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Chapter 5: Word Formation: Presented By: Ms. Sadaf Siddiq

Word formation refers to the various processes by which new words are derived in the English language. There are several key processes, including compounding, where two words are joined to form a new word like "sunflower". Another process is borrowing, where words are adopted from other languages. English has borrowed many words from Latin, Greek, and other languages. A third process is derivation, where affixes like prefixes and suffixes are added to existing words to create new words. Overall, new words in English are typically formed through multiple processes of compounding, borrowing, derivation and others.

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350 views16 pages

Chapter 5: Word Formation: Presented By: Ms. Sadaf Siddiq

Word formation refers to the various processes by which new words are derived in the English language. There are several key processes, including compounding, where two words are joined to form a new word like "sunflower". Another process is borrowing, where words are adopted from other languages. English has borrowed many words from Latin, Greek, and other languages. A third process is derivation, where affixes like prefixes and suffixes are added to existing words to create new words. Overall, new words in English are typically formed through multiple processes of compounding, borrowing, derivation and others.

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CHAPTER 5: WORD FORMATION

PRESENTED BY: MS. SADAF SIDDIQ


WORD

• A word is a sound or combination of sounds that has a written representation as well. It contains
meaning.
• Leonard Bloomfield (an American Linguist), in 1928, presented the notion of "Minimal Free Forms".
Which means that words are the smallest units of speech that contain meaning and can stand by
themselves.
HOW WORDS ARE FORMED?

• Words are essentially an important part of our language. There are an estimated 171,146
words currently in use in the English language (source=bbc.com).
• How these words were formed?
• Do words change their form, spelling and pronunciation over time?
ETYMOLOGY

• The study of the origin and history of a word is known as its etymology, a term which, like many of our
technical words, comes to us through Latin, but has its origins in Greek (e´tymon “original form” + logia
“study of”).
NEOLOGISM

• A new word in our language.


• The coining (process of coining) or use of new words.
Examples: Webinar, malware, weblog, smog, brunch, troll etc.
• Neologisms usually result from technological or cultural changes.
COINAGE

• Invention of totally new terms for instance: google, ebay,


• It is one of the least common processes of word formation in English
• New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms. E.g. sandwich (from the
eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first insisted on having his bread and meat together while
gambling)
BORROWING

• taking over of words from other languages


• A wide number of words in English are borrowed from other languages such as Latin, Greek, Italian,
Persian, French and other classical languages. Eg. Japanese words suupaa or suupaamaaketto
(“supermarket”) and taipuraitaa (“typewriter”), Hungarians words sport, klub and futbal
COMPOUNDING

• joining of two separate words to produce a single form. Cupboard, sunflower, fast food, background etc.
• Noun + noun= bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket and
waterbed, icecream
• Adjective + adjective= English-speaking, green-eyed, well-behaved, brightly-lit (generally there is a
hyphen between two adjectives)
• Adjective + noun = fast-food, greenhouse, software
BLENDING

• Combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term.


• Smoke + fog = smog
• Breakfast + lunch = brunch
• Information + entertainment = infotainment
CLIPPING

• This occurs when a word of more than one syllables is reduced to a shorter form.
ad (advertisement), fan (fanatic), flu (influenza), phone (telephone), pub (public house)

Hypocorisms: In this process, a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to
the end. This is the process that results in movie (“moving pictures”) and telly (“television”). It has also
produced Aussie (“Australian”), barbie (“barbecue”), bookie (“bookmaker”), brekky (“breakfast”) and
hankie (“handkerchief”).
BACKFORMATION

• word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (usually a verb).
• E.g. television to televise, donation to donate, option to opt etc
CONVERSION

• Also known as “category change” and “functional shift.”


• A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without
any reduction).
• Bottle to bottled, butter to buttered, sent via Bluetooth to Bluetooth, sent via email to emailed etc
ACRONYMS

• new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words. These can be forms such as CD
(“compact disk”) or VCR (“video cassette recorder”).
• More typically, acronyms are pronounced as new single words, as in NATO, NASA or UNESCO. These
examples have kept their capital letters, but many acronyms simply become everyday terms such as
laser (“light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”), radar (“radio detecting and ranging”)
DERIVATION

• it is accomplished by means of a large number of small “bits” of the English language which are not
usually given separate listings in dictionaries. These small “bits” are generally described as affixes e.g.
un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism and –ness
• Prefixes: to be added to the beginning of the word (e.g. un-, mis-) unhappy, misinterpretation,
misinformation
• Suffixes: to be added to the end of the word (e.g. -less, -ish) hopeless, helpless, needless, childish,
snobbish etc.
• Infixes: third type of affix, not normally used in English, but found in some other languages e.g. cupsful,
spoonsful and passerby
MULTIPLE PROCESSES

• It is not necessary that the words that we use today came into existence by going through just one
process that we have mentioned earlier.
• Lase (verb) is a backformation of laser which it self is an acronym….
Thank you

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