This document provides an introduction to lexicology, which is the study of words. It discusses different types of word formation processes including affixation, compounding, blending, clipping, conversion, backformation, acronyms, onomatopoeia, and eponyms. Specific examples are given to illustrate each word formation process. The document concludes by noting that lexicology also examines the origins, historical changes, semantic changes, lexical semantics, idioms, and dictionaries of words.

1. Introduction to Linguistics
Session 10: Lexicology
 
Edi Brata
http://e-learning.edibrata.com

2. Preview to the Previous Session
(Morphology)

3. What is Morphology?
The study of “morphemes”

4. What is Morpheme?
The smallest significant unit of grammar
cooked
(cook+ed)
cook ed
Morphem Morphem

5. Morpheme
• one morpheme: taste
• two morphemes: taste+ful
• three morphemes: dis+taste+ful
• four morphemes: dis+taste+ful+ly

6. Allomorph
A variation of a morpheme
legal illegal
mobile immobile
regular irregular

7. Free and Bound Morpheme
• Free morpheme: Morphemes that can occur as an
independent word.
• Bound morpheme: Morphemes that cannot stand
alone, but must be attached to other morphemes.
distasteful

dis + taste + ful

dis + taste + ful
(bound) + (free) + (bound)

8. Our New Topic
distasteful

dis + taste + ful

dis + taste + ful
(bound) + (free) + (bound)

prefix + root + suffix

How the word is constructed?
New topic will be discussed

9. Lexicology

10. Lexicology
Lexicology What it is?
• “The study of the lexicon or lexis (specified as the
vocabulary or total stock of words of a language)”
(Lipka, 1992: 1).
• In simple, it is the study of words.

11. Lexicology talks about:
The Origins of Words
Historical Change
Semantic Change
Word Formation  our focus
Lexical Semantics
Idioms
Dictionaries
American English vs. British English

12.  There is no satisfactory definition of word.
What is word?  The most frequently implied meanings of word:
o Orthographic Word
It applies only to the written medium.
o Morphological Word
It considers form (morpheme).
o Lexical Word
It comprehends the various forms of items which are closely related by
meaning.
o Semantic Word
It involves distinguishing between items which may be
morphologically identical but differ in meaning.

13. Word formation:
• Affixation
• Compounding
• Blends
• Clipping
• Conversion
• Backformation
• Acronyms
• Onomatopoeia
• Eponyms

14. Affixation Prefix: An affix that is attached to the front
of a base, e.g. re-play.
Suffix: An affix that is attached to the end of
a base, e.g. kind-ness.
Infix: An affix that occur within a base, e.g.
(in Indonesian) s-er-uling.
Confix (Circumfix/Ambifix): An affix that is
attached to the front and to the end of a
base simultaneously, e.g. (in Indonesian) ke-
lapar-an.

15. Word Structure
Root system noun
Stem system+atic noun+suffix
Stem un+system+atic prefix+noun+suffix
Stem un+system+atic+al prefix+noun+suffix+suffix
Word un+system+atic+al+ly prefix+noun+suffix+ suffix+Suffix
Base is sometimes used by Linguist to mean any root or stem to which
an affix is attached. In the example
above, system, systematic, unsystematical, unsystematically would be
considered bases.

16. Word Structure
unbelievable
Word (Adj.)
Prefix Root/Base (V) Suffix
un believe able
believeable
Stem/Base

17. Some Examples of English Affixes
and Their Function
• -ic : Noun  Adj ; alcohol  alcoholic
• -ance : Verb  Noun ; clear  clearance
• -ly : Adj  Adv ; exact  exactly
• -ity : Adj  Noun ; active  activity
• -able : Verb  Adj ; read  readable
• -ship : Noun  Noun ; friend  friendship
• re- : Verb  Verb ; cover  recover
• in- : Adj  Adj ; definite  indefinite

18. Wall
Wallpaper
Paper
Compounding

19. Compounding
o Compounding is a joining of two separate words to produce a single
form. For example:
• Home + Work  Homework
• Girl + Friend  Girlfriend
• Text + Book  Textbook
o When the compound is new, a hyphen (-) is used between the
parts, but as the compound becomes familiar, the hyphen is
dropped.
• Micro + Linguistics  Micro-linguistics  Microlinguistics
• Supra + Segmental  Supra-segmental  Suprasegmental

20. Compounding
The meaning of a compound is not always the sum of the
meanings of its parts.
o Coconut oil  oil made from coconuts.
o Olive oil  oil made from olives.
o Baby oil  oil for babies
o cathouse  a house where men visit prostitutes
o blue-movies 
o blue-chip 

21. Information
Infotainment
Entertainment
Blending

22. Blending
Blending is the combination of two separate forms to
produce a single new term. For example:
• Breakfast + Lunch  Brunch
• Motor + Hotel  Motel
• Camera + Recorder  Camcorder
• Wireless + Fidelity  Wi-Fi
• Universitas + Tirtayasa  Untirta

23. Clipping
• Process of creating new words by shortening parts of a longer
word.
• For example:
 Doctor  Doc
 Dormitory  Dorm
 Professor  Prof
 Facsimile  Fax
 Influenza  Flu
 Examination  Exam
 Telephone  Phone
 Hyperactive  Hyper
 Mathematics  Maths

24. Conversion
• A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun
comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction).
• It, sometimes, is called as zero derivation.
• For example:
 stand up (V)  stand up comedian (Adj.)
 to print out (Phr. V)  a printout (N)
 bottle (N)  to bottle (V)
 I chocolate my milk.  Chocolate is noun functioned as verb
 Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk.

25. Backformation
• A process that creates a new word by removing a real
affix from another word.
• A word (usually a noun) is reduced to form another
word of a different type (usually a verb).
• For example:
 editor  edit-or  edit
 donation  donate–ion  donate
 babysitter  babysit-er  babysit

26. Acronyms
• Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome  SARS
• Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome  AIDS
• Light Amplification by Stimulated  LASER
Emission of Radiation
• Radio Detecting And Ranging  RADAR
• ATM  Auto Teller Machine
• TOEFL  Test of English as a Foreign Language
• NATO  North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Abbreviate a longer term by taking the initial letters

27. Onomatopoeia
• Meow
• Kukuruyuuk
• Krekkkk
• Meong
Words created to sound like the thing that they name

28. Eponyms (Coinage)
• Kodak
• Levis
• Aqua
• Teflon
• Infocus
Words derived from proper names or things

29. Thank You
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(Some materials are directly adopted from some sources)