CONTENTS
1. Introduction 1
2. General Aspects of Language, Language Change and Word-Formation 2
2.1. Changes in Vocabulary 2
2.1.1. Productivity versus Creativity 2
2.1.2. Defining "Word" 3
2.1.3. Defining "Morpheme" 3
2.1.4. Word-Formation versus Inflection and Inflection versus Derivation 4
2.2. Word-Formation 5
2.2.1. Patterns of Word-Formation 6
2.2.1.1. Coinage 7
2.2.1.2. Borrowing 7
2.2.1.3. Prefixiation 8
2.2.1.4. Suffixiation 8
2.2.1.5. Conversion 8
2.2.1.6. Back-formation 8
2.2.1.7. Compounding 9
2.2.1.8. Clipping 9
2.2.1.9. Blending 9
2.2.1.10. Acronyms 10
2.2.1.11. Alphabetism 10
3. Current Trends in English Word-Formation 10
3.1. Affixiation 10
3.1.1. Prefixiation 12
3.1.2. Suffixiation 15
3.2. Compounding 19
3.3. Blending 21
3.4. Clipping 23
3.5. Acronyms and Alphabetism 24
3.6. Respelling 25
3.7. Loanwords 25
3.8. Tables and Figures of Types for Formation in New Words 26
4. Summary 28
Bibliography
1. Introduction
A community is known by the language it keeps, every aspect of the life of a people is reflected in their vocabulary, and "language reflects culture".
As their world changes through invention, discovery, evolution or personal transformation, so does their language, and like the history of a country, its vocabulary bears witness of its past.
The process of forming new words, termed word-formation, is made possible by the productive property of language; there is a range of sources for new words and thus there are various types of word-formation.
As it has been mentioned, every aspect of the life and culture of a people and their knowledge is reflected in their language, and its vocabulary reveals the past and present of a speech-community.
But although there are general patterns of word-formation, language is not a fixed, rigid system; according to the current stage of development new words enter the vocabulary continously, and certain tendencies of the forming of new words appear and may disappear again.
This work will be focussed on current trends and fashions in English word-formation; in the following at first will be dealt with genaral aspects of language and language change. Then some points will be made on word-formation and some basic terms will be defined.
After the presentation of general word-formation patterns will be shown a number of current trends and fashions by the means of examples, but although various aspects will be introduced, it is almost impossible to present all tendencies.
In order to fix certain trends, largely have been chosen and examined examples from Jonathon Green's Neologisms - New Words since 1960 and John Algeo's Fifty Years Among the New Words - A Dictionary of Neologisms, 1941 - 1991 , on the base of which has been tried to derive particular tendencies.
2. General Aspects of Language,Language Change and Word-Formation
Language is "the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with eachother by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols."
In this definition of language it becomes obvious that communication takes place by means of symbols.
These symbols (linguistic forms) are not naturally connected to its meaning but they are arbitrary, thus any form of human language demonstrates arbitrariness.
Another feature of all languages is that novel utterances and linguistic signs are continually being created, thus language has the property of productivity, creativity or open-endedness, and particulary this property of language forms the base for language change and the formation of new words.
2.1. Changes in Vocabulary
If one property of language is productivity, this implies that changes also take place in vocabulary; these changes of vocabulary, as all other forms of language change, take place due to changes in the world in which linguistic signs refer to certain objects, such as invention, discovery, etc.
As the world changes, so does the vocabulary of a speech community, and this vocabulary reflects every aspect of the changing life.
2.1.1. Productivity versus Creativity
Change in vocabulary is, "by its very nature, unsystematic."
New inventions and discoveries produce new and unknown objects which have to be given a name.
The productive process of forming new words is called word-formation, it is defined as "that branch of the science of language which studies the patterns of which a language forms new lexical units, i.e. words."
New words, i.e. neologisms, are risen by productivity and creativity.
The former is a rule-governed feature of the language system, the latter concerns the unpredictable (non-rule-governed) innovations, i.e. the language-users ability to extend the language system.
2.1.2. Defining "Word"
As mentioned before, language is the institution whereby humans communicate by means of arbitrary symbols; these symbols can be referred to as linguistic signs or words which are the most important elements of language, and to speak means to use words.
When the term "word" is used, it has to be defined.
First of all the term can be used in the sense of "lexeme".
A lexeme, e.g. "lead", whose forms are lead, leads, led, etc., is rather an abstract unit, it does not refer "to the particular shape that a word has on a particular occasion, but to all the possible shapes the word can have."
The forms lead, leads, led, etc. are its inflectional forms. Among these forms of "lead", lead occupies the privileged positions of the citation-form and the base-form which have to be distinguished of the lexeme itself.
The citation-form of the lexeme is the form that is employed to refer to the lexeme, it is also the form that is used for the alphabetical listing of lexemes in a dictionary.
The base-form is that form, from which all the other forms of the lexeme can be derived by the morphological rules of the lanuage.
Another sense of the term "word" is the word-form.
According to the example of "lead", lead, leads, led, etc. are word-forms (i.e. they are forms which are also words), they "have phonological or orthographic shape, while a lexeme is a much more abstract unit."
Thus e.g. the word-form led is a form of the lexeme "lead".
The third sense of the term "word" is the grammatical word:
The same sequence of sounds, syllables or letters, the same word-form may represent a different grammatical word:
The word-form led for example can either represent preterite or past participle.
2.1.3. Defining "Morpheme"
In the preceding chapter the ambigous senses of the term "word" have been discussed. Nevertheless words are not the smallest linguistic signs, it is morphology that deals with the internal structure of word-forms.
A word consists of at least one free morpheme or several free or bound morphemes.
A morpheme is "a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function", morphemes can be categorized according to various criteria, e.g. free morphemes and bound morphemes:
According to Yule, a free morpheme can stand by itself as a single word; bound morphemes are affixes which cannot normally stand alone, and which can be subdivided into derivational morphemes which are used to make new words of a different grammatical category from the stem, e.g. change an adjective to a noun, and inflectional morphemes which indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word, e.g. plural or singular, past tense or not, comparative or possessive form.
In addition to the mentioned distinctions within the term "morpheme", George Yule not only subdivides morphemes into free and bound morphemes, bound morphemes again into derivational and inflectional morphemes, but also labels free morphemes as lexical, these morphemes to his opinion are "that set of ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs which we think of as the words which carry the 'content' of the messages we convey", in connection with bound morphemes he names free morphemes as the stem.
Leonard Lipka as well uses the term "lexical morpheme", but unlike Yule he does not employ it in contrast to bound morphemes, but to "grammatical morphemes" in order to subdivide morphemes in general.
To Lipka lexical morphemes "denote in particular extralinguistic objects and state of affairs, e.g. actions, events, situations, relations", they "precede grammatical morphemes", the "combination with other lexical morphemes [is] often restricted", and the "result of combination" is "new lexemes". In contrast, grammatical morphemes "denote in general grammatical functions, e.g. plural, tense, syntactic relations such as concord of gender, number", they "follow lexical morphemes", the "combination with lexical morphemes [is] relatively unrestricted", and the "result of combination" are "word- forms".
2.1.4. Word-Formation versus Inflection and Inflection versus Derivation
As it has been revealed in the preceding chapter, there are obviously three kinds of morphemes, bound morphemes which are either derivational respectively lexical, bound morphemes which are inflectional respectively grammatical, and free morphemes which are, in connection with bound morphemes, labelled as stem.
According to these distinctions there exist at the one hand inflection and at the other hand word-formation.
Based on his distictive definitions, to Lipka "word-formation" is "the combination of lexical morphemes with each other", and "inflection" is "the combination of lexical and grammatical morphemes".
Concerning word-formation and inflection, Bauer argues that morphology can be divided into two main branches, inflectional morphology and word-formation (also called lexical morphology). Here inflectional morphology "deals with the various forms of lexemes, while word-formation deals with the formation of new lexemes from given bases."
Furthermore Bauer distinguishes between inflection and derivation, whereas inflection semantically regularly "produces word-forms of a single lexeme", derivation semantically irregularly "produces new lexemes".
In the English language, prefixes (bound morphemes that realize analysable lexemes, attached before a base) are always derivational, while suffixes (bound morphemes that realize analysable lexemes, attached after a base) may either be derivational or inflectional.
2.2. Word-Formation
As it has been mentioned before, the productive process of forming new words is called word-formation, it is defined as "that branch of the science of language which studies the patterns of which a language forms new lexical units, i.e. words."
Word-formation as lexical morphology stands in contrast to inflectional morphology, as it became obvious in the preceding chapter; according to Bauer word-formation can be subdivided into derivation and compounding (or composition).
Derivation is the combining of a stem or base (free morpheme) with affixes (bound morphemes), either prefixes, or derivational suffixes.
Derivation can be subdivided into class-maintaining derivation and class-changing derivation, the former is the derivation of new lexemes which are of the same form class as the base from which they are formed, the latter produces lexemes which belong to different form classes from their bases.
Compounding is the combination of two or more elements which could potentially be used as stems to form another stem.
Compounds can be subdivided either according to the form class of the resultant compound, e.g. compound noun, or according to semantic criteria.
Here, first of all the terms "determinans" and "determinatum" should be mentioned.
Within a syntagma, e.g. a compound, the determinans modifies the determinatum, e.g. in the compound boathouse, the element boat (determinans) modifies the determinatum house.
Another term which needs to be explained is "hyponym". Hyponymy is the relation between a more specific and a more general lexeme, e.g. rose is a hyponym of flower.
Concerning compounds subdivided according to semantic criteria firstly there are endocentric compounds. These are compounds in which the determinans modifies the determinatum according to hyponymy: For example in armchair the determinans arm modifies the determinatum chair, and an armchair is a hyponym of chair, as it is a kind of chair.
The second group of compounds is the group of exocentric compounds. For example a redskin is not a kind of skin, it is the hyponym of some in the compound unexpressed semantic head and is therefore rather a methaphorical compound.
The type of compound in which the compound is hyponym to both components is termed appositional compound. An example is maidservant, this compound is a hyponym of both, maid and servant, a maidservant is a type of maid and also a type of servant.
In the fourth type of compounds "it is not always clear which element is the grammatical head and the compound is not a hyponym of either element, but the elements name seperate entities which combine to form the entity denoted by the compound."
It has to be remarked that the line between compounding and derivation is sometimes hard to draw, as sometimes it is difficult to dinstiguish between a lexeme and a suffix.
2.2.1. Patterns of Word-Formation
According to the above mentioned aspects of the term, some of the following patterns may not fall within the defined category of word-formation.
Therefore the following patterns will not only respect the rather narrow definition of word-formation, but refer to the diverse ways on which new words enter the vocabulary of the English speech community, as there are various basic sources for neologisms. The patterns will only be described briefly, further aspects and problems have already been discussed in the preceding chapters, or will be mentioned in connection with the presented concrete examples later in this work.
2.2.1.1. Coinage
Coinage is one of the least common processes of word-formation; it is the unpredictable, non-ruled-governed invention of totally new terms which are not made from existing words.
Examples are originally invented trade names like aspirin , nylon , or kleenex.
Other examples are imitatives or echoics - the creation of words whose sound resembles some sound in nature, e.g. the moo of a cow.
2.2.1.2. Borrowing
One common source of new words in English is the process of borrowing, that is the taking over of words from other languages.
The sector of borrowing can be subdivided into simple loanwords, adapted loanwords, and loan translations.
Simple loanwords are adopted directly into English, sometimes with minor modifications of pronounciation needed to make them conform to English sound patterns, and sometimes with spelling changes of a similar kind, but with no major change of form.
Ever since 1066 French has been the main source of loans into English, e.g. nouvelle cuisine , plastique. At the time of World War II a lot of words have been borrowed from German, most military in nature, such as blitzkrieg or panzer, but as well other languages have provided a few loanwords, e.g. mambo, lambada, perestroika, apartheid, intifada.
Adapted loanwords are loans that involve remodeling of meaningful parts of their form (morphological change), rather than only adjustments of pronounciation or spelling (phonological or orthographic change). They are adapted from their foreign word pattern to a more native one.
For example in the Greek kybernetes the grammatical ending has been omitted and the suffix -ics added, the spelling change of k into c was to naturalize the orthography.
Loan translations, or calques, do not borrow the form of a foreign word, but its meaning, rendering the foreign sense by appropriate words already in the language.
Examples are new cuisine (beside nouvelle cuisine) or guestworker (from German Gastarbeiter).
2.2.1.3. Prefixiation
As mentioned before, in English prefixiation is exclusively derivational.
A new word is formed by the attachment of a bound morpheme before a base, this base can be a noun, an adjective or a verb, and a particular prefix can at the one hand be exclusively attached either to a noun, adjective or verb, or at the other hand at the same time to either noun, adjective or verb.
One example is the prefix de- : deform (< de- + form), decode (< de- + code), etc.
2.2.1.4. Suffixiation
As mentioned before, suffixiation can either be derivational or inflectional.
A new word is formed by attaching a bound morpheme after a base.
Derivational suffixes can form nouns from verbs or adjectives, they can derive verbs from nouns or adjectives, they can form adjectives from nouns or verbs, and they can form adverbs.
The base can either be native or a foreign base.
Examples are -ive: generate < generative, -ce: elegant > elegance, -ation: form > formation, etc.
2.2.1.5. Conversion
Conversion or zero-derivation is an extremely productive way of producing new words in English. Conversion or zero-derivation is a change in the function of a word without any reduction, the major kinds of conversion are noun > verb, verb > noun, adjective > noun, and adjective > verb. Examples are: a bridge - to bridge, a bottle - to bottle, a network - to network.
2.2.1.6. Back-formation
Back-formation as a type of reduction process is the formation of a new lexeme by the deletion of a suffix, or supposed suffix. Here usually nouns are reduced to form verbs, e.g. zipper - to zip, option - to opt.
2.2.1.7. Compounding
Compounding is the combination of two or more elements which could potentially be used as stems to form another stem.
In a compound can be combined nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and particles.
According to semantic criteria there are four types of compounds which have been mentioned before. The most frequent types are endocentric, exocentric and appositional compounds, examples are the abovementioned armchair (< arm + chair), redskin (< red + skin), or maidservant (< maid + servant).
2.2.1.8. Clipping
When a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form while still retaining the same meaning and still being a member of the same form class, this process is denoted as clipping.
Does the word lose its first elements, the term is fore-clipping, does it lose its second element, we talk of back-clipping.
An example for fore-clipping is wire (< earwire) ; bi (< bisexual), soap (< soap opera) are examples for back-clipping.
Clipped forms are also used in compounds, e.g. sci-fi (< science fiction), sitcom (< situation comedy).
2.2.1.9. Blending
A blend may be defined as "a new lexeme formed from parts of two (or possibly more) other words in such a way that there is no transparent analysis into morphs."
Examples are smog (< smoke + fog), motel (< motor + hotel), chunnel (< channel + tunnel).
2.2.1.10. Acronyms
An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a set of other words and using them as a new word, although not every abbreviation is an acronym, as to be one, the new word must be pronounced as a word and not as a series of letters.
Examples are laser (< light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), radar (< radio detecting and ranging), AIDS (< Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
2.2.1.11. Alphabetism
Alphabetism or initialism are abbreviations using the initial letters of the words of an expression, pronounced by the alphabetical names of the letters. The probably most famous example is TV (< television).
3. Current Trends in English Word-Formation
As it has become obvious there are general patterns of word-formation and diverse sources for new words.
Language is not a rigid system, according to the current stage of development of a speech community new words enter its vocabulary continously, and certain tendencies of the forming of new words appear and may disappear again.
In the following will be shown a number of current trends by the means of examples, but although various aspects will be introduced, it is of course impossible to present all tendencies.
In order to fix certain trends, examples have been chosen, on the base of which has been tried to derive particular fashions.
Real trends, that means the ocurrance of a range of new words within one pattern, do not affect all the above mentioned sources of new words, therefore have been listed exclusively those categories in which could be found more than a few single examples.
3.1. Affixiation
One recent trend in English word-formation is affixiation with particular prefixes and suffixes, such as electro-, hydro, eco-, bio-, socio-, hyper-, mega-, super-, micro-, euro-, tele-, multi-, docu-, electro-, re-, -crat, -naut, -phile, -(a)holic, -flation, -cast, -caster, -gate, -mobile, -scape, -(a)thon, -something, -teria, -in, -out.
In the examples will be followed largely John Algeos argumentation, who refers to these affixes simply as prefixes or suffixes, but it has to be mentioned that apart from that exists another point of view:
In contrast, Laurie Bauer points out that some elements on English word-formation may function as affixes in some places, while in other places they appear to be distinct from affixes in other facets of their behaviour. These elements he terms "combining forms".
He says that "the evidence for treating these combining forms as affixes is that they are sometimes added to lexemes just like any other affix."
He sets up the following parallels:
an - electric photo - electric
music - cal music - ology
When an- and al- are affixes, thus photo- and -ology must also be affixes.
Here Bauer argues that this "line of argumentation leads to the embarrassing conclusion that there are lexemes made up of a prefix and a suffix with no root; these are words like biocrat, eurocrat, electrophile, galvanoscope, homophile, protogen."
The conclusion is embarrassing as affixes usually are "defined by their ability to co- occur with bases, which contain roots. The notion of a prefix and a suffix occuring together with no root thus leads to a contradiction."
At this point Bauer argues that these combining forms cannot be normal affixes, as they behave differently from other affixes. Thus he subdivides the combining forms into Final Combining Forms (FCFs) and suffixes, in that only the former can combine with Initial Combining forms (ICFs).
Furthermore it has to be remarked that sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between an affix and a lexeme, therefore sometimes it is not clear if a phenomena should be categorized as either compound or derivative, respectively compounding or affixiation. As it will be shown later in this work, as well it is sometimes a problem to distinguish between suffixiation and blending or clipping, because suffixes have been derived from a pattern of another word.
Both derivatives formed by suffixiation and compounds are lexical units, the former can be written solid or with a hyphen, the latter can be additionally written with a space between.
3.1.1. Prefixiation
Particulary the prefix eco- produces a range of new words.
eco- , according to Algeo, "has taken the sense of ecology, ecological", as Jonathon Green says, eco- is "denoting various combinations that refer to events, occupations, and concerns keyed to ecology."
Examples of word-formation with the prefix eco- are
ecoaction eco-award eco-awareness Eco-Bag
eco-consciousness ecoconversion eco-design Eco-Commando
Eco-Farm eco-enthusiast Ecogame eco-house
eco-journalism Eco-land ecomanagement ecomodel
eco-palace eco-philosophy Eco-plastics ecopolicy
eco-prophet eco-skit eco-pundit ecosteel
ecostatics eco-unit eco-version
ecofreak (one concerned about ecology)
eco-anarchism (an anarchistic theory of ecology)
ecocommunity (a human community living in balance with the environment)
ecodefender (one engaged in ecodefense, also monkeywretcher)
ecodefense (the sabotage of companies and institutions exploiting or threatening the environment, also ecotage, monkeywretching)
ecodisaster (the disappearance of many species in an environment)
ecofact (a natural object, such as seeds or bones, found with artifacts, revealing how ancient peoples responded to their surroundings)
ecomenu (a selection of simple, healthful foods that make minimal demands on the environment)
econote (a short article on ecology)
ecoraider (an ecodefender)
Another recently often used prefix is euro-.
According to Algeo, euro- means "European, esp. Western European; pertaining to the Eurpoean money market or the European Economic Community or Common Market."
Bauer remarks, that euro- could be defined as "affix", but not as "prefix" or "root"
Examples of new words with the prefix euro- are:
Euro-banker Eurobanking Euro-bomb Eurocompany
Euro-convertible, Euroconvertible Eurodebt Eurodefense
Eurodeposit Euro event Eurofinancing Euroflation
Euro-loan Euromarket Euromissile Euro-Mediterrean
Another trendy form is bio-.
Bauer classifies this prefix as an ICF. But as most of the examples with bio- have an unmodified lexeme as their second element, bio- acts like any other prefix.
According to Algeo, bio- "continues its earlier sense of 'life' but is sometimes used more specifically to mean 'biologocal.'"
Green says that "this prefix entered wide use through the current fashion for all things green and environmentally conscious."
Examples are:
biomotor bio-diversity bio-gas bio-sphere
biodegrade bioengineering biomass bio-acoustics
biocybernetics biohazard bioscientist biometry
bioethics biorhythm biomedicine biofeedback
biosatellite bioscience bio-parent biopolitical
biorobot biodegradation biopreneur
Here it has to be remarked that when one lexeme with a given root is prefixed by bio-, the other derivatives with the same root also occur prefixed by bio-, e.g. biodgrade, biodegradation.
Another trendy prefix to form new words is micro-.
According to Green micro- is "an all purpose prefix taken from Greek and meaning 'miniature'."
Examples of word-formation with the prefix micro- are:
microchip microprocessor microelectronics microcode
microsurgery microteaching micromarketing micromesh
A particular role plays the word to microcook which means "to cook in a microwave oven". Here the prefix micro- is not emploeyd in its usual sense of 'small' but has developed a new use.
A further prefix which is recently used is multi- .
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary this combining form means "many; more than one."
Examples are:
multimedia mutinational multi-occupation multitask(ing)
multi-way multi-access multiaxial multiparous
multiplex multivalent multiprocessing multilateral
multiform multiformity multigrade multichannel
multiphase multi-user multiprogramming
The combining form tele- recently forms a range of new words as well.
Tele- can be used in three senses, either in the sense of "at or to a distance", referring to "television" or "done by means of the telephone".
Examples for new words with the prefix tele- are:
teleprompter telecourse telesales tele-banking
telecommuting teleconferencing televangelist telecottage
telecast telecine telemarketing teleprinter
telesoftware telecommunication
In the following example both affixes tele- and -thon are clearly combining forms and cannot be denoted as prefix or suffix because doing so would lead to the false conclusion that the lexeme telethon is made of a prefix and a suffix with no root, but as it has been mentioned before, an affix is defined by its ability to co-occur with bases, which contain roots.
telethon (televised show to raise money)
Another prefix pointed out by Algeo is docu-.
It has the sense "in a documentary style", e.g. in forms like
docu-pulp docu-reenactment documusical docudrama
The following prefix can, according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary at the one hand be a combining form meaning either "large" or "denoting a factor of one million in the metric system of measurement", or at the other hand, according to Green be an adjective derived from the Greek prefix, meaning "great". Green also remarks that this adjective is nowadays "applied to legions of nouns and adjectives, and frequently used as a stand-alone approbation/description: 'It's mega.'"
Only a few examples are:
mega-successful megastar mega-event mega-silly
Another prefix recently in use is hyper-.
It can be employed in the sense of "above, over, beyond", "exeeding" or "exessively; above normal".
Examples are:
hyperbole hyperconscious hypercritical hypergamy
hypersensitive hypertension
A similar combining form is ultra-, meaning either "beyond, on the other side of" or "extreme(ly), exessive(ly)".
It can as well be an adjective or a noun, as an adjective it means "favouring extreme views or measures, esp. in religion or politics", as a noun it signifies "an extemist".
A few examples are:
ultra-conservative ultra-modern ultra-stupid ultra-clever
3.1.2. Suffixiation
As it has become obvious, a range of trendy prefixes form new words. But not only particular prefixes, but also particular suffixes for the forming or new words seem to be fashionable recently.
Sometimes a suffix is derived from the pattern of another word, these elements mostly started out in blends and have recently become English suffixes.
Sometimes the line is hard to draw between blends, suffixes and or compounds made up of one instance of clipping and one unaltered lexeme.
One example is the suffix -something, according to Green it is "the contemporary equivalent of '-ish', usually referring to an age, or generation".
This prefix is probably "derived from the television series 'thirtysomething', which dealt with the lives of a group of men and women in their thirties."
One example of its use is:
"Certain of the defendents are, like Grob, sixty-something. (Private Eye, 16 March 1990)"
Another suffix which is recently employed is -(a)holic.
A number of words have appeared based on the pattern of alcoholic, whose real suffix is -ic.
The suffix -(a)holic means, derived from the pattern of alcoholic, "to be addicted to something", recent examples are:
workaholic bookaholic golfaholic hashaholic
sweetaholic chocoholic golfaholic shopaholic
sleepaholic spendaholic washaholic wordaholic
sexaholic clothes-a-holic pillaholic drugaholic
computerholic colaholic
Another example of a suffix which developed from a pattern in another word is -gate.
The Watergate affair of 1972-74 created a new linguistic suffix which has been attached to a wide range of proper nouns to denote a form of major political scandal.
Examples are:
Irangate Koreagate Muldergate Billygate
Abdulgate Winegate Agrogate Narcogate
Johnsongate Inkathagate
Algeo remarks that "there is no reason why the last syllable of 'Watergate' should have become a suffix, except that it was short, snappy, and suggested an opening for satire."
One more example of suffixiation that developed from a pattern of another word is the suffix -speak, which is derived from George Orwell's newspeak, which he created in 1948 for his novel "1984".
Attached to a given noun it means "language of", or when the noun describes an occupation, more precisely "the jargon used in that job".
Recent examples are:
artspeak computerspeak winespeak airlinespeak
agentspeak cabbie-speak
Furthermore the suffix -scape is derived from "landscape", as in:
moonscape seascape street-scape mindscape
dream-scape sound-scape
The suffix -nik is taken from the Russian sputnik, whose 1957 launch was the beginning of the space age.
"The meaning of -nik has shifted from 'one who does or is connected with something' in Russian to 'one who rejects social standard values and becomes a devotee of some fad or idea or takes part in some mode of life' first in American English, starting with 'beatnik'."
Examples are:
boatnik cheatnik chic-nik elite-nik
fashion-nik protestnik jobnik no-goodnik
goodwillnik computernik Porschenik Shakespearenik
cinenik filmnik folknik
The personal agent suffix -ster, derived from youngster has been revived as well in the past few years.
Recent examples are:
fraudster heirster japester nibster
screenster Soanster slopester soulster
gamester thronester strokester
Another example is the combining form -(a)thon which is derived from marathon.
"'Marathon' is a race first run in the Olympic games of 1896; its length - 26 miles, 385 yards (which was standardized in 1924) - commemorates the battle of Marathon of 490 BC, when the Athenian Pheidippedes ran from Athens to Sparta, a distance of around 23 miles, to alert Spartan aid for the struggle against the invaiding Persians. Thus the story as recorded by Herodotus, although the race was based on a corruption of this legend: that the run was from Marathon to Athens, bringing news of Persia's defeat. Since then the suffix has denoted any prolonged or extended activity, usually involving a good deal of endurance."
Recent examples are:
talkathon poethon bikeathon workathon
walkathon discothon rockerthon
The example of telethon consists of the combining forms tele- and -thon, it refers to "a method of mass-appeal fund-raising, which uses the television."
Moreover the suffix -burger has been derived from hamburger.
Particulary here the line is difficult to draw between blend and compound.
A burger can be at the one hand a "hamburger" or at the other "in combination a certain kind of hamburger or variation of it."
These definitions would rather support the classification of an endocentric compound, as the second part of the compound, the determinatum "burger" is modified by the first element, the determinans and therefore the compound is a hyponym of the semantic head, although Bauer argues that the element -burger started out in a blend and has recently become an English suffix.
Examples are beefburger, nutburger, cheeseburger, chickenburger, and veggieburger.
Other examples in which a suffix developed from the patterns of an other word are -cast (from broadcast, e.g. newscast, telecast, derivations: sportscaster), -legger (from the older term bootlegger, originally "one who carries contraband in his boot legs", e.g. foodlegger, tirelegger, carlegger, gas legger), -teria (from cafeteria, denoting "self-service establishments", e.g. washeteria), and -napping (from kidnapping, e.g. cartnapping, derivations: cartnapper).
Difficult to draw is the line between blend and suffixiation in the example -flation.
Derived from blends of inflation, new word like gradeflation, oilflation, taxflation have been formed, stagflation though is a clear case of blending (stagnation + inflation)
Near the borderline between suffixiation and compounding is as well the formative -happy. Although it does not look like a suffix as it is usually spelled with either a hyphen or a space, its negative meanings are different from the positive of the independant word happy.
The suffixial happy has two senses, either "confused and disorientated from", or "impulsive or obsessive about," e.g.:
headline-happy flak-happy battle-happy trigger-happy
powerhappy
Another borderline suffix is the prepositional -in with the three senses "a public protest" (prototype sit-in), "a place to which one comes" (prototype drive-in, fly-in), and "a large group entertainment" (prototype love-in, streak-in).
In as a prefix as in in-house in contrast has the meaning of "within".
As well the element -intensive is difficult to classify, according to Green it is a suffix, according to Algeo it falls within suffix-like compounding.
Examples for new words formed with -intensive are:
calorie-intensive capital-intensive export-intensive
technology-intensive earnings-intensive fuel-intensive
time-intensive energy-intensive research-intensive
Another form which is classified as a suffix-like compound is -bashing, examples for word-formation with -bashing are fag-bashing, granny-bashing, Paki-bashing, square- bashing, yuppy-bashing.
Very popular is the use of the suffix-like compound -hop with its derivations -hopper and -hopping.
Recent examples are job-hop, bed-hop, city-hop, table-hop, museum-hop.
In connection with the booming sector of computing and electronic media, in particular the suffixes -compatible, -friendly, and -aware have gained new importance.
The suffix -friendly, originally ocurring in user-friendly, now has been extended to several other uses, e.g. environmental-friendly, computer-friendly, etc.
The suffix -compatible still mostly is emploeyd in connection with computing, e.g. downward compatible, upward compatible, plug-compatible, the same is true for -aware.
3.2.Compounding
The modern English language recently seems to tend in general towards unpredictable compounding.
Concerning compound nouns, particulary in the field of the form "adjective + noun", the adjectives electronic and green have recently become fashionable.
Referring to electronic, in the following examples it is used in the sense "(of a device) using electronic components", "produced by electronic means".
The examples are endocentric compounds, that means they are hyponyms of a semantic head, the adjective (determinans) is always modifying the noun (determinatum).
electronic cash electronic tagging electronic mail
electronic office electronic evangelist electronic meeting
electronic vandalism electronic cottage
The following examples of compounds with electronic are exocentric compounds, the noun is not modified by the adjective, and the compound is not a hyponym of the determinatum, but a hyponym of some unexpressed semantic head:
An electronic kiosk for example is not a kind of kiosk, but "a form of telecommunications for newspapers and radio stations", an electronic time bomb is not a kind of time bomb, but a "computer virus", an electronic brain is not a kind of brain, but a computer, and an electronic wallet is not a kind of wallet, but "a smart card used for financial transactions."
Another trendy adjective to form compounds is the adjective green which is a current shorthand for "ecologically/environmentally concerned".
The adjective green is emploeyd in countless combinations with nouns, the compound then is an endocentric:
green consumer green idea green issue green management
green policy green product green regulation green reputation
green revolution green shopper green technology green voter
It has to be remarked that green is not only used in adjective + noun compounds, but itself can derive other forms.
The adjective containing the above mentioned information for example forms nouns by suffixiation with the suffixes -ery and -ness :
"Companies that went to be greener are developing new ways to build greenery into management. ('A Survey of Industry and the Environment', The Economist, 8 September 1990, p. 23)"
"And companies fear that the more information they have to provide on a product's greenness, the more a label will cost them. ('A Survey of Industry and the Environment', The Economist, 8 September 1990, p. 8)"
Another trend within the type of compounding are compounds with management and its derivations.
Recently almost everything has to be managed to gain the highest efficiency.
Among a range of compounds particulary time-management seems to be of a great interest.
One more example for recent compounding are compounds with maker, which have increased for some years, e.g.
auto-maker noodle maker nukemaker opinionmaker
film-maker video-maker speechmaker plane maker
picturemaker lawmaker carmaker superchipmaker
For about twenty years person has been used to replace man in compounds, in order to avoid the discrimination of women:
businessperson adperson councilperson policeperson
homeperson spaceperson spokesperson stateperson
One more example are compounds with watcher, meaning "'expert student, one who closely follows the affairs of a particular person, country, institution.'"
Recently watcher is used to form compounds, such as:
calorie watcher market watcher weight-watcher word-watcher
NASA-watcher count-watcher tabacco watcher Kremlin-watcher
celebrity watcher royal-watcher peking-watcher Washington-watcher
Other compounds are formed with prefix-like elements such as global, big (e.g. big banking, big labour, big money, big oil ), or power (e.g. powerboat, power drinking, power breakfast, power lunch, power dressing, power buying).
Here it has to be remarked that power recently as well has its roots in computing, e.g. power user refers to "those whose computer needs require many megabytes of memory and storage, fast machines with number-crunching capabilities."
3.3.Blending
Very popular seems recently to be word-formation by blending.
This is a process of "simultaneously combining and shortening", therefore the line is difficult to draw between compounding, affixiation, blending and clipping.
The word that begins the blend may have its ending shortened, as in
aeroneer < aeron(aut) + -eer Alcometer < alco(hol) + meter
femspeak < fem(inine) + -speak transaxle < trans(mission) + axle
vidspud < vid(eo) + spud Britpop < Brit(ish) + pop(ular music)
Swatch < S(wiss) + watch
The blending of the words may be encouraged by an overlapping of sounds, usually at the point where the words join:
robomb < ro b (ot) + bomb smist < s m(oke) + mist
smurk < s m(oke) + murk triathlete < tri athl(on) + athlete
videot < v ide(o) + idiot
Moreover, the beginning of the last element of the blend may be clipped:
skyjack < sky + (hi) jack airbrasive < air + (a)brasive
bookvertising < book + (ad)vertising fanzine < fan + (maga)zine
monokini < mono + (bi)kini moonquake < moon + (earth)quake
Popsicle < pop + (i)cicle radiobotage < radio + (sa)botage
slumlord < slum + (land)lord turkeyfurter < turkey + (frank)furter
tank-dozer < tank + (bull)dozer
In the following the last element of the blend is clipped, reinforced by overlapping sounds, usually the final sounds of the first element and the beginning sounds of what is left of the clipped second element:
multiversity < mult i + (un) iversity
autotel < aut o + (h) otel
bidvertiser < bi d + (a) dvertiser
boatel < b oat + (h) otel
dramedy < dra ma + (co) medy
ecotage < ec o + (sab) otage
ecoteur < ec o + (sab) oteur
confrontainment < confron t + (enter) tainment
electionomics < electi on + (ec) onomics
fanference < fa n + (co) nference
rockumentary < ro ck + (do) cumentary
trainasium < trai n + (gym) nasium
Furthermore both elements entering into a blend may be clipped, the most usual pattern is to clip the end of the first element and the beginning of the second one:
buppie < b(lack) + (y)uppie
skort < sk(irt) + (sh)ort
simulcast < simul(taneous) + (broad)cast
republocrat < republ(ican) + (dem)ocrat
infotainment < info(rmation) + (enter)tainment
docutainment < docu(mation) + (enter)tainment
globflation < glob(al) + (in)flation
medflacion < med(ical) (in)flation
perma-lastic < perma(nent) + (e)lastic
soaperatic < soap (opera) + (op) eratic
rockoon < rock(et) + (ball)oon
glitzy < glit(ter) + (r)itzy
camcorder < cam(era) + (re)corder
The letters or sounds where the clipped elements come together may be identical and thus overlapping, e.g.
cafetorium < cafe t(eria) + (audi) torium
infomercial < inf o[r] m(ation) + (c) ommercial
orature < o ra(l) + (lite) rature
vocumentary < v oc(al) + (d) ocumentary
In other cases, the overlapping elements are sounds rather than words, e.g.
guesstimate < gu ess + estimate
sexplotation < s ex + ex(plotation)
A more complex example is Britcom, its formation is shown in the following:
Britcom < Brit(ish) + (situation) com(edy)
3.4.Clipping
Very popular is as well clipping. There are various types of clipping, the most frequent ones are fore/front-clipping and back-clipping; mixed shortenings or internal clipping, though not incommon, are less frequent. As it has been mentioned before, sometimes the line between clipping end blending is hard to draw, and there are cases in which a mixture of both is employed.
Recent examples are:
fax < facs(imili), respelled pic < pic(ture)
sitcom < sit(uation) com(edy) autoland < auto(matic) land(ing)
detox < detox(ification) glam < glam(orous)
rehab < rahab(ilitation) lab < lab(oratory)
bod < bod(y) limo < limo(usine)
Intelsat < In(ternational) Tel(ecommunications) Sat(ellite)
Intelpost < Int(ernational) El(ectronic) Post
lit-crit < lit(eral) crit(icism) metro < metro(politan)
sci-fi < sci(ence)-fi(ction) vegan < veg(etari)an
veggies < vegetables micro < micro (wave)
bi < bi(sexual) soap < soap (opera)
biopic < bio(graphical) pic(ture) sencit < sen(ior) cit(izen)
bascart < bas(ket) cart Amvets < Am(erican) Vet(eran)s
Juco < Ju(nior) Co(llege) Cominch < Com(mander) in Ch(ief)
comsymp < com(munist) symp(athizer) Britpop < Brit(ish) pop(ular music)
mimstud < mi(ddle-aged) m(ale) st(ick-in-the-m)ud
hi-tech < hi(gh)-tech e-mail < e(lectronic) mail
3.5.Acronyms and Alpabetism
Shortening seem not only to be trendy, which becomes obvious when we look at the enormous number of new words formed by blending or clipping, but this trend can be observed as well according to various acronyms and alphabetisms.
Recent examples are the following:
dinky < dual income, no kids + y NIMBY / nimby < not in my back yard
NINK < no income, no kids SINK < single income, no kids
SWANK < single women and no kids
FIK < families including kids
TIPS < tiny income, parents supporting
Lombard < loads of money but a real dickhead
RAM < random access memory
ROM < read only memory
WAR < Women Against Rape
PIN < personal idendification number
WYSIWYG < what you see is what you get
WORM < write once read many times
GRAS < generally considered as safe
MEP < Member of the European Parliament
GOM < great old man
OTT < over the top
OPM < other people's money
CD < compact disc
BP < beautiful people
CAD < computer aided design
CR < consciousness raising
www < worlwide web
LBO < leveraged buyout
ME < myalgic encephalomyelitis
MC < master of ceremonies
OL < office lady
3.6. Respelling
Abbreviations in connection with respelling and respelling in general have become popular as well. The following words mostly cannot be found in dictionaries so far and are difficult to categorize:
fon < phone
showbiz < show business
X-mas < Christmas
trax < tracks
thanx < thanks
XTC < Ecstasy
net worx < net works
bar-b-q < barbecue
3.7. Loanwords
Concerning loanwords, the German meister has entered English vocabulary.
In examples like courtmeister, gagmeister, misery-meister, snipemeister, spielmeister, peacemeister, or American angst-meister Woody Allen, it is difficult to say, if we are talking about a simple loanword, a compound, or a suffix.
The same is true for -fest, which recently has made its way into British English:
gold medal fest nostalgia-fest therapy-fest talk-fest
cityfest song-fest summerfest gossip-fest
3.8. Tables and Figures of Types for Formation in New Words
The following tables and figures will show which percentage of new words comes from which type of word-formation. Although the tables have been taken from two different sources with different years analysed, obviously most neologisms have recently been formed on the base of compounding and affixiation, a trend which has also been revealed in this work.
Table of types for formation in new words 1939-82
________________________________________________________
Formation type I Number in % I
________________________________________________________
Abbreviations I 2.5 % I
________________________________________________________
Blends I 3.1. % I
________________________________________________________
Shortenings I 3.3 % I
________________________________________________________
Compounds I 20.5 % I
________________________________________________________
Prefixiation I 12.9 % I
________________________________________________________
Suffixiation I 42.9 % I
________________________________________________________
Names I 4.4 % I
________________________________________________________
Neo-classical compounds I 2.3 % I
________________________________________________________
Simultaneous prefix and suffix I 0.4 % I
________________________________________________________
Other I 7.7 % I
________________________________________________________
Taken from: Bauer, Laurie: Watching English Change, London, New York, 1994, page 38
Table of types for formation in new words, 1941-1991
________________________________________________________
Type I Number in % I
________________________________________________________
Compound forms I 40.3 % I
________________________________________________________
Affixed forms I 28.0 % I
________________________________________________________
Shifting I 17.4 % I
________________________________________________________
Shortening I 7.6 % I
________________________________________________________
Blending I 4.6 % I
________________________________________________________
Borrowing I 1.6 % I
________________________________________________________
Unknown I 0.3 % I
________________________________________________________
Coinage I 0.2 % I
________________________________________________________
Remark: Shifting = Shift of form, circumstances, grammar, meaning (not mentioned in this work)
Shortening = Clipping, alphabetism, acronymy, phonetic elision, back formation
Taken from: Algeo, John: Fifty Years Among the New Words, A Dictionary of Neologisms, 1941-1991, Cambridge, 1991, page 14
4. Summary
Due to language's property of productivity and creativity, the vocabulary of a speech community changes continously.
In this work it has become obvious that there exist various sources for new words and general patterns of word-formation, but if a closer look is taken at current neologisms, certain trends can be revealed.
Particular current tendencies are recently mostly connected with new technical inventions and socio-cultural developments.
The tendency of at least the western world to environmental consciousness, to the need to behave in all aspects of life economically, either concerning resources, time, or money, the tendency towards global and multidimensional thinking, and to link a range of aspects, also is revealed in current trends of word-formation.
Probably this argumentation will not hold water, but it seems that particulary the latter facts mentioned, the trend of multidimensional thinking and of linking diverse aspects of life in order to reach higher efficiency, is reflected in the obvious tendency towards compounds and affixiation.
Especially the range of abbreviations and shortenings, as in acronyms, alphabetism, clipping, and blending, seem to support the view of a world in which time is the greatest critical factor, and that is probably why a word like "time-management" has been invented. People seem to save in every aspect of life, especially concerning their time, and obviously start doing this by conveying the maximum amount of information by minimum means.
Another aspect is the invention and further development in technology, particulary in the sector of computing, media, and communication technology which is also reflected in vocabulary.
It is not possible to predict which trends will disappear as quickly as they have appeared, and what kind of tendencies will occur within the next decades:
As the development of the culture, behaviour, and inventions of a people cannot be foreseen, so cannot its vocabulary.
But as long as a people will continue to change, so will its language.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Algeo, John:
Fifty Years Among the New Words - A Dictionary of Neologisms, 1941 - 1991, Cambridge, 1991
Bauer, Laurie:
English Word-Formation, Cambridge, 1983
Bauer, Laurie:
Watching English Change, London, New York, 1994
Cannon, Garland:
Historical Change and English Word-Formation, New York, 1987
Denning, Keith / Leben, William R.:
English Vocabulary Elements, New York, Oxford, 1995
Faiß, Klaus:
English Historical Morphology and Word-Formation: Loss versus Enrichment, Trier, 1992
Gramley, Stephan / Pätzold, Kurt-Michael:
A Survey of Modern English, London, New York, 1992
Green, Jonathon:
Neologisms - New Words since 1960, London, 1991
Lipka, Leonhard:
An Outline of English Lexicology, Tübingen, 1990
Lyons, John:
Language and Linguistics, Cambridge, 1981
Yule, George:
The Study of Language, Cambridge, 1985
Works of Reference:
The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Oxford, 1990
Lewandowski, Theodor: Linguisti
Yule, George: The Study of Language, Cambridge, 1985, page 196
Green, Jonathon: Neologisms - New Words since 1960, London, 1991
Algeo, John: Fifty Years Among the New Words, Cambridge, 1991
Lyons, John: Language and Linguistics, Cambridge, 1981, page 4
Bauer, Laurie: Watching English Change, London, New York, 1994, page 29
Lipka, Leonhard: An Outline of English Lexicology, Tübingen, 1990, page 92
Bauer, Laurie: English Word-Formation, Cambridge, 1983, page 11
Bauer: 1983, page 12
Yule: 1985, page 60
Yule: 1985, page 60n
Yule: 1985, page 60
Lipka: 1990, page 70
Lipka: 1990, page 70
Bauer: 1983, page 33
Bauer: 1983, page 29
Lipka: 1990, page 92
Bauer: 1983, page 33
Bauer: 1983, page 31
Bauer: 1983, page 234
Algeo: 1991, page 5n
Bauer: 1983, page 213n
Bauer: 1983, page 213
Bauer: 1983, page 213n
Bauer: 1983, page 213n
Algeo: 1991, page 5
Green: 1991, s.v. eco-
Algeo: 1991, s.v. Euro-
See Bauer: 1983, page 276n
Algeo: 1991, page 5
Green: 1991, s.v. bio-
Green: 1991, s.v. micro-
Algeo: 1991, page 5
The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Oxford, 1990, s.v. multi-
The Concise Oxford Dictionary : s.v. tele-
Algeo: 1991, page 5
The Concise Oxford Dictionary : s.v. mega-
Green: 1991, s.v. mega
The Concise Oxford Dictionary : s.v. hyper-
The Concise Oxford Dictionary : s.v. ultra- / s.v. ultra
Green: 1991, s.v. -something
Green: 1991, s.v. -something
Green: 1991, s.v. -(a)holic
Algeo: 1991, page 6
Gramley, Stephan / Pätzold, Kurt-Michael: A Survey of Modern English, London, New York, 1992, page 30
Green: 1991, s.v. -speak
Gramley/Pätzold: 1992, page 30
Faiß, Klaus: English Historical Morphology and Word-Formation: Loss versus Enrichment, Trier, 1992, page 99
Green: 1991, s.v. -athon
Green: 1991, s.v. telethon
The Concise Oxford Dictionary : s.v. burger
Bauer: 1983, page 236
Algeo: 1991, page 6
The Concise Oxford Dictionary : s.v. -teria
Algeo: 1991, page 7
Algeo: 1991, page 7
Green: 1991, s.v. -intensive
Algeo: 1991, page 7
See Green: 1991, s.v. -aware, -compatible, -friendly
The Concise Oxford Dictionary : s.v. electronic
Algeo: 1991, s.v. electronic kiosk
Algeo: 1991, s.v. electronic time bomb
Algeo: 1991, s.v. electronic wallet
Green: 1991, s.v. green
Gramley/Pätzold: 1992, page 19
Gramley/Pätzold: 1992, page 19
Faiß: 1992, page 105
Green: 1991, s.v. power
Algeo: 1991, page 10