WORD FORMATION PROCESS

 Clipping

Clipping (e.g. “fridge” from “refrigerator”) refers to the process whereby a lexeme (simplex or
complex) is shortened, while retaining the same meaning and still being a member of the same
form class. Frequently clipping results in a change of stylistic level.

[“Refrigerator” is much more used in formal registers than “fridge”, which is considered
colloquial. The meaning of a word also depends on lexical meaning, pragmatic meaning, and on
the register used].

Clipping can be of four types: (i) back-clipping, (ii) fore-clipping, (iii) middle clipping and (iv)
complex clipping, depending on the part of the word being clipped.

Clipping of the final part, of the end of the word, back-clipping (apocopation or apocope): bi (<<
bisexual); binos (<< binoculars); mike (<< microphone). It is by far the most frequent case.

Clipping is also very often linked to backformation (the derivation of a word from a
morphologically more complex one, e.g. “edit” form “edit-or”): some authors such as Bauer
consider backformations as cases of shortening: edit (<< editor); burgle (<< burglar); peddlar (<<
peddle). Backformations are always opaque, no longer transparent, whereas the origins of most
clipped forms can still be traced back; and backformations change the word-class (clipping
doesn’t), whereas it is not the case for clipping.

Clipping on the initial part, of the beginning of the word, fore-clipping (apheresis): fro (<< Afro);
loid (<< celluloid); Yard (<< montagnard); gator (<< alligator).

Middle clipping (syncope) is retaining only the middle of a word, as in the following: jam (<<
pajamas); shrink (<< head-shrinker); van (<< advantage); flu (<< influenza); fridge (<<
refrigerator).

Once a rod has been clipped, it can become completely autonomous and be combined with
other word-formation processes. An example borrowed from Bauer is “commitology” (i.e. “the
study of committees”).

Clipping is a very effective way to coin novel expressions:

E.g. “- These swords represent our brohood.

- We’re bros […] we’re going to have one last awesome night as bros. It’s a broing away
party. A special broccasion. A bro-choice rally. A brotime of the Apollo.
- No, don’t bro me!”

Once a clipped form has become lexicalized as such, it can adopt all the properties of the full
form, such as tense for the verb, plural marker for the noun, etc. For instance, “gym”, “fridge”
and “phone” can be pluralized: gyms, fridges and phones. The noun “disrespect” has been
clipped into “diss”. However, this word cannot really be pluralized because of its use as an
uncountable noun. It has nonetheless given away to the clipped verb “diss” following a
conversion / functional shift process, and it is possible to say: “Stop dissing me!”

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Some clipped forms happen to get so autonomous that they are finally perceived and considered
as the unmarked, standard forms (the same phenomenon is observed with euphemism): fridge
(<< refrigerator). Sometimes, the motivation between the full form and the clipped form is
sometimes lost —a phenomenon known as “opacification”; the following clipped forms are
classified from the most transparent to the most opaque: “flu” (<< “influenza”); “van” (<<
“caravan”); “miss” (<< “mistress”); “gym” (<< “gymnasium”); “piano” (<< “pianoforte”); “cello”
(<< “violoncello”); “bus” (<< “omnibus”); “pants” (<< “pantaloons” ); “pram” (<<
“perambulator”), etc.

In a significant number of cases, clipping is accompanied by suffixation (or pseudo-suffixation),

generally with the addition of the “<–ie>” suffix: if vegetables can be clipped into “veg”, it can
also be clipped into “veggies”, etc. This phenomenon studied by Tournier [1985] is called
“suffixation ‘affective’ (euphemistic hypocorism)”: “folkie” << “folk singer”; “undies”<<
“underclothes”.

Sometimes truncation and affixation can occur together, as with formations expressing intimacy
or smallness, so called diminutives (affectionate nicknamess):

Mandy << Amanda Charlie << Charles Patty << Patricia Andy << Andrew
Robbie << Roberta

Katamba [2005: 181] also points out that this phenomenon is frequently used in Australian
English. Australian English uses clipping and diminutives more frequently and in more varied
ways than any other variety of the language.

Aussie /ˈɒzi/ = Australian Barbie = barbecue / Barbara

In line with Plag (2003), a three-fold distinction can be posited within truncations (i.e. process
in which the relationship between a derived word and its base is expressed by the lack of
phonetic material in the derived word):

(a) Truncated names: Liz (>> Elizabeth), Trish (>> Patricia), Bob (>> Robert). They express
familiarity.
(b) Diminutives involving suffixation by “y” (orthographic variants of which are “-ie” and
sometimes “-ee”): Charlie (>> Charles), Patty (>> Patricia). They express familiarity and,
especially, affection.
(c) Clippings: Condo (>> condominium), lab (>> laboratory).

One should be careful not to confuse clipping with backformation. While both phenomena
involve the shortening of a morphologically longer word, clipping differs from backformation in
at least two important respects:

(i) Clipping is much more transparent (synchronically and diachronically) than

backformation;
(ii) Clipping is by definition class-maintaining (i.e. “info” >> information), whereas
backformation is class-changing (i.e. “burgle” >> “burglar”; “televise” >> “television”;
“edit” >> “editor”).

As Bauer [1983] makes clear, the study of clipping is hard to formalize because the formation of
new clipped forms is hard to predict. Given this unpredictability, the study of clipping is not
considered to be part of morphology for some authors (Bauer 1983), though most linguists see
it as a way of forming new words.

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As far as is known, there is no way to predict how much of a word will be clipped off in clipping,
nor even which end of the word will be clipped off. Neither is it possible to say that any given
syllable will definitely be retained in clipping. Some examples from English are as follows:

deli(catessen) (de)tec(tive) (head-)shrink(er)

op(tical) art sci(ence) fi(ction)

Since the parts that are deleted in clipping are not clearly morphs in any sense, it is not
necessarily the case that clipping is a part of morphology, although it is a way of forming new
lexemes.

ad (← advertisement) condo (← condominium)

demo (← demonstration) disco (← discotheque)
fax (← telefax) phone (← telephone)
photo (← photography) porn (← pornography)
prof (← professor)

 Conversion or zero derivation

Conversion can be defined as the derivation of a new word without any overt marking. In order
to find cases of conversion we have to look for pairs of words that are derivationally related and
are nonetheless completely identical in their phonetic realization.

(i) the bottle to bottle (N → V)

the hammer to hammer
the file to file
the skin to skin
the water to water

(ii) To call a call (V → N)

To dump a dump
To guess a guess
To jump a jump

(iii) Better to better (Adj. → V)

empty to empty
open to open
rustproof to rustproof

(iv) Poor the poor (Adj. → N)

rich the rich
well-fed the well-fed
blind the blind
sublime the sublime

Marchand (1969): In order to solve the conversion puzzle (i.e. the lack of an overt derivation
mark) and, in particular, the directionality problem in conversion, semantic criteria must be
invoked to determine which element is semantically (more) primitive and which one is derived.
Ex: “to water” can be paraphrased as “to pour water”, and so forth.

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Conversion is a very productive phenomenon in English and virtually almost any
morphosyntactic category can undergo conversion, albeit in varying degrees of productivity:

(a) That is so Obama/Cuba/money not what a man does (N used as an Adj.)

(b) Don’t you daddy me! (N used as a Verb)
(c) Lady Gaga halleberried her way to stardom (N used as a Verb)
(d) Let’s movies. (N used as a Verb)

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

 Blending

Most treatments converge on a definition of blends (or “portmanteau words”) as words that
combine two (rarely three or more) words into one, deleting material from one or both of the
source words. Blending differs from the processes discussed in the previous section in that it
involves two or (rarely) more base words (instead of only one). However, blending but shares
with truncations (e.g. “Bob” >> “Robert”) a massive loss of phonetic (or orthographic) material.

Plag (2003) makes a distinction between two types of blends:

(i) Type 1 (like endocentric compounds, showing hyponymy): These are very similar to
endocentric compounds (they merge a Modifier + Head structure).
breath + analyzer → breathalyzer
motor + camp → mocamp
motor + hotel → motel

(ii) Type 2 (like copulative compounds, no hyponymy effects):

boat + hotel → boatel
boom + hoist → boost
breakfast + lunch → brunch
channel + tunnel → chunnel
compressor + expander → compander
goat + sheep → geep
guess + estimate → guesstimate
modulator + demodulator → modem
sheep + goat → shoat

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In contrast to the abbreviated compounds in (I), the base words of the blends in (II) are typically
not attested as compounds in their full form. Furthermore, the semantics of the proper blends
differs systematically from the abbreviated compounds in (I). The blends in (II) denote entities
that share properties of the referents of both elements. For example, a boatel is both a boat and
a hotel, a brunch is both a breakfast and a lunch, thus being closer to copulative compounds.
They must be semantically related and usually belong to the same category (in particular,
nouns).

It is indeed sometimes hard to decide if we are confronted with clipping or blending. According
to Bauer [1993: 233], if there is compound stress, it is a clipping; if there is simple word stress,
it is a blend. Bauer (1983) mentions that there are at least rules as to what the base must be and
what the suffix must be for any given pattern: in blending, the coiner is apparently free to take
as much or as little from either base as is felt to be necessary or desirable. Pronounce ability and
spell ability is far from clear. “Mimsy” from “flimsy” are cases in point. A second type of blends
involves two words used as the bases are though there is overlap. It should be noted that
overlap may be in pronunciation, in orthography or both. “Swelegant” (“Sweet”+ “elegant”),
“slanguage” (“slang”+ “language”), and “funnimal” (“funny”+ “animal”) are the example of this
type.

A third kind of blend is the type where the new lexeme looks as though it is or might be
analyzable in terms of other word-formation processes, in particular as a neoclassical
compound (e.g. “television”, Adams 1972). Thus, for instance, “Workaholic” (“work”+
“alcoholic”), “stagflation” (“stagnation”+ “inflation”), “pornotopia” (“pornography”+ “utopia”)
are clearly recognized as blends by the people who hear them.

 Acronyms

An acronym is a word coined by taking the initial letters of the words in a title or phrase and
using them as a new word (Bauer, 1983: 237). Words forming a complex expression referring to
the name of organization, company or a scientific concept may be reduced to their initial letters
alone which together represent sounds that form perfectly acceptable syllables and hence can
be pronounced as words (Katamba, 2002: 183).

REM (Rapid Eyes Movement) RAM (Random-Access Memory)

WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant)

At the beginning, acronyms are spelt with capital letters as shown above. But, with the passage
of time, they are spelt like any other words.

Pyles & Algeo (1970) divided acronyms as a general category into word acronyms pronounced
as words (as in (a)), and initialisms sounded out as letters or alphabetisms (as in (b)).

(a) NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
Laser: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
GIF: Graphics Interchange Format
(b) EU (European Union) [i: ju:]
IBM (International Business Machines) [ai bi: em]

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Some further examples:

Radar Radio detecting and ranging

FYI For your information
TGIF Thank God It’s Friday
a.k.a also known as
Html Hypertext mark-up language
www World wide web
SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

 Word manufacture / coinage

Coinage is the word formation process in which a new word is created either deliberately or
accidentally without using the other word formation processes and often from seemingly
nothing. As neologism or coinage, we identify the word formation process of inventing entirely
new words (neology). This is a very rare and uncommon method to create new words, but in the
media, people try to outdo each other with more and better words to name their products.
Often these trademark names are adopted by the masses and they become “everyday words of
language” (Yule 2006, 53). Also coinage refers to extension of a name of a product from a specific
reference to a more general one such as “Kleenex”, “Xerox”, and “Kodak”.

Coinage also refers to the extension of a name of a product from a specific reference to a more
general one, via metonymic inferencing (SPECIFIC FOR GENERIC), such as “Kleenex”, “Xerox”,
and “Kodak”. And in some cases, the meaning of these words is broadened. Example,
complicated chemical or technical terms (like “Aspirin”: ‘acetylsalicylic acid’) are adopted as the
trademark term and often replace standard terms for e.g. in this example, painkillers. This also
happened to words like “Xerox”, “Kleenex” or “Nutella”.

Some words are differentiated from 'standard' neologisms, namely eponyms. Eponyms are
words that are ''based on the name of a person or a place'' (Yule 2006: 53). Common eponyms
are “watt” from name of the discoverer, “Fahrenheit” from name the expert; “jeans” takes its
name from the Italian city of Jenwa, while “sandwich” does so from a person who makes his
meal between two slices of bread (John Montagu, the Count of sandwich), among others.

Some further examples:

Aspirin Escalator Heroin Band-aid

Factoid Frisbee Google Kerosene
Kleenex Laundromat Linoleum Muggle
Nylon Psychedelic Quark Xerox