WORD FORMATION

Different methods though a word can be created.

Neologism or Coining: The creation of a new word, through different means.

BORROWINGS

It consists on taking a word directly from other language, for example: Piano (Italian), yogurt
(Turkish) etc.

-Calques or Loan translation: Special type of borrowing in which a word is literally translated
into another language. For example -> Gratte-ciel -> Scrape-sky (Skyscraper) -> Rascacielos

"El momento de la verdad" -> The moment of truth (Calque from Spanish).

COMPOUNDING

It consists on the combination of two entire words: E.g. -> Wallpaper, textbook, etc. And we use
them as single words even with their particular plural form, conjugations (in case of verb) etc.

-Blending, type of compounding, it consists on the combination of two words but taking a part of
each word, not the entire word, usually the first part of one word and the last part of the second.

E.g. -> Brucn (breakfast/lunch), motel (motor/hotel)

But also taking the beginning of both words -> Modem, Velcro etc.

-This process is also use to describe the mixing of languages, for example Spanglish, Franglais etc.

CLIPPING

It consists on the reduction of a word of more than one syllable. E.g Gasoline -> Gas,
advertisement -> ad, brassiere -> bra etc. It is the same with names Thomas -> Tom, Edward -> Ed

-Hypochorism, particular type of reduction + derivation, it consists on the reduction of a word

and then adding it -y or -ie. E.g. Moving picture -> movie Television -> Telly

-Backformation, type of reduction, usually a word is reduced to another type of word (Usually
verb) (Clipping + Conversion). Television > Televise, Donation > donate

CONVERSION
A change in the function of a word, usually to a verb but without reduction. Bottle> To bottle,
spy> to spy, doctor > to doctor (bad sense). Sometimes the original meaning or the stress can
change. (Pervert > To pervrt)

COINAGE
It is the use of a totally new term, usually names of branches that become the general term such as
Kleenex, nylon etc.

-Eponym: new words based on names of people or places. E.g. jeans (Genoa, Italy), teddy bear
(Theodore Roosevelt), sandwich (Earl of Sandwich)
ACRONYMS

It consists on the creation of new words formed with the initial letter of a set of words.

-Pronunciation of each letter separately: CD, DJ

-Pronounced as single words: NATO, NASA
-Some of them became everyday terms and usually have lost their capital letters: Laser, radar etc.

-Orthographic initalism: A word that is shorten by means of acronymy but it is pronounced as the
whole word, such as the abbreviations NY (New York), Mr, Mrs (mister, misses), Jr (junior)

-Another subtype of acronym is the one in which words are formed with random letters within a
single word: television TV, Identification Id

DERIVATION

It is the most common type of word formation it consists on adding an affix to a word.

-Prefixes: Added at the beginning of a word (UN, MIS, DIS etc.) unbelievable, misunderstand,
dishonour
-Suffixes; Added at the end of a word (Less, ful, ish), flawless. Useful, selfish. Two suffixes can
happen together Selfishness
-Prefixes and suffixes can happen together in a single word dis-respect-ful

-infixes, less common of them, added in the middle of a word unfuckingbelievable

RETRONYMS

It is a recent method which consists on adding a new name for something that already exists, to
differentiate the original from the more recent version, usually consists on adding a modifier rather
than replacing the whole word.

-Watch digital watch

-Phone mobile phone

REDUPLICATION

Forming new words by means of doubling an entire free morpheme or part of it. In some languages
this method is used to form the plural of a word.

-knock knock
-mama /dada
-hocus pocus
-tutti frutti