I

NTRODUCTION TO

L

INGUISTICS

.

L

ECTURE

5.

Word-formation and English vocabulary

Word-formation (derivational morphology): formation of new lexemes; a process of lexical
innovation.

1. Affixation:

prefixation: be-, co-, dis-, ex-, mis-, re-, un-, etc.

suffixation: -ate, -ation, -er, -ing, -ist, -ment, -ness, -ship, etc.

2. Derivational changes:

Verb > Noun (writ-er, typ-ist, govern-ment);

Verb > Adj. (read-able, writ-ing, act-ive);

Noun > Verb (colon-ise, regul-ate);

Noun > Adj. (tradition-al, child-ish, care-less, trouble-some);

Adj. > Verb (activ-ate, modern-ise);

Adj. > Noun (brav-ery, hard-ship, dark-ness);

Adj. > Adv. (usual-ly, proud-ly);

Noun > Noun (machin-ery, boy-hood, friend-ship);

Adj. > Adj. (blu-ish);

Verb > Verb (chatt-er)

3. Conversion (zero derivation, functional shift):

This is a slow train. (adj.)

Go slow. (adv.)

Slow the car! (verb)

to butter the bread, to bottle the wine,
(‘every noun verbs’)

4. Compounding (endocentric, exocentric, appositional compounds, cf. handout for Lecture 4)

5. Root creations: Kodak, nylon, dacron, blurb

6. Commonization (eponyms): sandwich, lynch, boycott, biro, braille, diesel, saxophone,
bobby, platonic, derby, china, turkey, obamomania; [leperyzacja, palikociarnia]

7. Clipping (shortening):

front of the word: plane, bus, van

back of the word: fax (< facsimile), info, lab, pop, porn, bike, mike, extra, op,

front and back of the word: flu, fridge

middle of the word: vegetarian > veg (etari) an > vegan /vi;g@n/

8. Hypocorisms: reduction to one syllable + -y/-ie: movie, telly, hankie, Ausie, poly, indie,
cabbie.

9. Blending (portmanteau words): chunnel, smog, stagflation, motel, workaholic, broasted
(broil+roast), brunch, spam (spice+ham), Oxbridge, camcorder, sitcom, staycation, hactivist,
sextremist, guestimate, edutainment; Polglish, Spanglish, Britglish, Franglais; [masakrycznie]

10. Back-formation (Noun > Verb): editor > edit; typewriter > typewrite; beggar > beg;
burgler > burgle; donation > donate; option > opt; to televise, to word-process, to babysit
[bieg, czołg, dźwig, ubaw]

11. Abbreviations:

initialisms: TV, DJ, VIP, BMX, OK, AWD, DVD
acronyms: letter-words: WASP, AIDS, NATO, laser, radar, scuba

syllable-words: FORTRAN, Benelux

12. Opaqueness of abbreviations:

jeep < GP < general purpose (vehicle)

Humvee <HMMWV < high-mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle

13. Mixed types:

Reaganize, Reaganomics; obamomania; waspish;[tuskoland]

nimby [n(ot) i(n) m(y) b(ack) y(ard)]: one who objects to the establishment in one’s
neighbourhood of projects, such as prisons, shelters for homeless, that are believed to
be dangerous or undesirable

e-mail, e-learning, e-bank, e-commerce, e-book;

software, hardware, freeware, shareware, spyware;

blog < web-log(book)

14. Representing morphological structure:

bracketing:

unavoidable [un] [avoid] [able]

prearranged [pre] [arrange] [ed]

labelled bracketing: happiness

[

N

[

A

happy] [

N

ness] ]

instruction [

N

[

V

instruct] [

N

ion] ]

washable

[

A

[

V

wash] [

A

able] ]

standardize [

V

[

N

standard] [

V

ize] ]

tree diagrams:

unjustified

A

3
un-

A

3

V

-ed

3

A

ifi-

#

just-

Additional references:

Booij, G. 2012. The Grammar of Words. An Introduction to Linguistic Morphology. Oxford: OUP.
Harley, H. 2006. English Words. A Linguistic Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Katamba, F. 1994. English Words. London: Routledge.
Szymanek, B. 1995. Introduction to Morphological Analysis. Warszawa: PWN.