Welcome to the flashcards tool for ‘The Study of Language, 5 th edition’,

Chapter 5

This is designed as a simple supplementary resource for this textbook, and

aims to help students grasp the meaning of the core essential terms within the
book. Each term will appear on its own, and you can then click to check the
definition.

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 term:

etymology

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 definition:

the study of the origin and

history of words

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 term:

neologism

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 definition:

a new word

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 term:

borrowing

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 definition:

the process of taking words

from other languages

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 term:

calque

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 definition:

a type of borrowing in which

each element of a word is
translated into the borrowing
language (e.g. gratte-ciel
“scrape sky” for skyscraper)
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 term:

loan-translation

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 definition:

a type of borrowing in which

each element of a word is
translated into the borrowing
language, also called
calque
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 term:

blending

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 definition:

the process of combining the

beginning of one word and the
end of another word to form a
new word (e.g. brunch from
breakfast and lunch)
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 term:

compounding

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 definition:

the process of combining two

(or more) words to form a new
word (e.g. waterbed)

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 term:

backformation

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 definition:

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 (e.g.
babysit from babysitter)
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 term:

clipping

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 definition:

the process of reducing a word

of more than one syllable to a
shorter form (e.g. ad from
advertisement)

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 term:

hypocorism

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 definition:

a word-formation process in
which a longer word is reduced
to a shorter form with -y or -ie at
the end (e.g. telly, movie)

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 term:

acronym

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 definition:

a new word formed from the

initial
letters of other words (e.g.
NASA)

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 term:

conversion

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 definition:
the process of changing the
function of a word, such as a noun
to a verb, as a way of forming new
words, also known as “category
change” or “functional
shift” (e.g. vacation in They’re
vacationing in Florida)
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 term:

coinage

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 definition:

the invention of new words (e.g.

xerox)

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 term:

eponym

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 definition:

a word derived from the name

of a person or place (e.g.
sandwich)

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 term:

affix

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 definition:

a bound morpheme such as un-

or -ed
added to a word (e.g.
undressed)

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 term:

derivation

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 definition:

the process of forming new

words by adding affixes

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 term:

infix

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 definition:

a morpheme that is inserted in

the middle of a word (e.g. -rn-
in srnal)

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 term:

suffix

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 definition:

a bound morpheme added to

the end of a word (e.g. fainted,
illness)

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 term:

prefix

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 definition:

a bound morpheme added to

the beginning of a word (e.g.
unhappy)

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 term:

analogy

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 definition:

a process of forming a new

word to be similar in some way
to an existing word

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