Clipping

(word formation process)

Maria ii
1.12.201
5.

Definition
Clipping

is a word formation process which

involves cutting off part of an existing word
or phrase to leave a phonologically shorter
sequence.
Original- source of the clipping
e.g. advertisement
Surplus- phonological material that is cut
away
e.g. vertisement
Residue- remaining material that forms the
new base
e.g. ad

Clippings

often have restricted uses in that they

are deployed only in informal style or even
constitute when they are first coined.

However,

they can wholly or largley displace the

original:
e.g. mob (mobile or mobile vulgus)
pram (perambulator)
movie (moving picture)
They

can also develop special meanings that

differentiate them from the original :
e.g. curio and curiosity
fan and fanatic

We

divide the words formed by the

clipping operation into two types :

Plain

clippings - consist of just the

residue from clipping
e.g. pram from perambulator

Embellished

clippings the other

operations apply to the residue to
produce a longer word
e.g. movie from moving picture

Plain clippings
We

can distinguish three kinds of plain clipping,

naming them by reference to the location in the
original of the surplus :

Back-clippings

: surplus removed from the back,

i.e. word-final, part of the original
e.g. coke (cocaine), doc (doctor), deb (debutante),
lab (laboratory), pen (penitentiary), prom
(promenade)

Some

back-clippings are based on the first word of a

phrase rather than on a single word
e.g. prefab ( prefabricated building), pub (public
house)

There

are also cases where both words of a phrase

are back-clipped to form a clipping compound
e.g. elint (eletronic intelligence), kidvid (kids
video)

Foreclippings

: surplus removed from the front

e.g. bus (omnibus), cello (violoncello), chute
(parachute), coon (racoon), phone (telephone)

Ambiclippings

: surplus removed from both

beginning and end
e.g. flu (influenza), fridge (refrigerator), tec
(detective)

The

most common type is the back clipping, and

there are very few cases of ambiclippings

In

some cases there may be sporadic

modification of a consonant or a vowel in the
clipping, thus bike comes from biycicle with
pronanciation of the c as /k/ instead of /s/, and
pram loses the first vowel of perambulator

Plain

clippings are almost always

monosyllabic, but there are a few clear
exceptions
e.g. exam (examination), photo (photograph),
medic (medical student)

Clipping

normally yields nouns

e.g. exam (examination not examine)

Embellished clippings
Words

which consist of clipping

followed by a suffix
e.g. turps (turpentine) s
soccer (association football) er
rugger (rugby football) er + s
preggers (pregnant) er + s
Honkers (Hong Kong) er + s
Words of this kind are particularly
comon in AusE. Though informal or
colloquial, they often appear in print in
newspapers and magazines, and thus
most have orthograpich forms.

THE END