Word formation 260
Present-day
English has four main processes of word formation: prefixation, suffixation,
conversion and compounding.
Prefixation
Prefixation
involves adding a prefix to a base or stem:
antenatal,
anteroom
decriminalise,
deform
post-1945,
postgraduate
pro-life,
pro-Europe
untidy,
unhappiness, unusual, undemocratic
Suffixation
Suffixation
involves adding a suffix to a base or stem:
ageism,
terrorism
kingdom,
freedom
identify
reasonable,
unprofitable
unhappily,
slowly
Conversion
Conversion
involves the change of a word from one word class to another. For example, the
verbs to screen and to fax are formed from the nouns screen and fax. The verb
to narrow is formed from the adjective narrow; the noun love from the verb to
love:
The
film is an absolute must for all lovers of Westerns.
(noun from
verb)
Can
we microwave it?
(verb from
noun)
Internet
downloads can be expensive.
(noun from
verb)
They
decided that they had to broaden his appeal.
(verb from
adjective)
Less often,
internal vowel change or one form replacing another (suppletion) may indicate a
change in word class or sub-class.
Examples of
change in word class through vowel change and suppletion
hot
heat adjective → noun rise raise
intransitive verb → transitive verb (change in sub-class) deep depth
adjective → noun (plus suffix; similarly wide → width mouth
oral noun → adjective
(suppletion)
Some words
can change class by a shift in stress from one syllable to another. Typically,
the stress is on the first syllable when the word is a noun and on the second
syllable when the word is a verb, e.g. record (noun, with stress on the first
syllable) becomes record (verb, with stress on the second syllable).
Compounding
Compounding
involves linking together two or more bases to create a new word. Normally, the
first item identifies a key feature of the second word. For example, the two
bases head and ache can combine to form the compound word headache:
award-winning
helpline
house-proud
input
long-running
postcard
266 Hyphenation
In addition
to the main processes, English allows words to be formed by abbreviation (which
includes clipping, acronyms and blends) ( 267a), and back-formation ( 267b).
(From Cambridge Grammar of English Practice Book CD Comp Guide)
