Creating New Words
VIDEO SESSION # 6 – IS ENGLISH A GERMANIC LANGUAGE?
https://youtu.be/2OynrY8JCDM
Every language has its own processes for word formation. These processes are responsible for the updating of their lexicon. One needs just to follow the editions of prestigious dictionaries such as Merriam Webster’s New Collegiate for American English or The Oxford English Dictionary for British English to see how many words are incorporated or become archaic in every new edition.
WFP, or word-forming processes, are usually present in all languages, but it is the distribution of these processes that varies according to the language typology. Analytical languages like English, which has a tendency toward isolation, use processes that rely less on affixation or derivation; most of the derived words in English come already with the affixes from other languages (mostly Greco-Latin, French and Spanish) where the process of derivation is extremely common due to their Affixing tendency as synthetic languages. English on the other hand prefers those processes that will leave the root or word stems alone or combined with other free morphemes.
The most common WFP’s are the following:
Compounding – The process through which a new word is formed by combining two
existing lexemes or words. (See examples on word types session 5)
Conversion – The process through which a new word is formed by changing its syntactic
function through content without any morphemic alteration, so the products are two homonymous words.
E.g. The work (N) was hard (Adj)
I work (V) very hard (Adv)
Sometimes, there is a change in the prosody of the words as in content (N) and content (Adj), but it is not the general rule. If you look them up in a serious dictionary, you will see that each of the words above will show as a separate entry, thus constitute separate words in the lexicon or vocabulary inventory.
Blending – The process through which a new word is formed by fusing or melting two
or more existing lexemes or words into one. (See examples on session 5)
Shortening – The process through which a new word is form by clipping part of the
morphology of an existing lexeme or word. (See examples on session 5)
Derivation – The process through which a new word is formed by adding affixes to a
stem or root (free morpheme)
E.g. work à worker rapid à rapidly child à childhood
beauty à beautiful happy à happiness friend à friendship harm à harmless yellow à yellowish young à youngster strength à strengthen
These examples above are most of the really productive suffixes in English since they are of a Germanic origin and came with the stratus of the language; they are merely a 26% of the suffixes in English; the rest of the suffixes on most English words ( -ion, -ity, -ive, -ist, -ance, -ic, -al, -ary, -ous, -ism, -ate, -able, -an, -ize, etc) are mostly of Latin origin through Middle French from the Norman conquest and not normally productive in English. The presence of a huge number of derived words in English (over 58%) does not mean that the process of derivation is productive in English, but a result of linguistic borrowing (bringing words from other languages) especially from Romance languages where this process of affixation is preferred.
The most common types of new words are:
- Derivatives – made up of one free morpheme and one or more bound morphemes.
desirable undesirable disagree illegal stressful
- Compound words – are formed by the combination of two or more free morphemes, and can be joined, separated, or hyphenated.
homework breakfast color blind half sister in-law high-level
- Compound derivatives –are composed of a compound word to which one or more bound morphemes have been attached.
color blindness evil-doer homecoming
- Shortened words –have been clipped and have lost one part, initial clipping, medial, or final clipping. Many new examples of shortening exist today with the influences of text messaging or IM’s.
PEOPLE = PPL BECAUSE = BCZ BY THE WAY = BTW AND/ALL MY LOVE = AML
LAUGH (SING) OUT LOUD = LOL PLEASE WRITE BACK = PWB
IN MY OPINION = IMO SEE YOU LATER = CUL8R STRAIGHT= STR8
WELL DONE= WD THANK YOU = TY THANKS = THX PLEASE = PLZ etc.
*This new type of shortening is very different from the traditional shortening like: till (until) - doc (doctor) - vet (veterinarian) - lab (laboratory), etc. While they look more like acronyms, they do not come from the initials of a phrase but rather, are more abbreviations of a single word.
- Acronyms – are formed by the initials of a phrase put together in a way that is
phonetically comfortable to utter and sounds like a single word.
LASER - Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
SWAT - Special Weapons And Tactics
Sometimes the acronym is polysemantic; i.e. it conveys more than one meaning, and only through content, can we understand what it stands for.
DNA - Deoxyribonucleic acid, Democratic National Party, Did Not Answer, Daily News and Announces.
- Blends –are the product of the fusion of two or more words where parts of the original words have been “sacrificed” or lost by clipping in order to achieve a comfortable uttered final product.
brunch (breakfast+ lunch)
motel (motorist+ hotel)
Ebonics (ebony + phonics)
meld (melt + weld)
smog(smoke + fog)
Brexit (Britain + exit – UK exits the EU)
Franxit (France + exit – France exits the EU)
We hear this type of new word blend often in popular culture to refer to couples like Brangelina (Brat Pit + Angelina Jolie) and new dog breeds like goldendoodles (golden retriever and poodle mix).
Common ELL Errors
One common example of interference between ELLs’ first language and English occurs when they attempt to form English words through the process of derivation that is commonly used in their L1 rather than compounding that is common to new word formation in English. This results in the erred formation of words such as “computation” when the student really means “computer science”.
