RELEVANCE OF WORD-FORMATION TO GRAMMAR: The rules by which words
are constructed are important to the study of grammar for two reasons. Firstly, they help us to recognize the grammatical class of a word by its structure. Secondly, they teach us that there is flexibility in the application of grammatical rules, whereby the native speaker may transfer words, with or without the addition of affixes or other words, to a new grammatical class.
PRODUCTIVENESS: a rule of word-formation usually differs from a syntactic rule
in one important respect: it is of limited productivity, in the sense that not all words which result from the application of the rule are acceptable; they are freely acceptable only when they have gained an institutional currency in the language.
Rules of word-formation are therefore at the intersection of the historical and
contemporary (synchronic) study of the language, providing a constant set of models from which new words, ephemeral or permanent, are created from day to dat. Affixes and compounding processed can become productive or lose their productivity, can increase or decrease their range of meaning or grammatical applicability.
BORROWING AND NEOCLASSICAL FORMATIONS: from the Renaissance to the
early 20th century English word-formation was dominated by neo-classicism. The vocabulary was augmented by borrowing and adaptation of Latin and Greek words that is why the majority of prefixes in the language are of Latin, Greek, or French origin.
AFFIXATION, CONVERSION, AND COMPOUNDING: the chief (main) processes of
English word-formation by which the base may be modified are:
Adding a prefix to the base, with or without a change of
word-class (e.g. Author co-author) Affixation Adding a suffix to the base, with or without a change of word-class (e.g. drive driver) Assigning the base to a different word-class without Conversion changing its form (zero affixation drive, as a noun drive, as a verb) Compounding Adding one base to another (e.g. tea + pot teapot)
REAPPLICATION AND COMBINATION OF WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES: one
a base has undergone (to undergo) a rule of word-formation, the derived word itself may become the base for another derivation; and so, by reapplication. For example: unfriendliness 1. Friend Noun 2. (friend)-ly Noun adjective 3. Un- [(friend)-ly] Adjective adjective 4. {un-[(friend)-ly]} -ness Adjective noun
WORD-FORMATION, SPELLING, AND HYPHENATION: the spelling of a word
may undergo change, according to the spelling rules in English, when a suffix is added and consequently the final part of the word assumes medial position in the derived word:
Unfriendly Unfriendliness Panic Panicky
Happy Happily Cause Causation Red Reddish Change Changeable
Compound elements are frequently hyphenated. At the same time prefixes are more like compound elements in that they are often joined to the base by a hyphen e.g. pseudo-scientific, anti-war.
LEXICAL ITEMS: as the grammatical word (item functioning as noun, verb,
adjective, etc.) is not necessarily identical with the orthographic word (a sequence of symbols bounded by spaces on the page) the grammatical word in not identical with the lexical word(often called lexical item). The lexical item is the unit involved in the word-formation.
PHRASAL DERIVATION: the rules of word-formation could operate on idioms or
lexical items which are grammatical phrases. For example a noun phrase can become the base of a derived word, by affixation or compounding: old maid+ -ing= old maidish.
MINOR WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES: English has also a number of minor
devices as means of forming new words on the basis of old. These minor processes are: blending, clipping,andacronymy.
On the Evolution of Language: First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 1-16