Word Formation (II),Overview,Blending Clipping Acronym Backformation Other sources of new words,Blending: combining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another word flush (flash &blush) smog (smoke &fog) 1. head + tail : autocide, motel 2. head + head: comsat (communations satellite) sitcom (situation comedy) 3. head + word: medicare, Eurasia 4. word + tail: lunarnaut, workfare,Clipping: shortening a longer word by cutting a part off the original and using what remains instead 1. front clipping: quake (earthquake), phone (telephone) 2. back clipping: dorm (dormitory), memo (memorandum) 3. fron and back clipping: flu (influenza), fridge (refrigerator) 4. Phrase clipping: pub (public house), pop Note: changes in spelling and pronunciation fridge, bike, mike, coke,Acronymy: joining the initial letters of names of social and political organization or special noun phrases and technical terms 1. Initialisms: pronounced letter by letter VOA, BBC, UFO 2. Acronyms: pronounced as a normal word NATO, AIDS,TESOL,IELTS Note: Some acronyms are formed with the initial letter of the first word plus the whole of the second. G-man, V-day,Back-formation: removing the supposed suffixes editor---edit butler--- butle 1. abstract nouns diagnose diagnosis donate donation enthuse enthusiasm emote emotion,2. Human nouns loaf loafer burgle burglar beg beggar sculpt sculptor 3. Compound nouns and others merrymake merrymaking babysit babysitter 4. Adjectives drowse drowsy laze lazy,Traditional Sources of New Words,Words From Proper Names Reduplication Neoclassical Formation Miscellaneous,Words from Proper Nouns,Another minor type of word-formation is the coinage of common words from proper names. The transition from proper names to common words is a gradual one. They come from all sources, from names of scientists, politicians and statesmen to trade marks, and place names. Some have originated from characters in literature, TV films and movies, but some also come from book titles.,Words from Proper Names 1. Names of people: Watt, Ohm, pasteurize 2. Names of places: china, champagne 3. Names of books: utopia 4. Tradenames: nylon, orlon, dacron, rayon,Reduplication,Reduplication is a minor type of word-formation by which a compound word is created by the repetition: of one word like go-go; of two almost identical words with a change in the vowelssuch as pingpong; of two almost identical words with a change in the initial consonants, as in willy-nilly “willingly or unwillingly” Other examples: tick-tick (of a watch); zigzag (a line which turns right and left alternatively at sharp angles); fiddle-faddle (trifling matters); yo-yo (a stupid or foolish person); no-no (sth. that is unacceptable or forbidden).,Neo-classical Formation,Neoclassical formation denotes the process by which words are formed from elements derived from Latin and Greek (as in telephone). The majority of neoclassical formations are scientific and technical. astrochemistry n. “the study of chemical composition of heavenly bodies and the regions of outer space”. centisecond n. “one hundredth of a second”. Noeclassical formation plays a prominent role in word-formation today, esp. in creating new scientific terms.,Miscellaneous,Genuine coinage is rare. An American physicist Murray Gell-Mann coined the word quark as the name of an imaginary particle bearing a charge of electricity. Some new words are coined by analogy (类推法): earthquake-----youthquake air pollution-----environment pollution handbag-----airbag sunrise-----earthrise future shock-----culture shock nightmare-----daymare,Conclusion,Side by side with the proliferation of polysyllabic compounds and derivations, there is the opposite tendency to use monosyllabic words. These two contrary tendencies operate simultaneously in word-formation in the English language. Hence we have the process of shortening.,Acronyms (including initialisms) and clipping are all processes of shortening words or word groups. Acronymy is a process in which a new word is formed from the first letters of its component words; clipping is a type of shortening to coin a new word by subtracting one or more syllables from a word without change in its word-class. So acronymy and clipping are the opposite of compounding and derivation, where a base is added to another base in the former, and an affix or a combining form is added to the base in the latter. As a result of compounding and derivation, words become longer and longer in form, whereas by the processes of acronymy and clipping, words are made shorter.,These shortening processes have become increasingly productive in modern English, esp. since the beginning of the 20th century. Initialisms and acronyms are based on the written language. New initialisms and acronyms are coined at an exceedingly rapid rate for the technical terms and the names of organizations. Clippings, although not very numerous, are commonly used in colloquial English. They are space and time saver.,。