Word Formation

Word Formation
Word Formation Process (also called Morphological Process) is a

means by which new words are produced either by modification of
existing words or by complete innovation, which in turn become a
part of the language.
Types of Word Formation Processes
Inflection Derivation
Produces grammatical variants Produces a new word on the

of the same word. basis of an existing word.
Modifies a word to express

Changes the word class (also
different grammatical
called parts of speech; form
categories such as tense,
class; lexical class; syntactic
mood, voice, aspect, person,
category).
number, gender and case.
Does not change the meaning

Modifies the meaning of the
of a word. For example:
root. For example: modern →
determine→ determines,
modernize (to make modern).
determining, determined.
Major word formation processes

1. Affixation
It is a word formation process wherein an affix is attached to a root
(also called stem; base) to form a new word. A root is a free
morpheme (also called unbound morpheme) that can appear alone.
On the other hand, an Affix is a bound morpheme which never
occurs by itself, but is always attached to some free morpheme and
can be either inflectional or derivational. An Inflectional affix
modifies the form/grammatical category of a word, i.e., tense,
person, number, gender, case, etc. For
example: rat → rats. Contrariwise, a derivational affix modifies the
parts of speech of the root, while leaving the grammatical category
unchanged. In this way, there is a change of meaning of the root. For
example: write → writer.
In English there are two types of affixations:
1. Prefixation: In this morphological process words are formed by

adding an affix to the front of a root. The type of affix used in
this process is referred to as prefix. For example: un +
tidy → untidy
2. Suffixation: In this morphological process words are formed by
adding an affix to the end of a root. The type of affix used in
this process is referred to as suffix. For example: fear +
less → fearless
2. Conversion
This refers to the change of function or parts of speech of a word
without adding an affix. Conversion is also called zero
derivation or null derivation since the functional change is brought
about by supplementing an invisible affix. Sometimes it is also
called functional shift. Typically, conversion is made from “noun to
verb” and from “verb to noun”. Less frequently, conversion is also
done from “adjective to verb” and “adjective to noun”.
Noun to Verb: access, email, film, name, shape

Verb to Noun: attack, alert, hope, increase, visit, cover
Adjective to Verb: brown, black, slow
Adjective to Noun: crazy, nasty
3. Back-formation
Back-formation is a morphological process in which new word is
created by extracting affixes from another word. In this way, it is the
reverse of affixation, in which affixes are added. Back-formation is
also different from clipping since it brings a change in the parts of
speech or the word's meaning. For example: the noun ‘insertion’ has
been back-formed into verb ‘insert’ by removing the suffix ‘ion’.
4. Clipping
As the name suggests, clipping is the word formation process in
which a word is reduced to a shorter form. With a sharp contrast to
back-formation, clipping keeps the original word meaning intact.
These words are very common in everyday speech. For
instance: ‘lab’ is the clipped form of ‘laboratory’. There are four
types of clippings:
1. Back clipping: (also called final clipping; apocope) it involves the

truncation of end of a word as in ad from advertisement.
2. Fore-clipping: (also called initial clipping; apheresis) it is the
removal of the beginning of a word as
in phone from telephone.
3. Middle clipping: (also medial clipping; syncope) it is the
extraction of the beginning and end of a word as
in flu from influenza.
4. Complex clipping: is removing multiple parts from multiple
words as in cablegram from cable telegram.
5. Compounding
Also called composition, by this process two or more than two words
are combined together to create a single word, having a single idea
and function. In English, there are compound nouns, compound
adjectives, and compound verbs. Customarily compound words are
spelt as a single word, or as two or more hyphenated words, and
even as two or more separate words. For example:
• life + style → lifestyle

• mother + in + law → mother-in-law
• shopping + mall → shopping mall
There are no specific rules for hyphenated compounds. Generally,
some new and original compound nouns are hyphenated, but the
hyphen is ignored when they become more familiar. However, there
are some compound adjectives that are always hyphenated. For
instance: state-of-the-art. The hyphen is often retained when two
vowels come together, such as: Co-operation. Hyphens are often
used to tell the ages of people and things, for example: 10-year-old.
The general rule is that words are combined with hyphens to avoid
confusion.
6.Borrowing
This refers to the words adopted from other languages. There are
two types of borrowings:
1. Loan-word: By this process, a word is borrowed from another

language without translating it into the target language. For
example: the phrase tour-de-force is borrowed directly from
French, which means a masterly or brilliant feat.
2. Loan-translation: Also known as calque, a morphological
process wherein a word or phrase from another language is
borrowed by literally translating it into the target language. For
example: the phrase point of view has been translated into
English from the French phrase point de vue.
7.Coinage
Also called invention, is a morphological process by which new words
are invented. Sometimes popular trademark names of various
products are adopted by people so extensively that they ultimately
become the everyday words of language. For example:
• Heroin
• Aspirin
• Escalator
• Xerox
• Kerosene
• Nylon
• Band-Aid
• Vaseline
• Margarine
• Videotape
Again, some words are being invented due to rapid cultural changes
and the spread of information technology, mass media, internet, etc.
For example:
• Google
• Blog
• Hotspot
• Netbook
• Tablet
• Tweet
• Emoticon
• Smartphone
8.Blending
Blending (also called portmanteau) is a morphological process in
which the parts of two or more words are combined together to
form a new word. Usually, the parts consist of the beginning of one
word and the end of the other word(s). Typically, the meaning of the
blended word reverberates with the meanings of the original words.
For example:
• breakfast + lunch → brunch

• motor + hotel → motel
However, blending should not be confused with compounding, which
combines two words without truncation of parts of the roots of the
blended words.
9.Acronyms
These words are formed with the initial letters or each of the major
parts of a word or a longer phrase. With a few exceptions, acronyms
are usually capitalized. Some linguists confuse acronyms with
initialisms, which are also abbreviations formed in the similar
manner as the former. In essence, there is a sharp difference
between the two. In language, an acronym is pronounced as a single
word rather than just a sequence of individual letters, which is
characteristic of initialisms. For example:
Acronyms:
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

→ UNESCO
• Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation → Laser
• International Criminal Police Organization → Interpol
Initialisms:
• Personal Computer → PC
• Asian Development Bank → ADB
• Liquid Crystal Display → LCD
10. Reduplication
Reduplication (also
called cloning; doubling; duplication; repetition; tautonym) is a word
formation process in which a new word is created by repeating all or
part of a root or a stem, often with a change of vowel or initial
consonant. Reduplication is not a major means of creating lexemes in
English, but it is perhaps the most unusual one. Based on their usage,
the techniques of reduplication could be classified in the following
manner:
1. Repetition without Change: bye-bye, tick-tick

2. Rhyming Reduplication: ding-dong, super-duper, bow-wow
3. Repetition with Change of Vowel: tiptop, chitchat, flip-flop,
ping-pong, dilly-dally, wishy-washy
4. Repetition with Change of Initial Consonant: teeny-weeny

Word Formation

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Word Formation

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Word Formation

Word Formation Process (also called Morphological Process) is a

Types of Word Formation Processes

Produces grammatical variants Produces a new word on the

Modifies a word to express

Does not change the meaning

Major word formation processes

In English there are two types of affixations:

1. Prefixation: In this morphological process words are formed by

Noun to Verb: access, email, film, name, shape

1. Back clipping: (also called final clipping; apocope) it involves the

• life + style → lifestyle

1. Loan-word: By this process, a word is borrowed from another

• breakfast + lunch → brunch

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

1. Repetition without Change: bye-bye, tick-tick

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