Word Formation It is the creation of a new Word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantics change, which is a change in a single word´s meaning. Word formation can also be contrasted with the formation of idiomatic expressions, although words can be formed from multi-word phrases. There are a number of methods of word formation.
Derivation Derivation is the process of forming new words from existing ones by adding affixes or prefixes to them, like shame + less + ness → shamelessness
Affixes Affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word.
Prefixes A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word.
Suffixes is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings.
Compounding A compound is a Word formed by stringing together older words, like the formation of earthquake from earth and quake. Derived words such as bluebird, spaceship, babysit, and bittersweet (to name just a few) are compounds, because they consist of two preexisting root words in the language rather than a root word together with either a prefix or suffix. Mailman (composed of free root mail and free root man) mail carrier dog house fireplace fireplug (a regional word for 'fire hydrant') fire hydrant dry run pick-up truck talking-to
Conversion This also knows as zero-affixation, in case the class of the word is change from one word class to the other without any change in the form of the word. For instance, “water” as in “give me a glass of water and “water” as in “Selorm will have to water the garden this evening”.
Cook (agent noun) is derived from cook (transitive verb) just as painter (agent noun) is derived from paint (transitive verb). We just happen not to have a word cooker, meaning a person who cooks, in English.
Noun – Verb access – to access bottle – to bottle can – to can closet – to closet email – to email eye – to eye fiddle – to fiddle fool – to fool Google – to google
Blending A blend is a word formed by joining parts of two or more older words. An example is smog, which comes from smoke and fog, or brunch, which comes from ´ breakfast´ and lunch. Subcategories of blending are: Acronym: (a word formed from initial letters of the words in a phrase, like English laser from light amplified by stimulated emission of radiation) Clipping (morphology): (taking part of an existing word, like forming ad from advertisement, lab from laboratory sci-fi and etc.)
Borrowing or Calque A calque is a word of phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word –for-word or root- for-root translation; for example the English phrase to lose face is a calque from Chinese.
Some other examples are: Wurst, stein, ersatz (from German) Aficionado, burrito (from Spanish) Bungalow, juggernaut (from Indian) Anorak, parka, igloo, (from Inuit)
Ambiguity Ambiguity occurs when a language element has more than one meaning. If the ambiguity is in a single word it is lexical ambiguity. If in a sentence or clause, it isgrammatical or structural ambiguity.
Homonyms are different lexemes with the same form (written, spoken or both). For example, bank is both an elevated area of ground and a place or business where money is kept.
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Homophones - where the pronunciation is the same (or close, allowing for such phonological variation as comes from accent) but standard spelling differs, as inflew (from fly), flu (“influenza”) and flue (of a chimney).
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Homographs - where the standard spelling is the same, but the pronunciation differs, as in wind (air movement or bend) or refuse (“rubbish” or “disallow”, stress falls on first and second syllable, respectively).
Lexicology is the systematic historical (diachronic) and contemporary (synchronic) study of the lexicon or vocabulary of a language. Lexicologists study semantics on a mass scale. Lexicography is the art and science of dictionary making.
Synonyms are words with the same or similar meanings.
hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field[1] is included within that of another word
Antonym A word having a meaning opposite to that of another word.
An UTTERANCE is any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is silence on the part of that person.• An utterance is the USE by a particular speaker, on a particular
occasion, of a piece of language, such as a sequence of sentences, or a single phrase, or even a single word.
A SENTENCE is neither a physical event nor a physical object. It is, conceived abstractly, a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language. A sentence can be thought of as the IDEAL string of words behind various realizations in utterances and inscriptions.
A PROPOSITION is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs.• A proposition is a claim about the world. It has just the form of an idea.
a clause is the smallest grammar unit that can express a complete proposition.[1] A typical clause consists of a subject and a predicate,[2] where the predicate is typically a verb phrase – a verb together with any objectsand other modifiers