12/21/22

SESSION 2:
WORD FORMATION
Phuong Anh Nguyen, M.A.

Table of contents

1 Morphology and Word formation

2 Key terms

3 Word formation processes

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1
Morphology and Word
formation

Word formation

• Word formation process/ Morphological process: The

process of creating new words from the resources of a
particular language.
• Word formation processes can be:
• Internal (coinage, derivation, compounding, back-
formation, abbreviation, etc.)
• External (borrowing)
• Mixed between internal & external processes

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Basic concepts

Paradigm

Ø Paradigm /ˈpærədaɪm/: the system of all the word forms of a word.

What is the paradigm of lexeme FAST?

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● “atoms with which words are built” - Katamba, 1994

The smallest unit that has meaning or serves

a grammatical function

Free morpheme Can stand by themselves

MORPHEME e.g. teach

Cannot stand by themselves, but need

Bound morpheme to be attached to a free morpheme
e.g. re- in redo

FREE MORPHEMES

• Lexical morphemes: the morphemes that carry the content

(meaning) of the message, forming an open class of words, e.g. red,
chair, go, cake..
• Functional morphemes: the morphemes that simply modify the
meaning of a word, e.g. and, on, but, with, of, the, I…
Nguyen Phuong Anh, HANU

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Bound morpheme

dis-/ respect PREFIX

AFFIX
McDonald/ -ize/ -ation SUFFIX

à Affix: bound morphemes added to the beginning

(prefix) or after (suffix) the base of a word.
e.g.:

Nguyen Phuong Anh, HANU

Base
The base is the semantic core of the word to which
the affixes (prefixes or suffixes) attach.

1. Disrespect (v) à base =

2. McDonaldization (n) à base =

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Root & Stem

Consider this word: developmental

To form the word, we need to go through 2 stages:

1. develop + -ment à development
2. development + -al à developmental

Ø What are the bases of the words in (1) and (2)?

Ø Which of these bases CANNOT be further analyzed?

à When a base consists of only one morpheme and cannot be further

analysed, it is called a root, aka the basic part left when all affixes are removed.

Morpheme

Changes the word forms to fit into a Creates new lexemes (new meanings).
grammatical context. Does NOT create May change part of speech.
new lexemes or change part of speech

Walk (v) + -ed – walked (v) Print (v) + -er = printer (n)
Walk (v) + -ing = walking (v) Sorrow (n) + -ful = sorrowful (adj)
Cat(n) + -s = cats (n) Piano (n) + -ist = pianist (n)
Tall (Adj) +-er = taller (Adj)

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Root & Stem (cont.)

Consider the following words
(2) development + -al à developmental
(3) development + -s à developments

What type of morpheme (derivational or inflectional) is attached to development in

(2) and (3)?
• ……
• …..
When the base of a word is attached to inflectional affixes, it is called a
stem, aka the base left when the inflectional endings are removed.
e.g.

Recap: Root, stem & base

1. Any element that an affix is attached e.g:
to is a base à base is the umbrella
term for both root and stem
2. A root is a base that cannot be
further analysed
3. A stem is the base left when the
inflectional morpheme is removed
4. A base can be a root and a stem at
the same time

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Find the root, stem and base

1. translators
2. relations
3. relational
4. prettier
5. unbelievable

Types of words
1. Root words: words that have only a root morpheme.
e.g.:
2. Derived words: words that have a root and one or more affixes.
e.g.:
3. Compound words: words that have two or more stems.
e.g.:
4. Contracted words: words that are formed by contracting certain
elements of an existing word or word group.
e.g.:

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3
Word formation
processes

Major processes

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3.1. Borrowing (See lecture 1)

International words

Etymological doublets

Loan translations

Hybrid

3.2. Derivation
(Affixation)

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3.2. Derivation
• Derivation/ Affixation:

• Why using derivation?

• E.g.: “a person who plays the piano professionally” =

• Affixation is a highly productive word formation process:
adjà n; adjà v; adj à adj; n à v; nà adj; và n; etc.

3.2. Derivation (Affixation)

• Affixes can be classified into different categories based on:
etymological, semantic, productive & functional criteria (read
text book, pp. 36-44).

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Practice: What do they mean?

1. non-governmental – inter-governmental
2. changing – changeable
3. pro-vaccine – anti-vaccine

Word challenge
1. What English word refers to the action of removing the black
thread from shrimps?

2. What’s the word for…?

• A baby duck
• A baby pig
• A small book

3. Find the prefix that doesn’t belong to the group:

a.Macro-economics
b.maximum
c.semi-final.
d.megaproject

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3.3. Conversion
“The word-form remains the same, but it realises a different lexical
item.” (Katamba, 2005)
• Conversion: to form new lexemes by ……………..

à functional shift
• Conversion can be applied to almost all types of part of speech
(= highly productive), e.g.:
Butter (n) to butter (v)
To kick (v) a kick (n)
Rich (adj) the rich (n)
Up (adv) up (n)

3.3. Conversion (cont.)

• Some morphologists argue that conversion is affixation
with a phonologically null-affix à zero affixation
• Others see conversion as simply a change of category
without any change of form
e.g. to chair (v) would simply be regarded as having been
relisted or recategorized in our mental lexicons.

Word tree of chair (V)

– converted from chair (n)

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3.3. Conversion (cont.)

• Semantically, when a word is formed by conversion, its new meaning
may alter slightly from the original one. However, some semantic or
logical associations between the two are still sustained.
e.g.:

• Grammatically: when a word is formed by conversion, it has a new

paradigm specifically belonged to its new part of speech.
e.g.: hand (n)
hand (v)

3.3. Conversion (cont.)

Practice
Identify the converted words and their meanings:

1. Youth is wasted on the young.

2. Eighteen Miss Vietnam hopefuls are looking forward to the final.
3. We’ll definitely have a test on Monday, no buts about it.
4. He hammered down the lid of the box to fasten it.
5. She just parrots whatever her mom says.

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3.4. Compounding
• Compounding is the formation of new words by combining two (or
more) bases, roots, or stems.
• In English we generally use free bases to compose compounds.
Ø compounds of two nouns: windmill, dog bed, book store
Ø compounds of two adjectives: icy cold, blue-green, red hot
Ø compounds of an adjective and a noun: greenhouse, blackboard,
hard hat
Ø compounds of a noun and an adjective: sky blue, cherry red, rock
hard

3.4. Compounding (cont.)

• Each compound has a head - the element that serves to determine
both the part of speech and the meaning denoted by the compound
as a whole.

• In English, compounds are said to be right-headed.

e.g.: sky blue is an adjective à head =
dog food is a noun à head =

What about Vietnamese?

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3.4. Compounding (cont.)

Compounds can be classified based on structural & semantic criteria.
A. STRUCTURAL CRITERION
1. Neutral compounds (formed by combining 2 bases without using any linking
elements):
• Simple neutral compounds (components are root words) :
car park, soy sauce, fingerprint, starfish, etc.
• Derivational compounds (1 or more components are derived words):
music-lover, absent-minded, newcomer, etc.
• Contracted compounds (1 component is a contracted word):
T-shirt, X-sport, ebook, etc.

3.4. Compounding (cont.)

2. Morphological compounds: formed by combining 2 stems with the help of a
linking vowel or consonant, i.e. an interfix.
e.g.: sportswear, handicraft, acidophile

3. Syntactic compounds: strings of words formed from segments of speech,

preserving in their structure numerous traces of syntagmatic relation typical of
speech (like adjective, noun, preposition, etc.)
e.g.: mother-in-law, folditup, lily of the valley, fresh-from-the-farm

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3.4. Compounding (cont.)

B. SEMANTIC CRITERION
1. Non-idiomatic compounds (Endocentric compounds): whose meanings can be
regarded as the sum of the meanings of their components.
e.g.:

2. Idiomatic compounds (Exocentric compounds): whose meanings do NOT

correspond to the meanings of their components, partially or completely.
e.g.:

Compound vs Word phrase

Criterion Compound Word phrase
e.g. Greenhouse e.g. a green house
Phonetic Usually stressed on the first or left-hand base Each base has a stress of its own

Semantic Expresses only one concept Concept depends on the number of words in
the combination
e.g. Greenhouse: a structure made of e.g. Green house: a house painted green
transparent material used to grow plants

Syntactic Has fixed structure (modifying words CANNOT Has flexible structure (modifying words can
(most sensibly be inserted between the bases) sensibly be inserted between the bases)
reliable) e.g. a green wooden house

Spelling Usually jointly written or hyphenated (s) Always separately written

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Practice
Identify the compounds, type of compounds and their meanings

1. Millie is still finding her sugar daddy.

2. Anna Wintour has been the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine
since 1988.
3. This gym provides all state-of-the-art facility to bring out the
best customer’s experience.
4. That blond is really a third-wheel in our relationship.
5. Guests included European diplomats and statesmen.

3.5. Shortening (Contraction)

Shortening: the formation of new words by contracting certain elements of
existing words or word groups.
Types of shortening: Clipping, Abbreviation & Blending.

3.5.1. Clipping: excluding certain part of the existing word.

• Initial clipping, e.g.
• Final clipping: e.g.
• Initial-final-clipping, e.g.
• Medial clipping, e.g.

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Identify the examples and types of clipping in the

following sentence
‘Students study psych, anthro, soc, and even ling with one prof or
another, and if they’re taking a science class, may spend long hours
in the lab, which might or might not involve running some stats.’

3.5. Shortening (Contraction)

3.5.2. Abbreviation: The process in which a word is formed from the
initials of the word group.
e.g.:

• Acronyms: pronounced as a word, rather than as a series of letters:

E.g.
• Initialisms: pronounced as a series of letters
E.g.

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3.5. Shortening (Contraction)

3.5.3. Blending: when parts of lexemes are combined to form a new
lexeme, the resulting word is called a blend (sometimes also called
portmanteau word).
• In English, blending is preferred in advertising, product naming, and
playful language.
e.g. bromance =
motel =
infotainment =

Challenge:
Go to the ‘Word spy’ website and find more examples of blends.
What lexemes form those words?

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Minor processes

3.6. Sound imitation (Onomatopoeia)

• Sound imitation, also known as Onomatopoeia /ɒn.əmætəˈpiː.ə/ or
Echoism, is the creation of words from sounds that resemble those
associated with the objects or actions to be named, or that seem
suggestive of its qualities.
• Can vary across languages:
e.g.:

• Words formed in this way make up

a very small percentage of English words

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3.7. Reduplication
Reduplication: The formation of words by repeating the root or stem of
a word, or part of it, either without any phonetic changes or with a
variation of the root-vowel or consonant.

a. Rhyming reduplication:

b. Exact reduplication:

c. Ablaut reduplication (change of vowel sound):

3.8. Back formation

• Sometimes, there are words that historically existed as a root but which ended in a
sequence of sounds identical to certain affixes. When native speakers come to
perceive these words as being complex rather than simple, they create what is called
a backformation.
à Back-formation is the creation of new words by extracting supposed affixes from
existing words.
E.g.:
• Burglar à to burgle
• Television à to televise
• Editor à to edit
• Surveillance à to survey
• Laser à to lase List of English backformations
• Kidnapper à to kidnap

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3.9. Coinage
• A process that creates a new word, either by making up a completely
new word, called a coined word/ neologism.
e.g.:
• But it’s relatively rare to coin new words because the words
themselves give no clue to their meaning.
e.g.

• Many of the pure coinages that creep into English come from original
product names: the association of the coined word with the product
makes its meaning clear

3.10. Eponymy
• Eponymy is a process that use names of a person or a place
• The product of eponymy is an eponym
e.g.: watt, jeans, champagne, sandwich, Elizabethan era.

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Recap: Word formation processes

Derivation Shortening

Conversion Reduplication

Compounding Back formation

Borrowing Sound imitation

Coinage
Eponymy

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