Word formation

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

{{Main|Morphological derivation}}

Examples include:

• the words governor, government, governable, misgovern, ex-governor, and ungovernable are all derived from the base word (to) govern{{cite journal |last1=Katamba |first1=F. |date=1 January 2006 |title=Back-Formation |journal=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition) |pages=642–645 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00108-5 |isbn=9780080448541}}

{{Main|Inflection}}

Inflection is modifying a word for the purpose of fitting it into the grammatical structure of a sentence.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/748812931|title=Linguistics : the basics|date=2012|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|others=Anne, July 8- Baker, Kees Hengeveld|isbn=978-0-631-23035-9|location=Malden, MA.|pages=217|oclc=748812931}} For example:

• manages and managed are inflected from the base word (to) manage
• worked is inflected from the verb (to) work
• talks, talked, and talking are inflected from the base (to) talk{{cite journal |last1=Katamba |first1=F. |title=Back-Formation |journal=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition) |date=1 January 2006 |pages=642–645 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00108-5|isbn=9780080448541 }}

Examples includes:

• etc. from et cetera

{{Main|Acronym}}

An acronym is a word formed from the first letters of other words. 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.{{Cite book|last=Carstairs-McCarthy|first=Andrew|title=An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their Structure|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-1-4744-2896-5|pages=71|edition=2nd}}

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

{{Main|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. Examples include:

• the verb headhunt is a back-formation of headhunter
• the verb edit is formed from the noun editor
• 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.

{{Main|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.{{Cite journal |last=Aronoff |first=Mark |date=1983 |title=A Decade of Morphology and Word Formation |url=https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.12.100183.002035 |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume=12 |pages=360 |doi=10.1146/annurev.an.12.100183.002035|url-access=subscription }}
• stagflation is a blend of stagnation and inflation
• chunnel is a blend of channel and tunnel, 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.

{{Main|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

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

Linguists argue that hashtags are words and hashtagging is a morphological process.{{Cite journal |last=Caleffi |first=Paola-Maria |date=2015 |title=The 'hashtag': A new word or a new rule? |url=http://www.skase.sk/Volumes/JTL28/pdf_doc/05.pdf |journal=Skase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics |volume=12 |issue=2 |issn=1336-782X}}{{Cite journal |last1=Calude |first1=Andreea S. |last2=Long |first2=Maebh |last3=Burnette |first3=Jessie |date=2024-06-07 |title=#AreHashtagsWords? Structure, position, and syntactic integration of hashtags in (English) tweets |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/lingvan-2023-0044/html |journal=Linguistics Vanguard |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=105–114 |doi=10.1515/lingvan-2023-0044 |issn=2199-174X|url-access=subscription }} 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.{{Cite journal |last=Wan |first=Ming Feng |date=2024-03-12 |title=The role of syntax in hashtag popularity |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/lingvan-2023-0051/html |journal=Linguistics Vanguard |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=693–698 |doi=10.1515/lingvan-2023-0051 |issn=2199-174X|url-access=subscription }}

{{Main|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. 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.

• Neologism

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{{Authority control}}

Category:Linguistic morphology