This document discusses different types of word formation including derivational morphology, inflectional morphology, compounding, blending, clippings, and acronyms. Derivational morphology involves adding affixes like -ify and -cation to base words to derive new words that may be a different part of speech. Inflectional morphology involves changing word endings to indicate things like number, tense, and possession. Compounding involves blending two existing words together like armchair. Blending is similar but blends the words, like smog from smoke and fog. Clippings shorten words and acronyms use the initial letters of multi-word phrases.

1. Word Formation

2. Derivational Morphology
 Bound morphemes like –ify and –cation are
called derivational morphemes.
 When added to a base word, a new word with
a new meaning is derived.
 The form that results from the addition of a
derivational morpheme is called a derived
word.
Example:
Base: pure
Pure + ify = purify – to make pure
Pure + cation = purification – the process of
making pure

3.  The derived word may also be of a different
grammatical class than the original word.
Examples:
Noun to Adjective
•Boy + ish
•Affection + nate
Verb to Noun
•Clear + ance
•Sing + er
Adjective to Verb
•Exact + ly
Noun to Verb
•Moral + ize
•Vaccin + ate
Adjective to Noun
•Tall + ness
•Free + dom
Verb to Adjective
•Creat + ive
•Read + able

4.  Some derivational suffixes do not cause a
change in grammatical class. Prefixes never
do.
Exampes:
Noun to Noun
•King + dom
•Friend + ship
Verb to Verb
•Re + cover
•Dis + believe
Adjective to Adjective
•Il + legal
•Un + happy

5. Inflectional Morphology
 They represent relationships between
different parts of a sentence.
English Inflectional Morphemes Examples
-s singular present She wait-s at home.
-ed past tense She wait-ed at home.
-ing progressive She is eat-ing the donut.
-en past participle Mary has eaten the donuts.
-s plural She ate the donut-s.
-‘s possessive Disa’s hair is short.
-er comparative Disa has shot-er hair than Karin.
-est superlative Disa has the short-est hair.

6. Compounding
 The creation of a new word out of several
existing ones.
Examples:
 bathroom
 armchair
 They are created by blending two existing
words to form a new one.
Examples:
 smoke + fog = smog
 guess + estimate = guesstimate
Blending

7. Clippings
 They are created by shortening an existing
word.
Examples:
 laboratory – lab
 maximum – max
 They are created by using the initial letters of
a longer name or term which consists of
several words.
Examples:
 Radio Detection And Ranging – RADAR
 Hyper Text Transfer Protocol - HTTP
Acronyms