WORD-BUILDING IN ENGLISH
Word-formation

process of creating new words from
resources of a particular language
according to certain semantic and
structural patterns existing in the
language
Word-formation

branch of Lexicology

studies the patterns on which the
English language builds words

may be studied synchronically and
diachronically
Main types of word-formation
word-formation
word-derivation
affixation
conversion
word-composition
shortening and
abbreviation
Minor types of word-formation
word-formation
sound- and
stress interchange
back
formation
sound
imitation
lexicalizatio
of grammatical
Derivational Pattern
is a meaningful combination of stems and affixes
 regularly reproduced
 indicates the grammatical part-of-speech meaning
e.g. verbal stem + -ee = noun (‘one who is V-ed’)
examine + -ee = examinee
addressee, employee, divorcee

Affixation


formation of words by adding derivational
affixes to stems
one of the most productive ways of wordbuilding
Types of Affixation
affixation
suffixation
prefixation
mixed
affixation
Affixation
Suffixation
 words are formed with the
help of suffixes
 changes a part-of-speech
meaning (e.g. work –
worker)
 transfers a word into a
different semantic group
(e.g. child – childhood)
 is characteristic of noun and
adjective formation
Prefixation
 words are formed with the
help of prefixes
 does not change a part-ofspeech meaning (e.g.
usual – unusual)
 about 25 prefixes form one
part of speech from another
(e.g. head – to behead)
 is characteristic of verb
formation
Mixed Affixation



formation by both prefixation and suffixation
semantic structure becomes more limited
the more affixes added the less polysemantic
the word becomes
e.g. speak – unspeakable
place – irreplaceable
Conversion




process of creating a new word in a different
part of speech
with different distributional characteristic
but without adding any affixes
so that the basic form of the original and the
basic form of a derived word are
homonymous
Conversion
A new word:
 has a meaning different from the original one
 has a new paradigm peculiar to its new
category as a part of speech
 the morphemic shape of the original word
remains unchanged
Conversion


face, noun
-s, pl.
-’s, poss. c., sg
-s’, poss. c., pl
a front part of the
head from the
forehead to the chin


to face, verb
-s, 3rd p. sg.
-ed, past ind., past
part.
-ing, pres. part.,
gerund
to turn the face
towards sb/smth
Reasons for the widespread
development of conversion
absence of morphological elements which
mark the part of speech of the word
e.g. back (noun) – If you use mirrors you can see the

back of your head
to back – Their houses back onto the river.
back (adverb) – Put the book back on the shelf.
back (adjective) – a back garden, back teeth
Reasons for the widespread
development of conversion

simplicity of paradigms of English parts of
speech

a great number of one-syllable words that
are more mobile and flexible
Conversion in Present-Day English





typical of one-syllable words
not common to affixed words (e.g. a
commission – to commission)
the predominant way of verb formation
verbs are mainly formed from nouns and
rarely from other parts of speech
highly productive
Conversion in Different Parts of
Speech

noun
verb
e.g. an eye – to eye, a bag – to bag, a room – to room

verb
noun
e.g. to jump – a jump, to do – a do

adjective
verb
e.g. pale – to pale

adjective
noun
e.g. private – a private, blind – the blind
Conversion in Different Parts of
Speech
form word
noun
e.g. He was familiar with ups and downs of life. I
shan’t go into whys and wherefores.
 affix
noun
e.g. Freudism, existentialism and all other ‘isms’ of

modern life.
interjection
verb
e.g. pooh – to pooh-pooh

Conversion and Other Types of WordFormation

conversion and composition
e.g. pin-point - to pin point, black-list – to blacklist

composition, conversion and shortening
e.g. to drive in – a drive-in theater – a drive-in

conversion and composition in phrases
and sentences
e.g. Old man what-do-you-call-him’s book is on sale.
Traditional and Occasional Conversion
Traditional Conversion
 the use of a word is
recorded in the dictionary
e.g. to cook, to look, find, aim,
etc.
Occasional Conversion
 the use of a word is not
registered by the dictionary
 occurs momentarily, through
the immediate need of the
situation, brings out the
meaning more vividly
e.g. If anybody oranges me
again tonight, I’ll knock his
face off!
Shortening

a way of word-formation when part of the
original word or word group is taken away
Shortening
A new word:





belongs to the same part of speech as a the
original word (e.g. demo – demonstration)
has the same lexical meaning as the original
word
capable of being used as a free form
can take functional affixes (e.g. a bike bikes)
mostly monosemantic
Shortening
A new word:

may serve as basis for further wordformation by derivation and composition
e.g. fancy (noun) fantasy (shortening)
fancy (noun)
to fancy (conversion)
fancy (noun)
fancier, fanciful (derivation)
fancy (noun)
fancy-ball, fancy-dress (composition)
Shortening
A new word:
 differs from the original word stylistically or
emotionally, characteristic of colloquial speech
e.g. Becky
Rebecca (diminutive)
Japs
the Japanese
exam
examination (college slang)
hanky
handkerchief (nursery word)
o’er
over (bookish, poetic style)
Shortening in Different Parts of Speech




nouns e.g. prof
professor
verbs
e.g. to rev
to revolve
adjectives (very few) e.g. dilly
delightful
(jargonism)
interjection e.g. Shun!
attention
Types of Shortening
final clipping (apocope) - a word is
shortened at the end
e.g. ed
editor, ref
referee
 initial clipping (apheresis) – a word is
shortened at the beginning
e.g. phone
telephone,
chute
parachute

Types of Shortening
medial clipping (syncope) – some syllables
or sounds are omitted from the middle of a
word
e.g. maths
mathematics
specs
spectacles
fancy
fantasy

Types of Shortening

a word is clipped both at the end and at the
beginning
e.g. flu
tec
fridge
influenza
detective
refridgerator
Abbreviation (graphical shortening)


shortening of word or word-groups in written
speech
in speech the corresponding full forms are
used
e.g. lb - pound
e.g. – for example
i.e. – that is
Dr. – Doctor
Oct. - October
Composition


is the way of word-building when a word is
formed by joining two or more stems to form
one word
one of the most productive ways of wordbuilding in Modern English
Compound Words
consist of at least two stems which occur in
the language as free forms
e.g. a brother-in-law, airbus, snow-white

Criteria for Distinguishing between a
Compound and a Word-combination


Compound Word
graphic criterion: solid
or hyphenated spelling
e.g. sunbeam, warship
semantic criterion:
conveys one concept
e.g. a green-house


Word-Combination
graphic criterion:
spelling with a break
e.g. a tall boy
semantic criterion:
conveys more than one
concept
e.g. a green house
Criteria for Distinguishing between a
Compound and a Word-combination
Compound Word
 phonetic criterion: a
single uniting stress
e.g. a ´greenhouse
Word-Combination
 phonetic criterion:
each word in a group
has a stress
e.g. a ´green ´house
Criteria for Distinguishing between a
Compound and a Word-combination

Compound Word
morphological and
syntactic criteria:
- only one component
changes grammatically
e.g. a tallboy –
tallboys, a passer-by
– passers-by
Word-Combination
 morphological and
syntactic criteria:
- each constituent is
independent and open
to grammatical changes
e.g. a tall boy – They
were the tallest boys
in their form.
Criteria for Distinguishing between a
Compound and a Word-combination

Compound Word
morphological and
syntactic criteria:
- no word can be
inserted between the
components
Word-Combination
 morphological and
syntactic criteria:
- other words may be
inserted between the
constituent parts
e.g. a tall handsome boy
Classifications of Compounds






according to the parts of speech
according to the joining element
according to the structure of compounds
according to the degree of semantic
independence
according to the order of components
according to the motivation of the meaning of
compounds
Classification of compounds according
to the part of speech
nouns and adjectives e.g. baby-sitter,
power-hungry (энергоемкий)
 adverbs and prepositions e.g. indoors,
within, outside
 verbs (formed by means of conversion or
backformation) e.g. to handcuff hand-cuffs,
to babysit
baby-sitter

Classification according to the joining
element

neutral compounds are formed by joining
two stems together without any joining
morpheme e.g. classroom, dancing-hall

syntactical compounds – components are
joined by means of form-word stems e.g.
here-and-now, free-for-all
Classification according to the joining
element

morphological compounds – components
are joined by a linking element:
- vowel “o”, “I” e.g. speedometer, handicraft
- consonant “s” e.g. sportsman
Classification according to the
structure of compounds


compound words proper – formed by
juxtaposition of two stems without any linking
element e.g. top-notch (первоклассный), tiptop
compound-affixed words –
e.g. honeymooner
Classification according to the
structure of compounds


compound words consisting of three or more
stems - e.g. eggshell-thin, cornflower-blue
compound-shortened words – e.g. V-day,
landsat
Classification according to the degree
of semantic independence
Subordinative
Compound
is a compound whose
components are neither
structurally nor
semantically equal in
importance, and one of
them dominates the
other
e.g. color-blind,
evergreen

Coordinative
Compound
is a compound whose
components are
structurally and
semantically
independent and
constitutes two
structural and semantic
centers
e.g. actor-manager

Classification according to the order of
components
Syntactic Compound
 is a compound that
conforms to
grammatical patterns
current in the language
e.g. northwest, for-free,
maybe, killjoy,
seashore
Asyntactic Compound
 is a compound that
does not conform to
grammatical patterns
current in the language
e.g. to babysit (to sit with
a baby), rope-like (like
a rope)
Classification according to the
motivation of the meaning of
compounds
Idiomatic Compound
 is a compound whose
meaning is not deducible
from the meaning of its
components
e.g. wallflower – Noun, a
person, esp. a woman, who
is not invited to dance at a
party
fifty-fifty – Adv., being equally
likely and unlikely
butter-fingers – noun, a
clumsy person
Non-idiomatic Compound
 is a compound whose
meaning is deducible from
the meaning of its
components
e.g. mother-in-law, day-long
Ways of forming compound words





reduplication – e.g. too-too, hush-hush
partial conversion from word-groups
e.g. can-do (исполнительный и энергичный)
can do
backformation from compound nouns and wordgroups e.g. to baby-sit
baby-sitter
vowel interchange (ablaut compounds) e.g. chitchat (сплетни), tip-top, riff-raff (сброд)
rhyme compounds – e.g. willy-nilly (волей-неволей),
hoity-toity(надменный)
Peculiarities of English Compounds



all components of compound words are free
forms, can be used independently with a
distinct meaning of their own
e.g. motherland, day-off, everybody
usually are two-stem compounds
attributive compounds e.g. last-minute
changes, four-year course
Sound Interchange

way of forming new words with the help of
change of sounds within a word
Types of Sound Interchange



vowel change – e.g. full – to fill, blood – to
bleed
consonant interchange – e.g. to speakspeech, advice – to advise
the combination of vowel and consonant
change – e.g. life – to live, strong strength
Stress Interchange

e.g. ´import - to im´port, ´suspect – to
sus´pect
Lexicalization of Grammatical Form

way of creating new words with the help of
suffix “s”
e.g. glass – glasses, custom – customs,
colour - colours
Backformation

way of creating new words by subtracting a
real or supposed suffix from the original word
e.g. to beg
beggar, to edit
editor,
to burgle
burgler
Sound Imitation (Onomatopoeia)

way of forming new words by imitating
different kinds of sounds that may be
produced by animals, birds, insects, human
being and inanimate objects e.g. buzz,
croak, moo, mew, purr, roar
e.g. clink, whip, splash, bubble
e.g. giggle, mutter, babble