Word formation processes

Inflection: Modifies tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case.
(Play, Plays)

Derivation: Changes de word class
(Slow-slowness)

Affixation

Prefixation

Suffixation

Compound adverbs

Suppletion

Zero derivation

Compound nouns

  • Noun + noun: bath towel; boy-friend; death blow.
  • Verb + noun: pickpocket; breakfast.
  • Noun +verb: nosebleed; sunshine.
  • Verb +verb: make-believe.
  • Adjective + noun: deep structure; fast-food.
  • Particle + noun: in-crowd; down-town.
  • Adverb + noun: now generation.
  • Verb + particle: cop-out; drop-out.
  • Phrase compounds: son-in-law.

Compound verbs

  • Noun + verb: sky-dive
  • Adjective + verb: fine-tune
  • Particle + verb: overbook
  • Adjective + noun: brown-bag

Compound adjectives

  • Noun + adjective: card-carrying; childproof
  • Verb + adjective: fail safe
  • Adjective + adjective: open-ended
  • Adverb + adjective: cross-modal
  • Particle + adjective: over-qualified
  • Noun + noun: coffee-table
  • Verb + noun: roll-neck
  • Adjective + noun: red-brick; blue-collar
  • Particle + noun: in-depth
  • Verb + verb: go-go; make-believe
  • Adjective/Adverb + verb: high-rise
  • Verb + particle: see-through; tow-away

Compounding

Total suppletion
(Good-Better)

Partial suppletion/Ablaut
(Sing-Sang)

Kind of word formation involving
the creation of a word
(of a new word class)
from an existing word
(of a different word class)
without any change in form,
which is to say, derivation using only zero.

Other words formation processes

Clipping: A word is reduced to a shorter form (FIFA)

Blending:
(breakfast + lunch → brunch/ MERCOSUR)

Coining
inventing a new term from another (hypermarket)

Borrowing
(kindergarten, pretzel,
hamburger, iceberg /German/)

Back-formation

Reduplication

Loan-word: a word is borrowed from another language without translating
it into the target language.
(tour-de-force is borrowed directly
from French, which means
a masterly or brilliant feat.)

Loan-translation/calque: when you take a phrase in French and then literally translate root-for-root or word-for-word into English (Blue-blood - sangre azul)

LAURA PÉREZ.
4º B

Nominalization

Adjetivation

Verbalization

Adverbalization