¡Descarga Word Formation Processes y más Ejercicios en PDF de Lingüística solo en Docsity! Unit 2: Word Formation Processes The way we form words is contingent upon circumstances and instances that occur in the world around us. • Neologism: a new word and their derivatives accepted on the grounds of the regularities in the word formation processes. • Etymology: The study of the origin and history of a word. Latin derived term: étymon ‘original form’ + logia ‘ study of’. • Coinage: the invention of totally new words. (One of the least common processes). For example: aspirin, nylon, vaseline, zipper, kleenex, teflon, tylenol, xerox, google, whatsapp. • Eponyms: new words based on the name of a person or place: hoover, sandwich, jeans, fahrenheit, volt, watt. • Borrowing: Taking over words from other languages: croissant, piano, dè-jà vu, cul-de-sac, Colorado, Montana, taco, kindergarten, iceberg. • Loan translation (calque): direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. Skyscapper = gratte-ciel (French), wolkenkrabber (German). Or perritos calientes from hot dogs. • Compounding: joining two separate words to make one: Bookcase, wastebasket, railroad, football, backward, earthquake, weatherman, crosswalk, moonlight. • Blending: the combination of two separate words to form a single new term. Blending is the result of taking partial spelling of the both words combined: gasohol: (gasoline and alcohol); workaholic (work and alcoholic); telethon (television and marathon); triathlon (three and marathon); brunch (breakfast and lunch). • Clipping: when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form (usually beginning in casual speech): Facsimile: fax; fanatic: fan; airplane: plane; professional: pro; preparation: prep. • Hypocorism: a longer word is reduced to a single syllable and -y or -ie is added to the end. Movie (moving pictures), telly (television), brekky (breakfast), bookie (bookmaker). • Backformation: a word of one type (typically a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (typically a verb): Televise- donate- emote- enthuse- babysit- opt-. • Conversion: a change in the function of a word: - From noun to verb: name, travel, journey, rain. - From verb to noun: go for a run; to have a chat; have another think coming. - From noun to adjective: the school yard; the court house; teacher appraisal; employee evaluation. - From phrase to adjective (compound): ball-park figure; round-the-clock work hours - Words change meaning upon conversion: Total (noun to verb): completely destroy– runaround (from the verb run around to noun): to dodge someone. • Acronyms: new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words: CD, VCR, USB, UPS, WHO, PIN, ATM, UN, etc. These examples have kept their capital letters, but many acronyms simply become everyday terms such as laser, radar, zip. Some are so rapidly adopted by the general public that the meaning of their components need not be known. •
