The document discusses various processes of word formation in English, including coinage, borrowing, compounding, blending, clipping, backformation, conversion, acronyms, onomatopoeia, and compound processes. It provides examples for each type of word formation. Coinage refers to creating new brand names that become generic terms, like hoover and kleenex. Borrowing incorporates words from other languages. Compounding joins words like bookcase. Blending combines parts of words, like motel from motor and hotel.

1. University of Raparin
Faculty of Basic Education
English Department / Evening
Third Year
2018 - 2019
Supervised by: Khalid Ali
Prepared by: Omer Ahmed Hama

2. Ways of creating new words

3. What about word formation?
• The word formation processes consists on the following
ones:
– Coinage
– Borrowing
– Compounding
– Blending
– Clipping
– Backformation
– Conversion
– Acronyms
– onomatopoeia
– Compound processes

4. Coinage
• The invention of totally new terms.
• Often a brand name becomes the name
for the item or process associated with
the brand name.
•Most of them come from the name of the inventors,
the products’ names or the company’s name.
•Examples:
◦ hoover ◦ Google
◦ Kleenex ◦ Aspirin
◦ Xerox ◦ Nylon
◦ Kodak ◦ jeans

5. Borrowing
• This process refers, as the name claims,
when a language ‘borrows’ terms from
other languages.
– Alcohol (Arabic) – café (French)
– Boss (Dutch) – jungle (Hindi)
– Piano (Italian) – psychology (Greek)
– Yoghurt (Turkish)
– Robot (Czech)

6. Compounding
• It refers to the joining of two separate
words to produce a single word. The two
words don’t lose their individual sounds.
• Examples:
– Bookcase - skateboard
– Fingerprint - whitewash
– Sunburn - handbag
– Doorknob - wallpaper
– Basketball - blackbox

7. Blending
 Blending consists of taking the beginning of
the first word and the end of the second word
to make a new word.
 Examples:
• motel (motor - hotel)
• brunch (breakfast - lunch) • smog ( smoke - fog
• telethon (television - marathon) • Telecast (television-broadcast)
 To describe the mixing of languages we use
terms such as Spanglish (Spanish + English),
Itanglish, Chinglish

8. Clipping
 The shortening of a polysyllabic word.
◦ facsimile = fax • cabriolet = cab
◦ advertisement = ad
◦ Other examples:
bro (< brother)
pro (< professional)
prof (<professor)
math (< mathematics)
veg (<vegetate', as in veg out in front of theTV)
sub (< substitute or submarine).
exam (< examination )
gas (< gasoline)
lab (< laboratory)
phone (< telephone)

9. Backformation
• This occurs when a word of one type (usually a
noun) is changed to another different type of
word (usually a verb).
• Examples:
– Donation(n) -donate (v)
– Option(n) -Opt (v)
– Babysitter(n) -Babysit (v)
Hypocorisms: the reduction of a long word to a single
syllable and the –y and –ie are added to the end.
•Television-telly •Barbecue-barbie •Breakfast -breakie

10. Conversion
• This is the change of the function of the word.
• nouns & verbs: bottle, butter, chair, vacation
• verbs & nouns: guess, spy,
• verbs & adjectives: see-through
• adjectives & verbs: empty, dirty
• adjectives & nouns: the poor; the weak

11. Acronym
• word from initials of a set of words
Examples:
SCUBA -Self-Contained Underwater Breathing
Apparatus
RADAR -Radio Detection And Ranging
LASER –Light Amplification by Stimulated
Emission of Radiation
PIN - Personal Identification Number
CD - Compact Disc

12. Onomatopoeia
• This special type of word that depicts ''the
sound associated with what is named'‘
Examples:
• buzz
• hiss
• sizzle
• cuckoo
• crash
• bang
• hush
• ticktack