THE PROCESSES OF WORD-FORMATION 1

The Processes of Word Formation

Nurul Husna

Ar-Raniry State Islamic University

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The Processes of Word-Formation

Because of new inventions and changes, every language is in need of new words
borrowed, derived or otherwise formed simply because new things need new words.
The human community is steadily growing and developing, just as the tool we use to
communicate: Language. When new inventions and changes enter our lives, we are in
the need of naming them and of course to communicate about them. Language is
dynamic, it changes constantly. Inter alia because native speakers like to play with their
language, or because there are no 'wrong' words. The key here is usage: If a new word,
however silly it may be, is used by many speakers of a language, it will probably survive
and it can happen that one day, it is an everyday word and entered our dictionaries.
Especially in the last centuries, many word creations are spread amongst the language
community. For example, if you take a look at the vast amount of new inventions made in
the 20th and 21st century, it is obvious that the words we knew before were not enough
to cover all these things. There are old words with new meanings, like surf, bug and web,
whose meanings have broadened since the new technological inventions, but there are
many other ways in which new words are created: If there is a new thing and the
language community has no word for it, there are several options to create a new one. In
the past and the present, people used and still use a variety of methods to create new
words, such as compounding, derivation or coinage. In the following, some of these word
formation processes are illustrated and examples for their use are given. (Wagner 2010).

Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their
form and meaning have changed over time. By an extension, the term "the
etymology of [a word]" means the origin of the particular word. For languages
with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages
and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used
during earlier periods of their history and when they entered the languages in
question. Etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to
reconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct
information to be available. (Wikipedia 2014)

Coinage
Coinage is the word formation process in which a new word is created
either deliberately or accidentally without using the other word formation
processes and often from seemingly nothing. As neologism or coinage, we
identify the word formation process of inventing entirely new words (neology).
This is a very rare and uncommon method to create new words, but in the
media, people try to outdo each other with more and better words to name their
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products. Often these trademark names are adopted by the masses and they
become ''everyday words of language'' (Yule 2006, 53).
The following list of words provides some common coinages found in
everyday English:
Aspirin Escalator Heroin Band-aid
Factoid Frisbee Google Kerosene
Kleenex Laundromat Linoleum Muggle
Nylon Psychedelic Quark Xerox

Borrowing

Borrowing is, the taking over of words from other languages. Throughout
its history, the English language has adopted a vast number of words from other
languages, including croissant (French), dope (Dutch), lilac (Persian), piano
(Italian), pretzel (German), sofa (Arabic), tattoo (Tahitian), tycoon (Japanese),
yogurt (Turkish) and zebra (Bantu). A special type of borrowing is described as
loan translation or calque. In this process, there is a direct translation of the
elements of a word into the borrowing language. Interesting examples are the
French termgratte-ciel,which literally translates as scrape-sky, the Dutch
wolkenkrabber (cloud scratcher) or the German Wolkenkratzer (cloud scraper),
all of which were calques for the English skyscraper. (Yule 2006, 54)

Compounding
Compounding is a joining of two separate words to produce a single form.
Common English compounds are bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn,
textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket and waterbed. All these examples are nouns,
but we can also create compound adjectives (good-looking, low-paid) and
compounds of adjective (fast) plus noun (food) as in a fast-food restaurant or a
full-time job. (Yule 2006, 54)

Blending
The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is
also present in the process called blending. However, blending is typically
accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end
of the otherword. The activity of fund-raising on television that feels like a
marathon is typically called a telethon, while infotainment
(information/entertainment) and simulcast (simultaneous/broadcast) are other
new blends from life with television. (Yule 2006, 55)

Clipping
Clipping is Process of creating new words by shortening parts of a longer
word. For example :
Doctor : doc
Dormitory : dorm

Backformation
A very specialized type of reduction process is known as backformation.
Typically, a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of
another type (usually a verb).
e.g. :
television : televise (verb)
donation : donate (verb)

Acronym
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Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other
words. These can be forms such as CD (compact disk) or VCR (video cassette
recorder) where the pronunciation consists of saying each separate letter. More
typically, acronyms are pronounced as new single words, as in NATO, NASA or
UNESCO. (Yule 2006, 57)

Derivation
Derivation is the origin of word that is added some affixes to be a new
production of word in English. For example : prejudge : pre + judge
Cheerful : cheer + ful

Onomatopoiec
This special type of word that depicts ''the sound associated with what is
named'' (Examples of Onomatopoeia). For example, if you take a look at these
words: boo, chirp, click, meow, splash, it is obvious what these words mean,
namely the sound. In other words: they look like they sound when pronounced.
Onomatopoeic words like bang or boom are often used in comic books to let the
reader know what kind of sound is accompanied to the action. (Wagner 2010)

Eponym
An eponym can be either an item which provides a name-source for a
particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item to be named, or it can also
be an item which acts as a name-recipient. For example, Lon Theremin is the
eponym (name-source) of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument; or, the
medical term Parkinson's disease is a medical eponym (name-recipient), named
after the English physician, James Parkinson. Similarly, the term eponymous has
parallel meanings when employed as an adjective. (Wikipedia 2014)

History of English dictionary

The history of how English Dictionaries came into being is like reading an
adventure story. The hero (or editor) seemed in constant battle with those in
authority until, in the end, a volume is produced. It is worth noting as well that
English Dictionaries have never been produced by the British Government,
official body or learned committee. It was always left to enthusiastic eccentrics.
Bryson (1990) "In a kind of instinctive recognition of the mongrel, independent,
idiosyncratic genius of the English tongue, dictionaries were often entrusted to
people bearing those very characteristics" (p.144).
Earlier, poor attempts included : 1604 Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall
1721 BAILEY, Nathaniel Universal Etymological Dictionary and others - but these
were highly specialized and fairly sloppy.
1755 (June) Johnson, Samuel. The Dictionary of the
English Language.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was blind in one eye, fat,
incomplete education, and coarse in manner from a poor background. He
was given the contract by the London publisher Robert Dodsley. His finished
dictionary contained
- many inconsistencies (uphill/downhil);
- he was biased toward Saxon spellings and so ended words like critic /
music / prosaic with a 'k' - little realizing that they were of Latin origin!
- he defined 'oats' as a grain that sustains horses in England and people in
Scotland.
- some rambling sentences ran to 250 words.