Word Formation Processes

Prepared by: Prasanth Karuppasamy

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Core Word Formation Processes

3. Compounding

4. Shortenings & Reductions

5. Other Word Formation Types

6. Special Morphophonemic Alternations

7. Productivity & Constraints

8. Conclusion

1. Introduction

What is Word Formation?

• The study of how new words are created in a language.

• Central part of lexical morphology.

Key Components

• Morphemes: minimal meaning units (root, base, affix).

• Processes: ways by which languages expand vocabulary (derivation, compounding, etc.).

Importance

• Explains how languages grow and adapt.

• Helps in understanding grammar, semantics, NLP, and language change.

2. Core Word Formation Processes

Core Processes Covered

• Derivation

• Inflection

• Concatenation

• Reduplication

• Suppletion

• Coining / Neologism

3. Detailed Processes

Derivation

• Forms new words by adding affixes.

• Often changes word class: beauty → beautiful

• Highly productive.

Inflection

• Adds grammatical information.

• Does not create new dictionary words.

• Preserves word class.

• Inflectional Categories:

  • Tense
  • Number
  • Case
  • Gender
  • Person
  • Comparison (er/est)

Concatenation

• Linear combination of morphemes.

• Morphemes attach in a sequence: root + affix + affix

• Agglutinative languages (Tamil, Turkish, Japanese).

• Many derivational & inflectional patterns.

Reduplication

• Repetition of a whole or part of a base.

• Types: Full reduplication, Partial reduplication, Echo formation.

• Functions:

  • Intensification
  • Plurality
  • Continuity
  • Emphasis

Suppletion

• Replacement of a form by a completely different root.

• Types:

  • Full Suppletion: go → went
  • Partial Suppletion: teach → taught

Coining (Neologism Formation)

• Creating entirely new words.

• Sources:

  • Technology: internet, byte
  • Brands → common words: Xerox, Google
  • Scientific naming
  • Pop culture coinages

• Features:

  • Highly productive
  • Spreads quickly via media

4. Compounding

Meaning of Compounds

• Definition: A word formed by combining two or more roots.

• Example: classroom, blackboard

• Key Idea: Components function as a single lexical unit.

• Importance: Major source of vocabulary expansion in all languages.

Transparent vs. Opaque Compounds

• Transparent: Meaning can be directly understood from parts (e.g., sunlight = sun + light).

• Opaque: Meaning cannot be predicted from components (e.g., butterfly, hotdog).

• Key Feature: Transparency affects learnability and interpretation.

Types of Compounds

1. Endocentric Compounds

* Definition: The head is inside the compound; one element determines category/meaning.

* Examples: Blackbird (a type of bird), toothbrush (a type of brush).

* Pattern: Usually N + N, Adj + N, V + N.

1. Exocentric Compounds

* Definition: No internal head; meaning lies outside the parts.

* Examples: pickpocket (a thief, not a pocket), skinhead, redhead.

* Feature: Meaning is metaphorical or culturally derived.

1. Copulative Compounds (Dvanda)

* Definition: Both components equally contribute to meaning.

* Examples: Bittersweet, student-teacher, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

* Features: No single head; usually coordinate semantics.

Standard vs. Frozen Compounds

• Standard Compounds: Flexible in usage; components retain some semantic independence (e.g., school teacher, bus driver).

• Frozen Compounds: Fixed form; cannot be easily separated (e.g., nonetheless, overnight, although).

• Key Distinction: Standard = structural freedom; Frozen = lexicalized, treated as one unit.

5. Shortenings & Reductions

Acronyms

• Definition: Words formed from initial letters and pronounced as a word.

• Examples: NASA, RADAR, UNESCO.

• Features: Become lexical items; often lose awareness of original expansion.

Initialisms

• Definition: Formed from initials but pronounced letter-by-letter.

• Examples: FBI, ATM, BBC.

• Difference from Acronyms: Pronunciation is spelled out, not blended.

Abbreviations

• Definition: Shortened written forms of words or phrases.

• Examples: Etc. (et cetera), dept. (department), govt. (government).

• Features: Mostly used in writing; not all are spoken as abbreviations.

Clipping

• Definition: Shortening a word by removing one part.

• Types:

  • Back-clipping: exam (from examination)
  • Fore-clipping: phone (from telephone)
  • Mid-clipping: flu (influenza)
  • Complex clipping: sci-fi (science fiction)

• Feature: Highly productive in casual/register speech.

Back-formation

• Definition: Creating a new word by removing a (perceived) affix.

• Examples: editor → edit, donation → donate, babysitter → babysit.

• Feature: Arises from misinterpretation of morphology.

Apocope, Syncope, Elision & Contraction

• Apocope: Dropping final sound or syllable (e.g., photo from photograph).

• Syncope: Dropping middle sounds (e.g., family → famly, chocolate → choclate).

• Elision: Phonetic loss of sounds in speech (e.g., I am → I’m, want to → wanna).

• Contraction: Reduced written forms with apostrophes (e.g., don’t, it’s, we’ll).

6. Other Word Formation Types

Blending

• Definition: Combining parts of two words to form a new word.

• Examples: Brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), motel (motor + hotel).

• Features: Overlap in sound; very productive in modern English.

Eponyms

• Definition: Words derived from names of people or places.

• Examples: sandwich (Earl of Sandwich), diesel (Rudolf Diesel), atlas (Greek Titan Atlas).

• Use: Common in science, inventions, discoveries.

Calques

• Definition: Direct loan translations from another language.

• Examples: skyscraper → French gratte-ciel; superman → German Übermensch; honeymoon → Spanish luna de miel.

• Feature: Each part translated literally.

Borrowing (Loanwords)

• Definition: Words taken directly from another language.

• Examples: piano (Italian), tsunami (Japanese), croissant (French).

• Forms: Full loanwords, Partial loanwords.

Loanblends & Loanshifts

• Loanblends: One part borrowed, one part native (e.g., handbook + German elements → Handbuch).

• Loanshifts: Native word takes new borrowed meaning (e.g., mouse as computer device).

• Key Feature: Structural or semantic influence from another language.

Hybrid Formations

• Definition: Words combining morphemes from different languages.

• Examples: automobile (Greek auto + Latin mobile), television (Greek tele + Latin vision).

• Features: Common in scientific/technical vocabulary; result of mixing classical roots.

7. Special Morphophonemic Alternations

Allomorphy

• Definition: Same meaning, different forms (from Greek állos "other").

• Examples:

  • Plural: child → children, person → people, ox → oxen.
  • Negative prefixes: in-, im-, il-, ir-.

• Key Idea: Same meaning, different morpheme form (due to phonological, morphological, or historical causes).

Types of Allomorphs

1. Phonological Allomorphs:

* Determined by sound environment.

* Examples: English plural /s/ /z/ /Iz/; Past tense /t/ /d/ /Id/.

* Meaning remains the same.

1. Morphological Conditioning:

* Allomorph depends on grammatical class or morphological category.

* Examples: child → children (plural class), brother → brethren (semantic shift), ox → oxen (Germanic plural class).

Internal Changes (Ablaut & Alternations)

• Ablaut: Vowel alternation signals tense/aspect/derivation (e.g., sing - sang - sung, bind - bound).

• Vowel Alternations: goose → geese, tooth → teeth.

• Consonant Alternations: knife → knives, house (n.) /s/ → house (v.) /z/.

• Function: Mark plural, tense, or word-class shifts.

Other Processes

• Assimilation: Sound changes to become similar to neighbor (in + possible → impossible).

• Dissimilation: Sound becomes less similar (peregrinus → pilgrim).

• Elision: Omission in connected speech (you and → you’n).

• Epenthesis: Inserting extra sound (athlete → ath-uh-lete).

• Metathesis: Switching order of sounds (ask → aks).

8. Productivity & Constraints

What is Productivity?

• The ability of a word-formation process to create new words freely and regularly.

• Example: Adding -ness to adjectives (kind → kindness, happy → happiness).

• Key Idea: More productive = more widely applicable.

Degrees of Productivity

• Highly Productive: Can apply broadly (e.g., -ness, un-, re-).

• Moderately Productive: Used in specific environments (e.g., -hood in brotherhood).

• Low/Non-productive: Rarely forms new words (e.g., -th in warmth, -en in strengthen).

Factors Affecting Productivity

• Phonological fit: new word must "sound right".

• Semantic compatibility: affix must match meaning.

• Frequency of pattern: high-frequency forms remain active.

• Morphological type: some languages permit longer chains.

• Example: un- applies to adjectives (unhappy) but not nouns (un-table).

Blocking & Analogy

• Blocking: An existing word prevents a new word from being formed.

  • Examples: thief blocks stealer; went blocks goed; children blocks childs.

• Analogy: New formations created by pattern imitation.

  • Examples: sing → singer leads to teach → teacher; children saying goed by analogy with played; hamburger → cheeseburger.

Restrictions on Productivity

• Semantic: re- requires repetition (rewrite, not repay).

• Syntactic: affixes attach only to specific classes.

• Phonological: must be pronounceable.

• Lexical: competing words block formations.

9. Conclusion

Summary

• Languages create new words through derivation, compounding, reduplication, borrowing, and more.

• Morphophonemic alternations explain surface variations in word shape.

• Productivity determines which processes are actively used.

Importance & Applications

• Reveals structure of words and how meaning and form interact.

• Role in Language Change: Word formation drives vocabulary growth; old forms disappear while new ones enter lexicon.

• Applications: Lexicography, NLP/AI, Language teaching, Historical linguistics.

Final Takeaway

"Word formation is a dynamic system where meaning, structure, sound, and usage all interact."
"Understanding morphology helps us see how languages grow, adapt, and shape human communication."