Chapter Five Word Formation Example hoover hovering electric

Chapter Five Word Formation

• Example: – ‘hoover’ – hovering (electric suction sweeper) invented word, became familiar all over the world – Could have been : ‘spangler, - spanglering, spanglerish, spanglerism… – Why can we understand very quickly new words and accept the usage of different forms of that word? – Because there is a lot of regularity in word formation processes in languages.

Word Formation • • Neologism—a new word in our language and the use of different forms of that new word. • • Etymology– the study of the origin and history of a word is known as its etymology– Latin and Greek. • Thee are many different ways in which new words can enter a language. • Many words used today were considered once a misuse of language, e. g. , handbook, aviation • The constant creation of new terms and the new uses of old terms are a sign of the vitality of language (alive) which is shaped by the need of its users

Coinage • The least common process of word formation • Invention of totally new terms. Trade names for commercial products that become general terms or household names: kleneex, xerox, google, ebay. • After their invention, they tend to become everyday words in the language.

Cont. . • • Eponyms— new words that are based on the name of a person or a place e. g. hoover, sandwich, jeans.

Borrowing • • one of the most common process of word formation. • English language has adopted many words from other languages such as: croissant (French), piano (Italian), sofa (Arabic). • • Other languages borrow words from English such as suupaamaaketto (Japanese), French saying le stress, and le weekend. • • Calque– loan translation (a special type of borrowing): direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. French term gratte-ciel –scrape-sky, Dutch wolkenkrabber –cloud scratcher or German Wolkenkratzer (cloud scraper) all are calques of English skyscraper. Other examples: perros calientes (hot dogs).

Compounding • Joining two separate words to form a single form. • E. g. English compounds– bookcase, sunburn, wallpaper. • A very productive source of new terms

Blending • • Taking the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word. • • E. g. gasoline + alcohol = gasohol; smoke + fog =smog breakfast + lunch = brunch • Also can be used to describe the mixing of languages, e. g. , Spanglish

Clipping • • Reduction of a word/ when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter term • • E. g. Fax (facsimile); ad (advertisement); fan (fanatic); flu (influenza), gym, lab, math, prof • • (a particular type of reduction) Australian and British English produce forms known as hypocorisms. A longer word is reduced to a single syllable then –y or –ie is added, e. g. , movie (moving pictures) telly (television); Aussie (Australian); barbie (barbecue); hankie (handkerchief)

Backformation • • A special type of reduction is called backformation • • Typically a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (usually a verb). • • E. g. the noun Televison – became the verb televise; – donation-donate, – babysitter—babysit; – (nouns ending in the –er sound can easily be turned to verbs) e. g. , sculptor—sculpt; burglars—burgle, peddlers— peddle;

Conversion • • A change in the function of a word, e. g. , when a noun becomes a verb or vice versa; without any reduction. • Also known as ‘category change’ or ‘functional shift. ’ • • E. g. bottle, vacation, butter (nouns came to be used as verbs) – We bottled the jam last night. – Have you buttered the toast. – They’re vacationing in Florida. • • Or verbs can convert into noun, e. g. , guess, spy, must becomes: a guest, a must , a spy • • or Phrasal verbs into nouns: e. g. to print out; to take over becomes: printout; takeover • Verb combinations to a noun, e. g. , want to be-- wannabe

Cont… • • Verbs into adjectives: e. g. see through, stand up – see-through material or a stand-up comedian. • • Adjectives into verbs/nouns: e. g. a dirty floor, an empty room, becomes: to dirty, to empty (verbs) • • Compound nouns become adjectival or verbal functions e. g. the ball park, carpool, microwave • • Up and down used as verbs– up the price or downed a few cokes

Acronyms • • Formed from the initial letters of a set of other words; e. g. CD (compact disk) we pronounce each single letter, • or pronounced as new single words : NATO, NASA, UNESCO, laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), ATM 9 automatic teller machine), PIN (personal identification number)

Derivation • • the most common word formation process in the production of new English words • Derivation— by joining small ‘bits’ of the language which do not have separate listing in the dictionaries. These small bits are called affixes. E. g. (un, mis, pre, ful, less, ish, ism, ness) in words like: – Unhappy, misrepresent, prejudge, joyful, careless, boyish, terrorism, sadness • • Prefixes—added at the beginning of the word. (un-, mis-) • • Suffixes—at the end of the word. (-less, -ish) – E. g. mislead, disrespectful, foolishness • • Infixes– when an affix is incorporated inside a word, not normally used in English but when used indicate aggravating circumstances – e. g absogoddamlutely, godtripledammit, Singabloodypore

Kamhmu • • A language spoken in South East Asia (Better example for ‘infixes’) • They follow a regular pattern whereby the infix –rn- is added to verbs to form nouns. • Verb Noun • see (to drill) srnee (a drill) • toh (to chisel) trnoh (a chisel) • hiip (to eat with a spoon) hrniip (a spoon) • hoom (to tie) hrnoom (a thing with which to tie)

Multiple processes • • Deli – borrowing, delicatessen (German) an then clipped. • • Snowballed— compounding (snow and ball) and then converted from noun to a verb • • Lase– acronyms and then bacformation (laser into lase); • waspish attitude, comes from WASP (white Anglo. Saxon Protestant) lost the capital letters and gained a suffix, -ish in the derivation process • • Yuppie– young urban professional + -ie (hypocorism)