from, but it's regarded as more colloquial and informal.
Clipping also makes it easier to spell and write many words.

 Hypocorism:
A hypocorism is a pet name, nickname, or term of endearment
— often a shortened form of a word or name.
For Example:

 Brekky ( Breakfast )
 Toastie ( Toasted sandwich )
 Telly ( Television )
 Bookie ( Bookmaker )

Explanation:
A hypocorism is an altered, usually shortened version of a word
or name that is usually used in informal or familiar situations.In
English and a number of other languages, such as French and
German, one common way of forming a hypocorism is
by simply shortening the original name.

 Backformation:
The process of forming a new word (a neologism) by removing
actual or supposed affixes from another word.
OR
The process of creating a new lexeme by removing actual or
supposed affixes.The resulting neologism is called a back-
formation.
For Example:

 Automation → automate
 Mixture → mix
 Choreography → choreograph
 Bulldozer → bulldoze

Explanation:
Back-formation may be particularly common in English given
that many English words are borrowed from Latin, French and
Greek, which together provide English a large range of
common affixes. Many words with affixes have entered English,
such as dismantle and dishevelled, so it may be easy to believe
that these are formed from roots such as mantle (assumed to
mean "to put something together") and shevelled (assumed to
mean "well-dressed"), although these words have no history of
existing in English.

 Conversion:
 A kind of word formation involving the creation of a word (of a
new word class) from an existing word.
OR
The process of changing or converting the class of a word
without changing its form.
For Example:
Noun to verb:
Bottle (The wine was brewed in France but bottled in Hong
Kong.)
Butter (Don't butter the bread for me. I prefer jam.)
Verb to noun:
Hit (He scored a hit in his first shot.)
Cheat (He used some cheats in the computer game to make
him win easier.)
Adjective to noun:
Final (It is obvious that the LA Lakers will enter the NBA
Finals.)
Crazy (Stop shouting and running around like a crazy.)
Adjective to verb:
Empty (Can you empty the bin for me, please?)
Dirty (Don't sit on the floor. You might dirty your dress.)

Explanation:
Conversion is the act or process of changing something into a
different state or form.It is particularly common in
English because the basic form of nouns and verbs is identical
in many cases.It is probably the most outstanding new method
in the word-formation panorama. This process is also called
zero derivation or a functional shift.

 Coinage:
The act of creating a new word or phrase that other people
begin to use.
OR
A new word is created either deliberately or accidentally.
Eponym: A word or phrase derived from a proper noun.
For Example:
 Sandwich (from the 18th century Earl of Sandwich who
first insisted on having bread and meat together while
gambling)
 Hoover (from the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company
which produced the first vacuum cleaner)

Explanation:
As the English language is constantly evolving, it is important
for students to not forget the creation of words and the creation
of new meanings for existing words.First, we should learn
that the process of creating new words is often referred to as
coinage — and that new word creation has nothing to do with
coins.

 Acronyms:
It is a pronounceable word formed from the first letter (or first few
letters) of each word in a phrase or title.

For Example:
 RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging
 SONAR (Sound Navigation And Ranging)
 NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
 ATM ( Automatic Teller Machine )

Explanation:
Acronyms provide a way of shortening phrases into
words.Abbreviations and acronyms are shortened forms of
word (s) or phrases (s). They assist in making manuscripts
easy to read and understand. Additionally, they help in meeting
the strict word-count targets, avoiding the repetition of words,
thereby making the text easy to read.

 Derivation:
The process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing
word.

OR

The formation of a word by changing the form of the base or by

adding affixes to it.

OR

Derivation is also known as affixation.

For Example:

re- (again), un- (not) , dis- (not) , pre- (before), -able (can be
done, able to) , -ful (full of) , -ing (verb ending)

Affixes: A word that can be added to a root word or base

word to add a new meaning.

Explanation:

First, the knowledge of affixes is important for English

Language learners, because affixes enable learners to predict
the meaning of the words which they firstly encounter through
the meanings of words' first or last part. Nouns can be derived
from simple verbs through affixes.

Types of affixes:

Prefixes: A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem

of a word.(unhappy ),(mispresent),(prejudge).

Suffixes:  A suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of

a word.( punishment ),( freedom ),( helpful ).

Infixes: An infix is a word element (a third type of affix) that

can be inserted within the base form of a word—rather than at
its beginning or end.(Hallebloodylujah),(Absogoddamlutely),
(Aladamnbama).

Circumfixes: Circumfixes are a combination, attaching to

both the beginning and the end word.(enlighten), (embolden),
(awandring).

 Multiple processes:
Multiple process is the way of creating a new word with more
than one processes at work in the certain word.

For better information consult book page # 66

Book:The study of language by George Yule (7th edition).

Composed by : Muhammad Zohaib Saeed

 "It is better in prayer to have a heart
without words than words without heart."