Reading: Word Formation Processes

 Etymology

The study of the origin and history of a word is known as its etymology, a term which, like many of our technical words, comes to us through Latin, but has its origins in Greek (e´tymon “original form” + logia “study of”), and is not to be confused with entomology, also from Greek (e´ntomon “insect”). When we look closely at the etymologies of less technical words, we soon discover that there are many different ways in which new words can enter the language. We should keep in mind that these processes have been at work in the language for some time and a lot of words in daily use today were, at one time, considered barbaric misuses of the language. It is difficult now to understand the views expressed in the early nineteenth century over the “tasteless innovation” of a word like handbook, or the horror expressed by a London newspaper in 1909 over the use of the newly coined word aviation. Yet many new words can cause similar outcries as they come into use today. Rather than act as if the language is being debased, we might prefer to view the constant evolution of new words and new uses of old words as a reassuring sign of vitality and creativeness in the way a language is shaped by the needs of its users.

Coinage

One of the least common processes of word formation in English is coinage, that is, the invention of totally new terms. The most typical sources are invented trade names for commercial products that become general terms (usually without capital letters) for any version of that product. Older examples are aspirin, nylon, vaseline and zipper; more recent examples are granola, kleenex, teflon and xerox. It may be that there is an obscure technical origin (e.g. te(tra)-fl(uor)-on) for some of these invented terms, but after their first coinage, they tend to become everyday words in the language.

The most salient contemporary example of coinage is the word google. Originally a misspelling for the word googol (= the number 1 followed by 100 zeros), in the creation of the word Googleplex, which later became the name of a company (Google), the term google (without a capital letter) has become a widely used expression meaning “to use the internet to find information.” New products and concepts (ebay) and new activities (“Have you tried ebaying it?”) are the usual sources of coinage.

New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms. When we talked about a hoover (or even a spangler), we were using an eponym. Other common eponyms are sandwich (from the eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first insisted on having his bread and meat together while gambling) and jeans (from the Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first made). Some eponyms are technical terms, based on the names of those who first discovered or invented things, such as fahrenheit (from the German, Gabriel Fahrenheit), volt (from the Italian, Alessandro Volta) and watt (from the Scottish inventor, James Watt).

Borrowing

As Bill Bryson observed in the quotation presented earlier, one of the most common sources of new words in English is the process simply labeled borrowing, that is, the taking over of words from other languages. (Technically, it’s more than just borrowing because English doesn’t give them back.) Throughout its history, the English language has adopted a vast number of words from other languages, including croissant (French), dope (Dutch), lilac (Persian), piano (Italian), pretzel (German), sofa (Arabic), tattoo (Tahitian), tycoon (Japanese), yogurt (Turkish) and zebra (Bantu).

Other languages, of course, borrow terms from English, as in the Japanese use of suupaa or suupaamaaketto (“supermarket”) and taipuraitaa (“typewriter”), Hungarians talking about sport, klub and futbal, or the French discussing problems of le stress, over a glass of le whisky, during le weekend. In some cases, the borrowed words may be used with quite different meanings, as in the contemporary German use of the English words partner and look in the phrase im Partnerlook to describe two people who are together and are wearing similar clothing. There is no equivalent use of this expression in English.

A special type of borrowing is described as loan-translation or calque (/kælk/). In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into theborrowing language. Interesting examples are the French term gratte-ciel, which literally translates as “scrape-sky,” the Dutch wolkenkrabber (“cloud scratcher”) or the German Wolkenkratzer (“cloud scraper”), all of which were calques for the English skyscraper. The English word superman is thought to be a loan-translation of the German U¨ bermensch, and the term loan-word itself is believed to have come from the German Lehnwort. The English expression moment of truth is believed to be a calque from the Spanish phrase el momento de la verdad, though not restricted to the original use as the final thrust of the sword to end a bullfight. Nowadays, some Spanish speakers eat perros calientes (literally “dogs hot”) or hot dogs. The American concept of “boyfriend” was a borrowing, with sound modification, into Japanese as boyifurendo, but as a calque into Chinese as “male friend” or nan pengyu.

Compounding

In some of the examples we have just considered, there is a joining of two separate words to produce a single form. Thus, Lehn and Wort are combined to produce Lehnwort in German. This combining process, technically known as compounding, is very common in languages such as German and English, but much less common in languages such as French and Spanish. Common English compounds are bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket and waterbed. All these examples are nouns, but we can also create compound adjectives (good-looking, low-paid) and compounds of adjective (fast) plus noun (food) as in a fast-food restaurant or a full-time job.

This very productive source of new terms has been well documented in English and German, but can also be found in totally unrelated languages, such as Hmong (spoken in South East Asia), which combines hwj(“pot”) and kais (“spout”) to produce hwjkais (“kettle”). Recent creations are paj (“flower”) plus kws (“corn”) for pajkws (“popcorn”) and hnab (“bag”) + rau (“put”) + ntawv (“paper” or “book”) for hnabrauntawv (“schoolbag”).

Blending

The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is also present in the process called blending. However, blending is typically accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word. In some parts of the USA, there’s a product that is used like gasoline, but is made from alcohol, so the “blended” word for referring to this product is gasohol. To talk about the combined effects of smoke and fog, we can use the word smog. In places where they have a lot of this stuff, they can jokingly make a distinction between smog, smaze (smoke + haze) and smurk (smoke + murk). In Hawai’i, near the active volcano, they have problems with vog. Some other commonly used examples of blending are bit (binary/digit), brunch (breakfast/lunch), motel (motor/hotel) and telecast (television/broadcast).

The activity of fund-raising on television that feels like a marathon is typically called a telethon, while infotainment (information/entertainment) and simulcast (simultaneous/broadcast) are other new blends from life with television. To describe the mixing of languages, some people talk about Franglais (French/Anglais) and Spanglish (Spanish/English). In a few blends, we combine the beginnings of both words, as in terms from information technology, such as telex (teleprinter/exchange) or modem (modulator/demodulator). There is also the word fax, but that is not a blend. It’s an example of our next category.

Clipping

The element of reduction that is noticeable in blending is even more apparent in the process described as clipping. This occurs when a word of more than one syllable (facsimile) is reduced to a shorter form (fax), usually beginning in casual speech. The term gasoline is still used, but most people talk about gas, using the clipped form. Other common examples are ad (advertisement), bra (brassiere), cab (cabriolet), condo (condominium), fan (fanatic), flu (influenza), perm (permanent wave), phone, plane and pub (public house). English speakers also like to clip each other’s names, as in Al, Ed, Liz, Mike, Ron, Sam, Sue and Tom.

There must be something about educational environments that encourages clipping because so many words get reduced, as in chem, exam, gym, lab, math, phys-ed, polysci, prof and typo.

A particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and British English, produces forms technically known as hypocorisms. In this process, a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to the end. This is the process that results in movie (“moving pictures”) and telly (“television”). It has also produced Aussie (“Australian”), barbie (“barbecue”), bookie (“bookmaker”), brekky (“breakfast”) and hankie (“handkerchief”). You can probably guess what Chrissy pressies are.

Acronyms

Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words. These can be forms such as CD (“compact disk”) or VCR (“video cassette recorder”) where the pronunciation consists of saying each separate letter. More typically, acronyms are pronounced as new single words, as in NATO, NASA or UNESCO. These examples have kept their capital letters, but many acronyms simply become everyday terms such as laser (“light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”), radar (“radio detecting and ranging”), scuba (“self-contained underwater breathing apparatus”) and zip (“zone improvement plan”) code. You might even hear talk of a snafu, which is reputed to have its origins in “situation normal, all fouled up,” though there is some dispute about the appropriate f-word in there.

Names for organizations are often designed to have their acronym represent an appropriate term, as in “mothers against drunk driving” (MADD) and “women against rape” (WAR). Some new acronyms come into general use so quickly that many speakers do not think of their component meanings. Innovations such as the ATM (“automatic teller machine”) and the required PIN (“personal identification number”) are regularly used with one of their elements repeated, as in I sometimes forget my PIN number when I go to the ATM machine.

Derivation

In our list so far, we have not dealt with what is by far the most common wordformation process to be found in the production of new English words. This process is called derivation and it is accomplished by means of a large number of small “bits” of the English language which are not usually given separate listings in dictionaries. These small “bits” are generally described as affixes. Some familiar examples are the elements un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism and -ness which appear in words like unhappy, misrepresent, prejudge, joyful, careless, boyish, terrorism and sadness.

Prefixes and suffixes

Looking more closely at the preceding group of words, we can see that some affixes have to be added to the beginning of the word (e.g. un-, mis-). These are called prefixes. Other affixes have to be added to the end of the word (e.g. -less, -ish) and are called suffixes. All English words formed by this derivational process have either prefixes or suffixes, or both. Thus, mislead has a prefix, disrespectful has both a prefix and a suffix, and foolishness has two suffixes.