UALL 2013

MORPHOLOGY AND
SYNTAX
WORD FORMATION PROCESSES
BY: SABRINA JABAKANNY &
CASSANDRA RASHIKA
 WORD FORMATION
PROCESSES
 When long words are made into simpler words
or the creation of completely new words
 A combination of various morphemes that
have to comply with the rules of the English
Language.
 There are more than 22 types of word
formation processes.
 TYPES OF WORD FORMATION
PROCESSES
 Coinage  Reduplication
 Borrowing  Agglutination
 Compounding  Onomatopoeia
 Blending  Incorporation
 Clipping  Semantic Loan
 Backformation
 Conversion
 Acronyms
 Folk etymology
 COINAGE
 When new terms are invented
 Mostly found in the trade department
 E.g.: aspirin (a kind of medicine to reduce pain
and fever), Kleenex (a brand promoting
various types of tissue), nylon (a kind of
synthetic fabric ),Xerox (copier machine)
 BORROWING
 Using words from other languages
 Mostly these words are French, Italian, Dutch, etc.
 ‘colour’ (Old French)
 ‘dragon’ (Greek)
 ‘cute’ (American)
 ‘damsel’ (Latin)
 ‘jam’ (British)
 ‘maiden’ (Scottish and Irish-Gaelic)
 ‘magazine’ (Arabic)
 ‘child’ (Anglo-Saxon)
 COMPOUNDING
 When joining two separate words to make it
one whole word.
 finger + print = fingerprint
 Sun + burn = sunburn
 Hard + ware = hardware
 There are also four types of compound
classifications. The following are
Types of Explanation Examples
compounds
Endocentric When the second word ‘Dog + house’ =
of the whole word doghouse
explains its purpose
When the word is a ‘white-collar’ = someone
Exocentric of socioeconomic status
metaphor (Wikipedia.com)

Copulative When the word is ‘Sleepwalk’

meant literally

Appositional When the two ‘teacher-student’.

words are polar Opposite
opposites, but still occupations, but
in the same still under the
category educational field
 BLENDING
 Combines two words to make a new word, but
in this case, the beginning of the word is
combined into the second word.
 ‘brunch’ (breakfast + lunch)
 ‘advertorial’ (advertisement + editorial)
 ‘cyborg’ (cybernetic + organism)
 ‘camcorder’ (camera + recorder)
 CLIPPING
 The word is reduced to a certain part. E.g.:
examination = exam.
 Back clipping: when the word is reduced at the back.
E.g.: memorandum = memo
 Fore clipping: when the word is reduced in front.
E.g.: telephone = phone.
 Middle clipping: when the word is reduced both in
the front and at the back. E.g.: influenza = flu.
 Complex clipping: when two words are clipped
together. E.g.: situational comedy = sitcom.
 FOLK ETYMOLOGY
 A story of how a
particular word came to
be as it is known today.
 ‘Bachelor’: In Medieval
Latin, it meant ‘junior
knight’. Currently it’s
used to someone who is
a university degree
holder or a male who is
single.
 Example: BIKINI
 In 1946, an atom bomb
exploded in an island
called Bikini. Then, in
France, a newspaper
report carried a story of
someone wearing a two-
piece swimsuit, saying
“The French…have a new
suit planned…twice as
wide as a piece of string…
it’s so explosive they call it
the Bikini,” (Waterloo
Daily Courier, June 26,
1947)
 Example: LIMOUSINE
 Originally known as an
ordinary cape worn in a
place called Limousin,
France. People saw this
resemblance of this
garment with the motor
car which had a canopy.
In 1900, it became known
as luxurious cars which
had a chauffer in front
and a partition for the
passengers at the back.
 Example: FUDGE
 Now known as a sweet, it used to be known as
a term to insult politicians, who were often
accused of sugarcoating the facts. In the 17 th
century, it later meant ‘to merge together’ or
‘to manipulate facts and figures’. In the
1980’s, people began to enjoy the fudge as a
sweet, as it does ‘merge’ the butter, sugar,
milk and cream to make the sweet.
BACKFORMATION
It is a process that creates a new word
by removing a real or supposed affix
from another word.

For example, the noun resurrection

was borrowed from Latin, and the
verb resurrect was then back formed
hundreds of years later from it by
removing the -ion suffix.
 Other examples
 Isolated = isolate (removal of the [-d])
 Sightseeing = sightsee (removal of the [-ing])
 Orientation = orientate (removal of the [-ion])
 Babysitter = babysit (removal of the [-ter])
 Biceps = bicep (removal of the [-s])
 Bulldozer = bulldoze (removal of the [-r])
 Choreography = choreograph (removal of the
[-y])
 CONVERSION
It is also called zero derivation, is a
kind of word formation; specifically,
it is the creation of a word from an
existing word without any change in
form.
For example when a noun becomes a
verb
- Butter – Have you buttered the
toast?
 Other examples
 ‘Green’ (adj) = ‘putting green’ (for golfing)
 ‘Host’ (noun) = ‘host a party’
 ACRONYMS
- Acronyms are formed by taking the initial
letters of a phrase and making a word out of
it. The classical acronym is also
pronounced as a word.
-- For example- Scuba was formed from

Self-Contained Underwater Breathing

Apparatus.
 Other examples:
 FUCK: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.
 NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
 FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions
 NAACP: National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People.
 DC Comics: Detective Comics Comics
 CNN: Cable News Network
 LBD: Little Black Dress.
REDUPLICATION
-this occurs in Malay in which the
base word is repeated.

For example- anak-anak

- tuan-tuan
Reduplication can also occur in other
languages. There are three ways in
this can be achieved.
 Initial reduplication (Agta): [ɸuɾab]
‘afternoon’ →[ɸuɸuɾab] ‘late afternoon’ [ɸu-
ɸuɾab] 
 Final reduplication (Dakota): [waʃte] ‘good’
(singular) → [waʃteʃte] ‘good’ (plural) [waʃte-
ʃte]
 Internal reduplication (Samoan): [alofa] ‘they
love’→ [alolofa] ‘he loves’ [(a-lo-lofa)]
 (wikipedia.com)
AGGLUTINATION
- It is the morphological process of adding
affixes to the base of a word.
-For example- houses ([-s])

In some languages, words are combined

together to make one whole long word.
Languages that use agglutination widely
are called agglutinative languages.
 Examples of Agglutination
 Tamil: “sokkathangam” [Pure Gold.]
 Turkish:
“Avustralyalılaştıramadıklarımızdan” is
pronounced as one word, which in English
actually means “one of those whom we could
not see resemble the Australian people”
 Japanese: “tabetakunakatta” means “(subject)
did not want to eat”
 (wikipedia.com)
ONOMATOPOEIA
is a word or a grouping of words that
imitates the sound it is describing, such
as animal noises.

For example -"oink" or "meow", or

suggesting its source object, such as
"boom", "zoom", "click", "bunk",
"clang", "buzz", "zap", or "bang".
 INCORPORATION
 A word formation process in which the word
starts out as a verb before it becomes a
compound.
 Usually goes hand in hand with the direct
object and the adverbial modifier.
 There are two types of incorporation
processes.
 Instrumental incorporation: ‘breastfeed’
 Direct object: ‘babysit’
 SEMANTIC LOAN
 Adding additional meanings to an already existing
word.
 Some of the meanings can be similar, like in the case
of the word ‘realize’
 ‘Realize’ not only means ‘…to be aware,’ it now has
expanded to mean ‘to make something happen,’
 However, words can have different meanings. Like
the word ‘star’, it not only has an astronomical
meaning to the word, it can refer to a pop singer or an
actress (‘movie star’)
 Other examples:
 Brilliance: Can either mean a person’s cleverness or
how bright a certain shiny object is.
 Brief: Can either mean ‘something that lasts for a
short time’ or to ‘give specific information to
someone about a particular topic’
 Easy: Can be something that has no difficulty in
accomplishing or something that feels relaxing and
comfortable.
 CONCLUSION
- Word formation is the creation of a new
word.

Word formation is sometimes contrasted

with semantic change, which is a change
in a single word's meaning.