WORD FORMATION PROCESSES.doc

WORD  FORMATION  PROCESSES

1.      Affixing: numeral – numerality, numerally …………………

What is the origin of the prefixes in the following words English or foreign (Greek or Latin)?  antipathy, counterbalance, crypto-communist, micro-organism, midday, misfit, parapsychology, proto-Germanic, stepchild, surname, twilight

2.      Functional shift (class shift, zero derivation) – back, pioneer, show, plan ……………

3.      Compounding – examples

a/ gerund  + noun – shopping bag, walking stick …………

b/ noun + noun – copyright, jellyfish ……………………..

c/ adjective + noun – lazybones, busybody ……………….

d/ noun or adjective + present or past participle – cold-blooded, good-natured, habit-forming ………………………….

4.      Narrowing – deer, hound, girl, starve, meat, accident, lust, seduce …………

5.      Widening – sail, pen, picture, butcher, carry ………………………………..

6.      Transfer (metaphor) - grasp, bread, leg, mouth, food ………………………..

7.      Clipping, - fortnight, fancy, chap, chat, cinema, fan, pep, perm, extra, radio, toady, venture, stress ……………….

8.      Blending – smog, motel, brunch, vitamin, apathetic ………………………………

9.      Back formation – fog from ………….., difficult, swindle, edit, greed

10.  Echoic words – boohoo, zoom, hiccups, buzz ……………………….

11.  Sound symbolism – snort, sneeze, sniffle, sneer, snore/ track, trail, trample, travel, tread, trot/ drain, drip, drop, draggle/ crack, cripple, crooked, crumple, crunch, crush

12.  Folk etymology – woodchuck, muskrat, wormwood, nightmare, rosemary, greyhound

13.  Reduplication – so-so, super-duper, hanky-panky, mish-mash, wishy-washy, no-no, tip-top, hoity-toity, razzle-dazzle, hob-nob ……………………………………………

14.  Acronyms – radar, laser, sonar, futhorc, kolkhoz, comintern, Gestapo ……………...

15.  Initialisms – TB, TV, YMCA, WASP, AA, CIA, IQ, VIP ……………………………….

16.  Proper names – braille, diesel, lynch, boycott, sandwich, valentine, zeppelin, derby, pantaloons, saxophone, guillotine, magnolia, bobby, museum, lazar, hermetic, euphuism, doll, jimmy, magpie, marionette, ascot, limerick, turkey, china, champagne, cheddar, cologne, hamburger, meander, suede, utopia, attic, baldachin, currant, denim, palace, spaniel, sequoia, jeans, cravat, gyp, slave, vandal, canary, cretin ………………

What is the origin of the following words? Choose from the following:

Algonquian, Celtic, Chinese, Dutch, German, Italian, Latin, French, Scandinavian, Spanish

1. priest, pope, altar, disciple, lunatic, philosophy, cucumber, paralysis, cancer, title, handle, demon
2. ill, skill, till, egg, bark, sky, anger, get, give, ugly, window, skate, sleigh
3. ancestor, noble, duke, mount, beef, pork, mutton, music, melody, charter, ballad, science, grammar, noun, university
4. balcony, motto, malaria, antic, archipelago, ghetto
5. cigar, potato, tomato, cockroach, tortilla, albino, cannibal, canoe, chili
6. cruise, deck, smuggle, yacht, boom, easel, landscape, sketch
7. swindle, halt, cobalt, quartz, noodle, waltz
8. ginseng, ketchup, tea typhoon
9. opossum, raccoon, skunk, woodchuck, moccasin
10. shamrock, trousers, whiskey