Word formation

Morphological

A common method of word formation is the attachment of inflectional or derivational affixes.

Derivation

Main article: Morphological derivation

Examples include:

• the words governor, government, governable, misgovern, ex-governor, and ungovernable are all derived from the base word (to) govern

Inflection

Main article: Inflection

Inflection is modifying a word for the purpose of fitting it into the grammatical structure of a sentence. For example:

• manages and managed are inflected from the base word (to) manage
• worked is inflected from the verb (to) work
• talks, talked, and talking are inflected from the base (to) talk

Nonmorphological

Abbreviation

Examples includes:

• etc. from et cetera

Acronyms & Initialisms

Main article: Acronym

An acronym is a word formed from the first letters of other words. For example:

• NASA is the acronym for National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• IJAL (pronounced /aidʒæl/) is the acronym for International Journal of American Linguistics Acronyms are usually written entirely in capital letters, though some words originating as acronyms, like radar, are now treated as common nouns.

Initialisms are similar to acronyms, but where the letters are pronounced as a series of letters. For example:

• ATM for Automated Teller Machine
• SIA for Singapore International Airlines

Back-formation

Main article: Back-formation

In linguistics, back-formation is the process of forming a new word by removing actual affixes, or parts of the word that is re-analyzed as an affix, from other words to create a base. Examples include:

• the verb headhunt is a back-formation of headhunter
• the verb edit is formed from the noun editor
• the word televise is a back-formation of television

The process is motivated by analogy: edit is to editor as act is to actor. This process leads to a lot of denominal verbs.

The productivity of back-formation is limited, with the most productive forms of back-formation being hypocoristics.

Blending

Main article: Blend word

A lexical blend is a complex word typically made of two word fragments. For example:

• smog is a blend of smoke and fog
• brunch is a blend of breakfast and lunch.
• stagflation is a blend of stagnation and inflation
• chunnel is a blend of channel and tunnel, referring to the Channel Tunnel Although blending is listed under the Nonmorphological heading, there are debates as to how far blending is a matter of morphology.

Compounding

Main article: Compound (linguistics)

Compounding is the processing of combining two bases, where each base may be a fully-fledged word. For example:

• desktop is formed by combining desk and top
• railway is formed by combining rail and way
• firefighter is formed by combining fire and fighter Compounding is a topic relevant to syntax, semantics, and morphology.

Hashtagging as word formation

Linguists argue that hashtags are words and hashtagging is a morphological process. Social media users view the syntax of existing viral hashtags as guiding principles for creating new ones. A hashtag's popularity is therefore influenced more by the presence of popular hashtags with similar syntactic patterns than by its conciseness and clarity.

Word formation vs. semantic change

Main article: semantic change

There are processes for forming new dictionary items which are not considered under the umbrella of word formation. One specific example is semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning. The boundary between word formation and semantic change can be difficult to define as a new use of an old word can be seen as a new word derived from an old one and identical to it in form.

References

References

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6. Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew. (2018). "An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their Structure". Edinburgh University Press.
7. Aronoff, Mark. (1983). "A Decade of Morphology and Word Formation". [[Annual Review of Anthropology]].
8. Caleffi, Paola-Maria. (2015). "The 'hashtag': A new word or a new rule?". Skase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics.
9. (2024-06-07). "#AreHashtagsWords? Structure, position, and syntactic integration of hashtags in (English) tweets". [[Linguistics Vanguard]].
10. Wan, Ming Feng. (2024-03-12). "The role of syntax in hashtag popularity". [[Linguistics Vanguard]].