Word Formation

We can study the structure of language in a variety of ways. For example, we

can study classes of words (parts of speech), meanings of words, with or without
considering changes of meaning (semantics), how words are organised in
relation to each other and in larger constructions (syntax), how words are formed
from smaller meaningful units (morphology), the sounds of words (perception
and pronunciation or articulation), and how they form patterns of knowledge in
the speaker's mind (phonetics and phonology) and how standardized written
forms represent words (orthography).

Phonetics
Phonetics is the smallest unit in linguistics. All words are, at the their most
basic, collections of different sounds. It deals with the sounds of speech and their
production, combination, description, and representation by written symbols.
Sounds are generally categorized by place of articulation, method of articulation,
and voicing. While these individual sounds are the most basic elements of
language, they do not have meaning in of themselves (apart from some sounds
which can be considered sound symbolic).

Morphology
Morphology is the study of the forms of words, and the ways in which words
are related to other words of the same language. Formal differences among
words serve a variety of purposes, from the creation of new lexical items to the
indication of grammatical structure.

Morphemes and Allomorphs

A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning in a language. It can be defined as
the smallest, meaningful, morphological unit in a language that cannot be
further divided or analyzed. In linguistics, morphemes are classified into two
categories. They are free morpheme and bound morpheme. A free morpheme is
a word, that is, a free morpheme is a meaningful unit. Some examples of free
morphemes include:
hat, believe, cheap, talk, red, new, cow, deliver, legal, etc.
• Note that all free morphemes are words, but not all words are morphemes.
• Bound morphemes are the units that cannot stand alone on their own, they
have no meaning. It always has to be added to other morphemes to give a
meaning. The underlined parts in the following words are bound morphemes.
Hat-s, Dis-believe, Cheap-ly, Talk-ed, Red-dish
Allomorphs are the different varieties that exist of the same morpheme. Based
on the context, these can bring about changes in the spelling and also in
pronunciation. When one allomorph of a morpheme is replaced with another it
can change the meaning completely. Let us attempt to understand the function
of the allomorph through an example of the morpheme plural. Under this single
morpheme, there are 3 variant allomorphs. They are,
/s/ – cat-s, /z/ or – dog-s, /iz/ – match-es
A bat, an apple

Types of Word Formation

Acronyms and Abbreviations
An acronym (as the term is commonly used) is a term that is formed from the
initial letters of some longer name and is pronounced differently than the
expanded form. Examples of acronyms as the term is commonly used.
Examples
1. FBI, which stands for Federal Bureau of Investigation, but is pronounced ef-
bee-I
2. NATO, which stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but is pronounced
NAY-toe
3. IUPAC, which stands for International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry,
but is pronounced I-U-pak
An abbreviation is written differently from the expanded form but is
pronounced the same.
Examples
1. Mr., which stands for mister and is pronounced mister
2. ft., which stands for feet and is pronounced feet
3. etc., which stands for et cetera and is pronounced et cetera
Examples
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

Sr. Acronyms/ Full Form

No Abbreviations

1 AAI Airpot Authority of India

2 BCCI Board of Cricket Control in India

3 CBSE Central Board of Secondary Education

4 CPI Communist Party of India

5 CPI (M) Communist Party of India (Marxist)

6 DD Doordarshan

7 DMK Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

8 DRDO Defence Research and Development Organisation

9 GoI Government of India

10 IGNOU Indira Gandhi National Open University

11 IMD India Meteorological Department

12 ISRO Indian Space Research Organisation

13 LTTE Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

14 NRI Non-Resident Indian

15 OBC Other Backward Classes

16 ONGC Oil and Natural Gas Commission

17 SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

18 RAW Research & Analysis Wing

19 PAN Permanent Account Number

20 LoC Line of Control

21 APP Atomic Power Plant

22 NIC National Information Centre

23 AD Anno Domini CE – Common Era

24 BCE Before Common Era

25 AM Anti Meridian

26 Tsp Tablespoon

27 Lb Pound

28 Rd Road

29 St Street

30 Messrs Messieurs

31 Prof Professor

32 BCom Bachelors of Commerce

33 FIR First Information Report

34 IMPCOPS Indian Medical Practitioners Co-operative

 Pharmacy and Stores

35 IPL Indian Premier League

36 IRCTC Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation

37 ISD International Subscriber Dialing, or an

international call

38 MEA Ministry of External Affairs

39 MHA Ministry of Home Affairs

40 MNC Multinational Company

Clipping
Clipping is one of the ways new words are created in English. It involves the
shortening of a longer word, often reducing it to one syllable. Many examples are
very informal or slang.
Examples
Maths is used for Mathematics
bro is used for brother

Initial Clipping
Initial part is left out
Examples
bot for robot, gator for alligator, chute for parachute, phone for telephone

Final Clipping
Latter part is left out
Examples
pub for Public House, ad for advertisement, gas for gasoline, pop for popular
music, exam for examination

Medial Clipping
Middle part is left out.
Examples
maths for mathematics, fancy for fantasy, ma’am for madam

Blending
In linguistics, a blend word or a blend is a word formed from parts of two or
more other words
Examples
1. Blog - web+blog
2. Brunch - Breakfast+lunch
3. Emoticon - Emotion+Icon
4. Internet - International+network
5. Sitcom - Situation+comedy
6. Smog - Smoke+fog
7. Motel - Motor+hotel

8. Biopic – biography + picture

9. Infotainment – information + entertainment

10.Workaholic – work + alcoholic

Compounding
Compound words are formed when two or more words are put together to
form a new word with a new meaning.
Examples
can+not, fire+work, after+birth, else+where, sun+flower, up+side, watch+man,
moon+light, rail+road, hand+book, loop+hole, over+react,

hyphenated compounds

Mother-in-law, co-ordinator, co-operate

Conversions
Words which do not fit in compounding, clipping, and blending, some suffix
and prefix forms Conversions. Words can be converted to Noun, Verb, Adjective
and Adverb.
• Noun: a word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people,
places, or things ( common noun ), or to name a particular one of these
( proper noun )
• Adjective: Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words
• Verb: a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the
main part of the predicate of a sentence.
• Adverb: a word or phrase that modifies the meaning of an adjective, verb, or
other adverb, expressing manner, place, time, or degree

Verb Noun Adjectives Adverbs

en-, im-, -es, -ed, - -ment, -ness, - -able, -ible, -ive, - -ly
ire/ize, -fy, -en, - tion, -sion, -ance, - ful, -al, -ant, -ic, -
ate, -ish, -dom, cy, -ity, -th, -ce, ave, -ent
-ship, -hood, -er/or -ant, -ar, -ing, -y
act action active actively
activity
activeness

admire admiration admirable

E-mails, E-mailed, Email

E-mailing

care care careful carefully

continue continuity continuous continuously

delight delight delightful delightfully

explore exploration exploring

impress impression impressive impressively

modernise modernity modern

popularise popularity popular

whiten whiteness white

irritate irritation irritating irritatingly

inhabit habitat inhabitant

live life lively livingly

firm firmness firm firmly

fascinate fascination fascinating

endanger danger dangerous dangerously

encourage courage courageous courageously

dust dust dusty

educate education educative

inform information informative

glorify glory glorious gloriously

explain explanation explainable

console consolation consoled

Reduplication
 Reduplication process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or
even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
Examples
Ding-dong, bling-bling, hip-hop, aye-aye, okey-dokey, higgledy-piggledy etc.

Affixation
An affix (in modern sense) is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to
form a new word.

Prefix
A prefix is an element placed at the beginning of a word to adjust or qualify its
meaning, for example de-, non-, and re-.
Examples
1. an-, meaning to be without
2. anti-, meaning against
3. bi-, meaning two
4. contra-, meaning against
5. dis-, meaning not
6. ex-, meaning without or not including
7. homo-, meaning the same
8. inter-, meaning between
9. micro-, meaning small
10.pre-, meaning before
11.tetra-, meaning four
12.tri-, meaning three
13.un-, meaning not
14.uni-, meaning one

Suffix
A suffix is an element placed at the end of a word to form a derivative, such as
-ation, -fy, -ing, frequently one that converts the stem into another part of
speech.
Examples
1. able, which means able to do
2. -acy, which means quality
3. -er, which means someone who does something
4. -esque, which means similar to
5. -ish, which means having a similar quality
6. -ism, which means a belief
7. -ist, which means someone who does something
8. -less, which means without
Infix
An infix is placed within a word; these are rare in English, though cupful can be
made plural as cupsful by inserting the plural s as an infix.

Circumfix
A circumfix (abbreviated CIRC or confix is an affix which has two parts, one
placed at the start of a word, and the other at the end. (Prefix+word+Suffix)
en-light-en, unlikely etc
Solved Examples
Sr. Terms Answer
No

1 Co-author Co’ is a prefix added to the word ‘author’,

Author is a person who writes a book.
Co means mutually or together.

2 Hyper Hyper is a prefix.

Hyper means above or beyond when added before
another words.

3 Need Need is a Noun, conversion of the

Verb: needs, needing, needed
Adjective: needy
Adverb: needful

4 Hollywood Hollywood is a compounding of two full words

Holly: a shrub
Wood: hard material on a trunk or branch of a tree
Hollywood is an American Film Industry

5 Stopwatch Stopwatch is a compounding of two full words

Stop: to end
Watch: look or observe
Stopwatch: an instrument to calculate time

6 Willy-Willy Willy-willy is reduplication.

The words willy and willy are repeated without any
change
It means a whirl wind, cyclone or dust storm

7 Graduation Graduation is a Noun, conversion of the

Verb: Graduate
Adjective: Graduate
8 Pen-Knife Pen-knife is a compounding of two full words
Pen: a writing instrument
Knife: a blade
Pen-knife is a thin blade

9 P.N.R. P.N.R. is an acronym by the initial letters of Passenger

Name Record

10 Kickboxer Kickboxer is a compounding of two full words

Kick: strike forcibly by foot
Boxer: a wrestler
Kickboxer: a person who performs kick boxing (a
martial art)

11 Memo Memo is an initial clipping of the word ‘ memorandum’

12 Underdeveloped Under is a prefix added to the word developed

Under means less, underdeveloped means less grown
Underdeveloped is also a compounding of two full
words.
Under: below
Developed: grow

13 Acreaage age’ is a suffix added to the word acre which is an unit

of measuring area

14 Flipflop Flipflop is a Reduplication, two similar sounding words

are joined together to make a new word.
A light weight sandal

15 MSHRC MHSRC is an acronym of Maharashtra State Human

Rights Commission

16 Self-employed Self-employe is a compounding of two full words

Self: oneself
Employed: working
Self-employed is working for oneself

17 Texture ture’ is a suffix added to the word text

ture denotes the quality of the word text
Text is any written material
Texture is the feel or consistency of some substance.

18 Mike Initial clipping of the word ‘microphone’ (informal

usage)
19 Forget Forget is a Verb, conversion of the
Noun: Forgetter
Adjective: Forgetful
Adverb: Forgetfully

20 Paratroops Paratroops is a blending of two words

Para for parachute
Troops: a group of people
Paratroops are the troops equipped to drop from an
aircraft

21 Parapsychology Para is a prefix added to the word psychology

Para means parallel
Psychology is the scientific study of human brain and
its function
Parapsychology is a parallel study of psychology based
on the orthodox principles

22 Exhibition ‘tion’ is a suffix added to the word exhibit

-tion: forms action
Exhibit: public display of something
Or
Exhibition is a Noun, conversion of the
Verb: exhibit
Adjective: exhibitionistic
Adverb: exhibitionistically

23 Historic ‘ic’ is a suffix to the word history.

‘ic’: a state of being
History: the study of past event
Historic: a potentially important event in history

24 IB IB is an acronym of the words Intelligence Bureau

Acronym – shortened form different pronunciation – BCI – Bar Council of India, USA
Abbreviation – shortened form same pronunciation – Mr. – Mister, Eg.