Words and Word- formation Processes Chapter 5 Ms. Abrar Mujaddidi
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Transcript Words and Word- formation Processes Chapter 5 Ms. Abrar Mujaddidi
Words and Wordformation Processes
Chapter 5
Ms. Abrar Mujaddidi
Introduction
We quickly understand new words in our
language and accept the use of new forms
of that new word.
There is a lot of regularities in the wordformation processes in our language.
In this chapter, we explore some of the
processes of creating new words in a
language.
Etymology
The study of the origin and history of a
word is known as etymology.
We should view the constant evolution of
the words as a reassuring sign of vitality
of the langusge.
Coinage
Coinage is the invention of totally new terms.
Sources of coined words:
1. Trade names of commercial products that
become general terms.
e.g. aspirin, kleenex, teflon, xerox.
2. New words based on the name of a person or a
place.
e.g. hoover, jeans, sandwich.
Borrowing
Borrowing is taking over words from
other languages.
English borrows from other languages.
e.g. sofa, lilac, croissant
Many languages borrow from English
e.g. Japanese.
supaamaaketto
cont.,
Loan translation:
Direct translation of the elements of a
word into the borrowing language.
Many languages translated the term
‘skyscraper’ into its own vocabulary.
Compare between borrowing and loantranslation?
Compounding
Compounding is the joining of two
separate words to produce a single form.
Compounding is very common in English
and German.
E.g. Compound nouns: Bookcase,
doorknob, sunburn
Compound adjectives: low-paid,
good-looking
Blending
The combination of to separate forms to produce
a single form is blending.
BUT Blending is accomplished by taking the
beginning of one word and joining it to the end of
the other word.
E.g.
Smog (smoke + fog)
brunch (breakfast + lunch)
Spanglish (spanish + English)
Clipping
Clipping occurs when a word with more
than one syllable is is reduced to a shorter
form.
E.g. gas (gasoline)
fan (fanatic)
ad ( advertisement)
cont.,
A special type of reduction is hypocorisms:
a longer word is reduced to a single
syllable, then a –y or –ie
E.g. movie (moving picture)
hankie (handkerchief)
Backformation
In backformation, a word of one type
(usually a noun) is reduced to form a word
of another type (usually a verb).
E.g.
Televise
donate
babysit
(television)
(donation)
(babysitter)
Conversion
Conversion is a change in the function of
the word without any reduction.
1. Noun to a verb
2. verb to a noun
3. verb to adjective
butter
to spy
to butter
a spy
see through
a see-through
material
Acronyms
Acronyms are new words formed from the
initial letters of a set of other words.
e.g. CD (compact disk)
VCR (video cassette recorder)
laser
MADD
ATM
Derivation
Derivation is accomplished by the use of affixes.
Affixes
prefixes
added to the
beginning of
a word
un- or dis-
infixes
not used
in standard
English
suffixes
added to the
end of the word
-ful or -less
Multiple Processes
It is possible to trace the operation of
more than one process in the creation of a
particular word.
e.g.
Deli
snowball
See you next class
read chapter 7 please!!