Word Formation Processes

Prepared By : CHAN SHERAZ

M TALHA IMRAN
Word Formation Process

• The ‘Word Formation Process’ is regarded as the branch of

Morphology.

• It has a significant role in expanding the vocabulary that helps us

communicate very smoothly.

• The main objectives of the word-formation process are to form

new words with the same root by deploying different rules or
processes.
Why do we need new words?

• Because of new inventions and changes.

• Language is dynamic, not static.
• Vast amount of new inventions made in the 20th
and 21st century.
• To communicate smoothly.
• To meet the needs of everday communication.
ESSENTIAL WORD FORMATION
PROCESSES
• Derivation
• Compounding
• Blending
• Clipping
• Abbreviation
• Borrowing
• Acronym
• Conversion
• Back Formation
DERIVATION
• ''The process of forming new words by adding affixes
is called derivation.''

• Form new words (generally of a different category) from

existing words.

• Affixes are attached to the main forms to create a new

word.

• Affixes (prefixes or suffixes) are

regarded as bound morphemes.
Examples
EXAMPLES

BASE FORMS NEW WORDS

Connect Disconnect (prefix dis-)

Predict Predictable (suffix ship-)

Lighten Enlighten (prefix En-)

COMPOUNDING

• ''The process of combining two (or more) words to form a new

word is called compounding.''
• It is joining of two separate words to produce a single form.
• Compounds can be written in different ways: as a single word,
with a hyphen, or even as two separate words.
• The combining process is very common in languages
such as German and English.
h EXAMPLES

Words Compounding Words

Head + Ache Headache

Dry + Clean Dryclean

Note + Book Notebook

Air + Port Airport

Rain + Bow Rainbow

BLENDING

• Blending (the action of mixing something).

• ''The process of combining the beginning of one word and the end
of another word to form a new word is called blending.''

• It is generally a process in which two lexical bases are blended

together.
h EXAMPLES

Words Blending

Breakfast + Lunch Brunch

Gigantic + Enormous Ginormous

Television + Marathon Telethon

Smoke + Fog Smog

Binary + Digit Bit

CLIPPING

• ''The process of reducing a word of more than one syllable to a shorter form is
called Clipping.''

• In contrast to back-formation (reducing word to shorter version) it keeps the

original meaning.

• There are four types of Clipping:

1. Back clipping
2. Fore clipping
3. Middle clipping
4. Complex clipping
 EXAMPLES

TYPE How it Works? Examples

Back Clipping Removes the end part of a word. Examination = Exam

Gasoline = Gas
Fore Clipping Removes the beginning part of a word. Robot = Bot

Alligator = Gator
Middle Clipping Reserve the middle position. Influenza = Flu

Head shrinker = Shrink

Complex Removes multiple pieces form multiple Optical art = op art
words.
Clipping Organization man = Org-man
ABBREVIATION

• Abbreviation is another famous and widely used word-formation

method used to shorten a word or phrase.
• ''It is the process in which a short form of a word or phrase, made
by leaving out some of the letters or by using only the first letter
of each word''
• They assist in making text easy to read.
h EXAMPLES

Words Abbreviations

Junior Jr.

Mister Mr.

Department Dept.

Master of Arts M.A

North N
BORROWING (the action of taking something)

• ''The process of taking words from other languages is

called borrowing.''
• One language may possess words for which there are no equivalents in
the other language.
• The word that is borrowed is called a borrowing, a borrowed word, or
a Loanword.
• There may be words for objects, social, political, and cultural
institutions and events which are not found in the culture of the other
language.
Examples
EXAMPLES

WORDS BORROWED FROM

Algebra Arabic

Murder French

Pizza Italian
ACRONYM

• The process in which a new word is formed from the initial letters
of other words is called Acronym.
• In it an initialism is pronounced as word.
• Initialism

• For example ''pin'' is an initialism for personal identification

number.
Examples
EXAMPLES

ACRONYMS WORDS/PHRASES

HIV Human Immudeficiency Virus

ASAP As early as possible

LOL Lots of laugh

AWOL Absent without leave

CONVERSION

• ''The process of changing the function of a word, such as a noun to

a verb, as a way of forming new words is called conversion .''
• In conversion, a word of one grammatical form converts into
another without changing a spelling.
• For example 'Google' is termed as noun first, then to verb 'google
it'.
• It is also known as ''category change'' or ''functional shift''.
m EXAMPLES

• She heated her lunch in the microwave (noun).

Noun to • -She microwaved (verb) her lunch
verb

• Television
Noun to • -televised
verb

• Dirty
• -To dirty
Adjective
to verb
BACK FORMATION

• ''The process of reducing a word such as a noun to a shorter version and

using it as a new word such as a verb is called Back formation.''
• In it we eleminates the actual derivational affix from the main form to
create a new word.
• However back formation is contrary to derivation in terms of forming new
words.
h EXAMPLES

BASE FORMS BACK FORMATION

Obsessive Obsess

Snowy snow

Worker work

Editor edit

Television televised
Conclusion

• Now we know that word formation processes are the methods in

which words are formed by depolying different types of rules.
• We can create new words by using before mentioned word
formation methods.
• So finally, if we take a look around, we will see a mass of new
words surrounding us.
• We need to do one thing: we have to follow the fundamental rules
of word formation.
THE END