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Linguistics - Word Formation 2024

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20 views2 pages

Linguistics - Word Formation 2024

Uploaded by

fadumah.0110
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Word formation processes

Borrowing = borrowing a word from another language & directly adopting it into your own
language.
● Ex. Kiosk (turkish)

Loan-translation / Calque = directly translating a word or a phrase into your own language
● Ex. Superman (Ubermensch)

Compounding = Joining two words, creating a new word with a combined meaning
● Ex. High + chair = Highchair

Blending = Blending clipped parts of two words combining them together to create a new
word
● Spork = spoon + fork

Clipping = shortening a word by removing a part of said word


● Exam from examination
● Bike from bicycle

Hypocorism = a clipped word with an added suffix -y or -ie


● Brekkie from breakfast
● Telly from television

Backformation = A word of one type reduced to form a word of another type


● Noun (donation) to verb (donate)
● Noun (television) to verb (televised)
● Noun (editor) to verb (edit)

Conversion = A change in the function of a word without any reduction


● Add the suffix -ed
● Bottle = bottled
○ Phrasal verbs (to print out, to take over) become nouns (a printout, a takeover)
○ Want to be = Wannabe

Coinage = Create a new word often based on products or trade names.


● Google = I googled this

Acronyms = A word created from the intial letters of a set of other words
● CD = compact disk
● zip = zone improvement plan
Derivational = Creating a new word by adding affixes
● Prefix (before the word)
○ Unusual, mispronounce, disrespect
● Infixes (unusual in english but occurs in the middle of words = not very relevant)
○ Unfreakingbelievable
● Suffixes (occurs after the word)
○ Careless, childish, faithful

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