linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either: * the processes through which words can change (i.e.

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

), or * the creation of new lexemes in a particular language

Morphological

A common method of word formation is the attachment of inflectional or derivational

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are Morphological derivation, derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as ''un-'', ''-ation' ...

es.

Derivation

Examples include: * the words ''governor'', ''government'', ''governable'', ''misgovern'', ''ex-governor'', and ''ungovernable'' are all derived from the base word ''(to) govern''

Inflection

Inflection is modifying a word for the purpose of fitting it into the grammatical structure of a sentence. For example: * ''manages'' and ''managed'' are inflected from the base word ''(to) manage'' * ''worked'' is inflected from the verb ''(to) work'' * ''talks'', ''talked'', and ''talking'' are inflected from the base ''(to) talk''

Nonmorphological

Abbreviation

Examples includes: * ''etc.'' from et cetera

Acronyms & Initialisms

An acronym is a word formed from the first letters of other words. For example: * ''

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

'' is the acronym for ''National Aeronautics and Space Administration * '' IJAL'' (pronounced /aidʒæl/) is the acronym for ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' Acronyms are usually written entirely in capital letters, though some words originating as acronyms, like ''

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

'', are now treated as common nouns. Initialisms are similar to acronyms, but where the letters are pronounced as a series of letters. For example: * '' ATM'' for ''Automated Teller Machine'' * '' SIA'' for ''Singapore International Airlines''

Back-formation

In linguistics, back-formation is the process of forming a new word by removing actual affixes, or parts of the word that is re-analyzed as an affix, from other words to create a base. Examples include: * the verb ''headhunt'' is a back-formation of ''headhunter'' * the verb ''edit'' is formed from the noun ''editor'' * the word ''televise'' is a back-formation of ''television'' The process is motivated by

analogy Analogy is a comparison or correspondence between two things (or two groups of things) because of a third element that they are considered to share. In logic, it is an inference or an argument from one particular to another particular, as oppose ...

: ''edit'' is to ''editor'' as ''act'' is to ''actor''. This process leads to a lot of

denominal verbs In grammar, denominal verbs are verbs derived from nouns. Many languages have regular morphological indicators to create denominal verbs. English English examples are ''to school'', from ''school'', meaning to instruct; ''to shelve'', from ''s ...

. The

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proce ...

of back-formation is limited, with the most productive forms of back-formation being hypocoristics.

Blending

A lexical blend is a complex word typically made of two word fragments. For example: * ''smog'' is a blend of ''smoke'' and ''fog'' * ''brunch'' is a blend of ''breakfast'' and ''lunch''. * ''stagflation'' is a blend of ''stagnation'' and ''inflation'' * ''chunnel'' is a blend of ''channel'' and ''tunnel'', referring to the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

Although blending is listed under the Nonmorphological heading, there are debates as to how far blending is a matter of morphology.

Compounding

Compounding is the processing of combining two bases, where each base may be a fully-fledged word. For example: * ''desktop'' is formed by combining ''desk'' and ''top'' * ''railway'' is formed by combining ''rail'' and ''way'' * ''firefighter'' is formed by combining ''fire'' and ''fighter'' Compounding is a topic relevant to syntax, semantics, and morphology.

Hashtagging as word formation

Linguists argue that

hashtags A hashtag is a Tag (metadata), metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the Number sign, hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo sharing, photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a fo ...

are

words A word is a basic element of language that carries meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its ...

and hashtagging is a morphological process. Social media users view the syntax of existing viral hashtags as guiding principles for creating new ones. A hashtag's popularity is therefore influenced more by the presence of popular hashtags with similar syntactic patterns than by its conciseness and clarity.

Word formation vs. semantic change

There are processes for forming new dictionary items which are not considered under the umbrella of word formation. One specific example is

semantic change Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from ...

, which is a change in a single word's meaning. The boundary between word formation and semantic change can be difficult to define as a new use of an old word can be seen as a new word derived from an old one and identical to it in form.

References

{{Authority control Linguistic morphology