Morphology -- Linguistics

LINGUISTICS

Words and Word. Formation processes.

It is refers to the ability of understand a new word in your language (a neologism) and accept the use of different forms of that new word. This ability must derive in part from the fact that there is a lot of regularity in the word- formation process in your language.

Word. Formation Processes.

There seem to be some regular process involved that have been at work in the language for some time and many words in daily use today were considered, once, bar banc misuses of the language.

We must consider the constant evolution of new terms and new uses of old terms as a sign of vitality and creativeness of language.

• Coinage:

It is the invention of totally new terms.

E.g: This word formation process is not frequent, however large corporations attempt to outdo one another to invent short eye-catching names for their products. Some examples of these could include: aspirin or xerox. Sometimes the products that the companies want to sell simply take over the name of the creator or inventor. In such case the new word is called an eponym. Some well known eponyms include: sandwich, or hoover. They are very frequently used in science where units of measurement are named after people, like: hertz, volt, (degree) Celsius.

• Borrowing:

It is the taking over of words from other languages, like alcohol (Arabic) and croissant (French) . A special type of borrowing is described as loan-translation, or calque, in wich, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language.

E.g: The English language has been very absorbent and took over words from all over the world, some of them include: biology, boxer, ozone – from German; jackal, kiosk, yogurt – from Turkish; pistol, robot – from Czech.

• Compounding:

It is a productive source of new terms that consist in joing two separate words to produce a single form.

E.g: For example flower-pot is a compound made of two words: flower and pot, but it does not denote two things, it refers to one object. Some English compounds include: windmill, waterfall, fingerprint, scarecrow. Compounds are pronounced as one unit, but sometimes difficulties in writing arise: some compounds are written with hyphens: full-time, good-looking; some are written separately: bank account, mini skirt; and some can be written in both ways.

• Blending:

it is the combination of two separate forms to produce single new terms. Is very similar to compounding, but it is characterized by taking only parts of words and joining them.

E.g: Famous English examples include: smog which combines smoke and fog, motel made of motor and hotel, Spanglish which is combination of Spanish and English; and guesstimate, from guess and estimate.

• Clipping:

it occurs when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form, often it occurs in casual speech.

E.g.:

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