Week 6-8

Word Formation

▪ In linguistics, word formation refers to the

ways in which new words are formed on the
basis of other words or morphemes.

▪ The formation of longer, more complex words

from shorter, simpler words.
Use of Prefixes

A prefix is a word part added to the beginning of a

word to create a new meaning.
Prefix Meaning Example
dis not, opposite of dis+honest=dishonest
mis wrongly mis+use=misuse
re again re+election=reelection
inter between inter+related=interrelated
pre before pre+view=preview
anti against, opposing anti+bacterial=antibacterial
non not non+sense=nonsense
Negation or Opposition

Prefix Example
Un- Unable, unfair, unpack, unzip
Dis- Disagree, dislike
In- Informal, inexperience
Im- (before b, m, p) Impossible, immoral
Il- (before l) Illegal, illogical
Ir- (before r) Irregular, irrational
Non- nonsmoker., non-scientific
Repetition, making it possible

Prefix Example
Re- Rebuild, reunited
en-/em- Enrich, enlarge, embitter
Degree, measure, or size

Prefix Example
Super- Supersonic, superhuman
Semi- Semi-final, semidetached
Hyper- Hyperactive, hypersensitive
Ultra- Ultrahigh, ultraviolet
Over- Overtime, overpopulated
Time and place, order, relation

Prefix Example
Post- Post-war, postpone, postgraduate
Inter- International, intercontinental
Pre- Prehistoric, prearrange
Ex- Ex-president, ex-husband
Number and numeral relation

Prefix Example
Bi- Bilateral, bilabial
Uni- Unisex, unicycle
Auto- Autobiography, autopump
Multi- Multilingual, multinational
Use of Suffixes

A suffix is a word part added to the end of a word to

create a new meaning.
Suffix Meaning Example
-ity, -ty quality of serenity
-ment condition of argument
-ness state of being heaviness
-ance state or quality of maintenance
-en become enlighten
-able capable of being manageable
-al pertaining to regional
Noun-forming suffixes

suffix Example
-or Actor, visitor, director
-er/-eer Speaker, engineer, opener
-ist Scientist, satirist, journalist
-ty/-ity Cruelty, purity
-ure/-ture Failure, exposure
-ess Stewardess, hostess
-ness Kindness, goodness
-ment Government, development
Adjective-forming suffixes

Suffix Example
-able/-ible Comfortable, fashionable
-ic/-atic Atomic, heroic, systematic
-ful Beautiful, careful, helpful
-y Bloody, sunny
-less Useless, homeless
-al/ial/tial Personal, influential, preferential
-en Wooden, golden
-ish Childish, foolish
Verb-forming suffixes

Suffix Example
-ize/ise Civilize, modernize
-ify/fy/efy Simplify, glorify
-en Deepen, sharpen, lengthen
Adverb-forming suffixes

Suffix Example
-ly Formally, calmly, easily
-ward/wards Homeward, afterwards
-wise/ways Clockwise, otherwise, sideways
-fold Threefold, twofold
Lets try this!
Add Prefix Add Suffix
Rich Fame
United Love
Populated Create
Arrange Gold
Lead Willing
Conversions
Assigning an already existing word to a new syntactic category. This is a
type of word formation assigning the base to a different word class with no
change of form.

For example: the word schedule is a noun but it can be used as verb.
The president is scheduled to make a speech tomorrow.

Verb to Noun To hit → A hit

Adjective to Noun A final game → A final
Noun to Verb A sign → To sign
Adjective to Verb An empty box → To empty
Lets try this!

Noun to Verb Sign

Verb to Noun Cheat
Adjective to Noun Regular
Adjective to Verb Empty
Compounding

Process of putting words together to build a new one

that “does not denote two things, but one” and that is
“pronounced as one unit”
Hand + bag Handbag
Wall + paper Wallpaper
Finger + print Fingerprint
Sun + burn Sunburn
Lets try this!

brush word
ground shot
pot case
fish ball
Reduplication

Morphological process where the root word or a part of

it is repeated, perhaps with a slight change, to form a
new word.

Three types of Reduplication:

1. Exact
2. Rhyming
3. Ablaut
1. Exact
The two halves of an exact reduplication are exactly the
same. Baby words most often fall in this category.

Blah-blah Goody-goody
Bing-bing Knock-knock
Bye-bye Night-night
Bling-bling Ta-ta
2. Rhyming
The two halves of the reduplication are not exactly the
same, but rhyme with each other. Many a time, product
names are formed this way.
Abra-cadabra Teeny-weeny
Tic-tac Lovey-dovey
Nutter-butters Mumbo-jumbo
Hocus-pocus Walkie-talkie
3. Ablaut
Ablaut refers to those words which change form when a
vowel is shifted.

Criss-cross Mish-mash
Ding-dong Ping-pong
Flip-flop See-saw
Knick-knack Sing-song
Clipping
Process whereby new words are formed by shortening other words.

Back clipping: It is when the back half of a word is deleted.

Fore clipping: The process can be reversed, deleting the beginning of the word.
Mid clipping: The beginning and end of a word is clipped to form a new word.
Phone from telephone Flu from influenza
Plane from airplane Fridge from refrigerator
Ad from advertisement Prof from professor
Exam from examination Lab from laboratory
Lets try this!

gymnasium gasoline
Mathematics doctor
photograph automatic
memorandum condominium
Acronyms

Process in which an initialism is pronounced as word. It

is also a word formed from the initial letters of a name.
AIDS – Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
ASAP – As soon as possible
PIN – Personal Identification Number
RADAR – Radio Detection and Ranging
SCUBA – Self-contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
Blending

Combination of two or more words to create a new one,

usually by taking the beginning of the other word and
the end of the other one.
Breakfast + lunch = brunch Web + seminar = webinar
Motor + hotel = motel Network + etiquette = netiquette
Transfer + resistor = transistor Internet + citizen = netizen
Emotion + icon = emoticon Smoke + fog = smog
Lets try this!
Modulator+demodulator
Television+broadcast
Smack+mash
Urine+analysis
Borrowing

Borrowed words also known as loanwords are common

in English and other languages in the world. It means
taking over of words from other languages.
Alcohol (Arabic) Yogurt (Turkish)
Boss (Dutch) Barbecue (Spanish)
Piano (Italian) Sofa (Arabic)
Croissant (French) Weekend (French)
What is a Morpheme?
A morpheme is the minimal grammatical unit within a language. Every word comprises
one or more morphemes. A standalone morpheme and a word are identical but when a root
word becomes modified with the addition of affixes, still it becomes a word only.

Look at the examples:

Listens, listener, listened, listening

The root listen is a stand-alone morpheme and a word at the same time. When root word
was modified with affixes like -s, -er, -ed and –ing it became a word consisting of two
morphemes in each word.

Types of Morpheme
There are two main types of morphemes
1. Free morpheme
2. Bound morpheme
Free Morphemes
The morpheme that can stand alone as a single word (as a meaningful unit) is
called a free morpheme. The free morphemes are roots that are identical to
words. Free morphemes are a set of separate English word forms such as
basic nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. When a free morpheme is used with bound
morphemes, the basic word forms are technically known as stems or roots.

Examples of free morphemes:

Sun (noun), dog (noun), walk (verb), and happy (adjective)

A free morpheme can stand alone and cannot be subdivided further. ‘Sun’ or
‘dog’ are ‘free morphemes because they cannot be further split up, therefore
the stems that cannot divide further are also called roots.
Free morphemes are divided into two categories: Lexical morphemes and
functional morphemes.

Lexical morphemes are set of content words like nouns, verbs, adjectives,
and adverbs. They can be understood fully e.g. run, blue, slow, paper, small,
throw, and now. Lexical morphemes depict dictionary meaning of a word that
is attributed to a specific referent.

Functional Morphemes are set of functional words like conjunctions,

prepositions, articles, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, modals and quantifiers. Some
examples of functional morphemes are and, near, when, on, because, but, it, in,
that, the, and above. Functional morphemes perform as a relationship between
one lexical morpheme and another.
Bound Morphemes
Segments that cannot stand alone and occurs with another root/stem are
called Bound Morphemes. Bound morphemes are also called affixes (prefixes,
suffixes and infixes) in English. Two bound morpheme cannot occur together
but it is necessary for a bound morpheme to occur with a root/stem.

Examples of bound morphemes:

Opened: (Open + ed) = root + suffix
Reopen: (Re + open) = Prefix + root
Men: (Man + plural) = root + infix (infix makes a change inside a root word)
The set of affixes that make up the category of bound morphemes can also be divided into two
types. Derivational morphemes and inflectional morphemes.

Derivational Morphemes: Derivational morphemes change the grammatical

categories of words. For example the word ‘bake’ (verb) is a root word (free
morpheme) and when we add bound morpheme ‘er’(a suffix) with stem: it
becomes baker (a noun), So the grammatical category was changed from verb to
noun.

Inflectional Morphemes: An inflectional morpheme is a suffix that is added to a

word to assign a particular grammatical property to that word. For example,
listen +ing = listening or boy+s = boys. They do not change the essential
meaning or the grammatical category of a word. Inflectional morphemes serve as
grammatical markers that indicate tense and number.