Word formation

 WORD FORMATION

 In linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning. The boundary between word formation and semantic change can be difficult to define: a new use of an old word can be seen as a new word derived from an old one and identical to it in form (see conversion) Word formation can also be contrasted with the formation of idiomatic expressions, although words can be formed from multi word phrases.

PREFIXES

We add prefixes before the base or stem of a word.

Examples	Prefixes
monorail , monolingual multipurpose , multicultural post - war , postgraduate unusual , undemocratic	mono - means " one’  " multi - means " many’  " post - means " after ‘  un - means " not " or " opposite to’

 

 

SUFFIXES

Examples	Suffixes
Terrorism, sexism. employer , actor to widen , simplify  reasonable , unprofitable  unhappily , naturally	and -doom are used to form nouns  -err and -or are used to form nouns to describe people who do things en and -ify are used to form verbs  -able is used to form adjectives  -ly is a common suffix used to form adverbs

 

 

CONVERSION

 Conversion involves the change of a word from one word class to another. For example, the verbs to email and to microwave are formed from the nouns email and microwave:

 Can you text her? (Verb from noun text, meaning to send a text - message)

 They are always jetting somewhere. (Verb from noun jei)

 If you're not careful, some downloads can damage your computer. (Noun from very download)

 OK, so the meetings on Tuesday. That's a definite. (Noun from adjective)

 It's a very big if and I'm not at all sure we can afford it. (Noun from conjunction, meaning

 It’s not at all certain ‘)

 All companies have their ups and downs. (Nouns from prepositions)

 We also use conversion when we change a proper noun into a common noun:

 Has anybody seen my Dickens? (Copy of a book by Dickens)

 

 COMPOUNDING

 New word. When we use compounding, we link together two or more bases to create normally; the first item identifies a key feature of the second word. For example, the two bases back and ache can combine to form the compound noun backache, and the two bases post and card combine to form the compound noun postcard.

  Compounds are found in all word classes. The most common types of compounds are:

Nouns:  car park, rock band

 Adjectives: heartbreaking, sugar - free, airsick

 Verbs: oven - bake, baby - sit, chain – smoke

 Adverbs:  good - naturally, nevertheless

 It is sometimes difficult to know where to put hyphens in words that are compounded. It is also difficult to know whether to separate words (e.g. post box) or to join the words (e.g. postbox). In such cases, it is best to check in a good learner's dictionary.

 

ABBREVIATION

 Abbreviation involves shortening a word. We do this in three main ways: clipping, acronyms and blends.

 We use clipping when we shorten or “clip “one or more syllables from a word. We also commonly clip proper names for people:

Ad: advertisement, advert

 Lab: laboratory

Matt: Matthew

 Acronyms are a type of abbreviation formed when the initial letters of two or more words are combined in a way that produces consonant and vowel sequences found in words.

 Acronyms are normally pronounced as words:

 RAM: random access memory (RAM is a term used to describe a computer's memory.)

 Initials are similar to acronyms but are pronounced as sets of letters, not as words:

WHO World Health Organization, pronounced W - H – O

 CD: compact disc, pronounced C – D

 We form blends when we combine parts of existing words to form a new word:

Blog: blend of web and log

Motel: blend of motor and hotel

 Smog: blend of smoke and fog

 

BACK FORMATION

We form words with back - formation when we remove part of a word, usually something which we think is a suffix (or occasionally a prefix). We do this commonly when we form verbs from nouns.

 For example : to liaise ( back - formed from the noun liaison ) ; to intuit ( back - formed from the noun intuition ) , to enthuse ( back - formed from the noun enthusiasm ) : Can you liaise with Tim and agree a time for the meeting , please ? She's always enthusing about her new teacher

 

LOAN WORDS AND NEW WORDS

 Loan words 

Loan words are the words that are borrowed from other languages. Some recent loan words or food taken from other languages include: sushi, tapas, chapatti, and pizza. When we use loan words, we do not normally change them, though we do sometimes inflect them if they are singular countable nouns (pizzas, chapattis). We also sometimes pronounce them more like English words, instead of using their original pronunciation.

 New words

 Some prefixes are commonly used to create new words. In modern English the prefix e- is used to create new words that are connected with the Internet and the use of the Internet:

e - Bank, e - cards, e - commerce, e - learning

Almost any noun may potentially combine with any other noun to form new noun compounds (e.g. computer virus, carbon footprint, quality time).

 

DERIVATION

 Now, given below is a list of words that derived from one kind of words to the other, viz. formation of nouns from verbs, formation of verbs from nouns, formation of verbs from adjectives, etc.

Formation of Nouns from Verbs

Verbs	Nouns	Verbs	Nouns
Flow	flood	Accept	Acceptance
Gird	girth	Bear	Birth
Grieve	grief	Bind	bond
Live	life	Bless	bliss
Break	breach	Prove	blessing
Choose	choice	Sing	proof
Chop	chip	Sit	song
Speak	speech	Deal	seat
Strive	strife	Draw	dole
Drink	drought	Wait	draft
Drive	drove	Wave	web