WORD

FORMATION
PROCESSES
LOGO
Contents

1 Clipping or Truncation

2 Blending / Amalgamation

3 Derivations/Eponyms

4 Acronyms
Contents

5 Reduplicating

6 Compounding

7 Loaning / Borrowing
 CLIPPINGS
or
TRUNCATION
www.themegallery.com
LOGO
Clipping is a type of abbreviation of a word
in which one part is 'clipped' off the rest, and
the remaining word now means essentially
the same thing as what the whole word
means or meant. For example, the word rifle
is a fairly modern clipping of an earlier
compound rifle gun, meaning a gun with a
rifled barrel.

www.themegallery.com
TYPES OF
CLIPPING

www.themegallery.com
Back Clipping / Apocopation

Examples:
Max – maximum
Bra – brassiere
Bros – brothers
Typo – typo graphical error
Carbs - Carbohydrates

www.themegallery.com
Fore Clipping / Aphaeresis / Apheresis

Examples:
Varsity – university
Pike – turnpike
Chute – parachute
Burger – hamburger
Gator – alligator

www.themegallery.com
Middle Clipping / Syncope

Examples:
Flu – Influenza
Jam/jammies – pajamas
Tec – detective

www.themegallery.com
 BLENDING /
AMALGAMATION
www.themegallery.com
LOGO
Blending is one of the most beloved of
word formation processes in English. It
is especially creative in that speakers
take two words and merge them based
not on morpheme structure but on
sound structure. The resulting words
are called blends.

www.themegallery.com
Examples:

Prosumer = produce + consumer

Gasohol = gasoline + alcohol

Modem = modulator + demodulator

Cooperators = cooperative + investors

Brunch = breakfast + lunch

www.themegallery.com
Examples:

Bleep = blankout + beep

Swipe = wipe + weep

Swaddle = wade + toddle

Blurt = blow + spurt

www.themegallery.com
 EPONYMS /
DERIVATIONS
LOGO
Deriviation is the creation of words by
modification of a root without the
addition of other roots. Often the effect
is a change in part of speech.

www.themegallery.com
adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise) in British
English or -ize (archaic → archaicize) in American English
and Oxford spelling
adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish)
adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally)
noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer)
www.themegallery.com
 Examples:

Braille – Louise Braille (french teacher)

Boycott – Charles C. Boycott (Irish land
agent)
Ammonia – Ammon (Egypt god)
Ampere – Andre Marie Amper (physicist)
Arachnid – Arachne (the girl in greek mythology who
was turned into a spider
www.themegallery.com
ACRONYM

LOGO
Acronyms are formed by taking
the initial letters of a phrase and
making a word out of it. The
classical acronym is also
pronounced as a word. Scuba
was formed from self-contained
underwater breathing apparatus.
www.themegallery.com
Examples:

a.k.a = Also Known As

NB = nota bene
Cc = Caron Copy
a.m. = ante meridiem
p.m. = post meridiem
ps = postscripts

www.themegallery.com
 REDUPLICATING
/ REDUPLICATED
WORDS
LOGO
Process of forming new words
either by doubling an entire
word (total reduplication) or part
of a word (partial reduplication)

www.themegallery.com
Examples:

Eency – weency
Incy – wincy
Wee – wee
Walkie – talkie
Mumbo – jumbo
Itsy – bitsy
Bye – bye
www.themegallery.com
COMPOUNDING
/ COMPOUND
WORDS
LOGO
 Compounding or composition is the process of word
formation that creates compound lexemes (the other word-
formation process being derivation). That is, in familiar
terms, compounding occurs when two or more words are
joined together to make them one word. The meaning of
the compound may be very different from the meanings of
its components in isolation.

www.themegallery.com
Examples: (non – hyphenated)

Curriculum vitae
Marriage certificate
Editorial staff
Memorandum circular
Notary club
Lieutenant colonel

www.themegallery.com
Examples: (hyphenated)

Editor – in – chief
Officer – in – charge
Bio – data
Attorney – in – law
Mother – in – law

www.themegallery.com
 LOANING /
BORROWING
LOGO
Loanwords are words adopted by the speakers of one language from a
different language (the source language). A loanword can also be
called a borrowing. The abstract noun borrowing refers to the process
of speakers adopting words from a source language into their native
language. "Loan" and "borrowing" are of course metaphors, because
there is no literal lending process. There is no transfer from one
language to another, and no "returning" words to the source language.
The words simply come to be used by a speech community that speaks
a different language from the one these words originated in.

www.themegallery.com
Examples:

Thee – you
Whither – where
Yore – years ago
Canst – can
Cometh – come

www.themegallery.com
AFFIXATION

LOGO
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word
stem to form a new word. Affixes may be
derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or
inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense
-ed. They are bound morphemes by definition;
prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes.
Affixation is, thus, the linguistic process speakers
use to form different words by adding morphemes
(affixes) at the beginning (prefixation), the middle
(infixation) or the end (suffixation) of words
www.themegallery.com