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AKENTEN APPIAH-MENKA UNIVERSITY OF SKILLS TRAINING

AND ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT
MAMPONG CAMPUS

LNG. 111: INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

UNIT 2: Word Formation Processes

Mr. Harry Ato Insaidoo

Lecturer
 INTRODUCTION
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• All the languages in the world have the ability to create new words into their
lexicon.

• The creation of new words is motivated by the need to describe new objects and
situations or events.

• The property of language that endows the language with this creative potential is
called productivity of language.

• The process by which new words are created is called word formation process.
In English, new words are created through the following processes: affixation,
blending, borrowing, compounding, clipping, conversion and reduplication etc.
AFFIXATION
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• Affixation is the process of adding an affix to an existing word, called the base,
to form a new word.

• For example, the affix -ness may be added to the kind to form a new word
kindness.

• There are two major types of affixation, namely prefixation and suffixation.
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Prefixation

• Prefixation is an affixation process in which a prefix is added to the ‘front’ of an

existing word to create a new word.

• For example, the prefix en- may be added to the word throne to form a new word
enthrone.

• A prefix may be added to a verb, noun or adjective to create a new word. The
new word may be of the same word class as the base or may be of a different
word class.
 Prefixation illustrated 5

Category A
Prefix Verb New word
1. Pre- + conceive Preconceive
2. Un- + tie Untie
3. Dis- + obey Disobey
4. Re- + write Rewrite
5. Under- + estimate Underestimate
Prefixation illustrated 6

Category B
Prefix Noun New word
1. Non- + smoker Non-smoker
2. A- + symmetry Asymmetry
3. De- + forestation Deforestation
4. Dis- + content Discontent
5. Mal- + treatment Maltreatment
Prefixation
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Category C
Prefix Adjective New word
1. Un- + fair Unfair
2. In- + sane Insane
3. Dis- + loyal Disloyal
4. A- + moral Amoral
5. Super- + natural Supernatural
6. Sub- + conscious Subconscious
 Types of prefixes
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Using the meaning of prefixes as criterion, Quirk and Greenbaum (1988: 431 ff) discuss some
types of prefixes. Four of them are summarised below:
a. Negative prefixes: They are prefixes which have negative meanings. Examples are un-, non-,
in-, dis-, and a- (meaning the opposite of, not).
b. Reversative or privative prefixes: They are prefixes which generally show the reversal of an
action. Examples are un-, de- and dis-.
c. Locative prefixes: These prefixes indicate location in terms of place. Some examples are sub-
(meaning beneath), inter- (meaning between or among) and trans- (meaning across or from
one place to another).
Types of prefixes cont’d
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d. Prefixes of time: These prefixes indicate time or order. Examples are fore- and
pre- (meaning before), post- (meaning after) and ex- (meaning former).

e. Number prefixes: They are prefixes which indicate number. Some examples are
uni- and mono- (meaning one), bi- and di- (meaning two), tri- (meaning three) and
multi- and poly- (meaning many).
Suffixation 10

Suffixation is the process of adding a suffix to the ending of an already existing

word (called the base) to create a new word. The suffix may be added to a noun, an
adjective or a verb:
Word Suffix New word
Gang + -ster Gangster
Book + -let Booklet
Friend + -ship Friendship
Happy + -ness Happiness
Teach + -er Teacher
State + -ment Statement
COMPOUNDING 11

• Compounding is a word formation process in which two or more words are

combined to form a new word. For example, the words class and mate may be
combined to form the word classmate.

• The new word can be hyphenated (e.g. prisoner-of-war, editor-in-chief,

daughter-in-law etc.), written as solid (that is, with no space between the words)
(e.g. pickpocket, manservant, headmaster etc.) or written as separate words (e.g.
science fiction, school age, male menopause etc.).
COMPOUNDING CONT’D 12

• Despite the different spelling forms, the new word is regarded as a single
semantic unit.

• Also, the units forming the compound are free morphemes.

CONVERSION 13

Conversion is a word-formation process whereby a word changes its word-class

without the addition of an affix. Let us consider the use of the word round in the
following sentences:
1. We went round the building.
2. We went round.
3. We finished in the third round.
4. We have bought a round table.
CONVERSION CONT’D 14

In the above sentences, the same word form round is used. However, it has been
used differently in the sentences and this has resulted in different word classes for
the same word round. In example 1, round is a preposition; in 2, it is an adverb; in
3, it is a noun; and in 4, it is an adjective.

Consider the following examples:

1a. I promise to care for you for the rest of my life. (verb)

b. The aged need special care. (noun)

CONVERSION CONT’D 15

2 a. We walk about fifty miles to school. (verb)

b. It was such a slow, boring walk.

3 a. They will release Charles today. (verb)

b. The release of Charles has generated debates. (noun)
BORROWING 16

Languages come into contact with other languages. As a result, they borrow words
from such languages into their vocabulary. The English language has been in
contact with languages such as Greek, Latin, French, Spanish etc. and has
borrowed words from these languages into its vocabulary.

Below are some examples:

a. Words borrowed from Greek: basis, analysis, axis, diagnosis, oasis, thesis etc.

b. Words borrowed from French: devour, café, corps, chauffeur, monarch

BORROWING CONT’D 17

c. English words borrowed from Latin: album, stimulus, bonus, campus, virus,
focus, radius, index, syllabus, antenna, formula, fungus, succumb, ultimatum,
album, stadium, medium, curriculum, bacterium

d. English words borrowed from Italian: tempo, soprano, solo, tempo,

crescendo

e. Ghanaian words borrowed into English: fufu, kente, kwashiorkor

f. Others are leak (Dutch), sofa (Arabic), yoghurt (Turkish), barbecue (Spanish)
etc.
CLIPPING 18

• As a word formation process, clipping involves the subtraction of a syllable or

syllables from a word to form a new word.

• In other words, clipping occurs when a word of more than one syllable is
reduced to a shorter form by removing some of the syllables.

• The new word is a shorten form of the original word. Clipping is, thus, a
reductive process.

• For example, the word ‘fridge’ is a clipped form of the word ‘refrigerator’.
CLIPPING CONT’D 19

Examples
1. Gasoline clipped as gas.
2. Advertisement clipped as ad or advert.
3. Brassiere clipped as bra.
4. Influenza clipped as flu.
5. Telephone clipped as phone.
6. Professor clipped into prof.
CLIPPING CONT’D 20

Clipping can occur:

a. at the beginning of a word: (Aero)plane – plane; (omni)bus – bus

b. at the end of a word: Doc(tor) – Doc; Lab(oratory) – lab

c. at the beginning and the end of a word:

(In)flu(enza) - flu
BLENDING 21

It is a process in which usually fragments of two words are joined together to

form a single word. For example, the word moped is formed from the words
motor and pedal.
Consider the examples below:
1. Brunch – breakfast + lunch
2. Motel – motor + hotel
3. Telecast – television + broadcast
4. Smog – smoke + fog
5. Transistor – Transfer + Resistor
REDUPLICATION 22

Reduplication consists in the repetition of all or part of a root or stem to form a

new word. If the entire root or stem is repeated, the process is called complete (or
total) reduplication.
If only a part of the root or stem is repeated, the process is called partial
reduplication.

Partial reduplication is common in English. Examples are criss-cross, bow-wow,

tick-tock, tip-top, higgledy-piggledy, seesaw, walkie-talkie, flip-flop, wishy-
washy, willy-nilly etc.

Examples of total reduplication are din-din, bye-bye, goody-goody, ha-ha etc.

BACKFORMATION 23

• Back-formation is the process by which new words are formed by the deletion
of a supposed affix from an already existing word.

• Typically, a word of one class (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of

another class (usually a verb).

• A good example of backformation is the process whereby the noun television

first came into use and then the verb televise was created from it.
BACKFORMATION CONT’D 24

Examples

1. The verb ‘edit’ is created from the noun ‘editor’.

2. The verb ‘donate’ is created from the noun ‘donation’.

3. The verb ‘enthuse’ is created from the word ‘enthusiasm’.

4. The verb ‘sculpt’ is created from the word ‘sculptor’.

SELF-STUDY QUESTIONS 25

1. Define ‘acronym’ as a word-formation process and provide two examples

of acronym.

2. Distinguish between prefixation and suffixation as word-formation

processes and provide two examples of each.

3. State two uses of reduplicatives.

4. Define ‘coinage’ as a word formation process and give an example.