WORD FORMATION

Groups of morphological word-formation
Major − highly productive
affixation
conversion
compounding
Minor − less productive
shortening
sound alteration
stress interchange
back-formation
ellipsis
onomatopoeia

Affixation
Affixation (derivation) is the formation of new words by means of attaching affixes to a stem.

A STEM AND A ROOT
A Stem − the part of a word which remains unchanged throughout its grammatical paradigm.
singer:
singer, singers, singer's, singers’
possesses both lexical and grammatical (part-of-speech) meaning.

A STEM AND A ROOT
A Root − the basic part of a word which remains unchanged in the process of morphological derivation.
shows the lexical meaning of a word
heart, hearten, dishearten, heartily, heartless, hearty, heartiness, sweet­heart, heart-broken, kind-hearted, whole-heartedly

Types of stems
Simple stems coincide with the roots of words.
a work, a port, a book
Derived stems contain one or more affixes.
a worker, bookish, skilful
Compound stems are made up of two or more simple stems.
a room-mate, a girlfriend

a suffix
a derivational morpheme following the stem and forming a new derivative in a different part of speech or a different word class
–ify horr-ify, pur-ify, simpl-ify

a prefix
a derivational morpheme standing before the root and modifying meaning.
hearten - dishearten, sleep - asleep
an infix
an affix placed within the word, like -n~ in stand or between stems. It is not productive.

Classifications of English affixes
according to their:
grammatical functions
etymology
productivity
meaning

According to their grammatical functions:
noun-forming
-al (refusal), -er (driver), -ure (picture)
verb-forming
-ate (navigate), -ite (unite), -ify (simplify)
adjective-forming
-ous (famous), -y (windy), -en (wooden)
adverb-forming
-ly (daily), -ward (forward), -wise (clockwise)

According to their etymology:
native
-ling (OE)
duckling
-th (OE)
length, strength
borrowed
-ess (French)
actress, poetess
-ist (Greek)
artist, economist

According to their productivity:
productive
take part in deriving new words in a particular period of language development
-dom (OE)
kingdom, wisdom
non-productive
-ade (Latin)
blocade, lemonade
-ary (Latin)
legendary, reactionary
-ce (OE,Middle E)
once, twice

Conversion
a highly productive way of coining new words in Modem English
an affixless way of word-building
making a new word from some existing root word by changing the category of a part of speech, without changing the morphemic shape of the original word

The telephone rang while I was eating my toast.
He would send a cable or telephone as soon as he returned.
I have just received a bill from the telephone company.

The most frequent types of conversion:
from noun to verb:
to hand, to back, to face, to eye, to mouth
from verb to noun:
do, go, make, run, find, catch, cut, walk, worry
from adjective to noun and to verb:
to pale, to yellow, to cool, to grey

Compounding
- morphological joining of two or more stems in one word.
Peculiarities of compounding in English:
1. The regular pattern for the English language is a two-stem compound.
2. Both stems of an English compound can function as independent words with a distinct meaning of their own.

by the juxtaposition of the parts:
heart­ache n, heart-beat n, mankind, peace-loving, take-off, everything
with the help of the linking vowel / consonant o, e, s:
electromotive adj, speedometer n, Afro-Asian adj, statesman
Ways of forming compounds:

Shortening (Contraction)
a rather highly productive way of word-building
involves the shortening of both words and word-groups
is used especially in American English

Shortenings /clippings are produced in two different ways:
a new word is made from a syllable of the original word:
- phone from telephone
- hols from holidays, vac from vacation
- flu from influenza, fridge from refrigerator
a new word from the initial letters of a word group:
- UN from the United Nations

informal shortenings
- Who's the letter from?
- My g. f.
- Didn't know you had girl-friends. A nice girl?
- Idiot! It's from my grandfather!
More examples of informal shortenings:
moving-picture — movie;
gentleman — gent;
spectacles — specs;

Sound interchange or gradation
a productive way of word building in OE
important for a diachronic study of the English language
lost its productivity in ME and no new word can be coined by means of sound gradation
an alternation in the phonemic composition of the root

Two groups of sound interchange
Vowel interchange
full (adj.) - fill (v.)
food (n.) - feed (v.)
blood (n.) - bleed (v.)
strong (adj.) – strength (n.)
long (adj) – length (n.).
Consonant interchange
use - to use
belief – to believe
house - to house
advice – to advise
life (n.) - live (v.)
bath (n.) - bathe (v.)

Stress Interchange
is neither productive nor regular
mostly happens in disyllabic nouns and verbs of Romanic origin
accent, compact, impact, compress, impress, conflict, contest, contract, extract, contrast, convict, essay, export, import, transport, increase, insult, object, subject, project, perfume, permit, present, produce, progress, protest, record, survey, transfer.

Back-formation
the derivation of new words by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure
to beg from the French borrowing beggar
to burgle from burglar
to cobble from cobbler

Ellipsis
leaving out a word or words in a phrase or in a sentence when their absence does not affect the meaning
is used for reasons of economy, emphasis, or style
may be grammatical and lexical.

Grammatical ellipsis - when grammatical words are omitted.
When (I was) a child, I often played in this garden.
Lexical ellipsis may be considered one of the ways of word-formation.
weekly < from “weekly paper”
finals < from “final examinations”
мило < from “мильна опера”

ONOMATOPOEIA
the naming of an action or thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a natural sound associated with it
Words coined by this type of word-building are made by imitating different kinds of sounds that may be produced by animals, birds, insects, human beings and inanimate objects.

The cock cries:
- in Russian ку-кa-pe-кy
- in Ukrainian кy-кa-pi-кy
- in English cock-a-doodle-doo
In England ducks quack and frogs croak.