Types of Word Formation Processes

Compounding
Compounding forms a word out of two or more root morphemes. The words are called compounds or
compound words.

In Linguistics, compounds can be either native or borrowed.

Native English roots are typically free morphemes, so that means native compounds are made out of
independent words that can occur by themselves. Examples:

mailman (composed of free root mail and free root man)

mail carrier
dog house
fireplace
fireplug (a regional word for 'fire hydrant')
fire hydrant
dry run
pick-up truck
talking-to

In Greek and Latin, in contrast to English, roots do not typically stand alone. So compounds are composed
of bound roots. Compounds formed in English from borrowed Latin and Greek morphemes preserve this
characteristic. Examples includephotograph, iatrogenic, and many thousands of other classical words.

Note that compounds are written in various ways in English: with a space between the elements; with a
hyphen between the elements; or simply with the two roots run together with no separation. The way the
word is written does not affect its status as a compound. Over time, the convention for writing compounds
can change, usually in the direction from separate words (e.g.clock work), to hyphenated words (clock-
work), to one word with no break (clockwork). If you read older literature you might see some compound
words that are now written as one word appearing with unfamiliar spaces or hyphens between the
components.

Another thing to note about compounds is that they can combine words of different parts of speech. The
list above shows mostly noun-noun compounds, which is probably the most common part of speech
combination, but there are others, such as adjective-noun (dry run, blackbird, hard drive), verb-noun (pick-
pocket, cut-purse, lick-spittle) and even verb-particle (where 'particle' means a word basically designating
spatial expression that functions to complete a literal or metaphorical path), as in run-through, hold-over.
Sometimes these compounds are different in the part of speech of the whole compound vs. the part of
speech of its components. Note that the last two are actually nouns, despite their components.

Some compounds have more than two component words. These are formed by successively combining
words into compounds, e.g. pick-up truck, formed from pick-up and truck, where the first component, pick-
up is itself a compound formed from pick andup. Other examples are ice-cream cone, no-fault
insurance and even more complex compounds like top-rack dishwasher safe.

There are a number of subtypes of compounds that do not have to do with part of speech, but rather the
sound characteristics of the words. These subtypes are not mutually exclusive.

Rhyming compounds (subtype of compounds)

These words are compounded from two rhyming words. Examples:

lovey-dovey
chiller-killer

There are words that are formally very similar to rhyming compounds, but are not quite compounds in
English because the second element is not really a word--it is just a nonsense item added to a root word to
form a rhyme. Examples:
higgledy-piggledy
tootsie-wootsie 

This formation process is associated in English with child talk (and talk addressed to children), technically
called hypocoristic language. Examples:

bunnie-wunnie
Henny Penny
snuggly-wuggly
Georgie Porgie
Piggie-Wiggie

Another word type that looks a bit like rhyming compounds comprises words that are formed of two
elements that almost match, but differ in their vowels. Again, the second element is typically a nonsense
form:

pitter-patter
zigzag
tick-tock
riffraff
flipflop

A compound is a lexeme (word or words) that consists of more than one word ( lexeme). For example, Airstrike,
long-haired

1. Characteristics of compounding words

2. 5. The combination words • N+N .lipstick, teapot • A+N. fast food, soft drink • V+ A.
breakfast, • N+ V. sunshine. Babysit • N+A. waterproof
3. 6. Activity • Indicate the structure of compounding of the following words. 1- roughneck 2-
girlfriend 3-waterproof 4-alongside 5-Bitter- sweet 6-Babysit 7-overwhelming 8-upload 9-look
through 10-short-lived
4. 7. Compounding can be classified into two categories: A-Endocentric. B- Exocentric
5. 8. •A – An endocentric compound consists of a head with the basic meaning of the whole
compound and modifiers which restrict this meaning, for example, doghouse
6. 9. B- Exocentric compounds do not have a head, and their meaning cannot be clearly
guessed from its constituent's part. E.g. white- collar
7. 10. Headedness • Head plays a key role in word formation process for compounding such
as (verbal phrase or Noun phrase). • e,g New book. Go on
8. 11. Headedness Compounds are considered in two features 1- as to whether.. 2- if they
have…
9. 12. • Examples • Bedroom • Teapot
10. 13. Identify the head of the each compounds 1.overseas investor, 2- parks commission, 3-
sales receipt. 4 arms merchant 5- take in, 6-melt down 6- brother- in law
11. 14. Headless compounding • Exocentric compounds: does not contain an element that
functions as the semantic head which modify by noun.
12. 15. • For example: Football, Bluebottle, Butterfingers
13. 16. Headless- copulative compounds Some compounds are called copulative compounds
( coupled semantically). For example, Boyfriend
14. 17. Activity Describe both the syntactic and semantic relationships between the words
that constituents. Butterfingers turncoat Blueprint Bluetooth Loudmouth Bluebell ladybird
15. 18. 2-Clipping • Clipping is a kind of word formation process in which a word is abridged
without changing the original meaning of the word.
16. 19. Four types of clipping: • Back clipping • Fore clipping • Middle clipping • Complex
clipping
17. 20. Clipping • Back clipping is taking away the end of a word as in gas from gasoline. •
Fore-clipping is removing the beginning of a word as in gator from alligator • Middle clipping
is retaining only the middle of a word as in flu from influenza • Complex clipping is removing
multiple parts from multiple words as in sitcom from situation comedy
 18. 21. Activity 1 • Decide how to clip the following words: • examination • gymnasium •
laboratory • mathematics • memorandum • photograph • public house telephone • doctor •
dormitory •
19. 22. Activity -2 • What are the original words from which these shortened words were
created? • Taxi…. • Disco…. • Bus… • Van… • comsat…. • Chute… • Prof… • Mike…
20. 23. • Taxi…. Taxicab • Disco…. Discotheque • Bus… omnibus • Van… caravan • comsat….
Communication satellite • Chute… parachute • Prof… professor • Mike… microphone
In language studies, compounding is the process of combining twowords (free morphemes) to create a new
word (commonly a noun,verb, or adjective). Also called composition. Compounds are written sometimes as one
word (sunglasses), sometimes as two hyphenated words (life-threatening), and sometimes as two separate
words (football stadium). Compounding is the most common type of word-formation in English.
Definition
In morphology, a compound word is made up of two or more words that express a single idea and function as a
single word.
The most common types of compound words in English are compound nouns (e.g., cheeseburger), compound
adjectives ("red-hot temper"), and compound verbs ("waterproof the deck").
The rules for spelling compound words are not consistent. Some compound words are written as a single word
(eyeglasses), some as two (or more) hyphenated words (brother-in-law), and some as two (or more) separate words
(soccer stadium).
COMPOUND NOUN

Definition- Two or more nouns combined to form a single noun.

Compound nouns are written as separate words (grapefruit juice), as words linked by a hyphen (sister-in-law), or
as one word (schoolteacher).A compounded noun whose form no longer clearly reveals its origin (such
as bonfire or marshall) is sometimes called an amalgamated compound. Many place names (or toponyms) are
amalgamated compounds: e.g., Norwich (north + village) and Sussex (south + Saxons).

Definition
A compound adjective is made up of two or more words (such as part-time and high-speed) that act as a single
idea to modify a noun (a part-time employee, a high-speed chase). Also called a phrasal adjective or a compound
modifier.
As a general rule, the words in a compound adjective are hyphenatedwhen they come before a noun (a well-
known actor) but not when they come after (The actor is well known).
Also, compound adjectives formed with an adverb ending in -ly (such as rapidly changing) are usually not
hyphenated.
In English grammar, a compound verb is made up of two or morewords that function as a single verb.
Conventionally, verb compounds are written as either one word ("to housesit") or two hyphenated words ("to water-
proof"). Also called a compound (or complex) predicate.
(2) Similarly, a compound verb can be a phrasal verb or aprepositional verb that behaves
either lexically or syntactically as a single verb.
In such cases, a verb and its particle may be separated by other words ("drop the essay off"). This structure is now
more commonly known as a multi-word verb.
(3) The term compound verb can also refer to a lexical verb along with its auxiliaries; in traditional grammar, this is
called a verb phrase.
Definition

In morphology, an exocentric compound is a compound construction that lacks a head word: that is, the
construction as a whole is notgrammatically and/or semantically equivalent to either of its parts. Also called
a headless compound. Contrast with endocentric compound (a construction that fulfills the same linguistic function
as one of its parts).

Put another way, an exocentric compound is a compound word that's not a hyponym of its grammatical head.
 As discussed below, one well-known type of exocentric compound is the bahuvrihi compound (a term that is
sometimes treated as a synonym for exocentric compound).
Linguist Valerie Adams illustrates exocentricity in this way: "The term exocentric describes expressions in which no
part seems to be of the same kind as the whole or to be central to it. The noun change-over is exocentric, and so are
'verb-complement' noun compounds like stop-gap, along with adjective + noun and noun + noun compounds like air-
head, paperback, lowlife. These compounds . . . do not denote the same kind of entity as their final
elements." Adams goes on to say that exocentric compounds are "a rather small group in modern English"
(Complex Words in English,  2013).
In morphology, a root compound is a compound construction in which the head element is not derived from a verb.
Also called a primary compound or an analytic compound. Contrast with synthetic compound.
Root compounds are made up of free morphemes, and the semantic relation between the two elements in a root
compound is not inherently restricted.
In morphology, a synthetic compound is a type of compound that parallels a verbal construction, with
the head derived from a verb and the other element functioning as an object. Also known as a verbal compound.
Contrast with root compound.
Synthetic compounding is a type of word formation in which compounding and derivation are combined.
According to Rochelle Lieber, "The thing that distinguishes synthetic from root compounds, and therefore that drives
the interpretation of synthetic compounds, is the fact that the second stem of a synthetic compound is by definition
a deverbal derivation, and in deverbal derivations we often have more than one argument available for co-indexing.
Further, those arguments, by virtue of being verbal arguments, have distinctive thematic interpretations which
contribute to the interpretation of any co-indexed stem" (Morphology and Lexical Semantics. Cambridge University
Press, 2004).