Name: Sami Ullah
Roll No: 104
Section: BS-CS IB
Functional English
Assignment No.1
Types of Word Formation:
1. Coinage
2. Borrowing
3. Compounding
4. Blending
5. Clipping
6. Backformation
7. Conversion
8. Acronyms
9. Derivation
Coinage:-
Invention of totally new words
Extension of a name of a product from a specific reference to a more general one
e.g. Kleenex, Xerox, and Kodak
Eponyms: words based on a name of a person or a place. E.g. sandwich, jeans, watt
Borrowing:-
Taking over of words from another language
English borrowed a lot of Latin and French words
Leak(Dutch) Barbecue(Spanish) piano(Italian) Sofa(Arabic) Croissant(French)
Yogurt(Turkish)
Arabic also borrowed a lot of words from English, e.g. television, radio, supermarket
Loan-translation or calque
A phrase that is introduced into a language through translation
Compounding:-
Two or more words joined together to form a new word.
Examples:
Home + work=homework(N)
Pick +pocket =pickpocket(N)
Low + Paid=low-paid(Adj)
Blending:-
Similar to compounds, but in blending only parts of the words are combined.
Examples:
Motor + Hotel = Motel
Smoke + Fog = Smog
Clipping:
Shortening a word by deleting one or more syllables.
Examples:
Facsimile = fax
Hamburger = burger
Advertisement= ad
Backformation:-
Creative reduction due to incorrect morphological analysis.
Examples:
Editor = edit
Television = televise
Conversion:-
Assigning an already existing word to a new syntactic category.
Examples:
butter(N) = V to butter the bread
permit(V) = N an entry permit
empty(A) = V to empty the litter-bin
Acronyms:-
Words derived from the initials of several words.
Examples:
National Aeronautics and Space Agency = NASA
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund = UNICEF
Derivation:-
The most common word formation process.
Affixes
Examples:
Happy = unhappy, happiness
Arrange = rearrange
prefixes vs. suffixes
Infixes = inside the word
Multiple Processes:-
The creation of a particular word involves more than one process.
Example: Problems with the project have snowballed
Snow + ball = compound
Snowball (N) = (V) conversion
