1. Word formation processes
•Many processes in the formation of words can
be described in order to understand language and
its basic features
•The understanding and acceptance of a new
word in our language must derive in part from
words and word-formation processes.

2. COINAGE
•Creation of a totally new word.
•This word formation process is not frequent
•Large corporations invent short eye-catching names for
their products: aspirin - Xerox
•Sometimes the products that the companies want to
sell simply uses the name of the creator or inventor: an
eponym sandwich - Hoover
•Frequently used in science where units of
measurement are named after people, like: hertz, volt,
Celsius.

3. COMPOUNDING
•Two different words joined together to denote one
thing; “flower-pot” “windmill” “waterfall”
•Compounds are pronounced as one unit, but
sometimes difficulties in writing arise: some compounds
are written with hyphens: full-time, good-looking; some
are written separately: bank account, mini skirt; and
some can be written in both ways.

4. BLENDING
*This process is very similar to compounding, but it is
characterized by taking only parts of words and joining
them. Famous English examples include: smog which
combines smoke and fog, motel made of motor and
hotel, Spanglish which is combination of Spanish and
English; and guesstimate, from guess and estimate

5. CLIPPING
•Shortening or reducing long words.
•Very common in English: information is clipped to info,
advertisement to advert or ad, influenza to flu,
telephone to phone.

6. BACKFORMATION
•It occurs when a word changes its form and function.
•Word of one type, which is usually a noun, is reduced
and used as a verb. To show it on an example: the
English word arms meaning weapon was backformed
to arm to mean provide weapons

7. ACRONYMS
*Word formed from initial letters of a few
words in a phrase or a name.
*Some acronyms are pronounced by saying
each letter separately, as in CD, DVD, VCR,
IBM, FBI. Some are pronounced as words,
like NATO, laser, AIDS.

8. DERIVATION
*The most common word formation process in
the English language.
* Adding affixes: prefixes, suffixes or infixes

9. CONVERSION
*Change in function of a verb without changing its
form.
*Nouns used as verbs like: bottle – to bottle, bottling:
I’m bottling the compote; butter – to butter,
buttered: I’ve buttered the bread.
*Also verbs can become nouns: must – a must:
Watching this film is a must

10. •The above mentioned word formation
processes are the most frequent or
important in the English language, but it
is rarely the case that only one process
occurs in one word. Words can be loaned
and then backformed, later on gaining an
affix. There are practically no boundaries
to those processes.