UNIT 3
Major vs minor word formation processes
- Some word formation processes are very common
o These are called major processes
▪ Write -> writer (derivation)
- Minor processes are restricted, not as common
o Refrigerator -> fridge (clipping, shortening a word)
Major processes
- Derivation
o Peaceful -> we add -ful to peace
- Compounding
o Creating compound words -> waterfall
- Conversion
o Laugh (N), the class changes without changing the word
Minor processes
- Reduplication
o Tick-tock, flip flops
- Clipping
o Shortening a word: refrigerator -> fridge
- Blending
o Blend of words: brunch -> breakfast and brunch
- Acronymy
o PIN: personal identification number
▪ In English acronyms are usually read letter by letter
- Backformation
o When we use a word to create another word: babysit (verb)-> from
babysitter (noun)
Derivation (Major process)
- The addition of a derivational affix to a root produces a new word with at least
one of the following changes:
o A semantic change: from child to childhood
o A change in word class: from move to movement
o A phonological change: from electric (k) to electricity (sity)
o An orthographic change to the root: from noise to noisy
What is the morphological difference between happiness and unhappy
Happiness has a suffix attached to the root
Unhappy has a prefix attached to the root
- Suffixes, added at the end of a root
o The process of adding a suffix is called suffixation
- Prefix, added at the beginning of a root
o Prefixation
- -Hood and –ness are very productive affixes because we can add them to many
words to create new words.
Prefixation
- Is changing the word class of a word a property of prefixes? NO because it's not
very common (vast majority can’t)
o Disagree (verb no class change), unfair (no class change adj.)
- Can we say that prefixes never change the word class of the root? NO
o Courage and encourage, asleep and sleep, rage and enrage
- Types of prefixes and meanings
o Prefixes can have meaning (semantic category)
▪ Un- negative
▪ Dis- opposite or negative
▪ Super-
▪ Anti- against (can be written with a hyphen)
▪ Sub- below something or under
▪ Tri- three
Suffixation
- Suffixes are attached after the root. No exceptions
o Peaceful. Happiness, Movement...
- How are Peaceful. Happiness, Movement different from childhood, heroine and
piglet?
o The first group of words change class with the suffix while the second
class of words do not.
o The first group has more productive suffixes, the suffixes used in the first
group create more words than the suffixes used in the second group.
- The second group suffixes show word class change is not a property of all
derivational suffix
- There are different types of suffix classification. What the word is after the suffix
is added (these can be found by considering the class of words after the suffix is
added (peaceful is an adj,-ful is an adjectiviser))
o (-ful) is an adjectiviser
o (-ness) is a nominaliser
o (-ment) is a nominaliser
o (-ity) is a nominaliser
o (ly) is an adverbializer
o (ise) is a verbaliser
- And classification to see what the words were before the suffixation
- Denominal – comes from a noun (peaceful)
- Deverbal- comes from a verb (movement)
- Deadjectival- comes from an adjective (Electricity, modernise)
- Deadverbal – comes from an adverb
- There can be more than one suffix in a word
o Peacefully has two suffixes
o Industrialisation has three suffixes
o {Industri}+{al}+{ise}+{ation}
Compounding
- A compound is a word composed of two free roots (two free morphemes)
o Toothbrush -> tooth + brush (brush is the head)
o Raincoat -> Rain+ coat (coat is the head)
o Moonlight -> Moon+ light (light is the head)
o Bedroom-> Bed+ room (room is the head)
- Variation is spelling
o with no space (moonlight)
o with a space between (ice cream)
o with a hyphen (well-known)
- Compounds are semantic units (you can guess the meaning of the compound by
seeing the words), but there are exceptions
o While lie (You can’t guess the meaning of the compound)
o Blue moon (the moon is not blue)
- Internal coherence
o The second word is where we add the plural, not the first word
▪ Television screens (*Televisions screen)
▪ Monday mornings (* Mondays morning)
- Stress pattern (‘ shows the stress)
o The first element of the compound carries the main stress
▪ ‘Ice cream
▪ ‘Moon light
o But there are exceptions
▪ ‘Greenhouse (a place to grow plants)
▪ Green ‘house (a house that’s green)
Word class of compounds
- The head of the word shows the class
o Moonlight (noun)
o Proofread (verb)
o Well-known (adjective)
- The head is the word that bring meaning to the compound
o Moonlight is a type of light so light is the head
Conversion
- Approximate conversion
o I will record the concert and The record was very old
- Communisation, a proper noun is converted into a common noun
o Our trip to India was an odyssey
▪ What Homer explained in his book was later converted to a noun
• Odyssey
Reduplication (minor processes)
- A process in which the initial syllable or the entire word is doubled, repeated or
with a slight phonological change.
o No change, exact reduplication: so-so
o Vowel change: Ping-pong
o Consonant change: hodge-podge
Blending (if there is blending there needs to be clipping)
- A process in which two existing words are blended.
o Brunch
o Motel –Motor Hotel
Backformation
- Using a word to create a new word (check word reference etymology)
o Babysitter (noun) - Babysit (verb)
o Worker (noun) - Work (verb)
o Enthusiasm (noun) - Enthuse (Verb)
o Lazy (Adjective)- laze (Verb)
o Editor (Noun)- edit (verb)
Acronymy
- Taking the initials of words to create shorter words usually to make them easier.
o PIN (read as a single word)
o UCLA – University of California Los Angeles (read letter by letter)
o PC- Personal Computer
o CIA- Central Intelligence Agency
o ASAP- As Soon As Possible (can be both, natives pronounce as a word)
Clipping
- Shortening a word, deliberately cropping/dropping out parts (we don’t change
the word class and meaning)
o From refrigerator to fridge
o From rehabilitation to rehab
o From violoncello to cello
o From influenza to flu
