Word Formation
After Studying this unit you will be able
to know
Words and Phrases: Word formation
Synonyms and Antonyms
Homophones; Select vocabulary of about 500-1000 New words
correct Usage: all Parts of Speech; Modals; Concord; Articles; Infinitives;
Transformation of sentences; Requisites of Sentence Construction:
Word Formation
Word
“Word is a unit of a language which the natives can identify.”
or
“Words are blocks which form a sentence”
Basic Word:
“The words which have not been developed or derived from any other word
are known as root, basic or primary words”. For example White, tree, pain,
boy, etc.
Types of word
Lexical Word
Functional Word
Lexical Word
A lexical item (lexical word) is what we normally recognise as "the ordinary
word." A lexical item can also be a part of a word or a chain of words. Lexical
items are the basic building blocks of a language's vocabulary (its lexicon, in
other words).(All the Nouns,Verbs & Adjectives are lexical word)
cat (single word)
traffic light (words together meaning one thing)
take care of (a verbal phrase)
by the way (an idiomatic phrase)
it's raining cats and dogs (a chain of words)
Functional word
A grammatical word (a.k.a. function word) is a word that in itself has either
(1) little or no actual meaning (lexical meaning) or (2) ambiguous or uncertain
meaning, BUT functions to indicate grammatical relationships with other
words in a sentence. The usual grammatical words are:-
auxiliaries (am, are, be, do, got, is, have, etc)
conjunctions (and, although, or, that, when, while, etc)
determiners (a, either, more, much, neither, my, that, the, etc)
particles (as, no, nor, not, etc)
prepositions (at, between, in, of, without, etc)
pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they, anybody, one, etc)
Types of Word Formation Processes
Compounding
Derivation
Affixation
Blending
Clipping
Acronyms
Borrowing
Compounding
Compounding forms a word out of two or more root words. The words are
called compounds or compound words.
mailman (composed of free root mail and free root man)
mail carrier
dog house
fireplace
fireplug (a regional word for 'fire hydrant')
fire hydrant
dry run
cupcake
cup holder
email
e-ticket
Rhyming compounds
Rhyming compounds (subtype of compounds)
These words are compounded from two rhyming words.
lovey-dovey
chiller-killer
higgledy-piggledy
tootsie-wootsie
bunnie-wunnie
Henny Penny
snuggly-wuggly
Georgie Porgie
Piggie-Wiggie
Derivation
Derivation is the creation of words by modification of a root without the
addition of other roots. Often the effect is a change in part of speech.
Affixation (Subtype of Derivation)
The most common type of derivation is the addition of one or more affixes to
a root, as in the word derivation itself. This process is called affixation, a
term which covers both prefixation and suffixation.
Blending
Blending is one of the most beloved of word formation processes in English. It
is especially creative in that speakers take two words and merge them based
on sound structure . The resulting words are called blends.
usually in word formation we combine roots or affixes along their edges:
mockumentary (mock and documentary)
mocktail (mock and cocktail) 'cocktail with no alcohol'
splog (spam and blog) 'fake blog designed to attract hits and raise Google-
ranking'
Britpoperati (Britpop and literati) 'those knowledgable about current British
pop music
Clipping
clipping is a type of abbreviation of a word in which one part is 'clipped' off
the rest, and the remaining word now means essentially the same thing as
what the whole word means or meant. For example, the word rifle is a fairly
modern clipping of an earlier compound rifle gun, meaning a gun with a rifled
barrel. (Rifled means having a spiral groove causing the bullet to spin, and
thus making it more accurate.) Another clipping is burger, formed by clipping
off the beginning of the word hamburger. (This clipping could only come
about once hamburg+er was reanalyzed as ham+burger.)
Acronyms
Acronyms are formed by taking the initial letters of a phrase and making a
word out of it.
US or U.S., USA or U.S.A. (United States)
UN or U.N. (United Nations)
IMF (International Monetary Fund)
Borrowing
Borrowed Words. Loanwords are words adopted by the speakers of one
language from a different language (the source language). A loanword can
also be called a borrowing. The abstract noun borrowing refers to
the process of speakers adopting words from a source language into their
native language.
tomato (from indigenous languages of the Americas), sushi, taboo, wok (from
Pacific Rim languages), chic, shmuck, macho, spaghetti, dirndl, psychology,
telephone, physician, education (from European languages), hummus,
chutzpah, cipher, artichoke (from Semitic languages), yam, tote, banana
(from African languages).
Prefix:
A letter or a group of letters which when added to the beginning of a basic word, changes
its meaning, are known as prefix.
Word Formation by adding prefixes:
Prefix Word New word
in visible invisible
il legal illegal
auto graph autograph
Multi colour multicolour
a political apolitical
a moral amoral
a symmetry asymmetry
Suffix:
A letter or a group of letters which when added to the end of a basic word, changes its
meaning, are known as suffix.
Word Suffix New word
appoint ment appointment
arrange ment arrangement
move ment movement
weak ness weakness
happy ness happiness
Busy ness business
Use full useful
pain full painful
help full helpful
hand y handy
air y airy
water y watery
cloud y cloudy
Phrase:
“Phrase is a group of words which has some meaning but not complete
meaning.”
Phrases are of following three types-
1. Adjective Phrase
2. Adverb Phrase
3. Noun Phrase
4. Verb Pharse
Adjective Phrase
“A group of words that does the work of an adjective is called Adjective
Phrase”
The magistrate was a kind (Adjective) man.
The magistrate was a man with a kindly nature (Adjective phrase)
The chief lived in a stone (Adjective) house.
The chief lived in a house built of stone (Adjective phrase).
A blue-eyed (Adjective) boy. A boy with blue eyes (Adjective phrase).
A jungle (Adjective) track. A track through the jungle (Adjective phrase
Adverb Phrase
“A group of words that does the work of an adverb is called Adverb Phrase
Ram ran quickly (Adverb). Ram ran with great speed (Adverb phrase).
He does his work carelessly (Adverb).
He does his work without any care (Adverb Phrase)
Noun Phrase
“A group of words that does the work of a noun is called Noun Phrase”
The boy wants something (Noun). The boy wants to go home (Noun Phrase).
We enjoy cricket (Noun). We enjoy playing cricket (Noun Phrase).
He hopes success (Noun). He hopes to win the first prize (Noun Phrase).
He loves strictness (Noun). He loves to issue harsh orders (Noun Phrase)
Verb Phrase
A verb phrase is the portion of a sentence that contains both the verb and
either a direct or indirect object.
A verb phrase can be the predicate of the clause or sentence. A verb phrase
can also be a phrase that functions as an adverb or adjective and contains a
verb and its complements, objects, or modifiers.
She was walking quickly to the mall.
He should wait before going swimming.
Those girls are not trying very hard.
Ted might eat the cake
Homophones
“Words with same sound (pronunciation) but different meaning and spelling
are known as Homophones”.
Air – (difference in atmospheric pressure) air is hot. Dear – is dear to me.
Heir – is the heir to the throne. Deer – deer are very fast.
Sea – the red sea. Loose – shirt is loose.
See – see the sky. Lose – don’t lose the game.
Homonyms
“Words with same sound (pronunciation) and spelling but different meanings.
Homonyms”.
Row – line Soil – make dirty
Row – boat propelling
Bank – side of river beam - a line of light
Bank – financial institution beam – a long piece of wood or metal
Coach – sports trainer
Coach – Large carriage
Synonyms
“Synonyms are different words with identical or at least similar meaning”.
Happy – Glad,
quickly – rapidly
broaden – widen
beautiful – attractive
Antonyms
“Antonyms are word pairs that are opposite in meaning”.
Dark – Light
Tall – Short
Day – Night
Fat – Slim
