Lesson 3:

Word formation

By Vuong Yen
Table of Contents about word formation

01 02 Types of word
formation
Concepts of word
formation 2.1 Affixation
(prefixes; suffixes)
2.2. conversion
2.3. Compounding
2.4. Clipping
03 2.5. Blends
2.6. Backformation
Practice 2.7. Acronyms
Exercises in the book 2.8. Onomatopoeia
2.9. Eponyms
 1. Concepts of word formation

● Word-Formation Processes in English (word

building) is the process of building new
words from existing elements of language
according to certain structural and semantic
patterns and rules/formulae.
 The subject matter of word- formation:
● Is not only simple words but the ones that are
analysable structurally and semantically, ie. derived and
compound word.
 DIFFERENT TYPES OF WORD FORMATION:
● There are 2 ways of word formation:
1. productive
2. non- productive
• Productive ways includes affixation, word composition,
conversion, abbreviation..
• Non-productive way includes sound interchange, stress
interchange, sound imitation, blending, back formation.
 2. Types of Word Formation
2.1. Affixation (prefixes; suffixes)
2.2. Conversion (chuyển loại từ);
2.3. Compounding (từ ghép);
2.4. Clipping (cắt chữ/từ);
2.5. Blends (trộn từ);
2.6. Backformation (hình thành ngược);
2.7. Acronyms (từ cấu tạo bằng những chữ đầu của nhóm
từ);
2.8. Onomatopoeia (từ tượng thanh);
2.9. Eponyms (ghép nhân danh)
 2.1. Affixation in English
● Affixation = adding an established prefix or a suffix to the
existing base
 a. Suffixation
✓ is characteristic of noun and adjective formation.
✓ a suffix usually changes not only the lexical meaning of a
word but also its grammatical meaning or its word class,
✓ e.g. + to bake - baker,
+ beauty - beautiful
 Noun-forming suffixes:
✓ - or: actor, visitor, director
✓ -er/eer: speaker, engineer, opener
✓ -ist: scientist, satirist, journalist
✓ -ess: hostess, stewardess, actress
✓ -ty/ity: cruelty, purity, stupidity
✓ -ure/ture: failure, exposure, mixture
✓ -dom: freedom, kingdom,
✓ -age: passage, marriage, postage
✓ -ance/ence: appearance, preference
✓ -hood: likelihood, brotherhood, neighbourhood
✓ -ing: reading, opening, beginning
✓ -ion/sion/tion/ition/ation: operation, permission, description
✓ -ness: kindness, goodness, willingness
✓ -y/ery: difficulty, enquiry, robbery, slavery
✓ -ship: partnership, membership, kinship
✓ -ment: government, development, movement
✓ -t: complaint, restraint
 Adjective-forming suffixes:
✓ -able/ible: comfortable, fashionable, sensible
✓ -ic/atic: atomic, heroic, systematic
✓ -ful: beautiful, helpful, careful
✓ -y: bloody, dirty, sunny
✓ -less: useless, homeless, careless
✓ -al/ial/tial: personal, influential, preferential
✓ -ive/ative/itive: active, creative, sensitive
✓ -ant/ent: pleasant, different, excellent
✓ -en: wooden, golden, woolen
✓ -like: childlike, ladylike
✓ -ing: amusing, interesting, charming
✓ -ous: dangerous, famous, mysterious
✓ -ish: bookish, childish, foolish
✓ -ly: friendly, lovely, manly
 Verb-forming suffixes:
✓ - ize/ise: civilize, modernize
✓ -ify/fy/efy: simplify, glorify
✓ -en, deepen, sharpen, lengthen
 Adverb-forming suffixes:-
✓ -ly: formally, calmly, easily
✓ -ward/wards: homeward, afterwards, backwards
✓ -wise/ways: clockwise, otherwise, sideways
✓ -fold: twofold, threefold
 b. Prefixation
➢ a prefix usually changes or concretizes the lexical
meaning of a word and only rarely parts of speech,
e. g. write - rewrite, smoker - non-smoker
➢ Prefixes are sometimes used to form new verb.
eg: circle - encircle, large - enlarge etc.
➢ Negation or opposition:
✓ un-: unable, unfair, unpack, unzip
✓ dis-: disagreeable, dislike
✓ a-: amoral, atypical
✓ in-: informal, inexperience
✓ im-: (before b, m, p) impossible, immoral
✓ il-: (before l) illegal, illogical
✓ ir-: (before r) irregular, irrational
✓ non-: nonsmoker, non-scientific
✓ de-: decode, defrost, devalue
➢ Repetition, making it possible:
✓ re-: reread, rebuild, reunited
✓ en-/em-: enrich, enlarge, embitter
➢ Degree, measure or size:
✓ super-: supersonic, superhuman
✓ semi-: semi-final, semidetached
✓ hyper-: hyperactive, hypersensitive
✓ ultra-: ultrahigh, ultraviolet
✓ over-: overtime, overpopulated
➢ Time and place, order, relation:
✓ post-: post-war, postpone, postgraduate
✓ inter-: international, intercontinental
✓ pre-: pre-war, prehistoric, prearrange
✓ ex-: ex-president, ex-husband, ex-film-star
➢ Number and numeral relation:
✓ bi-: bilateral, bilabial
✓ uni-: unisex, unicycle, unilateral
✓ auto-: autobiography, autopump, auto-suggestion
✓ multi-: multinational, multi-storey, multilingual
➢ Attitude, collaboration, membership:
✓ anti-: antisocial, antiwar, antifreeze
✓ counter-: counter-offensive, counter-revolution
✓ pro-: pro-English, pro-vice-chancellor
➢ Pejoration:
✓ mis-: misinform, mislead, misuse
✓ pseudo-: pseudo-scientific, pseudo-intellectual
 2.2. Conversion (chuyển loại từ)
a. Definition
➢ Conversion is the process of gaining new words in
a different part of speech without adding any
derivative elements.
➢ Eg: + face - to face
+ answer - to answer
+ clean - to clean
b. Types of conversion in different parts of speech:
1. from adjectives to nouns
e.g. the poor, the good, the accused, the British;
2. from nouns to adjectives
e.g. stone wall, air passage, zero modification;
3. from verb to noun
e.g. to call > a call; to guess > a guess; to spy > a spy;
4. from nouns to verb
e.g. a bottle > to bottle; water > to water; a hammer >
to hammer;
5. from adjectives to verb
e.g. to clean, to round, to dry, to calm down
6. Some minor categories of conversion
 Minor Types of conversion
✓ from adverb to adjective
e.g. I feel very under- the – weather.
✓ from adjective to adverb (e.g. bitter cold, wide open)
✓ from noun to adverb (e.g. I’m going home)
✓ from adverb to noun (e.g. ups and downs)
✓ from verb to preposition (e.g. including, regarding,
concerning)
✓ from verb to adjective
✓ other rare and special types
Of conversion
e.g. An up-in-the-air feeling,
a forget-me-not, a must-have,
- If you uh-uh again, I won’t go on
with my story)
 The difference between the words in each pair is
morphological, syntactic and semantic
● Read in the couse book (page 43)
 c. Traditional and occasional conversion
Traditional conversion Occasional conversion
+ The type of conversion + Refers to the individual use of
commonly and traditionally conversion in – special situations,
used by the public. to express one’s idea vividly,…
+ The use of a word is + The use of a word is not
recorded in the dictionary registered by the dictionary

Eg: to cook, to look Ví dụ lấy t44

 d. Partial conversion
● Partial conversion is the building of some nouns from verbs, and then this noun is
combined with verbs like “give, make, take” to form verbal phrases. They are not
used quite independently:
● eg: have a look, take a swim, give a whistle….
● Some other nouns are used only in idiomatic phrases (an expression, word, or
phrase that has a figurative meaning conventionally understood by native
speakers.

○ eg: be in the know: be aware of something known only to a few people

○ He likes to be in the know when it comes to what's happening in the tech industry

○ in the long run: at a time that is far away in the future

○ You may want to quit school now, but in the long run, you’ll regret it.
 e. Substantivation
❑ Substantivation is the formation of nouns from adjectives. In other
words, it is the transition into nouns:
eg: native → a native; 2 natives; the native
(fe) male → a (fe) male; 2 (fe) males; the (fe) male.
❑ We also have partial substantivation:
eg: rich → the rich, happy → the happy.
+ these nouns always go with "the" and are not inflected for the plural and
in general cannot be used in the possessive case.
+ they do not undergo morphological changes (they do not have a new
paradigm).
+ they have properties of both nouns and adjectives: "The very
unfortunate, the unusually good
 2.3. Compounding in English
2.3.1. Definition and charactoristic features
2.3.2. Criteria of compound words
a) Phonological criterion
b) Inseparabilite criterion
c) Semantic criterion
d) Graphic criterion (spelling criterion)
2.3.3. Semi- affixes ( affixal words) (
2.3.4. Classification of compound words
a) Classification according to the meaning
b) Classification according to componental relatinghip
c) Classification according to the part of speach
d) Classification according to Compositional types
e) Miscellanea of compounds
2.3.1. Definition and characteristic features
● In English, compounds are classified in terms of
semantics and word class.
● in semantics, a common classification of
compounds yields four types: endocentric (từ
ghép nội tâm), exocentric (từ ghép ngoại tâm),
copulative (từ ghép kết nối) and appositional
(từ ghép đồng vị) compounds.
➢ Compounding is one of the principal, most
productive, and the oldest way of creating words
in English.
● In word class, there are 4 types of compounds:
compound nouns, compound verbs and
compound adjectives, compound advs.
Compound nouns can also be formed by using the following
combinations of words:
A compound verb is usually composed of a preposition and a verb. But
there are also many other combinations as the following
Trung
Phụ tâm
ngữ
Compound adjectives
 2.4. Clipping (cắt chữ/từ)
a. Definition
b. Where to experience such a process?
c. Types of clipping
d. A special type of clipping
 a. What is Clipping?
+ Cutting portion of the word at the beginning, at the end or
cutting both ends of the word and retaining part of the
original to stand for its meaning.
● E.g. Fax for facsimile,
ad for advertisement,
cab for cabriolet
 b.Where to experience such a process?
+ The process of creating new words by shortening parts of
a longer word.
E.g. doctor is shortened to doc
gasoline is clipped to gas
 C. Types of clipping
01 Initial clipping The first part of a word is clipped: airplane → plane

02 Final clipping The last part of a word is clipped: dormitory → dorm

Both the first and the last parts are clipped:

03 initio- final clipping
refrigerator –> fridge; influenza => flu
Leaving out the middle part of the word:
04 Medial clipping
Mathematics→ Maths

Elliptico - conversional Phrasal clipping: a special case in which there is a combination of

05 clipping/ phrasal clipping
ellipsis, conversion and clipping: pop (popular music); pub (public
house); perm (permanent wave);)

Note Besides, there are many more mixed types of abbreviation but it is not necessary to mention them
because the words of such types are not numerous and do not follow a fixed ruleabbreviations
 d. A special type of clipping
+ English speakers usually tend to clip each other’s names.
Hypocorism [hai'pɔkərizm] tên gọi thân mật
E.g. Alfredo -> Al
Edward -> Ed
+ Many words get clipped when it comes down to
educational environments.
E.g. Professor -> Prof
Examination -> Exam
Mathematics -> Math
- A longer word that is reduced to a shorter form with -y
or -ie at the end.
E.g. breakfast -> brekky
bookmaker -> bookie
television -> telly
 2.5. Blends (trộn từ);
● Another word formation process where portions of two words
are combined or fused together, thus creating a new word.
● eg:
❑ internet- inter and network
❑ heliport- helicopter and airport
❑ cellphone- cellular and phone
❑ motel- motorist and hotel
❑ emoticon- emotion and icon
❑ flare- flame and glare
 Three ways of blending words:
• The beginning of the word is added to the end of the other
word.
• Eg: brunch – breakfast and lunch
• Both the beginning of the words are added.
• Eg: : cyborg – cybernetic and organism
• Combining two words entirely without clipping or adding its
parts to form new word.
• Eg: : thumbprint– thumb and print
 2.6. Backformation (hình thành ngược);
● Back-formation is an abnormal type of word-formation
where a shorter word is derived by deleting an
imagined affix from an already existing longer
word in the vocabulary.
● Eg:
o beg ← beggar
o edit ← editor
=> The nouns beggar, editor appeared first in the English
language , and then the verb beg and edit.
● Back-formation is different from clipping:
➢ back-formation may change the part of speech or the word's
meaning,
➢ whereas clipping creates shortened words from longer words, but
does not change the part of speech or the meaning of the word
▪ Back-formation is considered to be the opposite process of
suffixation.
➢ suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to
bases,
➢ and back-formation is therefore the method of creating words by
removing so-called the supposed suffixes.
➢ Eg: to house-keep ←housekeeper
to sight-see ←sight-seeing
 2.7. Acronyms (từ cấu tạo bằng những chữ đầu của nhóm từ)

- are sets of initial letters or larger parts of words

representing a name, organization, or the like, with each
letter pronounced separetely.
 DIFFERENT EXAMPLES OF ACRONYMS
1. Pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters
Eg: NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Laser: light amplification by stimulated emission of
radiation
2. Pronounced as a word,containing non-initial letters
eg: Interpol = International Criminal Police Organization
3. Pronounced as a word,containing a mixture of initial and
non-initial letters
Eg: AIDS- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
Radar-radio detection and ranging
4. Pronounced as a combination of spelling out and a word
Eg.CD-ROM - Compact Disc read-only memory
5. Acronym whose last abbreviated word is often
redundantly included
Eg. ATM machine - Automated Teller Machine machine
LCD display - Liquid Crystal Display display
 2.8. Onomatopoeia (từ tượng thanh)

Onomatopoeia is just the tool a writer needs to describe

sounds made by common objects, animals, or nature.
 2.9. Eponyms (ghép nhân danh)
● Eponyms is a word that comes from the name of a
person or place.
 2.10. Reduplication (hiện tượng láy âm)

✓ Is a process of forming new word by doubling a

morpheme.
✓ Eg: fifty-fifty, dilly - dally, hubble-bubble.
✓ The term “Reduplication” includes three meanings:
1- The process.
2-The result of the process. (new word)
3-The element repeated.
✓ The repeated word is the basic or originating
morpheme.
✓ The new word is called twin-words.
 Originating Morpheme
✓ The Originating Morpheme:
✓ Often Second half as: dilly-dally.
✓ First half as: tick tock.
✓ Both halves as: singsong.
✓ Neither halves as: boogie-woogie.
 Homework
● Prepare for Lecture 4
1. Concepts of Semantics.
1.1. What is Semantics?
1.2. Semantics and its possible included aspects
1.3. Semantic properties/ features and characteristics of Semantic features
1.4. Componential analysis
2. Concepts of meaning
2.1. The meanings of “meaning”
2.2. Theories of meaning
2.3. Components of word- meaning
a. Denotation
b. Connotation
c. Structural meaning
d. Categorical meaning