morphology and the lexicon word formation processes

morphology and the lexicon word formation processes

1. Affixation Words Structure

   • Prefixes, or suffixes .1) SIMPLE : The word cannot be segmentate according to the meaning, words like: boy, hospital,hunter etc. 2) COMPLEX: The word can be segmentated into different parts , words like: hospital-ize, hospital-ize-ation etc.

2. DerivationWord formation

   • This is a process that changes the words, changes the category of the word. Examples: To fix (v), Fixable (adj), Penny(n), Pennyless (adj.), Happy (v), unhappiness (adj)

3. Compounding and multicompounding words

   • This is the creation of new words out of existing ones, independant words occur together to form a new compound word. Examples: red-skin, armchair, overdose, underarm etc.

4. Other word formation processes

   • 1)Blending:Process of combining two separate forms to produce a single term- Examples: Gasohol = Gasoline and alcohol
   • 2) Clipping: It means cutting off the beginning or ending of a word ,or both, leaving a part to stand for a whole. Examples: lab,dorm, prof,exam,math etc.
   • 3)Backformation:A word of one type is reduced to form another word of a different type, from noun to a verb. Examples: Television, televise, donate,donation, edit, editor etc.
   • 4)Conversion: This is a change in the function of a word, a noun that becomes a verb with any reduction. Examples: access, to access, host, To host, salt, to salt. etc.
   • 5) Acronyms : They are words derived from the initials of several words. Examples: ONU,MIT,NATO etc.

5. Additional Formations

   • 1) Coinage: The invention of totally new names, invented trade names for commercial products that become general terms for any version of that product. Examples: Kleenex,Teflon,Google,
   • 2)Borrowings: It is a word or a phrase adopted from one language into another. Examples: software,piano, color, doctor,

6. Inflection

   • Morphological process that modifies a word´s form in order to make the grammatical subclass . This doesn´t change the grammatical category of the word , it changes the subclass. Examples. singular to plural, present to past, comparative to superlative, base dorm verb to 3rd person,

7. Compounds

   • This words have a head and a modifier, the head is on the right and the modifier on the left. Examples: Highchair, boyfriend.