Word formation

Creation of new lexemes or the process of changing words

In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term[1] that can refer to either:

* the processes through which words can change[2] (i.e. morphology), or
* the creation of new lexemes in a particular language

## Morphological

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A common method of word formation is the attachment of inflectional or derivational affixes.

### Derivation

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Main article: Morphological derivation

Examples include:

* the words governor, government, governable, misgovern, ex-governor, and ungovernable are all derived from the base word (to) govern[3]

### Inflection

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Main article: Inflection

Inflection is modifying a word for the purpose of fitting it into the grammatical structure of a sentence.[4] For example:

* manages and managed are inflected from the base word (to) manage[1]
* worked is inflected from the verb (to) work
* talks, talked, and talking are inflected from the base (to) talk[5]

## Nonmorphological

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### Abbreviation

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Examples includes:

* etc. from et cetera

### Acronyms & Initialisms

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Main article: Acronym

An acronym is a word formed from the first letters of other words.[6] For example:

* NASA is the acronym for National Aeronautics and Space Administration
* IJAL (pronounced /aidʒæl/) is the acronym for International Journal of American Linguistics

Acronyms are usually written entirely in capital letters, though some words originating as acronyms, like radar, are now treated as common nouns.[7]

Initialisms are similar to acronyms, but where the letters are pronounced as a series of letters. For example:

* ATM for Automated Teller Machine
* SIA for Singapore International Airlines[1]

### Back-formation

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Main article: Back-formation

In linguistics, back-formation is the process of forming a new word by removing actual affixes, or parts of the word that is re-analyzed as an affix, from other words to create a base.[5] Examples include:

* the verb headhunt is a back-formation of headhunter
* the verb edit is formed from the noun editor[5]
* the word televise is a back-formation of television

The process is motivated by analogy: edit is to editor as act is to actor. This process leads to a lot of denominal verbs.

The productivity of back-formation is limited, with the most productive forms of back-formation being hypocoristics.[5]

### Blending

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Main article: Blend word

See also: Portmanteau

A lexical blend is a complex word typically made of two word fragments. For example:

* smog is a blend of smoke and fog
* brunch is a blend of breakfast and lunch.[6]
* stagflation is a blend of stagnation and inflation[1]
* chunnel is a blend of channel and tunnel,[1] referring to the Channel Tunnel

Although blending is listed under the Nonmorphological heading, there are debates as to how far blending is a matter of morphology.[1]

### Compounding

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Main article: Compound (linguistics)

Compounding is the processing of combining two bases, where each base may be a fully-fledged word. For example:

* desktop is formed by combining desk and top
* railway is formed by combining rail and way
* firefighter is formed by combining fire and fighter[5]

Compounding is a topic relevant to syntax, semantics, and morphology.[2]

## Hashtagging as word formation

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Linguists argue that hashtags are words and hashtagging is a morphological process.[8][9] Social media users view the syntax of existing viral hashtags as guiding principles for creating new ones. A hashtag's popularity is therefore influenced more by the presence of popular hashtags with similar syntactic patterns than by its conciseness and clarity.[10]

## Word formation vs. semantic change

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Main article: semantic change

See also: conversion (word formation)

There are processes for forming new dictionary items which are not considered under the umbrella of word formation.[1] One specific example is semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning. The boundary between word formation and semantic change can be difficult to define as a new use of an old word can be seen as a new word derived from an old one and identical to it in form.

## See also

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* Neologism

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f g Bauer, L. (1 January 2006). "Word Formation". Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second ed.). Elsevier. pp. 632–633\. doi:10.1016/b0-08-044854-2/04235-8. ISBN 9780080448541. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
2. ^ a b Baker, Anne; Hengeveld, Kees (2012). Linguistics. Malden, MA.: John Wiley & Sons. p. 23\. ISBN 978-0631230366.
3. ^ Katamba, F. (1 January 2006). "Back-Formation". Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second ed.). pp. 642–645\. doi:10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00108-5. ISBN 9780080448541.
4. ^ Linguistics : the basics. Anne, July 8- Baker, Kees Hengeveld. Malden, MA.: John Wiley & Sons. 2012. p. 217\. ISBN 978-0-631-23035-9. OCLC 748812931.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: others (link)
5. ^ a b c d e Katamba, F. (1 January 2006). "Back-Formation". Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second ed.). pp. 642–645\. doi:10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00108-5. ISBN 9780080448541.
6. ^ a b Aronoff, Mark (1983). "A Decade of Morphology and Word Formation". Annual Review of Anthropology. 12: 360. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.12.100183.002035.
7. ^ Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew (2018). An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their Structure (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press. p. 71\. ISBN 978-1-4744-2896-5.
8. ^ Caleffi, Paola-Maria (2015). "The 'hashtag': A new word or a new rule?" (PDF). Skase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics. 12 (2). ISSN 1336-782X.
9. ^ Calude, Andreea S.; Long, Maebh; Burnette, Jessie (2024-06-07). "#AreHashtagsWords? Structure, position, and syntactic integration of hashtags in (English) tweets". Linguistics Vanguard. 10 (1): 105–114\. doi:10.1515/lingvan-2023-0044. ISSN 2199-174X.
10. ^ Wan, Ming Feng (2024-03-12). "The role of syntax in hashtag popularity". Linguistics Vanguard. 10 (1): 693–698\. doi:10.1515/lingvan-2023-0051. ISSN 2199-174X.

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