MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN WORD FORMATION

- Also known as word formation processes are the major processes by which words are
formed in language.
- The English word formation processes are Affixation, Compounding, Conversion,
Blending, Clipping, Reduplication, Acronymy, Coinage/Nonce Formation, Back
Formation, Neologism, Inventions, Back Formation and Borrowing.

Affixation

- the process by which bound morphemes are added before, within or after the root/free
morphemes.
- Or, it is the process of word formation by prefixation, infixation and suffixation.
- Through this process, lexical and grammatical information is added to the sense of the
root.
- Prefixes change the meanings of the roots without altering their grammatical statuses.
- Infixes and suffixes mostly do not change the meanings of the roots or the base forms
but give information about number, case, tense etc as they also change the
grammatical classes of the base forms.
- An affix can be made up of a letter, two, three, four, five, six or even seven letters.

Some prefixes and their meanings are the following:

a (not, without) amoral, asymmetrical

ab (not) abnormal
bi (twice, having two) bicycle, bi-camera
contra (against) contra-distinguish
counter (against) counter-argue, counterplot
de (down from, away) decamp, devalue, demystify
dis (apart, asunder, not) disorganize, disbelief, dislodge
ex (former) ex-principal, ex-student
fore (before, in front) fore-tell, forecast, foreword
il, im, in, ir, un (not, against) illegal, impossible, insignificant,
irresponsible, unnecessary
mal (ill, bad) maladjust, maladministration

Others include mis- (against), mono-(single), pan-(all), poly-(many), post-(after), pre-

(before), pro-(for), pseudo-(false), re-(back, again), semi-(half), super-(above, over), tele-(at a
distance) trans-(across, beyond) etc.

Infixes are also referred to as replacive morphemes as they tend to replace other
morphemes/letters in the root form. They are mostly inflectional as they give grammatical
information (i.e. number, tense, case). Examples are ‘e’, ‘oo’, ‘o’, ‘ee’, ‘a’ which all replace
singular and present morphs in women, stood, wrote, teeth and sat, respectively.

Suffixes can be used as inflections or derivations. For instance, in ‘girls’ {s} is an

inflectional suffix because it does not change the word class – a noun. But in ‘beautiful’,
{ful} is a derivational suffix because it has changed the word class from the noun root to an
adjective. Suffixes are classified into types, depending on their functions. These are Noun
class, Verb class, Adjective class and Adverb class suffixes.
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Noun class suffixes convert the base form (usually a verb or an adjective) to a noun. They
include ‘– ance’, –ment’, ‘–ier’, ‘–er’, ‘–or’, ‘–ity’, ‘–ist’, ‘–ness’, ‘–y’, ‘–sion’, ‘–ory’, ‘–ry’,
‘–ian’, ‘–ism’, etc as in appear+ance, govern+ment, cash+ier, teach+er, sail+or, total+ity,
journal+ist, fair+ness, honest+y, revise+ion, obsverve+tory, slave+ry, politic+ian,
capital+ism respectively.

Adjective class suffixes convert the base form (usually a noun or a verb) to adjectives.
They include such examples as ‘–al, ‘–ic, ‘–ish’, ‘–ible’, ‘–able’, ‘–ful’, ‘–ous’, ‘–less’, ‘–
lent’, ‘–ive etc as in option+al, Islam+ic, fool_ish, digest+ible, comfort+able, success+ful,
comtempt+ous, fear+less, fraud+ulent and act+ive respectively.

Verb class suffixes change the root form (usually a noun or an adjective) to verbs.
Examples of these are ‘–en’, ‘–ify’, ‘–ize’, ‘–ate’, etc as in glad+en, solid+ify, actual+ize and
valid+ate respectively.

Adverb class suffixes also change the root form (often an adjective sometimes a noun)
to adverbs. Examples are ‘–ly’, ‘–ward’, ‘–wise’ as in smart+ly, way+ward, clock+wise
respectively.

Compounding

- involves the combination of two or more words.

- The combined forms can be with a hyphen or without it.
- Three types of compounds are identifiable: solid, hyphenated or two-word forms.
- Solid compounds – classroom, grandchild, graveyard.
- hyphenated compounds – court-martial, frame-up, half-truth.
- two-word compounds – funny bone, gold plate, white house etc.
- To know what type is applicable or correct in a given context, a student needs to
consult current dictionaries of English.
- Compounds may be nouns such as carry-over, stronghold, off day, father-in-law, or
adjectives such as off-guard, first-rate, run-of-the-mill, chicken-hearted, or adverbs
such as offhand, inside out, non-stop or verbs such as gainsay, leapfrog, jump-start
etc.

Conversion

- the process of forming a new word from an existing word merely by changing the
grammatical class of the latter word.
- Also called Zero Derivation.
- Conversion may or may not involve the change of stress patterns.
- The same word assumes different classes in conversion.
- Examples of this include man (n), man (v), pencil (n), pencil (v), work (n), work (v),
empty(v), empty (adj), graduate (n), graduate (v), graduate (adj).

Light: Switch on the light (noun). Light the lamp.

Back: He is carrying a bag on his back (noun)
You must back me up (verb)
The plane flew back in no time (adverb)
He left by the back door (adj)

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 Conversions involving stress shift

1. CONduct (Noun) and conDUCT (verb)

2. SUBject (Noun) and subject (verb)
3. CONtrast (Noun) and contrast

Conversions due to change in spellings or if the final consonant is voiced.

1. advice (Noun) and advise (verb)

2. house

1. Noun to Verb

access name dot telephone

pocket shape break ship
film fuel host
practice hammer rule

2. Adjective to Verb

goofproof black
brown slow

3. Verb to Noun

fear alert call turn

feel laugh command rise
hope visit cover
attack increase start

4. Preposition to Adverb/Noun/Verb

 up  outside
 out  inside
5. Onomatopoeic expression to Verb

 buzz  moo
 beep  screech
 woo

Blending

- In blending, two words are brought together to form a new word.

- It is a process that involves collapsing one form into the other.
- two words are merged based not on morpheme structure but on sound structure
- Examples of blends are smog (smoke+fog), transistor (transfer + resistor), telecast
(television + broadcast) motel (motor + hotel), forex (foreign + exchange),

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 computeracy (computer + literacy), brunch (breakfast + lunch), mockumentary
(mock+documentary).
- In forming blends, either affixes or syllables of the words are removed to make the
two words ‘agreeable’.

Clipping

- Clipping is the morphological process of word shortening to the effect that words
retain their original meanings.
- different from abbreviation in the sense that a clip is not periodized as abbreviated
forms are.
- Clipping is done essentially by removing initial and/or final syllables.
- An interesting example of clipping is in the word ‘advertisement’ which is clipped as
‘advert’ and then clipped further as ‘ad’.
- Clipping arises from the innate tendency to economise words.
- Clips are mostly used in informal contexts.
- Other examples of clips are bus (omnibus), piano (pianoforte), flu (influenza), fridge
(refrigerator), exam (examination), memo (memorandum), phone (telephone), photo
(photograph), pram (perambulator), lab (laboratory), burger (hamburger).
- Names are often shortened through the process of clipping. For example, Tim
(Timothy), Abdul (Abdullahi) etc.

Reduplication

- Reduplication is the process of repetition of words, a form of compounding.

- Reduplicatives are either partial or total.
- In partial reduplication, the two forms are slightly different from each other as only
a letter or two changes.
- Examples of partial reduplicatives are many, some of which are nitty-gritty, hurly-
burly, helter-skelter, shilly-shally, criss-cross, dilly-dally, hubble-bubble, willy-nilly,
riff-raff, nit-wit, tit-tat, rag-tag, tick-tock, kow-tow, hoity-toity, hocus-pocus, hobnob,
chit-chat, higgledi-piggledy, etc.
- In total reduplication, on the other hand, the same form is repeated.
- Examples of total reduplicatives are not many, some of which include goody-goody,
jaw-jaw, pooh-pooh, eye-eye, bye-bye, etc.

Acronymy

- Acronymy is the process of word formation in which words are formed from the
initial letters of phrases.
- This is also referred to as abbronymy, a blend of abbreviation and acronymy.
- Acronyms/abbronyms are either simple or complex.
- Simple Acronyms – easily determinable from the phrases they represent.
- E.g. BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), UNO (United Nations Organisation)
NEPA (National Electric Power Authority), etc.
- Complex Acronyms – not easily determinable from their full forms.
- E.g. FORTRAN (Formular Translator) NITEL (Nigerian Telecommunication
Limited) COMSKIP (Communications Skills Project) etc. Many acronyms are also
pronounced as words, for eg. Radar, laser etc.

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 - Memos, email, and text messaging are modes of communication that give rise to both
clippings and acronyms, since these word formation methods are designed to
abbreviate. Some acronyms:
- NB - Nota bene, literally 'note well', BRB - be right back (from 1980s, 90s), FYI - for
your information (from mid 20th century), LOL - laughing out loud (early 21st
century) - now pronounced either /lol/ or /el o el/, ROFL - rolling on the floor
laughing

Nonce Formation/Coinage

- a morphological process by which a language user deliberately invents or accidentally

uses a particular word in a particular context.
- If a speaker does not remember an exact word that can really express his thought, he
coins an alternative word, known as “nounce form”.
- In writing, nounce forms or coined words are always enclosed in inverted commas to
indicate their specific or special use.
- For example, David Crystal once wrote that a student who was having problems with
linguistics said he was ‘linguistified’ to express how confounding the course was to
him.
- Xerox, aspirin, nylon – names of commercial products becoming general terms
- Sandwich, jeans, watt – name of a person or a place – Eponyms.

Back Formation

- the process of shortening longer words by removing the suffixes.

- Back-formation is the process of creating a new lexeme, usually by removing actual
or supposed affixes.
- Back forms derive from bi-syllabic or poly-syllabic words, especially agentive nouns,
subsequently turned to the base forms.
- Examples: drive (from driver), office (from officer) assemble (from assemblance),
debt (from debtor) revise (from revision), convert (from converter).
- ‘babysit’ from babysitter, ‘hawk’ from hawker, ‘beg’ from beggar, ‘kempt’ from
unkempt, peddle from pedlar, edit from editor
- The resulting neologism is called a back-formation, a term coined by James Murray in
1889.
- Back-formation is different from clipping – back-formation may change the part of
speech or the word's meaning, whereas clipping creates shortened words from longer
words, but does not change the part of speech or the meaning of the word.

Neologism

- Neologism is the process in which old words are made to assume new senses because
of relative semantic contiguity.
- In neologism, already established words are invested with new meanings.
- For example, Pyrrhic victory (victory attained at a very high cost), waterloo (to meet
one’s waterloo is to meet one’s downfall) and marathon (any activity which consumes
energy over a long period, e.g. marathon lecture), the meanings of which are
originally historical.

Borrowing/ Loan Words

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 - Borrowing involves taking lexical items from one language to another.
- Borrowed words are known as loan words which are made to adapt to the
phonological structure, more or less, of the borrower (English) language.
- English has many loan words from virtually all languages. Examples include
restaurant (French), mosquito (Spanish) mammoth (Russian), alcohol (Arabic), tea
(Chinesse), guru (Hindi), bazaar (Persian) and tycoon (Japanese).

Echoism/Onomatopoeia

Echoism results when words are formed by the sounds that suggest their meaning. Clang,
whisper, thunder, cuckoo, click, tick, murmur are examples.

Antonomasia (Commonization)

- Derivation of words from names of persons and places.

- a proper name enters the language as a common noun, i.e. it ceases to be capitalized
- ‘sideburns’ from the name of an American general Ambrase E. Burnsides who
sported a set of side whiskers.
- Eg: boycott from Captain Boycott, guy from Guy Fawkes, limousine from Limousine
province in France.

Compounding.
Compounding is joining together 2 or more stems.

1- without a connecting element: e.g.: heartbreak, headache.

2- with the vowel/consonant like a linking element: e.g.: craftsman.

3- with the preposition/conjunction as a linking element: e.g.: down-and-out.

Traditionally three types are distinguished: neutral, morphological and syntactic.

In neutral compounds the process of compounding is realised without any linking elements:
e.g.: blackbird, shop-window, sunflower, bedroom, tallboy etc.

There are three subtypes of neutral compounds depending on the structure of the
constituent stems. It was - the subtype which may be described as simple neutral
compounds: they consist of simple affixless stems.

- Compounds which have affixes in their structure are called derived or derivational
compounds: e.g.: absent-mindedness, blue-eyed, golden-haired, broad-shouldered,
lady-killer etc.

- The third subtype of neutral compounds is called contracted compounds. These

words have a shortened contracted stem in their structure: TV-set, -program, -show
etc., V-day for Victory day, G-man for Government man etc.

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Morphological compounds are few in number. This type is non-productive. It is represented
by words in which two compounding stems are combined by a linking vowel or consonant, e.
g. Anglo-Saxon, handiwork etc.

In syntactic compounds we once find a feature of specifically English word-structure. These

words are formed from segments of speech, preserving in their structure numerous traces of
syntagmatic relations typical of speech: articles, prepositions, adverbs, as in the nouns lily-of-
the-valley, Jack-of-all-trades, good-for-nothing, mother-in-law etc.

Composition is the way of wordbuilding when a word is formed by joining two or more
stems to form one word. The structural unity of a compound word depends upon : a) the unity
of stress, b) solid or hyphonated spelling, c) semantic unity, d) unity of morphological and
syntactical functioning. These are characteristic features of compound words in all languages.
For English compounds some of these factors are not very reliable. As a rule English
compounds have one uniting stress (usually on the first component), e.g. hard-cover, best-
seller. We can also have a double stress in an English compound, with the main stress on the
first component and with a secondary stress on the second component, e.g. blood-vessel. The
third pattern of stresses is two level stresses, e.g. snow-white, sky-blue. The third pattern is
easily mixed up with word-groups unless they have solid or hyphenated spelling.

Spelling in English compounds is not very reliable as well because they can have different
spelling even in the same text, e.g. war-ship, blood-vessel can be spelt through a hyphen and
also with a break, iinsofar, underfoot can be spelt solidly and with a break. All the more so
that there has appeared in Modern English a special type of compound words which are
called block compounds, they have one uniting stress but are spelt with a break, e.g. air
piracy, cargo module, coin change, pinguin suit etc.

The semantic unity of a compound word is often very strong. In such cases we have idiomatic
compounds where the meaning of the whole is not a sum of meanings of its components, e.g.
to ghostwrite, skinhead, brain-drain etc. In nonidiomatic compounds semantic unity is not
strong, e. g., airbus, to bloodtransfuse, astrodynamics etc.

English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntactical functioning. They are
used in a sentence as one part of it and only one component changes grammatically, e.g.
These girls are chatter-boxes. «Chatter-boxes» is a predicative in the sentence and only the
second component changes grammatically.

There are two characteristic features of English compounds:

a) Both components in an English compound are free stems, that is they can be used as words
with a distinctive meaning of their own. The sound pattern will be the same except for the
stresses, e.g. «a green-house» and «a green house». Whereas for example in Russian
compounds the stems are bound morphemes, as a rule.

b) English compounds have a two-stem pattern, with the exception of compound words
which have form-word stems in their structure, e.g. middle-of-the-road, off-the-record, up-
and-doing etc. The two-stem pattern distinguishes English compounds from German ones.

WAYS OF FORMING COMPOUND WORDS.

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Compound words in English can be formed not only by means of composition but also by
means of :

a) reduplication, e.g. too-too, and also by means of reduplicatin combined with sound
interchange , e.g. rope-ripe,

b) conversion from word-groups, e.g. to micky-mouse, can-do, makeup etc,

c) back formation from compound nouns or word-groups, e.g. to bloodtransfuse, to

fingerprint etc ,

d) analogy, e.g. lie-in (on the analogy with sit-in) and also phone-in, brawn-drain (on the
analogy with brain-drain) etc.

Classifications of English Compounds

1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:

a) nouns, such as : baby-moon, globe-trotter,

b) adjectives, such as : free-for-all, power-happy,

c) verbs, such as : to honey-moon, to baby-sit, to henpeck,

d) adverbs, such as: downdeep, headfirst,

e) prepositions, such as: into, within,

f) numerals, such as : fifty-five.

2. According to the way components are joined together compounds are divided into:

a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any joining
morpheme, e.g. ball-point, to windowshop,

b) morphological where components are joined by a linking element : vowels «o» or

«i» or the consonant «s», e.g. («astrospace», «handicraft», «sportsman»),

c) syntactical where the components are joined by means of form-word stems, e.g.
here-and-now, free-for-all., do-or-die .

3. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:

a) compound words proper which consist of two stems, e.g. to job-hunt, train-sick,
go-go, tip-top ,

b) derivational compounds, where besides the stems we have affixes, e.g. ear-
minded, hydro-skimmer,

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 c) compound words consisting of three or more stems, e.g. cornflower-blue,
eggshell-thin, singer-songwriter,

d) compound-shortened words, e.g. boatel, tourmobile, VJ-day, motocross,

intervision, Eurodollar, Camford.

4. According to the relations between the components, compound words are subdivided into :

a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic and the
structural centre and the second component is subordinate; these subordinative
relations can be different:

with comparative relations, e.g. honey-sweet, eggshell-thin, with limiting relations,

e.g. breast-high, knee-deep, with emphatic relations, e.g. dog-cheap, with objective
relations, e.g. gold-rich, with cause relations, e.g. love-sick, with space relations, e.g.
top-heavy, with time relations, e.g. spring-fresh, with subjective relations, e.g. foot-
sore etc

b) coordinative compounds where both components are semantically independent.

Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has two functions, e.g.
secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, Oxbridge etc. Such compounds are called
additive. This group includes also compounds formed by means of reduplication, e.g.
fifty-fifty, no-no, and also compounds formed with the help of rhythmic stems
(reduplication combined with sound interchange) e.g. criss-cross, walkie-talkie.

5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into

-compounds with direct order, e.g. kill-joy,

-compounds with indirect order, e.g. nuclear-free, rope-ripe.

Sub-compounds (Tatpurusa) and Co-compounds (Dvandva)

Sub-compounds (Tatpurusa) a class of compound words having as first constituent a noun or noun
stem that modifies the second constituent by standing in the relation to it of possessor (as in
sheepskin), thing possessed (as in motorboat), object of action (as in shoemaker), location or habitat
(as in tree toad), agent (as in man-made), instrument (as in landlocked), or any of numerous other
relations.

Sanskrit. viṣņu-bali = "Vishnu-offering" = "offering to Vishnu", deva-datta = "god-given" = "given by

the gods"

Co-compounds (also known as dvandva, coordinating compounds, and pair words). Co-compounds
are compounds whose meaning is the result of coordinating the meaning of its components, as when
in some varieties of Indian English father-mother denotes ‘parents’. Co-compounds (Dvandva)are a
class of compound words having two immediate constituents that are equal in rank and related to each
other as if joined by and : a compound word belonging to this class (as bittersweet, secretary-
treasurer, socio-political

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Dvandvas are common in some languages such as Sanskrit where the term originates, as well as
Chinese, Japanese, and some Modern Indic languages such as Hindi and Urdu, but less common in
English. Eg. Sanskrit mātāpitarau for 'mother and father', pāṇipādam 'limbs', literally 'hands and feet'
etc. Greek andróyino "husband and wife".

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