Word formation strategies
Word formation strategies
Beyond derivation!
Compounding: merging of pre-existing words
Compounds: “stems* consisting of more than one
root*” (Jackson, Zé Amvela 2000: 79)
Compounding
Conversion
Blending
Shortening
etc.
e.g.
lipstick
black market
waste paper basket
child-friendly
…
NO consistent orthographic treatment
*stem: form that carries the basic meaning of the
word; root (or base):stem consisting of a single
morpheme
Word formation strategies
Word formation strategies
Compounding: “independently existing bases combined
to form new words” (Biber et al. 1999: 58)
Compounding: cf.
N+N > textbook, shopkeeper
Adj+N > Englishman
V+N > washing-machine
N+Adj > user-friendly
Prep+Prep > into
floppy disk drive cleaner
Floppy disk
Floppy disk + drive
Floppy disk drive + cleaner
(Kuiper, Allen 2010: 45)
Word formation strategies
Word formation strategies
Compounding: stress pattern of the compound word is
usually different from the stress pattern in the
phrase composed of the same words in the same
order
Exercise (Very bad teenager joke):
‘White House vs. white ‘house
‘blackbird
vs. black ‘bird
‘black market vs. black ‘market
What are the verbal tricks here?
Q: How do you make a cat drink?
A: Put it in a blender.
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Word formation strategies
Word formation strategies
What are the verbal tricks here?
Conversion*: “a word belonging to one word class is
transferred to another word class without any
concomitant change of form, either in pronunciation
or spelling” (Jackson, Zé Amvela 2000: 86)
Q: How do you make a ‘cat drink?
A: Put it in a blender.
N → V: to bottle, to commission, to data-bank, to
news, to staff, to star
V → N: a call, a guess, a spy
Adj → V: to better, to dirty, to empty
Adj → N: the poor, the rich (no plural), a double
*Prep → V: to up (= ‘to increase’)
*Adv → N: the hereafter
Q: How do you make a cat ‘drink?
A: Put it in a blender.
Context!
* zero derivation
Word formation strategies: conversion
Word formation strategies: conversion
*Prep → V: to up
V = to raise, to increase; to get up, rise; to do
something suddenly
“Verbification” or “verbing” = verb conversion
e.g.: Mark and Jane’s radio campaign has upped the
numbers
Bad reputation with some English users
=> neologisms
=> colloquial (specialized jargon)
E.g.
“access” (N)
to gain acces (N) to the file
to access (V) the file
*Adv → N:
the hereafter
Adv = after this time, in the future
N = life after death, future life, afterlife, time
to come
Cf. mail, e-mail, strike, salt, pepper, …
The sweet hereafter (A. Egoyan, 1997, Canada)
Often impossible to tell which form arose first
Word formation strategies: conversion
Word formation strategies: conversion
• Very productive
• Offers unlimited creative opportunities
Figure of Speech: anthimeria
(an thih MARE ee uh),
the verbing figure.
“Verbing weirds language”
Calvin,
in the comic strip
"Calvin and Hobbes”
Shakespeare:
“I’ll unhair thy head”
(Antony and Cleopatra, II, v)
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What about…
What about…
contract
defect
import
permit
present
reject
Nouns
Verbs
?
‘contract
‘defect
‘import
‘permit
‘present
‘reject
con’tract
de’fect
im’port
per’mit
pre’sent
re’ject
What about…
Blends
Nouns
Verbs
‘contract
‘defect
‘import
‘permit
‘present
‘reject
con’tract
de’fect
im’port
per’mit
pre’sent
re’ject
Blend: “new lexeme built from parts of two (or
possibly more) words” (Jackson, Zé Amvela
2000: 87)
breakfast + lunch = brunch (N)
motor + hotel = motel (N)
slang + language = slanguage (N)
Resulting items are generally nouns, but:
Stress distinguishes nouns from verbs; we
shall regard stress as a derivational affix,
or suprafix, i.e. affix which occurs
simultaneously with the stem (Jackson, Zé
Amvela 2000: 75)
glitter + ritzy = glitzy (Adj)
guess + estimate = gues(s)timate (V)
•
Informal style, journalism, advertising,
technical fields
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Blends
Back-formation
“Wonderful room, great location, glitzy lobby”
(Tripadvisor)
Glitzy (Adj) > glitz (N)
-y is not a real suffix!
Glitzy and glam cell phone cases (Advert)
What comes in the Glitzy Glam mini survival
kit! It is the coolest thing ever! Items it
contains- lipbalm, dental floss, breath
freshner, emery board, clear nail polish, nail
polish remover, hairspray, clear elastics,
earring backs, stain remover, double sided
tape, mending kit, deodorant towelette,
adhesive bandage, tampon and pain reliever WOW
16 items! (Advert & Blog)
the process of creating a new lexeme, usually
by removing actual or supposed affixes. The
resulting neologism is called a backformation, a term coined by James Murray in
1889
E.g.
To babysit from babysitter
To televise from television
To housekeep from housekeeper
Shortenings
Shortenings - Clipping
Clipping (truncation)
Initialism
Acronym
Only part of the stem is retained
Lab
Celeb
Demo
Plane
Phone
Flu
<
<
<
<
<
<
laboratory
celebrity
demonstration
aeroplane
telephone
influenza
Shortenings - Initialisms
Shortenings - Initialisms
Extreme type of clipping. Only initial letters
are put together and used as words. Pronounced
with the names of the letters of the alphabet:
Personal ads:
BO
VD
< Body Odour
< Venereal Disease
Motivation:
• brevity
• catchyness
• euphemism
Tall, dark, handsome SJM, 26, seeks a
romantic, attractive SJF for a caring
relationship
PRETTY SBF, 140 lbs, warm brown complexion,
seeks Jewish or Italian male for friendship,
possible relationship
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Shortenings - Initialisms
Shortenings - Initialisms
Personal ads:
96 personal ads acronyms and abbreviations:
http://www.allacronyms.com/tag/personal_ads
Tall, dark, handsome SJM, 26, seeks a romantic,
attractive SJF for a caring relationship
PRETTY SBF, 140 lbs, warm brown complexion, seeks
Jewish or Italian male for friendship, possible
relationship
Lb – written abbrev. for pound (weight)
Single Black Female => ethnic identity,
marital status
Single Jewish Male/Female
(Bruthiaux 1996: 81)
Bi: Bisexual
BiF: Bisexual Female
BiM: Bisexual Male
BMW: Big Mexican Woman
DTE: Down to Earth
DWF: Divorced White Female
DWM: Divorced White Male
FWB: friend with benefits
GAM: Gay Asian Male
GBM: Gay Black Male
GF: Gay Female
GF: girlfriend
GHM: Gay Hispanic Male
GSOH: good sense of humour
Shortenings - Acronyms
Food for thoughts
Extreme type of clipping. Only initial letters
are put together and used as words. Pronounced
like individual lexical items:
If the verb to concorde, meaning “to fly at a
supersonic speed”, or to potato, meaning “turn
something into a potato”, were to be added to
the language, would they follow the regular
pattern or one of the irregular patterns? If
there were more groups of irregular verbs, and
these groups were larger, would this cause any
problems for someone trying to learn English?
(Kuiper & Allan, 2010: 41)
laser
RAM
< light wave amplification by
stimulated emission of radiation
< random access memory
Motivation:
• brevity
• catchyness
• euphemism
Exercise
Readings:
During one day keep a notebook to hand and
write down from your newspaper reading and
listening to the broadcast media all the word
formations that strike you as new or unusual.
Attempt to make an analysis of them in terms
of derivation, compounding and other
processes.
Gramley, S., and Patzold K.-M. (1992). A Survey of
Modern English. London: Routledge
> Vocabulary (par. 1.4.3, 1.5)
Ballard, Kim 2007. The Frameworks of English. New
York: Palgrave.
> Word formation
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Ballard 2001: capp. 1, 3, 4
Kuiper and Allen 2010, Ch 2 w/useful exercises!!!
Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr32U0XZ8cM
and many more!
http://www.palgrave.com/language/kuiperandallan/
Readings
NB Le diapositive usate
dal docente durante le
lezioni *non* sono
sufficienti per la
preparazione dell'esame,
ma sono pensate come
traccia schematica e
riassuntiva del corso.
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