Word Formation - Etymology, Borrowing, Compounding, Blending, clipping, backformation, conversion, coinage, derivation

Word Formation

Word Formation is a process in which new words are made on the basis of other words being morphemes. this is also known as derivational morphology. e there are many types of word formation like

• Etymology
• Borrowing
• Compounding
• Blending
• Clipping
• Back-formation
• Conversion
• Coinage
• Derivation
• Abbreviation
• Acronyms

Etymology

The study of the origin or History of a word is known as etymology,  a term which like many of our technical words, comes to us through Latin, but has its origin in Greek. It is the combination of two words: Etymon (Orignal Form) + Logia (Study Of) = Etymology means the study of the original form of the word.

In other words, the etymology e of a word refers to its origin and historical development etymology of the word is different from its definition. The definition tells us what a word means and how it's used in our own time. Etymology tells us where a word came from and what it used to mean. 

For Example according to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English language. The definition of the word “Disaster” is “an occurrence causing widespread destruction and distress, a catastrophe or a grave misfortune”. But the etymology of the word disaster takes us back to a time when people commonly blamed great misfortunes on the influence of the stars.

“Disaster” first appeared in English in the late 16th century used by Shakespeare in his play “King Lear”. It arrived by way of the old Italian word disastro which meant “unfavorable to one’s stars”.

Disaster(English Word) - Disastro (Old Italian Word) - Astrum(Latin Root Word)

New words have entered the English language in many different ways- Borrowing, Compounding, Blending, clipping, backformation, conversion, coinage.

Coinage

Coinage is the creation and invention of a totally new word. The word formation process is not frequent, however large corporations attempt to outdo one another to invent short eye-catching names for their products.

sometimes the products that the companies want to sell simply take over the name of the creator or inventor. some well-known eponyms include sandwich or Hoover. Eponyms are very frequently used in Science where units of measurement are named after people, like hertz, volt(Degree), and Celsius.

The best example of coinage is Google originally a misspelling for the word googol (= the number 1 followed by 100 zeros). Google has become widely used meaning “to use the internet to find information.”

Borrowing

Borrowing is taking a word from one language and adjusting it to another language called borrowing. Technically it's more than just borrowing because English does not give them back. According to history, the English language has adopted a vast number of words from other languages.

There is a also special type of borrowing called calque or loan translation. In this process, there is a direct translation of the element of a word into the borrowing language. For Example, the English word “antibody” is throughout to be the calque of the German “Antikarper”.

Words	Borrowing From Another Language
Guru	Hindi
Sheikh	Arabic
Dame	French
Dope	Dutch
Piano	Italian
Jewel	French
Sofa	Arabic
Zebra	Bantu

Compounding

When two different words are joined together to produce a single form, this combining process, is technically known as compounding. For example:

• flower+ pot = Flowerpot
• Wind + mill= Windmill
• Water+ Fall= waterfall

There is a compound made of two words flower and pot, but it doesn't denote two things it refers to one object. flowerpot, windmill, waterfall.

Compounds are pronounced as one unit, but sometimes difficulties in writing arise: some compounds are written with hyphens: full-time, good-looking.

Some are separate: bank account, mini skirt, and some can be written in both ways.

Blending

The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is also present in the process called blending. It is similar to compounding but it takes only the beginning of one word and joints it to the end of the other word. For example,

smoke + fog = smog

Hotel + motor = mortal

Breakfast + lunch = brunch

Televise + Broadcast = telecast

Clipping

Clipping is shortening or reducing long words. This shortening sometimes occurs at the beginning of the word, at the end of a word, or at both ends of the word. It is very common in English which can be seen in the following examples

• Information is clipped into info 

• advertisement is clipped into the advert 

• the telephone is clipped into the phone

Back-formation

Back-formation is a process in which a word changes its form and function word of one type, which is usually A noun, is reduced and used as a verb. For example, the English word “ARM” (means provide weapons) was back formed from “ARMS” (means weapon), similarly edit was back formed from the editor, or typewrite from the typewriter.

Conversion

A change in the function of the word called conversion, for example in noun Comes to be used as a verb without any reduction. A number of words are used as verbs in sentences. For example,

Derivation

 the derivation is probably the most common word formation process in the English language. It is achieved by adding a large number of small “bits” which are generally described as “affixes”. Prefixes are added at the beginning of a word, Suffix added to the end of the word, or infixes are inserted inside a word. But infixes are unusual in English.

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