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Word Formation Processes

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Word Formation Processes

The processes of forming words can be grouped into two;

Major word formation processes
Minor word formation processes

MAJOR WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

Major word formation processes are commonly used in forming words. They include:-

Affixation
Compounding
Conversion

MINOR WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

Major word classes are those which are not commonly used in forming words. They include:-

Clipping
Acronym
Borrowing
Blending
Coining
Neologism
Onomatopoeia

CONVERSION (Zero Affixation)

Conversion is a word formation processwhere a word/base is converted into a new word class without changing its form.Examples;

NOUN to VERB

Smile smile

Noun verb

I like your smile don’t smile

Bank bank

Noun verb

CRDB is a commercial Bank I bank with Exim Bank

Tax tax

Noun verb

We must pay tax We tax higher than Uganda

COMPOUNDING

Compounding is the process of word formation that involves joining of two or more separate words or bases to form a new word e.g. black + board = blackboard, class + room = classroom, chair + person = chairperson, head + master = headmaster etc.

TYPES OF COMPOUND WORDS/ WAYS OF WRITING COMPOUNDS

Solid compounds – In this type compound words are joined together e.g. Textbook, deadline, newsroom etc.

Open compounds – Compounds are written separately e.g. raw material, exercise book, school bus etc.

Hyphenated compounds – These are written with hyphens (- )e.g. long–term, book–keeping, map–reading, man–made etc.

Compounds can also be regarded as Opaque or Transparent

Opaque compounds are those compound wordswhose meaning is not found by looking the separate words i.e. the meaning is not cleare.g. deadline, sister-in-law, father-in-law etc.

Transparent compounds are those compounds whose meaning is the same with that of separate element (compound) i.e. the meaning is clear e.g. blackboard, newsroom, birthday etc.

AFFIXATION

Affixation is the process of forming words that involve an attachment of an affix to a root or stem. Affixation has three processes which are;

Prefixation
Infixation
Suffixation

PREFIXATION

Preffixation is the process of putting an affix before the base form e.g. un+ true – untrue

dis+ like = dislike

TYPES OF PREFIXES

NEGATIVE PREFIXES

DIS – It means not

it is added to Added toAdjectives,VerbsandNouns.

e.g. dislike, disobey, disconnect

(ii) UN – (the opposite of )

it is added to Adjectives and verbs

e.g. unhappy,unexpected, unfair and unkind

(iii) A – Means (lack of/in)

itisadded to Adjectives and Nouns

e.g. Assexual, amoral

(iv) NON – Added toAdjectives, Nouns and Verbs

non – smoket, non – gradable, non – living things

IN, IL, IM, and IRR- (NOT)

E.g. incorrect, illogical, impossible, and irregular

RESERVATIVE PREFIXES

(i) UN – (to reverse the action)

– itisadded to verbs

e.g. undo, unzip, untie

(ii) DE – ( to reverse theaction, to get rid of )

e.g. deforestation, decolonize, decode

PEJORATIVE PREFIXES

(i) MIS – It means wrong orastray)

it is added to verbs

e.g. mislead, misinform, misconduct

(ii) MAL – (bad, badly)

it is added to verbs

e.g. maltreat, malnutriotion, malfunction

(iii) PSEUDO ( It means false or imitation)

e.g. pseudo – scientific, pseudo – Christianity

DEGREE/SIZE PREFIXES

(i) ARCH – It means supreme, highest or arch

e.g. Arch bishop, Arch enemy, Arch fascist

(ii) it means above

e.g. supermarket, super power, supernatural.

(iii) OUT – It means to do something better

e.g. outline, outperform

(iv) OVER – It means too much

e.g. overgrazing, overconfidence, overfeeding

(v) UNDER – It means low quality

e.g. underfeeding, underperform

(vi) MICRO – It means something small.

e.g. micro-organism, micro-computer

(vii) MACRO- It means something big

e.g. macro – micro – organism, microcyte

ATTITUDE PREFIX

(i) CO- It means joint or accompany with

e.g. co-exist, co-operative, co-education

(ii) PRO-

e.g. proCCM, prosocialism, proCHADEMA, proactive.

(iii) ANTI- It means something against/ being against

e.g. antclockwise, antichrist, antisocial, antibiotic, antivirus.

TIME AND ORDER PREFIXES

(i) PRE-It means before

e.g. pre-form V, premock, premature

(ii) FORE- It means before.

e.g. foretell, foreshadow, fore father, foreleg

(iii) POST- It means after

e.g. post election, post independence, post war, post scool, post graduate

(iv) EX- It means former

e.g. ex-husband, ex-girlfriend, ex-soldiers

LOCATIVEPREFIXES

(i) INTER- It means between/among

e.g. International, interschool, intermarriage

(ii) TRANS- It means across

e.g. Trans Sahara, trans-Africa, trans continental.

(iii) SUPER-It means over or above

e.g. superstructure, superimpose

PREFIXES OF NUMBER

(i) UNI- MONO – (one)

e.g. unilateral, monocotyledon

(ii) BI- DI- (Two)

e.g. Diphthong, bilingual, bicycle

(iii) TRI- (Three)

e.g. triangle, tricycle, trinity

AUTO- (Self) e.g. automatic, autocratic

NEO – (New) neo-colonialism

PAN- (All, world-wide) e.g. Pan African, Pan American

PROTO- (First, original) e.g. prototype, protobantu

SEMI- (half) e.g. semi circle, semi final

VICE– (Deduty) e.g. vice president

SUFFIXATION

Is a process of putting a morpheme after the base

suffix is an element of structure that is added after a base.
most of the suffixes are usually derivatives i.e. they change the word clss

TYPES OF SUFFIXES

NOUN SUFFIXES

occupational Suffixes
–ster e.g. gangster
–eer e.g. engineer, racketeer
Diminutive suffixes
–let (small, unimportant) e.g. booklet, piglet
–ette ( small, compact) e.g. kitchenette
Status, domain Suffixes
–hood (status) e.g. childhood, adulthood, widowhood.
–ship (status, condition) e.g. leadership, dictatorship, friendship
–dom (domain, status) kingdom, chiefdom
–ocracy (system of government) e.g. democracy, autocracy

NOUN /ADJECTIVES

–an ( belonging to, pertaining to)

added to proper noun – e.g. Tanzanian, republican, Indian.

–ese (means nationality when added to proper noun)

e.g. Japanese, Congolese, Chinese

(iii) –ist (member of a party, occupation)

e.g. capitalist, racialist, stylist

(iv) –ite (it is added to names to form personal nouns or adjectives)

e.g. Israel – Israelite, Stalin – Stalinite

(v) –ism ( means doctrine, a point of view or political movement)

e.g. socialism, capitalism, Nyerereism

VERB TO NOUN SUFFIXES

–er (it means profession)

e.g. work + er = worker

teach + er = teacher

drive+ er = driver

–ant

e.g. account + ant = accountant

inform + ant = informant

–ee ( one who receives something)

e.g. employee, payee, trainee

(iv) – ation( state, action, institution)

e.g. organization, civilization, victimization

(v) –ment (state, action)

e.g. enjoyment, entertainment, development

(vi)-age (extent, amount)

e.g. coverage, westage

(vii) –al

e.g. refusal, dismissal.

ADJECTIVE TO NOUN SUFFIXES

–ness (state, quality)

e.g. sane + ity =sanity

rapid + ity = rapidity

elastic + ity = elasticity

VERB SUFFIXES

added to nouns or adjectives to form transitive verbs

–ify (causative)

e.g. beauty + ify = beautify

amplify + ify = amplify

–ise (causative)

e.g. modern + ise = modernise

legal + ise = legalise

–en (to make more – causative)

e.g. wide + en = widen

sharp + en = sharpen

NOUN TO ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

ful (fuu of ; having)

e.g. hope + ful = hopeful

help +ful =helpful

joy+ joyful

–ly (having the qualities of)

e.g. man – manly, friend – friendly, beast – beastly

(iii) –less ( without, not having)

e.g. tooth – toothless, child – childless, care – careless

(iv) –ish (belonging to, having the character of)

e.g. turk – Turkish, Sweden – Swedish, child – childish

(v) –able e.g. favour – favourable, comfort – comfortable

(vi) –y (like, full of; covered with)

e.g. sand – sandy, hair – hairy

ADVERB SUFFIXES

–ly ( manner)

e.g. kind – kindly,

(ii) –ward(s) (manner and direction of movement)

added to preposition, adverbs, nouns etc)

e.g. on – onwards, south – southwards

(iii) –wise (in the manner of, as far as; etc)

added to nouns to form adverbs of manner, viewpoint etc

e.g. clock – clockwise, education wise

INFIXATION

Refers to insertion of an affix into the root or stem

there is no infixation process in English word formation

MINOR WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

CLIPPING

Is the process of forming words by removing one or more syllables from a word.

clipping may occur at:-

the beginning – e.g. phone – telephone, plane – airplane
the end of a word– e.g. ad – adverstment, taxi – taxcab, mic – microphone, pub – public
both ends of a word – e.g. flu – influenze, fridge – refridgerator

ACRONYM

Is the process of forming words by taking initial letters of words in phrase, sentence or names.

There are two types of acronyms:-

those pronounced as sequences of letters ( initialization)

initialization may be:-

the letters representing full words

e..g. UN – United Nations

CCM – Chama Cha Mapinduzi

EAC – East African Community

the letters representing elements in a compound or just parts of word

TV – Television

TB – Tuberculosis

GHQ – General Headquarters

those pronounced as words.

VETA – Vocational Education Training Authority

MOI – Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute

NATO – ( the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)

RADAR – Radio Detecting and Ranging)

BLENDING

Is the process of forming words by fragmenting elements of two bases and join (blend) them together

e.g. Brunch – breakfast + lunch

telecast – television + broadcast

mobitel – mobile telephone

flush – flash + gush

medicare – medical care

motel – motor +hotel

smog – smoke fog

interpole – international + police

transistor – transfer + resister

BORROWING

It refers to the process of forming words by taking a word from one language and incorporating it into another

Examples of English wordsborrowed from other languages include:-

alcohol ( Arabic), boxer and ozone (from German), piano (Italian), boss (Dutch) zebra (Bantu).

others include;

safari (Kiswahili)

judo, karate, tycoon (Japanese)

boutique, crusade (French)

pistol, polka, robot ( from Czech Republic)

cookie, lottery, boss, yatch (from Netherland and Belgium)

kangaroo (Australia)

amen, messiah, gauze ( from Israel)

REDUPLICATION

It refers to the process of forming words through repetition of the same or almost the same sounds.

This is the process of forming new words by doubling an entire word (total reduplication) or part of a word (partial reduplication).

examples;

criss – cross, ding- dong, no – no, goody- goody, see – saw, tip – top, pooh – pooh, splish – splash, super – duper, ha – ha, zig – zag

NOTE: Reduplicatives are mostly informally.

uses of reduplicatives

To imitate sound e.g.ding – dong ( the sound of a bell), ha – ha (laughter), tick – tock (clock) bo
To intensify e.g. tip – top
to suggest alternative movement e.g. see – saw, zig – zag

COINING/COINAGE

It refers to the process of forming words through invention of new terms.

thenewly invented term is called eponym.
examples

aspirin, Kodak, nylon, sandwich, Orlon

NEOLOGISM (SEMANTIC LOAN)

It refers to the extension of the meaning of a word to include new, foreign meanings. for example the word “tick” its meaning has been extended semantically to mean an “exploiter”

ONOMATOPOEIA

The creation of words that imitate natural sounds like the bird’s name cuckoo or pikipiki (motorcycle) and nyau (cat) in Kiswahili

BACK FORMATION

Is the morphological process in which new words are are reversed from the words which existed earlier

e.g. the noun Television first into use then the verb Televise was created from it. Baby-sit has been created from the earlier noun Baby-sitter

It is a process which involves reduction. a word of one type (normally a noun) is reduced to form another word of different type (usually verb)

e.g. – Televisin – televise

editor – edit

donation – donate

emotion – emote

SYMBOLISM

This is a process which involves the change of the structure of a word.

e.g. man – men

foot – feet