Word Formation Processes

- Derivation and Inflection
- Word coinage (Xerox)

- Conversion (PROject vs proJECT)
- Compounding
- Back-formation (orient, beg, peddle)
- Eponyms (Elizabethan) -Blending (motel, modem)
- Acronyms (NASA, RADAR) - Clipping (Lab, Hippo)
- Borrowing/Calques (‘it goes without saying’ is calqued on
French ‘cela va sans dire’) 2
Compound
Bird-seed
4
5
 Acronyms are words created from the initial
letters of several words. Typical examples
are NATO, FBI, CIA, UN, UNICEF, FAQ,
WYSIWYG, radar, laser. ASAP? LOL? SAC?
SOM?
 Sometimes acronyms are actually created
first to match a word that already exists in
the language, e.g., MADD (Mothers against
Drunk Drivers).
 Common in social media today. 6
 Another process of word-formation is clipping, which is the
shortening of a longer word. Clipping in English gave rise to
words such as
 fax from facsimile,
 gym from gymnasium
 lab from laboratory.
 Ma’am
 Maths
 Sitcom 7
 Blending is another way of combining two words to form a
new word. The difference between blending and
compounding, however, is that in blending only parts of the
words, not the whole words, are combined. Here’s a couple
of examples:
smoke + fog  smog
motor + hotel  motel
information + commercial  infomercial
simultaneous + broadcast → simulcast
cyborg? Prissy? Webinar? Biopic? Chortle (!)
8
Eponyms are
words
derived from
proper
names, e.g.,
“sandwich”
from the Earl
of Sandwich;
“lynch” after
William
Lynch.
9
 Terra firma
 Webcam
 Facebook
 CEO
 Enabler
 Execs
 Blog (noun) and blog (verb)
 Guesstimate
 Pub
 Done 10
The following sentences contain both derivational
and inflectional affixes. Identify them.
1. Those socks are inexpensive.

2. The strongest rower continued.
3. The alphabetization went well.
4. The pitbull has bitten the cyclist.
Determine whether the words in each of the
following groups are related to one another by
processes of inflection or derivation.
1. go, goes, going, gone
2. discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable,
discoverability
3. lovely, lovelier, loveliest
 Consider the following data from Turkish.
a) lokanta “a restaurant” lokantada “in/at a restaurant”
b) kapi “a door” kapida “in/at a door”
c) randevu “an appointment” randevuda “in/at an appointment”
d) kitap “a book” kitapta “in/at a book”
e) koltuk “an armchair” koltukta “in/at an armchair”
f) taraf “a side” tarafta “in/at a side”
g) baš “a head” bašta “in/at a head”
The Turkish morpheme meaning “in/at” has more than one form.
What are the allomorphs? Describe their distribution as generally as
possible.
 Allomorphs: ta and da
 Distribution: vowel final vs. Consonant final stems (Nouns)
1. Use an acronym... for your uncle’s second oldest brother.
“We visited my __________ at Diwali.”
2. Use onomatopoeia ... for the sound of a dishwasher in
operation.
“I can’t concentrate because my dishwasher is
____________ing.”
3. Use a compound... for the annoying string of cheese
stretching from a slice of hot pizza to one’s mouth.
“As the _________________ hung precariously from my lips, our
eyes met!”
4. Use a product name... for the act of scrubbing with
Chlorox.
“I ________ed the tub after giving Whisker a bath.”
5. Use a proper name... for the act of breaking dishes, which
Jonathan does regularly.
“He’s going to __________________ all of my best dishes.”
6. Use derivation... for being able to be contacted.
“The counselor is not very ________________”
7. Use a blend... for a hot drink made with chocolate and ginger.
“I’ll have a _______________ and two peanut butter cookies,
please.”
8. Use conversion for wrapping something breakable in bubble
wrap.
“You’d better _______________ that ornament or else it might
break.”
 anticlimaxes  Dehumidifier
anticlimaxes
dehumidifier
dehumidify -er
anticlimax -es
de humidify
anti climax
humid ify
 Swifter  Steals
 Mower  Scales
 Cover  Lens
 Is the –er identical in all  Is the –s identical in all
three words? three words?
How do languages differ in their
internal word structure?
19
Yay:
a. mi ran tua wa lew
not see CLASS snake CMPLT
“He did not see the snake.”
Oneida:
b. yo-nuhs-a-tho:lé:
3.NEUT.PAT-room-epenthetic-be.cold.STAT
“The room is cold.” 20
 One aspect of morphological variation has to do with
synthesis:
 Some languages choose to “stack” morphemes on
top of one another within words;
 others elect to use at most one morpheme per word,
 and many others will fall somewhere between these
two extremes.
21
 On the so-called index of synthesis for morphological
typology (Comrie 1989), understood as a continuum, Yay is
considered an isolating (one word, one morpheme)
language, whereas Oneida would be closer to the synthetic
end of the scale, with English closer to the Yay-end than to
the Oneida-end:
Isolating x-------x---------------------x----Synthetic
Yay English Oneida 22
• Some languages take synthesis to the extreme, marking all
grammatical relationships on the verb
• with extensive affixation
• creating long and complex words
• that would correspond to whole sentences in languages like
English, as in Tiwa (Sino-Tibetan) example from Whaley
1997:131):
men-mukhin-tuwi-ban
dual-hat-buy-PAST
“You two bought a hat.” 24
• Or Eskimo:
iglu-kpi-yuma-laak-tu-a
house-build-intend-anxious-reflexive-I
“I’m anxious to build a house.”
• Or Mohawk (from Baker 2001:88):
Katerihwaiénstha’
“I am a student.
[Literally: I habitually cause myself to have ideas.]” 25
 Or Mohawk again, though rather more ridiculously:
Washakotya’tawitsheraherkvhta’se’
“He made the thing that one puts on one’s body
(i.e., the dress) ugly for her.”
 We call languages like Tiwa (India), Eskimo, and Mohawk,
polysynthetic languages.
26
no--kali my
no no--pelo
no my dog
lu-ō (I am releasing) house
1sg.Pres.Active.Indicative
no-kali-
no-kali- my mo--pelo your dog
mo
lu-ōmai (I should release)
1sg.Pres.Active.Subjunctive mes houses
lu-omai (I am being released)
1sg.Pres.Passive.Indicative
mo--kali your
mo mo-pelo-
mo-pelo- your
lu-oimi (I might release)
1sg.Pres.Active.Optative house mes dogs
lu-etai (He is being released) i-kali his i-pelo his dog
3sg.Pres.Active.Indicative house
28
 On the so-called index of fusion for morphological typology,
also conceived of as a continuum, Michoacan Nahuatl is
considered an agglutinative language, whereas Ancient
Greek would be closer to the fusional end of the scale:
Agglutinative <---x--------------------------------x-->Fusional
Nahuatl Greek
29

Word Formation Processes

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- Derivation and Inflection

- Word coinage (Xerox)

1. Those socks are inexpensive.

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