Session 1

Introduction to Linguistic Theory

The words of language

• In spoken language, we don’t pause between most words. So when you hear a sentence
in a language you don’t know, you won’t be able to tell where one word ends and the
next begins.
• Most English speakers can pick out all of the words in thecatsatonthemap because they
can identify all those words.
• We all have a so called “mental dictionary” of all the words we know, which includes
the following information: pronunciation, meaning, orthography, and grammatical
category.

Content words and function words.

• Content words: the words that convey conceptual meaning (nouns, adverbs,
adjectives…)
o Open class: new types of content words can be added all the time. (a new noun
called a “flurg” would be fine.
• Function words: te words that convey grammatical meaning (articles, prepositions,
conjunctions…)
o Closed class: new function words are very rarely added to a language.
→ English does not have a gender neutral third person singular pronoun and rather than
adopt a new pronoun, many people use they instead choosing between he and she

The brain treats content and function words differently.

• Some aphasics are unable to read the function words in and which but can read the
words inn and witch.
• Content words may be inadvertently switched in speech but there is no documentation
of function words being switched in this way.
• Children often omit function words from their speech when learning their first language
(“doggie barking”)

Morphemes
• Morphology: the study of the structure of words and the rules for word formation.
• Morpheme: the minimal units of meaning.

Morphemes can be words on their own and can often be combines with other morphemes to
make words.
 → Book = 1 morpheme.
→ Books = 2 morphemes (noun + plural marker)
Morphology contributes in the development of a language by allowing new words to exist in
that language.

• Discreteness: in all languages, sounds combine to makes morphemes, morphemes

combine to make words and words combine to make sentences.

• Creativity: we can combine morphemes in new ways to create new words that can easily
be understood. (writable, rewritable, unrewritable)

Bound and Free morphemes

• Free morphemes can stand alone. (love can be uttered with no other morphemes added
to it.)
• Bound morphemes cannot stand alone and must be attached to other morphemes. (un-
and ish- are bound morphemes)
• Prefixes: bound morphemes that attach to the beginning of a root
• Suffixes: bound morphemes that attach to the end of a root.
• Infixes: morphemes that are inserted inside a root.
• Circumfixes: affixes that attach to both the beginning and the end of a root.

Language may differ in how they use affixation.

• What is a prefix in one language can be a suffix in another.
• What is an affix in one language may not be expressed with affixation in another.
• What is a separate word in one language may be an affix in another.

Roots and Stems

• Roots: the morpheme base upon which other morphemes are attached to create complex
words: un-love-able.
• Stems: once an affix has been attached to a root, the result is called a stem to which
more morphemes may be attached: un-lovable.
• Bound roots: roots that cannot stan alone and only occur in combination with other
morphemes (ceive: receive, perceive, deceive)

Derivational morphemes
They change the meaning or part of speech of a root:
• Adding -un to the word do changes the meaning drastically.
 • Adding -ish to the noun boy creates the adjective boyish.
Derivational morphemes carry semantic meaning and are like the affix version of content
words.

Rules of word formation

• When a new word is created through derivation, other possible derivations may be
blocked. (“Communist” exists. We don’t need communite or communian)
• Some derivations trigger pronunciation changes while others do not.
→ specific → specificity
→ bake → baker

• Inflectional morphemes only have a grammatical function (similar to function words)

and never change the part of speech of the root → waited, waits, waiting…
• They are always suffixes in English and always follow any derivational morphemes →
commit + ment = commit + ment + s but not commit + s + ment.
• Inflectional morphemes are productive, they apply freely to almost any appropriate
base. → most nouns will take the inflectional suffix -s to make a plural noun
→ only some nouns will take the derivational suffix -ize to make a verb

Hierarchical structure of words

Morphemes are added to a base in a fixed order which reflects the structure of a word.
Unsystematic = un + system + atic

Adjective

un- adjective

noun atic

system

The example of unsystematic represents the application of two morphological rules:

Noun + atic = adjective
Un + adjective = adjective
In the case of unsystematic, this is the only possible hierarchy as “unsystem” is not a word

The hierarchical structure of words can help disambiguate ambiguous words. “Unlockable”
could mean “not able to be locked” or “able to be unlocked”.

Rule productivity
Derivational affixes are productive to different extents:
• able can be affixed to any verb to create an adjective.
• un is most productive for adjectives derived from verbs and words with polysyllabic
bases

Exceptions and Suppletions:

Not all words undergo regular morphological processes. → feet, children… have to be learned
separately since rules don’t apply to them.
When new words enter the language, regular morphological rules generally apply to them.
Borrowed words may retain borrowed morphology → Latin datum and data (not datums)

Lexical gaps
Lexical gaps (Accidental gaps): words that could be in a language but aren’t.
• Some permissible sound sequences have no meaning.
• Some combinations of morphemes are never used (ex: curiouser).

Other morphological processes

• Back-formations: new words can be created through misanalysis of morpheme
boundaries
→ editor → edit
→ television → televise

• Compounds: joining two or more words together to make a new word.

o The rightmost word in a compound noun is the head, which determines its
meaning and part of speech. → noun + adjective = adjective (ex: headstrong)
o The stress on English compounds falls on the first word → greenhouse vs green
house.
o Two-word compounds are the most common but there may not be an upper limit.
• The meaning of a compound is not always the sum of the meaning of its parts.
• Compounding is a universal process for creating new words.
• We can use our knowledge of morphemes and morphological rules to guess the
meaning of words we don’t know. Our guesses may be wrong but they are based on
morphological (mis)analysis → bibliography → “holy geography”
Session 2

Morphology pdf 1; Introduction

This chapter is about words—their relationships, their constituent parts, and their
internal organization. this information will be of value to anyone interested in words,
dictionaries, to anyone involved in developing the vocabularies of native and non-native
speakers of English or teaching English.

Exercise 1. Divide each of the following words into their smallest meaningful parts:
• Landholder: land – hold – er
• smoke-jumper: smoke – jump – er
• demagnetizability: de – magnet – iz – ability

Exercise 2. Each of the following sentences contains an error made by a non-native

speaker of English. In each, identify and correct the incorrect word.

a. I am very relaxed here.

b. I am very boring (bored) with this game.
c. I am very satisfactory (satisfied) with my life.
d. Some flowers are very attracting (attractive) to some insects.
e. Many people have very strong believes (beliefs)
f. My culture is very difference (different) from yours.
g. His grades proof (prove) that he is a hard worker.
h. The T-shirt with that China drawing. (from a T-shirt package from China)

Exercise 3. Some native speakers of English use forms such as seen instead of saw,
come instead of came, aks instead of ask, clumb instead of climbed, drug instead of dragged,
growed instead of grew. Are these errors? If they are, are they the same kinds of errors made
by the non- native speakers of English listed in Exercise 2? If not, what are they

It’s the result of dialect. There are different forms of English but only one standard
English. Whereas the errors in exercise 2 were grammatical errors.

Words and morphemes

In traditional grammar, words are the basic units of analysis. Grammarians classify
words according to their parts of speech and identify and list the forms that words can show
up in.
Words are potentially complex units, composed of even more basic units, called
morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest part of a word that has grammatical function or
meaning (NB not the smallest unit of meaning); we will designate them in braces—{ }. For
example, sawed, sawn, sawing, and saws can all be analyzed into the morphemes {saw} + {-
ed}, {-n}, {-ing}, and {-s}, respectively. None of these last four can be further divided into
meaningful units and each occurs in many other words, such as looked, mown, coughing, bakes.
{Saw} can occur on its own as a word; it does not have to be attached to another
morpheme. It is a free morpheme. However, none of the other morphemes listed just above
is free. Each must be affixed (attached) to some other unit; each can only occur as a part of a
word. Morphemes that must be attached as word parts are said to be bound morphemes.
Affixes are classified according to whether they are attached before or after the form to
which they are added. Prefixes are attached before (step-father,, mis-fortune) and suffixes after
(king-dom,, duck-ling). The bound morphemes listed earlier are all suffixes; the {re-} of resaw
is a prefix.

Exercises

1. Identify the free morphemes in the following words:

Kissed: {kiss}
Freedom: {free}
Stronger: {strong}
Follow: {follow}
Awe: {awe}
Goodness: {good}
Talkative: {talk}
Teacher: {teach}
Actor: {act}

2. Use the words above (and any other words that you think are relevant) to answer the
following questions:

a. Can a morpheme be represented by a single phoneme? Give examples. Yes{awe}

By more than one phoneme? Give examples. Yes. {follow}, {talk}, {teach}
 b. Can a free morpheme be more than one syllable in length? Give examples. Yes {follow}
Can a bound morpheme? Give examples. Yes {talkative}

c. Does the same letter or phoneme—or sequence of letters or phonemes—always represent

the same morpheme? Why or why not? (Hint: you must refer to the definition of morpheme
to be able to answer this.) No, because morphemes can be used in other words

d. Can the same morpheme be spelled differently? Give examples. Yes {read} {read}

e. Can different morphemes be pronounced identically? Give examples. Yes {actor}

{dancer}

f. A morpheme is basically the same as:

• a letter
• a sound
• a group of sounds
• none of the above: because it is a group of sound that has a grammatical function or a
meaning

3. The words district and discipline show that the sequence of letters d-i-s does not always
constitute a morpheme. (Analogous examples are mission, missile, begin, and retrofit.)
List five more sequences of letters that are sometimes a morpheme and sometimes not.
Unacceptable – unit ; development – demotivated ; bilingual ; bisex

Root, derivational, and inflectional morphemes

Root Derivational morpheme Inflectional morpheme

Basic form to which other Morphemes that are added Morpheme that does not
roots are attached. Provides to forms to change the part change the part of speech of
the basic meaning of the of speech of the words the form attached to it. it
words gives it a grammatical
property.
e.g {saw} in sawers e.g {Act} + {or} e.g. The plural {-s}
V + {or} = N

We can regard the root of a word as the morpheme left over when all the derivational
and inflectional morphemes have been removed. For example, in immovability, {im-}, {-abil},
and {-ity} are all derivational morphemes, and when we remove them we are left with {move},
which cannot be further divided into meaningful pieces, and so must be the word’s root.
We must distinguish between a word’s root and the forms to which affixes are attached.
In moveable, {-able} is attached to {move}, which we’ve determined is the word’s root.
However, {im-} is attached to moveable, not to {move} (there is no word immove), but
moveable is not a root. Expressions to which affixes are attached are called bases. While roots
may be bases, bases are not always roots

Morphemes, allomorphs, and morphs

Allomorphs

Cats /s/
Dogs /z/
Sacrifices /iz/

There are three allomorphs to the morpheme {-s}. And so the allomorph is when same
morpheme has different pronunciations. The English plural {-s} can expressed by 3 different
but clearly related phonemic forms /s/ , /z/ and /iz/. The three forms are in complementary
distribution because each occurs when the other cannot. In parallel with phonology, we will
refer to the entity of which the three are variant representations as a morpheme, and the variant
forms of a given morpheme as its allomorphs (variant phonological representation of a
morpheme).

Session 3

1. Can an English word have more than one prefix? Give examples.
Nonrefundable ({fund}: root ;; {non} {re} {able}: derivational morphemes) –
unpremeditated (meditate: root ;; {un} {pre}: derivational morphemes ;; {ed}: inflectional
morpheme)

More than one suffix? For example?

Beautifully ({beauty}: root ;; {full} {y}: derivational morphemes) – mindlessly ({mind}:
root ;; {less} {ly}: derivational morphemes)

More than one of each? Give examples.

Readjustments – unrealistically

Divide the examples you collected into their root, derivational, and inflectional morphemes.

Words

Words are notoriously difficult entities to define. Like most linguistic entities, they look in two
directions—upward toward larger units of which they are parts (toward phrases), and
downward toward their constituent morphemes. This, however, only helps us understand
words if we already understand how they are combined into larger units or divided into smaller
ones, so we will briefly discuss several other criteria that have been proposed for identifying
them
 1- Spelling

In written English text, we tend to regard as a word any expression that has no spaces
within it and is separated by spaces from other expressions. But this is not enough. For instance,
cannot is spelled as one word but might not as two; compounds (words composed of two or
more words; low-income) are inconsistently divided.

2- Words order

Words tend to resist interruption; we cannot freely insert pieces into words as we do into
sentences. For example, we cannot separate the root of a word from its inflectional ending by
inserting another word, as in *sockblue-s for blue socks. Sentences, in contrast, can be
interrupted. We can insert adverbials between subjects and predicates: John quickly erased his
fingerprints. By definition, we can also insert the traditional interjections: We will, I believe,
have rain later today.
In English, the order of elements in words is quite fixed. English inflections, for example,
are suffixes and are added after any derivational morphemes in a word. Different orders of
elements can differ in meaning: compare “John kissed Mary” with “Mary kissed John”.
But we do not contrast words with prefixed inflections with words with suffixed inflections.
English does not contrast, for example, piece + s with s + piece.
In English, too, it is specific individual words that select for certain inflections. Thus, the
word child is pluralized by adding {-ren}, ox by adding {-en}. So, if a form takes the {-en}
plural, it must be a word.

So, words are units composed of one or more morphemes; they are also the units of which
phrases are composed.

The distinction between inflectional and derivational morphemes.

Inflectional Affixes Derivational affixes

All are suffixes May be either suffixes or prefixes
Have a wide range of application. May have a wide or narrow range
e.g most English nouns can be made plural
with {PLU}
All native to English (since English was Many were adopted from Latin, Greek, or
spoken around 500-1000 AD) other languages. (Though others, especially
the suffixes, are native, including {ful}
{like} {fly} and {AG}
Show grammatical relationships Create “new” words.
Don’t change the meaning of words Change the meaning of words
 Inflectional morphemes cannot change the Derivational morphemes can change the
form-class word’s form-class
Inflectional suffixes always follow any Derivational suffixes always precede any
derivational suffix inflectional suffix
Inflectional suffixes have grammatical Derivational suffixes have some lexical
meaning only meaning
Inflectional suffices can combines with Derivational suffixes can combine with a
nearly all members of a single part of speech limited subgroup of bases

8 inflectional morphemes

S for plural Makes singular noun plural Car, cars

S for possessive Inflects a noun for John’s , Ahmed’s
possession
S for third person Inflects a verb to 3rd person He works hard
singular
-ed for past simple Inflects a verb to the past She played yesterday
simple
-ed for past participle Inflects a verb to the past The bag was stolen
participle
-ing for present participle Inflects a verb to the present He was playing football
participle tense
-er for comparative Inflects an adjective for the This room is bigger than the
comparative degree other one
-est for superlative Inflects an adjective for the This room is the biggest in
superlative degree the building
Session 4

Words and their structure

Like many others, English dictionaries contain hundreds of thousands of words, but it
is fairly true to say that most speakers do not know all of these words. Our vocabulary has an
open-ended aspect that makes a great contribution to our using language creatively. anyone
who has learned a language has also learned an astonishingly huge “list of facts encoded in the
form of words” (Akmajian et al. 2010). Even though it may not be a complete one, this long
list of words for any language is called its lexicon (or mental dictionary), an important
component of our linguistic knowledge.
Knowledge of a word is connected with different types of information encoded in our
mental dictionary. For pedagogical purposes, we can list the kinds of information we have
mastered about a word as follows:

1- Pronunciation and Meaning:

We have learned a sound (pronunciation) and a meaning for every word we know. Every word
consists of a sound-meaning unit. There is also an arbitrary relationship (based on chance
rather than being planned or based on reason) between sounds and meanings. Consequently,
we may encounter words that have the same pronunciation and different meanings and words
that have the same meaning and different sounds. we have learned a meaning or several
meanings for almost every word we know.
2- Grammatical Category:

We also store other information about a word, such as whether it is a verb, a noun, an adjective,
an adverb, a conjunction, or a preposition. This kind of information identifies the grammatical
class of the word. And the same word can have different grammatical of syntactical classes.
Unless we had such kind of information in our mental dictionary, we could not know how to
produce grammatically correct sentences. We could not distinguish grammatical sentences
from ungrammatical ones either. We intuitively know how to use words in different types of
sentences thanks to this kind of information

3- Orthography / Spelling:
Every literate speaker of a language also stores information about how to spell the words they
know. However, not every speaker knows – or has to know – the etymology of a word they
know (this kind of historical information encoded in our mental lexicon is not truly
representative of our knowledge of words),

To sum up, knowledge of a word contains various kinds of information we encode in our
mental lexicon. Not only do we know the meaning or several meanings of a word and its
pronunciation when we say we know a word, but we also recognize its grammatical category
as well as its spelling or orthography.

Content and Function words

Content Words Function Words

Nouns (computer, board, peace, school) Articles (the, a/an)
Verbs (say, walk, run, belong) Auxiliaries (can, must, might, will)
Adjectives (clean, quick, rapid, enormous) Demonstratives (this, these, that, those)
Adverbs (quickly, softly, enormously, Quantifiers (many, few, little, some)
cheerfully)
Prepositions (on, with, to, from)
Pronouns (he, she, they, we)
Conjunctions (and, but, or, but)

Lexical and Functional Morphemes

We can divide all free morphemes into two categories. These are lexical and functional
morphemes. Lexical morphemes in English consist of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
that all transmit the content of the message speakers want to convey. Typical examples of such
lexical morphemes are student, teacher, spend, save, short, happy, frankly, and honestly.
Because we can add new lexical morphemes to both English and other languages, they are also
described as content words or open class of words (Çelik, 2007, p. 94). On the other hand,
functional morphemes contain mainly the functional words in English such as articles,
prepositions, conjunctions, quantifiers and pronouns. Some examples are the, a/an, on, with,
but, when, because, few, many, them and she. Since we cannot create new functional
morphemes in the language easily, they are treated as a closed class of words. To sum up, we
can understand the meaning of lexical morphemes in and of themselves, but we can
comprehend the meaning of functional morphemes only when they occur with other words in
a sentence.
Exercises

1- Identify the morphemes for each of the following words, in the order they appear in the
word.

Word Morphemes
Inputs In + put + s
Components Component + s
Elements Element + s
Indo-European Indo + Europe + an
Persian Persia + an
Within With + in
Another An + other
Notable Note + able

2- a- from the following list of words, select five words with inflectional morphology.

Elements Example Egg Such

Gain Feature Off Cram
And Great Ordering Tend
Unkind Have One The
As Linked Morphology These
Some Indo-European Persians Thought
Case Speech Killed Within

b- select five words with derivational morphology

Elements Example Egg Such

Gain Feature Off Cram
And Great Ordering Tend
Unkind Have One The
As Linked Morphology These
Some Indo-European Persians Thought
Case Speech Killed Within
 3- Consider the following Modern Greek and English sentences with have the same
meaning:

O skilos efaye tin pondiki The dog ate the mouse

I pondiki efaye to skilo The mouse ate the dog
Oi skiloi efagan tis pondikes The dogs ate the mice
Oi pondikes efagan tous skilous The mice ate the dogs
To fayito ton skilou The dog’s food
To fayito ton skilon The dogs’ food
To fayito tis pondikis The mouse’s food
To fayito ton pondikon The mice’s food

Identify all the morphemes in the written forms of the corresponding Greek and English words
for dog and mouse.

Session 5

Morphological trees
Abbreviations:
Derivational affix: Daff
Inflectional affix: Iaff
Noun: N
Verb: V
Adjective: A
Adverb: Adv

Examples
Childish:
A

N Daff

Child ish
Helpless:
A

V Daff

Help less

Meaning:
V

1- V Iaff

Mean ing

N
2-
N Daff

Mean ing

Dances:
V

V Iaff

Dance s

N Iaff

Dance s

Dancer:
N

V Daff

Dance r
Dancers

N Iaff

V Daff

Dance r s

Childishness:

A Daff

N Daff

Child ish ness

Helplessness:

A Daff

V Daff

Help less ness

Meaningful

N Daff

V Daff

Mean ing ful

Establishment

V Daff

Establish ment

Antidisestablishmentarianism:

N Daff

N Daff

Daff N

Daff N

V Daff

Anti dis establish ment arian ism

Session 6

Exercises

1- Inflectional versus Derivational Affixes

Is -ly an inflectional or a derivational affix? Like an inflectional affix, it seems to attach to
many (though not all) the members of the class of adjective, as in quickly, helpfully, sadly,
regrettably, softly, sharply, foolishly. If -ly is an inflectional suffix marking the grammatical
category adverb, then it should meet the following criteria for inflectional suffixes:
a. never change the part of speech of a root,
b. follow, not precede, any derivational suffixes,
c. affix to virtually any member of the category adjective.
Does -ly meet these criteria? Try to think of examples which violate these principles.

-ly is a derivational affix because it can change the grammatical class of a word: friend →
friendly

2- A number of morphemes in the following passage are italicized. For each, say whether
it is bound or free; if bound, whether it is an inflection or a derivational affix.

We are at once the most resilient, most resourceful, most restive, most receptive, most radical,
most reactionary people who ever lived. We have had time and the tide for everything but
those moments of thought necessary to reverse the priorities to cause us occasionally to look
before leaping.

{ful}: bound morpheme, derivational

{ive}: bound morpheme, derivational
{ary}: bound morpheme, derivational
{ed}: bound morpheme, inflectional
{thing}: free morpheme
{ies}: bound morpheme, inflectional
{al}: bound morpheme, derivational

3- a- For each of the following words, draw a tree diagram that represents the word’s
morphological structure. Don’t forget to include part of speech labels where appropriate.

a. resolidify
V

Daff V

N Daff
 Re solid -ify

b. unfriendly

Daff A

N Daff

Un friend ly

b- There are at least two possible trees that could be drawn for the word overreaction. Draw
both of them below.

1- N

V Daff

Daff V

Over react ion

2- N

P N

V Daff

Over react ion

Session 7
A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words. A compound noun is usually
[noun + noun] or [adjective + noun], but there are other combinations (see below). It is
important to understand and recognize compound nouns. Each compound noun acts as a single
unit and can be modified by adjectives and other nouns.

There are three forms for compound nouns:

1. open or spaced - space between words (tennis shoe)
2. hyphenated - hyphen between words (six-pack)
3. closed or solid - no space or hyphen between words (bedroom)

Here are some examples of compound nouns:

Pronunciation
Compound nouns tend to have more stress on the first word. In the phrase "pink ball", both
words are equally stressed (as you know, adjectives and nouns are always stressed). In the
compound noun "golf ball", the first word is stressed more (even though both words are nouns,
and nouns are always stressed). Since "golf ball" is a compound noun we consider it as a single
noun and so it has a single main stress - on the first word. Stress is important in compound
nouns. For example, it helps us know if somebody said "a GREEN HOUSE" (a house which
is painted green) or "a GREENhouse" (a building made of glass for growing plants inside).

British/American differences
Different varieties of English, and even different writers, may use the open, hyphenated or
closed form for the same compound noun. It is partly a matter of style. There are no definite
rules. For example, we can find:
• container ship
• container-ship
• containership

If you are not sure which form to use, please check in a good dictionary.

Plural forms of compound nouns

In general, we make the plural of a compound noun by adding -s to the "base word" (the most
"significant" word).

Look at these examples:

Note that there is some variation with words like spoonful or truckful. The old style was to say
spoonsful or trucksful for the plural. Today it is more usual to say spoonfuls or truckfuls. Both
the old style (spoonsful) and the new style (spoonfuls) are normally acceptable, but you should
be consistent in your choice. Here are some examples:
Some compound nouns have no obvious base word and you may need to consult a dictionary
to find the plural:
• higher-ups
• also-rans
• go-betweens
• has-beens
• good-for-nothings
• grown-ups

Note that with compound nouns made of [noun + noun] the first noun is like an adjective and
therefore does not usually take an -s. A tree that has apples has many apples, but we say an
apple tree, not apples tree; matchbox not matchesbox; toothbrush not teethbrush.

With compound nouns made of [noun + noun] the second noun takes an -s for plural. The first
noun acts like an adjective and as you know, adjectives in English are invariable. Look at these
examples:

(check this page for more detailed information

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320556853_Compounding_in_Morphology)
Morphological trees of:

Bus stop:

N N

Bus stop

Football:

N N

foot ball

Firefly:

N V

Fire fly

Full moon:

A N

full moon

Breakfast:

V N

break fast
blackboards

A N

N Iaff

black board s

washing machine

V N

V Iaff

Wash ing machine

swimming pool

V N

V Iaff

swimming ing pool

sunrise

N V

sun rise
haircuts
N

N V

V Iaff

hair cut s

train-spotting

N V

V Iaff

train spot ing

mother-in-law

A NP

P N

mother in law

underworld

P N

under world
Session 9

Word formation processes

*Etymology:
- The study of the origin and history of a word.
- It comes from a Greek word
'etymon' (original form) and
"logia' (study of).
- There are many ways in which words can enter the new language.
- Constant evolution of new words and new uses of old words are signs of vitality and
creativeness in the way a language is shaped by the needs of its users.

*Types of Word Formation:

Borrowing
Compounding
Clipping
Conversion
Coinage (acronym, eponym)
Derivation (prefixes, suffixes, infixes)
Blending
Backformation
Hypocorism
Calque

*BORROWING
Definition: The process of taking words from other languages

PIANO - ITALIAN
PRETZEL - GERMAN
SOFA - ARABIC
TATOO - TAHITIAN
TYCOON - JAPANESE
YOGURT - TURKISH
AMOK - MALAY
CROISSANT - FRENCH
*CALQUE (Loan Translation)
Definition: A type of borrowing in which each element of a word is translated into the
borrowing language.

Skycraper (English) → Dutch: wolkenkrabber (cloud scratcher)

→German: wolkenkratzer (cloud scraper)
Boyfriend (English) → Japanese: boyifurendo
→Chinese: nan pengyu

*COMPOUNDING:
Definition: Examples: the process of combining two (or more) words to form a new word.

water + bed → waterbed

door + knob → doorknob
wall + paper → wallpaper
home + work → homework
pick + pocket → pickpocket
book + case → bookcase

*BLENDING:
Definition: the process of combining the beginning of one word and the end of another word
to form a new word.

Smoke + haze = smaze

Motor + hotel = motel
Television + broadcast = telecast
Information + entertainment = infotainment
Spanish + English = Spanglish
Breakfast + lunch = brunch
Smoke + fog = smog

*CLIPPING
Definition: the process where syllables (rather than morphemes) is omitted.

FACSIMILE > FAX

GASOLINE > GAS
CONDOMINIUM > CONDO
PERMANENT WAVE > PERM
PUBLIC HOUSE > PUB
EXAMINATION > EXAM
BROTHER > BRO
INFLUENZA > FLU

*HYPOCORORISMS
Definition: the process where a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, the -y or -ie is
added to the end.

television > telly

barbecue > barbie
Australian > Aussie
Handkerchief > hankie
kindergarten > kindie
moving picture > movie

*BACKFORMATION
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.

donation (n) → donate (v)

Enthusiasm (n) → enthuse (v)
editor (n) → edit (v)
television (n) → televise (v)
babysitter (n) → babysit (v)

*CONVERSION
Definition: the process of changing the function of a word, such asa noun to a verb (without
any reduction) as a way of forming new words.
• Also known as category
change or functional shift.

to print out > a printout

to take over → a takeover
empty room → to empty
vacation → vacationing
*EPONYM
Definition: A word derived from the name of a person or place).

Sandwich Earl of Sandwich (first person to insist having

bread and meat together while gambling)
Jean -a city of Genoa (the cloth was first made here)
Fahrenheit – Gabriel Fahrenheit (German inventor)
Volt - Alessandro Volta (Italian inventor)
Watt - James Watt (Scottish inventor)

*COINAIGE:
Definition: The invention of new words.

NYLON
VASELINE
ZIPPER
GRANOLA
KLEENEX
TEFLON
GOOGLE
XEROX
ASPIRIN

ARONYM
Definition: A new word formed from the initial letters of other words.

severe acute respiratory syndrome > SARS

self-contained underwater breathing apparatus > SCUBA
structured query language → SQL
For your information > FYI
also known as > AKA
hypertext mark-up language > HTML
world wide web > WWW
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats > SWOT

DERIVATION
Definition: the process of forming new words by adding affixes: Un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -
ish, -ness.

Prefixes (beginning): mislead, untidy.

Suffixes (last): Careful, foolishness.
Infixes (inside the word): absogoddamlutely.
Session 10

What is the word formation process used to form the following words:

-Croissant: Borowing (French)

-Dishwasher: Compounding
-Ginormous: Blending (Giagantic + enormous)
-Telex: Blending (teleprinter + exchange)
-Flu: Clipping (enfluenza)
-Telly: Hypocorisms (Telivision)
-Donate: Backformation (donation)
-Google: coinaige
-NASA: acronym
-Uncomfortable: derivation
-disrespectfully: derivation
-OMG: acronym
-Kleenex: coinage
-Babysit: Backformation (babysitter)
-Bookie: Hypocorims (bookmaker)
-Exam: Clipping
-Infotainment: blending (information + entertainement)
-Lab: clipping (Laboratory)
-Pencilcase: Compounding
-Piano: Borrowing (Italy)