Words and word-formation processes

Words and word-formation processes

People in general have no difficulty coping the new words. We can very quickly understand a new word in our language (a neologism) and accept the use of different forms of that new word. This ability must derive in part from the fact that there is a lot of regularity in the word-formation process in our language.

In some aspects the study of the processes whereby new words come into being language like English seems relatively straightforward. This apparent simplicity however masks a number of controversial issues. Despite the disagreement of scholars in the area, there don´t seem to be a regular process involved.

These processes have been at work in the language for some time and many words in daily use today were, at one time, considered barbaric misuses of the language.

What is Coinage?
Coinage is a common process of word-formation in English and it is the invention of totally new terms. The most typical sources are invented trade names for one company´s product which become general terms (without initial capital letters) for any version of that product.

For example: aspirin, nylon, zipper and the more recent examples kleenex, teflon.

This words tend to become everyday words in our language.

What is Borrowing?
Borrowing is one of the most common sources of getting new words in English. That is the taking over of words from other languages. Throughout history the English language has adopted a vast number of loan words from other languages. For example:

Alcohol (Arabic)
Boss (Dutch)
Croissant (French)
Piano (Italian)
Pretzel (German)
Robot (Czech)
Zebra (Bantu)
Etc…

A special type of borrowing is the loan translation or calque. In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. For example: Superman, Loan Translation of Übermensch, German.

What is Compounding?
The combining process of words is technically known as compounding, which is very common in English and German. Obvious English examples would be:

Bookcase
Fingerprint
Sunburn
Wallpaper
Textbook
Wastebasket
Waterbed
What is Blending?
The combining separate forms to produce a single new term, is also present in the process of blending. Blending, takes only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word.  For instance, if you wish to refer to the combined effects of smoke and fog, there´s the term smog. The recent phenomenon of fund rising on television that feels like a marathon, is typically called a telethon, and if you´re extremely crazy about video, you may be called a videot.

What is Clipping?
Clipping is the process in which the element of reduction which is noticeable in blending is even more apparent. This occurs when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form, often in casual speech. For example, the term gasoline is still in use but the term gas, the clipped form is used more frequently. Examples

Chem.
Gym
Math
Prof
Typo
What is Backformation?
Backformation is a very specialized type of reduction process. Typically a word of one type, usually noun, is reduced to form another word of a different type, usually verb. A good example of backformation is the process whereby the noun television first came into ude and then the term televise is created form it.

More examples:

Donation – Donate
Option – Opt
Emotion – Emote
Enthusiasm – Enthuse
Babysit – Babysitter
What is Conversion?
Conversion is a change in the function of a word, as for example, when a noun comes to be used as a verb without any reduction. Other labels of this very common process are “category change” and “functional shift”. A number of nouns such as paper, butter, bottle, vacation and so on, can via the process of conversion come to be used as verbs as in the following examples:

My brother is papering my bedroom.
Did you buttered this toast?
We bottled the home brew last night.
What is an Acronym?
Some new words known as acronyms are formed with the initial letters of a set of other words. Examples:

Compact Disk – CD
Video Cassette Recorder – VCR
National Aeronautics and Space Administration – NASA
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO
Personal Identification Number –PIN
Women against rape – WAR
What is Derivation?
Derivation is the most common word formation process and it accomplished by means of a large number of small bits of the English language which are not usually given separate listings in dictionaries. These small bits are called affixes. Examples:

Unhappy
Misrepresent
Prejudge
Joyful
Careless
Happiness
Prefixes and Suffixes
In the preceding group of words, it should be obvious that some affixes have to be added to the beginning of a word. These are called prefixes: unreliable. The other affix forms are called suffixes and are added at the end of the word: foolishness.

Infixes
One of the characteristics of English words is that any modifications to them occur at the beginning or the end