Word Formation

 While derivation is generally assumed to be

the most productive word formation process,
there are several others.
 1- Compounding

 Compounding is the word formation process

in which two or more lexemes combine into a
single new word. Compound words may be
written as one word or as two words joined
with a hyphen.
 For example:

 noun-noun compound: note + book → notebook

 adjective-noun compound: blue + berry → blueberry

 verb-noun compound: work + room → workroom

 noun-verb compound: breast + feed → breastfeed

 verb-verb compound: stir + fry → stir-fry

 adjective-verb compound: high + light → highlight

 verb-preposition compound: break + up → breakup

 preposition-verb compound: out + run → outrun

 adjective-adjective compound: bitter + sweet → bittersweet

 preposition-preposition compound: in + to → into

 2-Conversion

 Another highly productive word formation

process is conversion, which is the term used
to describe a word class change without any
morphological marking.
 A) Noun to Verb Conversion

 The most productive form of conversion in

English is noun to verb conversion. The following
list provides examples of verbs converted from
nouns:
◦ Noun – Verb
◦ access – to access
◦ bottle – to bottle
◦ can – to can
◦ closet – to closet
◦ email – to email
◦ eye – to eye
◦ fiddle – to fiddle
◦ fool – to fool
◦ Google – to google
◦ host – to host
◦ Knife – to Knife
◦ microwave – to microwave
◦ name – to name
◦ pocket – to pocket
◦ salt – to salt
◦ shape – to shape
◦ ship – to ship
◦ spear – to spear
◦ torch – to torch
 For example:

◦ My grandmother bottled (verb) the juice and

canned (verb) the pickles.
◦ My grandmother put the juice in a bottle (noun)
and the pickles in a can (noun).
◦ She microwaved (verb) her lunch.
◦ She heated her lunch in the microwave (noun).
◦ The doctor eyed (verb) my swollen eye (noun).

 Noun to verb conversion is also referred to

as verbification or verbing.
 B) Verb to Noun Conversion

 Another productive form of conversion in English

is verb to noun conversion. The following list
provides examples of nouns converted from
verbs:
 Verb– Noun
◦ to alert – alert
◦ to attack – attack
◦ to call – call
◦ to clone – clone
◦ to command – command
◦ to cover – cover
◦ to cry – cry
◦ to experience - experience
◦ to fear – fear
◦ to feel – feel
◦ to hope – hope
◦ to increase – increase
◦ to judge – judge
◦ to laugh – laugh
◦ to rise – rise
◦ To run – run
◦ to sleep – sleep
◦ to start - start
 For example:

◦ The guard alerted (verb) the general to the attack

(noun).
◦ The enemy attacked (verb) before an alert (noun)
could be sounded.
◦ Sometimes one just needs a good cry (noun).
◦ The baby cried (verb) all night.
◦ We need to increase (verb) our productivity to see
an increase (noun) in profits.

 Verb to noun conversion is also referred to

as nominalization.
 C) Other Conversions

 Conversion also occurs, although less frequently,

to and from other grammatical forms. For
example:

◦ adjective to verb: green → to green (to make

environmentally friendly)

◦ preposition to noun: up, down → the ups and downs

of life

◦ conjunction to noun: if, and, but → no ifs, ands, or

buts

◦ interjection to noun: ho ho ho → I love the ho ho hos

of Christmastime.
Note that we only speak of conversion when it is
clear that a word has been “copied” from one
word class to another. Frequently words appear
similar without having been converted (at least
not recently) – for example, English like exists as
a verb, a noun, an adjective or a filler/discourse
marker.
 3- Borrowing

 When a word is imported from another language

we describe this process as borrowing. While
German also has a large and increasing number
of borrowings, especially from English, English
itself is well-known for its mixed vocabulary and
overall affinity for foreign words. Some words
from Latin and Greek (e.g. strata – street,
episkopos – bishop) were imported into a large
number Indo-European languages before English
even existed, emphasizing that borrowing is in
no way a novel process.
 A few examples that illustrate the mixed
vocabulary of English:

o avalanche – from Romansch via French

o bizarre – from Basque via French
o candy – from Arabic and possibly Sanskrit via
French
o coffee – from Arabic via Turkish and Italian
o ketchup – from Malay via Amoy Chinese
o schadenfreude – from German
 French has contributed a very large portion of
English loan words and often borrowed words
take on different meanings due to
competition with indigenous terms (cf. Old
English great with Norse big and French
large).
 4- Clipping

 Clipping is the word formation process in

which a word is reduced or shortened without
changing the meaning of the word. Clipping
differs from back-formation in that the new
word retains the meaning of the original
word.
 For example:

o advertisement – ad
o alligator – gator
o examination – exam
o gasoline – gas
o gymnasium – gym
o influenza – flu
o laboratory – lab
o mathematics – math
o memorandum – memo
o photograph – photo
o public house – pub
o raccoon – coon
o reputation – rep
o situation comedy – sitcom
o telephone – phone
 The four types of clipping are back
clipping(1), fore-clipping(2), middle
clipping(3), and complex clipping(4). Back
clipping is removing the end of a word as
in gas from gasoline. Fore-clipping is
removing the beginning of a word as in gator
from alligator. Middle clipping is retaining
only the middle of a word as
in flu from influenza. Complex clipping is
removing multiple parts from multiple words
as in sitcom from situation comedy.
 5-Blending

 Blending is the word formation process in

which parts of two or more words combine to
create a new word whose meaning is often a
combination of the original words.
 For example:

o advertisement + entertainment → advertainment

o biographical + picture → biopic
o breakfast + lunch → brunch
o chuckle + snort → chortle
o guess + estimate → guesstimate
o hazardous + material → hazmat
o motor + hotel → motel
o simultaneous + broadcast → simulcast
o smoke + fog → smog
o Spanish + English → Spanglish
o spoon + fork → spork
o web + seminar → webinar
 6-Initialisms and Acronyms

 Other forms of shortenings are initialisms

(also called alphabetisms) and acronyms,
which reduce each component word to its
initial letter. The difference between to two
types lies in how the resulting word is
pronounced in spoken language, namely
letter by letter or without intermission.

 Initialisms: TV, CD, MP3, SUV, YMCA,

 Acronyms: UNESCO, NATO, LOL, WYSIWYG,

KISS
 7-Back-formation

 Sometimes speakers of a language will

analyze a word as containing affixes where
none are present. By removing these assumed
affixes a lexeme can be back-formed.
 Exmples:

o babysitter -- babysit
o donation – donate
o gambler – gamble
o hazy – haze
o moonlighter – moonlight
o obsessive – obsess
o procession – process
o resurrection – resurrect
o sassy – sass
o television – televise