Recognizing Sentence Structure

Friday, May 4, 2018

Word Formation Processes: The Hierarchical Structure of Words

Important means of word formation involves building up complex words from base morphemes and affixes

Example:
agentive noun

Verb →Agentive Noun (Verb+-er)
Teach →teacher
Drive →driver
Kill →killer

A. Coinage

From the word to coin: to create

→ the creation or invention of totally new terms, without employing any other word or word parts that have already been in existence. Originated from invented trade names or from the appearance of new technological product

Example:
aspirin, nylon, kleenex

B. Acronym

→ formed by taking the initial sounds (or letter) of the word or phrase and writing them into a combination that is itself pronounceable as a separate word. Often consist of capital letter – may loose to become everyday terms. Speaker forget the origin of the word and the acronym become new independent words

Example:
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Laser – Light Amplification (by) Stimulated Emission (of) Radiation

C. Blending

→ combination of the parts of two words. To blend: mix or combine two things

Taking the front part of one word and joining with the back part of another word

Gasohol : gasoline – alcohol

Smog : smoke – fog

Brunch : breakfast – lunch

Motel : motorist – hotel

D. Clipping

To clip : to cut/ to sharpen

Occurs when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form

E. Borrowing

→ taking over words from other language, esp to accompany new ideas, inventions, product

Example:
Indonesian words borrowing from English

Diskusi (discussion), penilaian (evaluation)

Indonesian words borrowing from Arabic

saat, rabu, istirahat

English from other words

Alcohol : Arabic

Boss: Dutch

F. Backformation

A word of 1 part of speech (usually noun) is reduced to form another word of a different part of speech (usually verb)

Form nouns from verbs

Example:
to evaluate → evaluation

to explain → explanation

to relate → relation

The backformation processes are reversed

G. Compounding

→ combining process of 2 or more free morphemes or existing words to produce a single form

H. Conversion

→ converting the part of speech to another one without changing the form of the word

I. Derivation

Prefixes : Added to the beginning of a word. Infixes : English does not have infixes, it common in some other languages (the addition can be at the middle part). Suffixes : Added to the end of a word

J. Onomatopoeia

→ created by simply mimicking or imitating or echoing the sounds that certain objects make

→ onomatopoeic words

Example:
meow – cat’s sound

quack – duck’s sound

hiss – snake’s sound

bang, boom, cackle

K. Multiple Processes

Example:
The problems with the project have snowballed

Compounding snow + ball

Conversion noun-verb

So the word snowballed has multiple processes which are compounding and conversion