UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DEL ESTADO DE MORELOS

INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN

Hello and welcome to the third week. This time we will be working on lexicalization.
Before getting into the topic, let´s take a look at three terms:

Lexis: Lexis is a term in linguistics referring to the vocabulary of a language. Lexis

is a Greek term meaning "word" or "speech." The adjective is lexical. The study of
lexis and the lexicon, or collection of words in a language, is called lexicology.

Lexicon: According to the Collins dictionary, lexicon is an alphabetical list of the

words in a language or the words associated with a particular subject.

Lexeme: In linguistics, a lexeme is the fundamental unit of the lexicon (or word

stock) of a language. Also known as a lexical unit, lexical item, or lexical word.
In corpus linguistics, lexemes are commonly referred to as lemmas.

Then, the term lexicalization describes the addition of new open-class elements to

a repository of holistically processed linguistic units. That is the creation and
addition of new words in a language.

At the basis of lexicalization are word-formation processes such as affixation,

compounding, or borrowing, which are a necessary precondition for lexicalization.
Still, lexicalization goes beyond word formation in important respects.

There are different ways in which words are created:

1. Coinage: The creation of an entire new word. For example: google,

robotics, Aspirine, etc.
2. Borrowing: is the process by which a word from one language is adapted
for use in another. That is, a word taken from another language is used and
adopted as its original form. Some examples could be:
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INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN

Fiancée - from French

Bureau - from French
Yoga - from Hindi
etc.
3. Calque:  In linguistics, a calque (or loan translation) can be defined as a
word-for-word translation from one language into another. ... For example,
when you take a phrase in French and then literally translate root-for-root or
word-for-word into English.
Examples:
French disque dur calques English hard disk
French carte mère calques English motherboard
French eau de vie calques Latin aqua vitae
French en ligne calques English online

4. Derivation: Affixation or affix addition to words in order to create new

meaning:
Examaple:
happy> un - happy
sad> sad - ness
respect> dis - respect - ful

5. Compounding: The process in which two roots or two words are fixed
together to create a new word. Sometimes, the meaning of these words can
be guessed by knowing the meaning of each of its components and
sometimes it is totally different. Some compounds are created out of phrasal
verbs.
Example:
Rain + bow = rainbow
Hair + net = hairnet
Lip + stick = lipstick
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INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN

6. Blending: Blending is a type of word formation in which two or more words

are merged into one so that the blended constituents are either clipped, or
partially overlap.
Example:
Breakfast + lunch = brunch
Smoke + fog = smog
Motor + hotel = motel

7. Conversion: conversion is a word-formation process that assigns an

existing word to a different word class, part of speech, or syntactic category.
This process is also called zero derivation or a functional shift.
Example:
Drink= beverage or drink= the action
Water= the liquid or water= the action of pouring some water

8. Back-formation: It is the reverse of affixation, being the analogical creation

of a new word from an existing word falsely assumed to be its derivative.
Example:
Television = televise
Edition = edit

9. Clipping: It involves the shortening of a longer word, often reducing it to

one syllable. Many examples are very informal or slang.
Laboratory = lab
Fanatic = fan
Doctor= doc
Internet = net
Science-fiction = sci-fi
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INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN

10. Acronymy: An acronym is a pronounceable word formed from the first

letter (or first few letters) of each word in a phrase or title. The newly
combined letters create a new word that becomes a part of everyday
language. Using shortened forms of words or phrases can speed up
communication.
Example:
NATO: "North Atlantic Treaty Organization"
Scuba: "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus"
Laser: "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation"
GIF: "graphics interchange format"

11. Initialism: Initialisms are abbreviations which consist of the initial (i.e. first)
letters of words and which are pronounced as separate letters when they
are spoken.
Example:
UN= United Nations
UK= United Kingdom
DNA= Deoxyribonucleic Acid
FBI= Federal Bureau of Investigation

12. Onomatopoeia: the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the

sound associated with it (such as buzz or hiss). Onomatopoeia may also
refer to the use of words whose sound suggests the sense. 
Example:
wham!, pow!, biff!, crunch!, tic-tac, fuzz, buzz