Topic 4: Morphology - The Words of Language

1. WORD FORMATION
PROCESSES
MORPHOLOGY: THE WORDS OF LANGUAGE
WEEK 8
TSLB3013 LINGUISTICS

2. WORD FORMATION PROCESSES
• Affixation
• Back-formation
• Compounding
• Blending
• Clipping
• Acronyms
• Abbreviations
• Coinage

3. WORD FORMATION PROCESS
COMPOUNDING UNDERSTANDING CONCEPT
ELEVATOR OPERATOR

4. ELEVATOR + OPERATOR = ELEVATOR OPERATOR
An elevator operator (in British English, usually lift man, lift woman, or lift
girl) is a person specifically employed to operate a manually operated elevator.
WORD FORMATION PROCESS
COMPOUNDING UNDERSTANDING CONCEPT (CONT.)

5. WORD FORMATION PROCESS
COMPOUNDING KNOWLEDGE
• The word formation process in which two or more lexemes (a basic lexical unit of a
language) combine into a single new word.
• Compound words may be written as one word or as two words joined with a hyphen.

6. MATH TIME!
NOUN + NOUN = NOUN
For example: girlfriend, paper clip, landlord, mailman
ADJECTIV
E
+
ADJECTIV
E
=
ADJECTIV
E
For example: icy-cold, red-hot, worldly wise

7. WORD FORMATION PROCESS
COMPOUNDING
• In English, the rightmost (situated furthest to the right) word in a
compound is the head of the compound. The head is the part of a word
or phrase that determines its broad meaning and grammatical
category.
• Thus, when the two words fall into different categories, the class of
the second or final word determines the grammatical category of the
compound:
• noun + adjective = adjective, as in headstrong;
• verb + noun = noun, as in pickpocket.

8. WORD FORMATION PROCESS
COMPOUNDING
• On the other hand, compounds formed with a preposition are in the
category of the non-prepositional part of the compound, such as (to)
overtake or (the) sundown. This is further evidence that prepositions
form a closed-class category that does not readily admit new members.

9. WORD FORMATION PROCESS
COMPOUNDING
• Although two-word compounds are the most common in English, it would be difficult
to state an upper limit: Consider three-time loser, four-dimensional space-time,
sergeant-at-arms, mother-of-pearl, man about town, master of ceremonies, and
daughter-in-law. Dr. Seuss uses the rules of compounding when he explains “when
tweetle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, they call it a tweetle beetle puddle
paddle battle.”
• Spelling does not tell us what sequence of words constitutes a compound; whether a
compound is spelled with a space between the two words, with a hyphen, or with no
separation at all depends on the idiosyncrasies of the particular compound, as
shown, for example, in blackbird, six-pack, and smoke screen.
Glossary:
Idiosyncrasies /ˌɪdɪə(ʊ)ˈsɪŋkrəsis/
A distinctive or peculiar feature or characteristic of a place or thing

10. WORD FORMATION PROCESS
COMPOUNDING
• Like derived words, compounds have internal structure. This is clear from the
ambiguity of a compound like top + hat + rack, which can mean ‘a rack for top hats’
corresponding to the structure in tree diagram (1), or ‘the highest hat rack,’
corresponding to the structure in (2).

11. MEANING OF COMPOUNDS

12. THE MEANING OF A COMPOUND IS NOT ALWAYS
THE SUM OF THE MEANINGS OF ITS PARTS.
Red coat Redcoat?
‘Redcoat’ is a slang for British soldier during the American Revolutionary War.

13. OTHER COMPOUNDS REVEAL OTHER MEANING
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PARTS, WHICH ARE NOT
ENTIRELY CONSISTENT BECAUSE MANY
COMPOUNDS ARE IDIOMATIC.
‘Boathouse’ refers to the house for boats.
BUT..
‘Cathouse’ refers to…
A slang for a house of prostitution or whorehouse.

14. GUESS WHAT?
Looking glass Eating apple
A mirror.
Apple which is
suitable for eating raw.

15. GUESS WHAT?
Laughing gasBaby oil
A mineral oil used to soften the skin.
Non-technical term for nitrous oxide

16. MANY COMPOUNDS
NOWADAYS DO NOT SEEM TO RELATE TO THE
MEANINGS OF THE INDIVIDUAL PARTS AT ALL.
• Jack-in-a-box
• Turncoat
• Highbrow
• Bigwig
• egghead

17. HOW DO WE PRONOUNCE
COMPOUND WORDS?
• The pronunciation of English compounds differs from the way we
pronounce the sequence of two words that are not compounded.
• In an actual compound, the first word is usually stressed (pronounced
somewhat louder and higher in pitch), and in a non-compound phrase
the second word is stressed. Thus we stress Red in Redcoat but coat in
red coat.

18. BLENDING

19. BLENDING
Blending is a process of forming a new word by taking and
combining parts of two or more words. The new word
formed is called a blend.
Blends, according to Plag (2003) has two
types:
• IMPROPER BLENDS
• PROPER BLENDS

20. IMPROPER BLENDS
The meaning of the first is modified when combined with
the other word. The new word carries the meaning of the
second word.
Example:
- Breath + analyser = breathalyser
- Motor + camp = mocamp
- Motor + hotel = motel

21. PROPER BLENDS
In this type, the new word contains the combined
meaning of both source words
Example:
- Breakfast + lunch = brunch
- Channel + tunnel = chunnel
- Modulator + demodulator = modem
- Stagnation + inflation = stagflation
- Prim = sissy = prissy

22. REFERENCES
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. & Hyams, N. (2013). An introduction to language. (10th ed.).
Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. (9th ed.) (2015). London: Oxford University
Press.

23. THANK YOU.