The word-forming system of english

Minor Types of Word-formation

• Some words of the second group can be written without capital letters as they are no longer recognized as acronyms: laser (light amplification by stimulated emissions of radiation), radar (radio detection and ranging), jeep (general purpose car).
• Acronyms can be homonyms as well:
• MP – Member of Parliament and Municipal Police,
• PC – Personal Computer and Politically correct.

Minor Types of Word-formation

• Sound-interchange is the formation of a new word due to an alteration in the phonemic composition of the root of a word.
• Sound-interchange can be of two types:
• vowel-interchange, e.g. full – fill; in some cases vowel-interchange is combined with suffixation, e.g. long – length;
• consonant-interchange e.g. believe – belief.

Minor Types of Word-formation

• New words formed by sound imitation denote an action or a thing by more or less exact reproduction of the sound which is associated with it.
• Let’s compare such words from English and Russian:
• cock-a-dodoodle-do – ку-ка-ре-ку,
• bang – бах, бац (сильный удар).

Minor Types of Word-formation

• According to the source of sound:
• words denoting sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication or expressing their feelings, e.g. chatter, boo;
• words denoting sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, e.g. moo, buzz;
• words imitating the sounds of water, the noise of metallic things, movements, e.g. splash, scratch, swing.

Minor Types of Word-formation

• Distinctive stress is the formation of a new word by means of the shift of the stress in the source word, e.g.,
• 'increase (n) – in'crease (v),
• 'subject (n) – sub'ject (v).

Minor Types of Word-formation

• Backformation is the formation of a new word by cutting off a real or supposed suffix, as a result of misinterpretation of the structure of the existing word.
• This type of word-formation is built on analogy, e.g.
• cobbler – to cobble,
• blood transfusion – to blood transfuse.

Minor Types of Word-formation

• In reduplication new words are formed by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes or with a variation of the root-vowel or consonant, e.g. walkie-talkie, riff-raff, hurdy-gurdy.
• Some more examples:
• bye-bye
• chit-chat
• walkie-talkie

Home task:

• Read the lecture
• Make up the vocabulary of it
• Be ready to answer the questions given after the lecture.