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:
tter or a group of letters which when added to the end of a basic word, changes its
ning, are known as suffix.
d Suffix New word
oint ment appointment
nge ment arrangement
e ment movement
k ness weakness
py ness happiness
ness business
full useful
full painful
full helpful
d y handy
y airy
r y watery
d 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
