Vocabulary expansion
Occurrence of new or changed
morphemes in a language —
word creation
Borrowing
• All the examples of borrowing that we
have seen result in new words in the
borrowing language
• This is a form of word creation in that
language
Borrowing
• Numerous other processes occur that
result in new words in a language
Back formation
peas → pea-s
cheris → cherry-s
Latin buxis → English box ~ box-es
In such examples, the end of the word is
reinterpreted as a suffix, and the
remainder now identified as the base
Back formation
hawker → hawk (v.)
stoker → stoke (v.)
swindler → swindle (v.)
editor → edit
Mentor → ment(ee)
note apparent analogy to Verb + (-er)
Back formation
Pants → pant ?
Do you accept this form?
What is a pantsuit?
Clipping
Hamburg /er or ham/ burger
Zoo /logical garden
Auto /mobile
Omni/ bus
Dorm /itory
Bra /ssiere
Vic /tim?
Perp /etrator?
Clipping does not observe morpheme boundaries or even
syllable boundaries
Clipping in Japanese
orchestra → okesutora ‘oke’
sekuhara (from loan, sexual harassment)
Macudonaludo ‘macu’
Alphabetisms
CIA, USA, FBI, CSUF, RTD, CD
note these words are formed from the
names of the first letters used to write the
terms, e.g.
CIA = [sijaijei]; USA = [juεsei]
Acronyms
SARS, NATO, SCUBA, AIDS, ROM, FERP
These words are pronounced using typical
values represented by the initial orthographic
signs used to write the words in the full names
Blending
MOtor + hoTEL → motel
SMoke + fOG → smog
BOld = audACIOUS → bodacious
FLash + gUSH → flush
Part of one word is added to part of another
word to make a new word
Blending (with clipping)
in Jp. and Ch
Jp. iketeru ‘nice’ + menzu (<CH. mian zi)
→ ike-men ‘nice guy’, ‘cool guy’
Poke-mon < Engl. ‘pocket monster’
in Ch.
chao ji ‘super’ + shi chang ‘market’ →
chao shi
Beijing + daxue ‘university’ → Beida
Folk Etymology
• naïve misunderstanding of an unfamiliar word
resulting in a more familiar form (hence creates
a new etymology)
Garter snake → garden snake
Otchek
→ woodchuck
Asparagus
→ sparrow grass
Schamfast (bashful) → shamefaced
Peperoncinis → pepper chilis
Folk etymology in Chinese
Ch: bai
‘bai bai’
→ bye-bye
Coining
Kodak, Nylon, Dacron, Orlon
Process whereby words are wholly
invented
Functional Shift:
• (used as different part of speech = new
word)
Telephone N → V
Xerox
N→V
Date
N→V
Impact N → V
Brick
N→V
Laugh
V→N
Meet
V→N
“But me no buts” ?
“No ifs, ands, or buts” ?
Compounding
• Two or more words put together to form a
new word with a meaning different from its
elements
blackboard vs. black board
laid-back
vs. laid back
callbackvs. call back
hatchback
man-eating shrimp vs. man eating shrimp
Historical compounding
wærloga ‘oath-breaker’ (lit. ‘pledge + lie’)
→ warlock (sorcerer ‘witch’, ‘demon’)
wyfman (lit. ‘wife + person’) → woman
Reduplication
• repetition of a word or part of a word for
grammatical or other purposes
Reduplication
• In English, mostly nursery language
ma-ma
wee-wee
pee-pee
doo-doo
Jon-Jon
Reduplication in other lgs.
Tag. lapit ‘approach, lalapit ‘will approach’
sulat ‘write’, susulat ‘will write’
Malayan baik ‘good’;
baik-baik ‘well’
bunga ‘flower’;
bunga-bunga ‘flower pl.
mata ‘eye’; mata-mata (or memata)
policeman’
Reduplication
In Chinese
• Totalizing (sense of ‘all’ or ‘every’)
ren-ren = everyone tian-tian = daily
• Nicknames
ya ‘girl’; ya-ya = ‘girl’s nickname’
dong ‘east’; dong-dong = ‘boy’s nickname’
hong ‘rainbow’; hong-hong = ‘girl’s nickname’