Word Formation
Types of Word Formation
1. Compounding
2. Conversion
3. Clipping
4. Blends
5. Backformation
6. Acronyms
7. Onomatopoeia
8. Eponyms
1. Compounding
Definition: Two or more words
joined together to form a new
word.
Examples:
Home + work homework
Pick + pocket pickpocket
Note: The meaning of a compound is not
always the sum of the meanings of its parts.
Coconut oil oil made from coconuts.
Olive oil oil made from olives.
Baby oil oil
NOT foroil
babies
made from babies
cathouse a house where men visit prostitutes
blue-movies
blue-chip
2. Conversion
Definition: Assigning an already existing
word to a new syntactic category.
Examples:
butter (N) to butter the bread
permit (V) an entry permit
empty (A) to empty the litter-bin
3. Clipping
Definition: Shortening a polysyllabic word
by deleting one or more syllables
Examples:
Facsimile fax
Hamburger burger
Gasoline
Advertisement
Omnibus
4. Blends
Definition: Similar to compounds, but
parts of the words are deleted.
Examples:
Motor + hotel Motel
Breakfast + lunch Brunch
Wireless + Fidelity Wi-Fi
5. Back-formations
Definition: Creative reduction due to
incorrect morphological analysis.
Examples:
editor (1649)
edit (1791)
television (1907)
televise (1927)
6. Acronyms
Definition: Words derived from the initials of
several words
Examples:
severe acute respiratory syndrome
SARS
Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
SCUBA
Other examples of Acronyms:
a) Radar a) Radio detecting and ranging
b) FYI b) For Your Information
c) TGIF c) Thanks God It’s Friday
d) a.k.a d) also known as
e) Html e) Hypertext mark-up language
f) www f) World wide web
g) SWOT g) Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats
7. Onomatopoeia
Definition: Words created to sound like the
thing that they name.
English Japanese Tagalog Indonesian
Cock-a-doo Kokekokko Kuk-kakauk Kukuruyuk
Meow Nya Niyaw Meong
8. Eponyms
Definition: Words derived from
proper names or things.
Examples:
Kodak
Sandwich
Celcius
Complete the process and
Identify the type of word formation:
1. Return on Investment ROI acronym
2. information, entertainment Infotainment blends
3. modulator, demodulator Modem blends
4. love, seat Loveseat compounding
5. International, police Interpol blends
6. A comb To comb conversion
7. delicatessen Deli clipping
8. Capt. Charles Cunningham Boycott Boycott eponym
Coinage
Coinage is the invention of totally new terms.
Sources of coined words:
1. Trade names of commercial products that become
general terms.
e.g. aspirin, kleenex, teflon, xerox.
2. New words based on the name of a person or a place.
e.g. hoover, jeans, sandwich.
Borrowing
Borrowing is taking over words from other
languages.
English borrows from other languages.
e.g. sofa, lilac, croissant
Many languages borrow from English
e.g. Japanese.
supaamaaketto
cont.,
Loan translation:
Direct translation of the elements of a
word into the borrowing language.
Many languages translated the term
‘skyscraper’ into its own vocabulary.
Compare between borrowing and loan-
translation?
identify the different word-
formation processes
(a) Don’t you ever worry that you might get
AIDS?
(b) Do you have a xerox machine?
(c) That’s really fandamntastic!
(d) Shiel still parties every Saturday night.
(e) These new skateboards from Zee
Designs are kickass.
(f) When I’m ill, I want to see a doc, not a
vet.
(g) The house next door was burgled
when I was babysitting the Smiths’
children.
(h) I like this old sofa – it’s nice and comfy.
More than one process was involved in
(a) Are you still using that old car-phone?
(b) Can you FedEx the books to me
today?
(c) Police have reported an increase in
carjackings in recent months.
(d) Welcome, everyone, to karaokenight at
Cathy’s Bar and Grill!
(e) Jeeves, could you tell the maid to be
sure to hoover the bedroom carpet?
(f) Would you prefer a decaf?
Using a dictionary if necessary, try to describe the
word-formation processes involved in the creation
of the underlined words in these sentences.
(1) There are some teenage netizens who
rarely leave their rooms.
(2) How much RAM do you have?
(3) I can’t get some of the students to
keyboard more carefully.
(4) Your friend Jason is such a techie!
(5) Doesn’t every new computer have a
webcam now?
(6) You should bookmark that site.
(7) We’re paying too much attention to
bloggers.
(8) Subscribers have unlimited downloads.
(9) You should check the faq because the
information is usually helpful.
(10) Hey, just heard about the accident,
ruok?
