Word Formation

1900, new berlin Ohio, department store worker J Murray Spangler, electric suction sweeper, could [spangler,spanglerish,spanglerism,] but sold it to William H. Hoover, “hoover” , vaccum cleanener.

although we never heard of Spangler but we have the ability to cope with new words.

• Neologism: The ability to quickly understand a new word in our language and accept the use of different form of that word.

Etymology

• The study of the origin and history of a word. (the term comes to us through Latin)
• we won’t understand the views
  • handbook: tasteless innovation
  • aviation:horror expressed by a London newspaper in 1909
• but we’ll view it as reassuring signs of vitality n creativeness in the way a language is shaped.

Coinage

• the invention of totally new terms.
• One of the least common processes of word formation
• older ie:
  • aspirin, nylon, vaseline and zipper;
• more recent ie:
  • kleenex, teflon and xerox
• most salient contemporary ie:
  • google <- misspelling google 100 zeros <- creation of googleplex
    • google v.:to use the internet to find information
• New products and concepts (ebay) and new activities (“Have you tried ebaying it?”) are the usual sources of coinage.
• Ebonyms: New words based on the name of a person or a place. ie:hoover
• other common ebonyms:
  • sandwich (from the eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first insisted on having his bread and meat together while gambling)
  • Jeans: (from the Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first made).
• ome eponyms are technical terms
  • fahrenheit (from the German, Gabriel Fahrenheit)
  • volt (from the Italian, Alessandro Volta)
  • watt (from the Scottish inventor, James Watt)

Borrowing

• the taking over of words from other languages.(technically !just borrowing)
• English adopted
  • croissant (French), dope (Dutch), lilac (Persian),
    piano (Italian), pretzel (German), sofa (Arabic),
    tattoo (Tahitian), tycoon (Japanese), yogurt (Turkish)
    zebra (Bantu).
• en to others
  • Japanese: suupaa or suupaamaaketto (“supermarket”) and taipuraitaa (“typewriter”),
  • Hungarian: sport, klub and futbal.
  • French: discussing problems of le stress, over a glass of le whisky, during le weekend.
• sometimes diff meaning
  • german: partnerlook -> people together wearing diff clothes
    • no equivalent expression in en
• loan-translation or calque
  • the process in which a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language
    • en skyscraper: -> fr gratte-ciel (scrape-sky) -> du wolkenkrabber (cloud scratcher) -> gr Wolkenkratzer (cloud scraper).
    • gr U¨ bermensch -> en superman
    • gr lehnwort -> en the term loan-word.
    • boyfriend -> ja boyifurendo  -> ch  male friend

Compounding

• a joining of two separate words to produce a single form.
  • lehn wort -> lehnwort
• very common in gr & en
• much less common in fr & sp
• in English ie
  • compound nouns
    • bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket and waterbed.
  • compound adjectives
    • (good-looking, low-paid)
  • compound adj + n
    • fast-food, full-time

Blending

• The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term
  • the beginning of word joining it w/ t-end of t-other word
• USA gasohol=> gasoline / alcohol
• Smog => the combined effects of smoke and fog
• Vog => Hawaii , problems w/  fog near the active volcano.
• brunch => breakfast/lunch
• motel => motor hotel
• telecast => television broadcast
• telethon – infotainment -simulcast
• Franglais -> french – anglias, Spanglish,
• in information tech : the beginnings of both words
  • telex (teleprinter/exchange), modem (modulator/demodulator).

Clipping

• occurs when a word of more than one syllable (facsimile) is reduced to a shorter form (fax)
• Examples
  • gas(gasoline), ad(advertisement),bra (brassiere), cab (cabriolet), condo
    (condominium), fan (fanatic), flu (influenza), perm (permanent wave), phone, plane
    and pub (public house).
• English clip names
  • Al, Ed, Liz, Mike, Ron, Sam, Tom
• hypocorisms
  • the process in which a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to the end.
  • movie (“moving pictures”), telly (“television”), barbie (“barbecue”), bookie (“bookmaker”), brekky (“breakfast”) and hankie (“handkerchief”)

Backformation

• Typically, a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (usually a verb).
• examples
  • televise <- television
  • donate (from “donation”), emote (from“emotion”), enthuse (from “enthusiasm”), liaise (from “liaison”),babysit (from “babysitter”).
  • opt(option).
• the assumption have been that if a noun ends w/ er then we can create a verb from it
  • an editor will edit, a sculptor will sculpt and burglars, peddlers and swindlers will burgle, peddle and swindle.

Conversion [category change – functional shift]

• A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction)
• Examples
  • noun to verb
    • bottle, butter, chair and vacation have come to be used, through conversion, as verbs
    • unlike impact (n), seem to impact some people’s sensibilities rather negatively
  • verb to noun
    • guess, must and spy
  • phrasal verbs to nouns
    • (to print out, to take over) also become nouns (a printout, a takeover).
  • One complex verb combination to noun
    • want to be -> he’s not in the group he is just a wannabe
  • v to adj
    • (stand up) -> stand-up comedian
  • adj to v
    • dirty, empty
  • adj to n
    • crazy, nasty
  • compound nouns to verb
    • carpool, mastermind, microwave and quarterback
  • up and down -> v,
• Some forms change in meaning change meaning
  • doctor v, total v, runaround n

Acronyms

• new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words.
  • CD (“compact disk”) or VCR (“video cassette recorder”)
• acronyms are pronounced as new single words
  •  as in NATO, NASA or UNESCO.
• acronyms simply become everyday terms
  • laser (“light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”),
  • radar (“radio detecting and ranging”)
  • scuba (“self-contained underwater breathing apparatus”)
  • zip (“zone improvement plan”) code.
• snafu -> situation normal all fucked up.
• Names for organizations are often designed to have their acronym represent an appropriate term
  • WAR, MADD
• regularly used with one of their elements repeated
  • ATM machine, PIN number

Derivation

• Derivation
  • it is accomplished by means of a large number of small “bits”(affixes) of the English language
  • the most common word formation process in the production of new En words
  • un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism and -ness
• Prefixes and suffixes
  • Prefixes (un-, mis-)
    • affixes have to be added to the beginning of the word
  • Suffixes (-less, -ish)
    • affixes have to be added to the end of the word
  • All English words formed by this derivational process have either prefixes or suffixes, or both
• Infixes
  • an affix that is incorporated inside another word
  • Hallebloodylujah!, Absogoddamlutely!, Unfuckinbelievable!
• Kamhmu
  • A language spoken in south east Asia
    • they have see(v),srnee(n) meaning drill, a drill… hiip,hrniip->eat, spoon
  • there is a pattern in these words
    • then we can elicit that
      • krnap(n) tongs -> kap (v) grasp with tongs

Multiple Process

These word formation processes can be used with each others

• deli : borrowing (delicatessen:gr) -> clipping
• snowball v: compounding -> conversion to v
• from acronyms
  • lase: v from laser (conversion)
  • WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant): wasp (lowercase)-> waspish (gained a suffix)
  • yuppie: YAP(young urban professional) -> suffix -ie 1984
• Analogy
  • whereby new words are formed to be similar in some way to existing words.
    • yuppie: by analogy with the earlier word hippie & yippie(Youth International Party) & yap(to make shrill noises)
• Perhaps the generally accepted test of the “arrival” of recently formed words in a language is their published appearance in a dictionary. However
• Noah Webster first dic published 1806
  • was criticized for citing words as
    • advocate, test as verbs
  • and for including such vulgar words like
    • presidential advisory

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Morphology

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