This document provides an overview of word formation processes in English, including derivation, blending, initialism/acronymy, borrowing, calque, neologism/coinage, and onomatopoeia. It discusses each process in detail with examples. Exercises are included to identify the specific processes involved in forming different words. The document is from a linguistics course focusing on morphology and syntax.

1. Philippine Normal University
National Center for Teacher Education
Taft Ave., Manila
College of Graduate Studies and Teacher Research Education
FACULTY OF ARTS AND LANGUAGES
LING507 (Morphology and Syntax)
1st
Sem S.Y. 2013-2014
Dr. Gina O. Gonong
____________________________________________________________________________________
Word Formation
“Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely
changed their meanings . . . but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing
their meanings without any pattern.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
I. General Word Formation Processes
a. Affixation and compounding
Affixes are bound morphemes which occur with roots and, in general, modify the basic
meaning of the root in some way.
Types of Affixes
a.1 Prefixes - affixes that occur preceding roots
a.2 Suffixes - affixes occur following roots
a.3 Infixes - affixes occur inside the root itself
a.4 Circumfixes - discontinuous affixes that occur on both sides of the base
a.5 Suprafixes - suprasegmental phonemes that carry meaning
Exercise A: Determine what kind of affix is attached to each set of data.
__________1. Data from Kamhmu (northern Laos region)ˀ
kap ‘to grasp with tongs’ krnap ‘tongs’
hiip ‘to eat with spoon’ hrniip ‘a spoon’
see ‘to drill’ srnee ‘a drill’
__________ 2. Data from Chatino (Oaxaca, Mexico)
kú ‘I eat’ tá ‘I give’
kù ‘he eats’ tà ‘he gives’
nkù ‘he is eating ntà ‘you are giving’
__________ 3. Data from Chickasaw (Oklahoma, U.S.A)
chokna‘he is good’ ikchokmo ‘he isn’t good’
lakna ‘it I yellow’ iklakno ‘it isn’t yellow’
palli ‘it is hot’ ikpallo ‘it isn’t hot

2. __________ 4. Data from Russian
baraban ‘drum’ barabanshchik‘drummer’
beton ‘concrete’ betonshchik ‘concrete worker’
lom ‘scrap’ lomshchik ‘slavage collector’
__________ 5. Data from Turkish
anla ‘understand’ anlas ‘understand each other’
sev ‘love’ sevis ‘love each other’
b. Base modification (stem modification/alternation)
This is a collective term for morphological patterns in which the shape of the base is
changed without adding segmentable material. A common type of base modification
pattern results from changing place of articulation.
b.1 Vowel Modification
Fronting (data from German)
mutter ‘mother’ mütter ‘mothers’
vater ‘father’ vätter ‘fathers’
tochter ‘teacher’ t chterӧ ‘teachers’
Lengthening (data from Huallaga Quechua from Peru)
2ND
SINGULAR 1St
SINGULAR
aywa-nki ‘you go’ aywa: ‘I go’
aywa-pti-ki ‘when you want’ aywa-pti: ‘when I went’
aywa-shka-nki‘you have gone’ aywa-shka: ‘I have gone’
Shortening (data from Hindi/Urdu – India/Pakistan)
ma:r ‘kill’ mar ‘die’
kho:l ‘open’ (tr.) khul ‘open’ (intr.)
phe:r ‘turn’ (tr.) phir ‘turn’ (intr.)
b.2 Consonant modification
Palatalization
armik ‘enemy’ armiq ‘enemies’
murg ‘monk’ murgj ‘monks’
papagall ‘parrot’ papagaj ‘parrots’

3. Weakening (data from Scottish Gaelic)
NOM SG INDF GEN PL INDF
[b…] bard [v…] bard ‘bard’
[b…] balach [v…] bhalach ‘boy’
Gemination (data from Standard Arabic)
darasa ‘learn’ darrasa ‘teach’
damara ‘perish’ dammara ‘annihilate’
b.3 Tonal change or stress shift
data from Chalcatongo Mixtec (Oaxaca, Mexico)
Noun Adjective
ká baɁ ‘filth’ ká báɁ ‘dirty’
xa áɁ ‘foot’ ká báɁ ‘standing’
data from English
Noun Verb
áddress addréss
óbject object
b.4 Subtraction (data from Murle – southern Sudan)
nyoon ‘lamb’ nyoo ‘lambs’
wawoc ‘white heron’ wawo ‘white herons’
Exercise B: Determine the kind of base modification involved in each set of data.
1. data from Polish
rodziny 'families' rodzinny ‘adjective of 'family'
saki sacks, bags' ssaki 'mammals',
leki 'medicines' lekki “light (for weight)’
2. data from Murle of Sudan
onyiit ‘rib’ onyii ‘ribs’
rottin ‘warrior’ rotti ‘warriors’
3. data from English
speak spoke sing sang
foot feet ring rang

4. 4. data from English
belief believe
grief grieve
c. Reduplication
This happens when a part of the base or the entire base is copied and attached to the
base (either preceesing or following it).
In Malagasy (Madagascar), adjectives with the stress on the first syllable copy the entire
base. In the reduplicated form the meaning of the adjective is less intense.
be ‘big, numerous’ be-be ‘fairly-big, numerous’
fotsy ‘white’ fotsi-fotsy ‘whitish’
maimbo ‘stinky’ maimbo-maimbo ‘somewhat stinky’
hafa ‘different’ hafa-hafa ‘somewhat different’
In Ponapean and Mangap-Mbula, only part of the base is copied. In Ponapean a
consonant + vowel (CV) sequence is prefixed to the stem, whereas in Mangap-Mbula a
vowel + consonant (VC) sequence is suffixed t the stem.
Reduplication of a CV sequence before the base: Ponapean (Caroline Islands)
duhp ‘dive’ du-duhp ‘be diving’
mihk ‘suck’ mi-mink ‘be sucking’
wehk ‘confess’ we-wehk ‘be confessing’
Reduplication of a VC sequence after the base: Mangap-Mbula (Papua New Guinea)
kuk ‘bark’ kuk-uk ‘be barking’
kel ‘dig’ ke-el ‘be digging’
kan ‘eat’ kan-an ‘be eating’
The element that is attached to the base often consists of both copied segments and
fixed segments, so that a kind of mixture between affix and reduplicant results. Such
elements may be called duplifixes.
Plurals in Somali: duplifix –aC
buug ‘book’ buug-ag ‘books’
fool ‘face’ fool-al ‘faces’
koob ‘cup’ koob-ab ‘cups’
jid ‘street’ jid-ad ‘streets

5. “Sort of” adjectives in Tzutujil (Guatemala): duplifix –Coj
saq ‘white’ saq-soj ‘whitish’
rax ‘green’ rax-roj ‘greenish’
q’eq ‘black q’eq-q’oj ‘blackish
tz’iil ‘dirty’ tz’il-tz’oj ‘dirtyish’
d. Conversion
This happens when the form of the base remains unaltered. A standard example
is the relationship between some verbs and nouns in English.
Noun Verb Noun Verb
hammer hammer plant plant
ship ship walk walk
drink drink run run
Exercise C: Determine the formal operation involved in the following morphological patterns.
1. Mbay (v=low tone, v=high tone, v= mid tone) from Central Africa
tétǝ ‘break’ tétā ‘break several times’
ìndāɓ ‘wrap’ índāɓ ‘wrap severa; times’
rīya ‘split’ ríyā ‘split several times’
2. Yimas (Papua New Guinea)
manpa ‘crocodile’ manpawi ‘crocodiles’
kika ‘rat’ kikawi ‘rats’
yaka ‘balck possum’ yakawi ‘black possums’
3. Coptic (Egypt)
kōt ‘build’ kēt ‘be built’
hōp ‘hide’ hēp ‘be hidden’
tōm ‘shut’ tēm ‘be shut’
4. Hausa (v = low tone, v = high tone) from Nigeria
bugaa ‘beat’ bubbugaa ‘beat many times’
taakaa ‘step one’ tattaakaa ‘trample’
dannee ‘oppress’ daddannee ‘oppress many time’
5. German
finden ‘find’ gefunden ‘found’
singen ‘sing’ gesungen ‘sung’
binden ‘tie’ gebunden ‘tied’

6. II. Word Formation Processes in English
a. Derivation
- ''the most common word formation process'' (Yule 2006, 57)
It is a word formation processes that builds new words by adding morphemes to stems. These
morphemes are added to the target stem by affixation, through prefixes and suffixes.
- Changes the lexical category (-ness, -ation)
e.g. happy + -ness = happiness (adjective + -ness noun)
adj noun
accuse + -ation = accusation (verb + -ation noun)
verb noun
exact + -ly = exactly (adjective + -ly adverb)
adj adv
- Does not change the lexical category ( -ish, -ship, auto-, il-)
e.g. friend + -ship = friendship ( noun + -ship noun)
noun noun
America + -an = American ( noun + -an noun)
noun noun
un- + do = undo ( un- + verb verb)
verb verb
re - + cover = recover ( re- + verb verb)
verb verb
pink + -ish = pinkish ( adjective + -ish adjective)
adj adj
il- + legal = illegal (-il + adjective adjective)
adj adj
Exercise A Determine how the following words are derived by separating the derivational
morpheme/s used in each word. Write C if there is a change in the lexical category.
(Kindly improve. Please? Tama po ba? I am running out of words to state the
instructions)
______1. designer ______6. humanity
______2. autobiography ______7. vaccinate
______3. freedom ______8. tallness
______4. runny ______9. prediction
______5. inaccurate _____10. submaximal

7. b. Blending
A blending is a combination of two or more words to create a new one. (Yousefi 2009)
1. taking the beginning of the other word and the end of the other one.
e.g., spork (spoon + fork),
fanzine (fan + magazine)
bromance (brother + romance)
Spanglish (Spanish + English)
2. both beginnings of a word
e.g. (cybernetic + organism → cyborg)
3. take a whole word and combine it with a part of another one
(guess + estimate → guesstimate)
Exercise B
Can you guess how these words were formed? Provide the origin of each word below.
1. affluenza 6. anecdata
2. ginormous 7. grue
3. hamwich 8. Jazzercise
4. jeggings 9. bankster
5. Brangelina 10. chillax
c. Initialism & Acronymy
Initialisms and Acronyms are shortenings, build from the initial letters in a phrase or name.
While acronyms are pronounced as single words (NASA , AIDS), initialisms are pronounced ''as a
sequence of letters'' (DNA, USA). (Finegan 2007, 48)
1. Acronyms containing non-initial letters
e.g. Interpol - International Criminal Police Organization
radar - radio detection and ranging
2. Pronounced as a combination of initialism and acronym
e.g. CD-ROM, JPEG
3. Recursive initialisms, in which the abbreviation refers to itself
PHP - PHP hypertext preprocessor
4. Pseudo-initialisms, which consist of a sequence of characters that, when pronounced as
intended, invoke other, longer words (IOU – I owe you, CU – See you).
d. Borrowing & Calque
Borrowing is the process of actually borrowing words from foreign languages. The
English language has been borrowing words from ''nearly a hundred languages in the last
hundred years'' (Finegan 2007, 51)
e.g. Latin: agenda, index, memorandum
German: angst, blitz, bratwurst
French: accident, chef, fierce
Italian: concerto, pizza, scenario
Japanese: bonsai, haiku, karaoke

8. Calque, another term for loan translation, describes the process of literally or word-for-
word translations to create new words,
e.g. skyscraper → Wolkenkratzer
Lehnwort → loan word
blue-blood: (noble birth) — Spanish sangre azul
Devil’s advocate: (one who advocates the opposing side) — Latin advocatus
diaboli)
flea market (a place selling secondhand goods) - French marché aux puces
masterpiece (A work of outstanding artistry or skill) - Dutch meesterstuk
wisdom tooth: (The hindmost molar tooth on each side of both upper and lower
jaws in man, usually ‘cut’ about the age of twenty) — Latin dentes sapientiæ
(The stems are literally translated and then put back together, the meaning is the same
as in the loan word.)
e. Neologism / Coinage
As neologism or coinage we identify the word formation process of inventing entirely new
words. This is a very rare and uncommon method to create new words, but in the media, people try to
outdo each other with more and better words to name their products. Often these trademark names
are adopted by the masses and they become ''everyday words of language'' (Yule 2006, 53).
e.g. 'google'
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid)
Xerox
Kleenex
f. Onomatopoeia
- ''the sound associated with what is named''
e.g. boo
chirp
click
meow
splash
bang
boom

9. References
Elson, B. and Pickett, V. (1965). Introduction to morphology and syntax. Mexico: Summer
Institute of Linguistics.
Fromkin, V. (2010). Introduction to linguistics. Cengage Learning Asia Pte. Ltd.
Delahunty, Gerald P., and Garvey, James J. (2010). The English Language: From Sound to Sense.
Perspectives on Writing. Fort Collins, Colorado: The WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press. Available at
http://wac.colostate.edu/books/sound/
Handke, Jurgen. (2012). Morphology-Derivation. The Virtual Linguistics Campus. Retrieved July
21, 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NARLoHy_mU
Haspelmath, M. and A.D. Sims. (2010). Understanding morphology. London: Hodder Education.
Stageberg, N.C. and D.D. Oaks. (2000). An introductory English grammar. MA: Heinle.
Wagner, M. (2010). Word formation processes: how new words develop in the english language.
Retrieved July 25, 2013 from http://killmonotony.net/written/wfp.pdf
Zapata Becerra, A. A. (2000). Handbook of general and applied linguistics. Trabajo de Ascenso
sin publicar. Mérida, Venezuela: Escuela de Idiomas Modernos, Universidad de Los Andes Retrieved
July 23, 2013 from
http://webdelprofesor.ula.ve/humanidades/azapata/materias/english_4/unit_1_types_of_words_and
_word_formation_processes.pdf
“The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.”
- Socrates
Prepared by:
Bernard Paderes
Hayzel Santos