Word formation

1. WORD FORMATION

Derivation

2. Derivative structure

• A derivational base
• A derivational affix
• A derivational pattern

3. A derivational base

• A derivational base = a morphological stem
(computer- computer – ize)
• A derivational base = a word form
(known- un-known)
- A derivational base = a word group
(narrow-mind- narrow-mind-ed)

4. Derivational affixes

Depend on
• Etymological
• Phonological
• Structural-semantic
properties of derivational bases

5. A derivational pattern

It is a regular meaningful arrangement of IC.
pref + adj
Adj
ir-regular = irregular
n + suff
N
piano+ -ist = pianist

6. Major types of word-formation

• Conversion (zero derivation)
• Affixation
• Composition (compounding)

7. Minor types of word-formation

• Back-formation
• Shortening
• Blending
• Extension of proper names
• Others

8. Affixation

• Prefixation
• Suffixation

9. Conversion

Conversion is a morphological way of wordformation resulting in a change of a word’s
paradigm.
Hand n. – hand v.
Cut v. – cut n.

10. Conversion

Conversion is very active in nouns for verb
formation
Doctor – to doctor
Shop – to shop
Conversion is very active in verbs to form nouns
To catch – a catch
To smile – a smile

11. Composition (compounding)

Word composition (word compounding) is a
universal way of deriving new words.
Word composition is a kind of word-formation
based on combining two derivational bases.

12. Composition

Derivational bases may have different degrees of
complexity:
- simple: snow+man
- derived: shoe+(make+er)
- compound: water+(boat+man)
But most English compounds have two simple
bases (or, from the point of view of
morphological analysis, two roots).

13. Classification of compounds

• According to the structure
- compounds proper
- derivational compounds (derivational
compound nouns, derivational compound
adjectives and derivational compound verbs)

14. Classification of compounds

• According to the part of speech they belong to
- nouns
- adjectives

15. Classification of compounds

• According to semantic features
- endocentric (subordinative)
- exocentric
- coordinative (copulative)

16. Classification of compounds

• According to the means of composition
- without linking elements
-syntactic
- asyntactic
- with a linking element (o, i, s)

17. Classification of compounds

• According to the part-of-speech meaning of their
derivational bases
- nominal
- nominal-verbal
- nominal-adjectival
- adjectival-nominal
- adverbial-verbal
- verbal-adverbial + conversion