Word formation in Chinese

1. The most common mechanism of word formation in Chinese is Compound, that is by

adding words together to form a new word.
A syllable in Chinese (consisting of a consonant and a vowel or of a vowel only) can be
a word on its own or can form part of another word.
Eg.
xue
(verb, to learn, to study)
shu (verb, to write,
noun: book)
yi ( adj. medical, verb.
to treat
da
(adj. big)
zhong
(adj. middle)
xiao
(adj. small)

sheng
(noun, man)
xuesheng
(student, the studying man)
shusheng
(scholar, bookish man)
yisheng
(doctor)
daxuesheng
(university students
zhongxuesheng
(high school students)
xiaoxuesheng
(primary school students)

2. There are also some prefixes and suffixes that are used to form new words
Eg.
Prefix
fan
(anti-, against)
qin (for, pro)

New word
fan zhan
(anti-war)
fan kong (antiterrorism)
qin mei (proAmerica)

Suffix

xiandaihua
(modernize, modernization)

hua
(change adjectives to verbs
or nouns)

zhunquexing
(accuracy)

xing
( change adjectives or verbs

to nouns)

3. Generally you cant create acronyms in Chinese as the Chinese language is not a
romanised language. But long words can be and are often abbreviated:
Eg.
Original word
fandui kongbuzhuyi
Anti-terrorism
Beijing daxue
Beijing Univesity

Abbreviated word
Fankong
Beida

4. There are a lot of loan words in Chinese. Two of the most recent examples are:
Chinese word
English word
ku
Cool
dadi
Taxi