Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
LECTURE 12 Word formation processes Nowadays, the terms ‘word formation’ does not have a clear cut, universally accepted usage. It is sometimes referred to all processes connected with changing the form of the word by, for example, affixation, which is a matter of morphology. In its wider sense word formation denotes the processes of creation of new lexical units. Although it seems that the difference between morphological change of a word and creation of a new term are quite easy to perceive there is sometimes a dispute as to whether blending is still a morphological change or making a new word. There are, of course, numerous word formation processes that do not arouse any controversies and are very similar in the majority of languages. COMPOUNDING Compounding is a process in which two different words are joined together to denote one thing. For example flower-pot is a compound made of two words: flower and pot, but it does not denote two things, it refers to one object. Some English compounds include: windmill, waterfall, fingerprint, and scarecrow. Compounds are pronounced as one unit, but sometimes difficulties in writing arise: some compounds are written with hyphens: fulltime, good-looking; some are written separately: bank account, mini skirt; and some can be written in both ways. DERIVATION Derivation is probably the most common word formation process in the English language. It is achieved by adding affixes: prefixes – are added at the beginning of a word, suffixes added to the end of a word, or infixes which are inserted inside a word, but infixes are unusual in English. English prefixes include for example re-, un-, mis-, pre-, dis-; suffixes include for instance ful, -less, -able, -or. In other words, derivation means the forming of new words by combining derivational affixes or bound bases with existing words, as in disadvice, emplane, reask, and counsellorship.