Minor types of word formation

Abbreviations

Initialism = particular items are spoken as individual letters (also called alphabetism). Some use only one initial letter like BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), some two initial letters PhD.

Acronyms = initialisms which are pronounced as single words (NATO, UNESCO).

Clipping = a subtraction of one or more syllables from a word while the original meaning is retained. Clipped words also serve as basis for further word formation and by conversion they produce verbs (to phone).

Fore-clipping = clipped on the left: phone (telephone), plane (airplane)

Back-clipping = clipped on the right: photo (photograph), ad (advert), taxi (taxicab), exam (examination), lab (laboratory), memo (memorandum)

Complex-clipping = clipped on both sides: fridge (refrigerator), flu (influenza)

Neologisms = real neologisms (robot) or words created just for once.

Aginda (agenda + gin, pre-conference drink), circumtreeviation – a tendency of a dog to pass trees on the opposite side, bagonize – wait anxiously for the suitcase in baggage claim area.)

Nonsense words - for literary purpose, especially in children's literature.

Consonantism = type of slang that Internet users have popularized. It is a usage of new formed word, which contains a minimum number of vowels. These new word can be considered as an acronym or a word based on pronunciation of a specific letter.

FYI (For Your Information)    LOL (Laughing Out Loud)    GR8 (Great)   U2 (You Too)   BTW (By The Way)

Diminutives (zdrobněliny) = shortened adjectives.

comfy = comfortable; mizzy = miserable, telly - television

Blending

A process of word formation in which a new word is formed by combining the meaning and sounds of two words. It is a type of compounding but at least one constituent is fragmentary.

1. The first part of the first word + the last part of the second word AB + CD = AD (Smoke + fog = smog. Breakfast + lunch = brunch. Helicopter + airport = heliport. Motor + hotel = motel)

2. The first part of the first word + the first part of the second word (science + fiction= sci-fi)

3. The first part of the first word + whole form of the second word (medical + care =medicare)

Onomatopoeia

Words created to refer to extra-lingual reality, they do not reflect the real sounds directly and therefore, they are in different languages different. They can refer to sounds produced by human beings (to whisper, to giggle, to mumble, to sneeze, to whistle), sounds produced by animals (to buzz, to bark, to moo, to twitter) or objects (to splash, to bubble, to ding-dong, bang, boom).

Reduplication

Compounding with slight change in spelling = duplifix.

Rhyming (super-duper, humpty, dumpty)

Ablaut – change of root (ding-dong, criss-cross)

Total – repeats words (no-no)

Invention

Free choice of words. (Kodak, dreft – soap powder)

Back-formation

Back-formation – process of creating new word by removing actual or apparent suffixes (original word is longer). It’s different from clipping since backformation may change the part of speech or the word's meaning whereas clipping creates shortened words but does not change the part of speech or the meaning of the word. Frequently back-formations only gradually become accepted.

N: baby-sitter    -> V: to baby-sit      N: television    -> V: to televise    

N: accreditation  - >  V: to accredit