ENGL 312

General Linguistics
Dr Abdulqader Alyasin

Chapter 5
Word
Formation
The creation of new words in a
language never stops and
English is one language that is
particularly fond of adding to its
large vocabulary.
Discuss:

1. How are words formed in English?

2. Can you name any word formation processes?
 Neologisms Etymology
1. Borrowing 2. Compounding 3. Clipping 4. Conversion 5. Coinage 6. Derivation 7. Multiple
Processes

Loan-Translation Blending - Hypocorisms - Acronyms - Prefixes

- Backformation - Suffixes
- Infixes
Neologism
s
• Neologism is a new word or expression in a language, or
a new meaning for an existing word or expression.
• Murray Spangler invented a device and called it an
electric suction sweeper.
• He later sold it to a businessman, William Hoover.
• Hoover’s company produced the first machine called a
"Hoover.”
•Not only did the word hoover (without a capital letter)
become as familiar as vacuum cleaner all over the world, but
in Britain, people still talk about hoovering their carpets.
Etymology
• The study of the origin and history of a word is known as
its
etymology.
• It is a term which comes to us through Latin, but has its origins in
Greek (e´tymon “original form” + logia “study of”).
• When we look closely at the etymologies of everyday words, we soon
discover that there are many different ways in which new words can
enter the language.
In this chapter, we will explore some of the basic processes by which
new words are created.

1. Borrowing
2. Compounding
3. Clipping
4. Conversion
5. Coinage
6. Derivation
7. Multiple processes
1. Borrowing
Borrowing: the taking over of words from other languages.
(Technically, it's more than just borrowing because English doesn't give them back.)

• English borrows form other languages:

Examples:

• Sometimes a new sound/phoneme comes along with new words.

Example:
The voiced fricative /ʒ/ became part of English through borrowed French words
such as measure and rouge.
• Sometimes a new sound/phoneme comes along with new words.
Example:
The voiced fricative /ʒ/ became part of English through borrowed French
words such as measure and rouge.

• Other languages borrow terms from English, as in the Japanese use of

suupaa or suupaamaaketto ("supermarket") and taipuraitaa
("typewriter").
Borrowing-Loan Translation
a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language

• A special type of borrowing is described as loan-translation or calque (/kælk/).

Examples:
• Interesting examples are the French term gratte-ciel, which literally translates
as “scrape-sky,” the Dutch wolkenkrabber (“cloud scratcher”) or the German
Wolkenkratzer (“cloud scraper”), all of which were calques for the English
skyscraper.
• The English word superman is thought to be a loan-translation of the German
Ubermensch.
• The term loan-word itself is believed to have come from the German Lehnwort.
 2. Compounding
a joining of two separate words to produce a single form.

• It is very common in languages such as German and English, but much

less
common in languages such as French and Spanish.
Examples:
• Common English compound nouns:
bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook, wallpaper,
wastebasket,
waterbed….etc.
• Compound adjectives:
good-looking, low-paid

•Compound adjectives + noun:

a fast-food restaurant a full-time job
Blending
The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term, typically by
taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word.

Share examples
Examples:
• smog = smoke + fog • infotainment = information + entertainment
• spork = spoon + fork • telecast = television + broadcast
• fanzine = fan + magazine • brunch = breakfast + lunch
• Spanglish = Spanish + English • motel = motor + hotel
• Oxbridge = Oxford/Cambridge • bit = binary +digit
In a few blends, we combine the beginnings of both words (terms from information
technology)

Examples:
• telex (teleprinter + exchange)
• modem (modulator + demodulator).
 3. Clipping
occurs when a word of more than one syllable (facsimile) is reduced to a
shorter form (fax), usually beginning in casual speech.

Examples: Facsimile >> fax

Hamburger >> burger
Gasoline >> gas
Advertisement >> ad
Influenza >> flu
telephone >> phone

airplane >> plane

• English speakers also like to clip each other's names.
Examples:
Al, Ed, Liz, Mike, Ron, Sam, Sue and Tom.

• Educational environments encourage clipping.

Examples:
• Examination >> Exam
• Gymnasium >> Gym
• Laboratory >> Lab
• Mathematics >> Math
• Professor >> Prof
hypocorism
a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to the end.

A particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and British English,

produces forms technically known as hypocorisms.

Examples: Examples (nicknames):

• movie (moving pictures) • Lizzie, Tony, Susie, Gabby
• telly (television)
• brekky (breakfast)
• Aussie (Australian)
• toastie (toasted sandwich)
• hankie (handkerchief)
backformation
reducing a word of one type (usually a noun) to form a word of another type (usually a verb).

Examples:
• Television (n) televise (v) The noun television first came into use and
then the verb televise was created from it;
• Donation (n) donate (v) ‘televise’ was backformed from ‘television’.
• emotion (n) emote (v)
• Enthusiasm (n) enthuse
(v)
• Option (n) opt (v)
• Liaison (n) liaise (v)
One of the regular sources of backformed verbs in English is based on the pattern worker –
work. If there is a noun ending in –er ( or something close in sound), then we can create a
verb for what the noun –er does.

Examples:
• Editor (n) edit (v)
• babysitter (n) babysit (v)
• beggar (n) beg (v)
• burglar (n) burgle (v)
• peddler (n) peddle (v)
• sculptor (n) sculpt (v)
• swindler (n) swindle (v)
4. Conversion (category change/functional shift)
A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to
be used as a verb (without any reduction).

• It is a change in a function of a word:

Noun as a Verb
Verb as a Noun
Verb as an Adjective
Adjective as a Verb
Adjective as a Noun
Noun as a
verb
bottle We bottled the home-brew last night.
butter Have you buttered the toast?
chair Someone has to chair the meeting.
vacation They’re vacationing in Florida.
dust Did you dust the living room?
glue I'll have to glue it together
referee Who will referee the game?
water Would you water my plants?
Verb as a
Noun
Guess a guess
Spy a spy
Must a must
Phrasal verbs as
Nouns
To print out a printout
To take over a takeover
Verbs as
Adjectives

See through see-through material

Stand up a stand-up comedian

Adjectives as
Verbs

Dirty floor to dirty

An empty room to empty

Adjectives as
Nouns

Some crazy a crazy

Those nasty people the nasty

 5. Coinage

The invention and general use of totally new terms.

Examples:

Typical sources are trade names for Google Aspirin

commercial products that become general Kleenex Vaselin
terms (usually without capital letters) for Nylon e
any version of that product.
Skype kleenex
Yahoo
• The most salient contemporary example of
coinage is the word google.
• Originally a misspelling for the word googol (=
the number 1 followed by 100 zeros), in the
creation of the word Googleplex, which later
became the name of a company (Google), the
term google (without a capital letter) has
become a widely used expression meaning “to
use the internet to find information.”
• New words based on the name of a person, or a place are called
eponyms. When we talked about a hoover (or even a spangler), we were
using an eponym.
• Other common eponyms are sandwich (from the eighteenth-century Earl
of Sandwich who first insisted on having his bread and meat together
while gambling) and jeans (from the Italian city of Genoa where the type
of cloth was first made).
• Some eponyms are technical terms, based on the names of those who
first discovered or invented things, such as Fahrenheit (from the German,
Gabriel Fahrenheit), volt (from the Italian, Alessandro Volta) and watt
(from the Scottish inventor, James Watt).
Eponyms
New words based on the name of a person, or a place.

Examples:
• Hoover
• Sandwich from the eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first insisted
on having his salt beef between two slices of toasted bread while
gambling.

from the Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth

• Jeans was
first made.
 Acronyms
New words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words.

Examples: Examples:
Some acronyms are pronounced by More typically, acronyms are pronounced as new
saying each separate letter: single words:
• UNICEF = United Nations International Children’s
• CD= compact disk Emergency Fund
• USA = The United States of America
• UNESCO = United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
• US = the United States
Cultural Organization
• UN = The United Nations
• ATM = automatic teller machine • NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Agency

• NATO= North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• PIN= Personal Identification Number

• The previous examples have kept their capital letters.
•
Many acronyms simply become everyday terms
Examples:

• laser = light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation

• radar = radio detecting and ranging
• scuba = self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
6. Derivation
Derivation is the most common word-formation process accomplished by
adding small ‘bits’ called ‘affixes’ (prefixes, suffixes, and infixes) to the
words.

Examples:
un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism, -ness.

unhappy, misrepresent, prejudge, joyful, careless, boyish, terrorism, sadness.

mislead
disrespectfu lead, respect, fool are called stem
l
foolishness
• An infix is an affix incorporated inside another word (not normally used
in English).

• It is occasionally used in fortuitous or aggravating circumstances by

emotionally aroused English speakers.

Examples:

• Absobloodylutely

• Hallebloodylujah!

• Tell them I’ve gone to Singabloodypore!

7. Multiple Processes
Most words are formed through multiple processes although in the previous
sections we have concentrated on each of these word-formation processes in
isolation.

Examples:
• deli is borrowed from German (delicatessen) and then clipped.
• snowball is compounded from snow and ball which were combined to form the noun
snowball, then converted into a verb (snowballed, etc.).
• Internet is a product of clipping (international plus network),
blending (inter+net) and conversion (netiquette).
• Some words are created through the process of
analogy in which new words are formed that
are similar in some way to existing words.
Example:
• -ie suffix was added to the acronym

“Young Urban Professional” to produce yuppie.

• Yuppie (1980s) was made possible as a new word
by analogy with the earlier word hippie (1960s)
and another short-lived analogy yippie. (See page.
66)
• However, many of these words might have a brief
life-
span.
Questions