Linguistic

Chapter6

The study of the origin and history of a word is known as its etymology, a term which, like many of our technical words, comes to us through Latin, but has its origins in Greek (´etymon original form + logia study of), and is not to be confused with entomology, also from Greek (´entomon insect).
Coinage
One the least common processes ofword formation in English is coinage, that is, the invention of totally newterms. The most typical sources are invented trade names for commercial products that become general terms (usually without capital letters) for any version of that product. Older examples are aspirin,nylon, vaseline and zipper; more recent examples are kleenex, teflon, tylenol and xerox. It may be that there is an obscure technical origin (e.g. te(tra)-fl(uor)-on) for some of these invented terms, but after their first coinage, they tend to become everyday words in the language. New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms.When we talked about a hoover (or even a spangler), we were using an eponym.Other common eponyms are sandwich (from the eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first insisted on having his bread and meat together while gambling)
and jeans (from the Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first made). Some eponyms are technical terms, based on the names of those who first discovered or invented things, such as fahrenheit (from the German,Gabriel Fahrenheit), volt (from the Italian, Alessandro Volta) and watt (from the Scot, James Watt).

Borrowing
One of the most common sources of new words in English is the process simply labeled borrowing,that is, the taking over of words from other languages. Throughout its history, the English language has adopted a vast number of words from other languages, including croissant (French), dope (Dutch), lilac (Persian), piano(Italian), pretzel (German), sofa (Arabic), tattoo (Tahitian), tycoon (Japanese),yogurt (Turkish) and zebra (Bantu).Other languages, of course, borrowterms from English, as in the Japanese use of suupaa or suupaamaaketto (supermarket) and taipuraitaa (typewriter),Hungarians talking about sport, klub and futbal, or the French discussing problems of le stress, over a glass of le whisky, during le weekend.A special type of borrowing is described as loan translation or calque.In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. Interesting examples are the French termgratte-ciel,which literally translates as scrape-sky, the Dutch wolkenkrabber (cloud scratcher)or the German Wolkenkratzer (cloud scraper), all of which were calques for the English skyscraper. The English word superman is thought to be a loan translation of the German U¨ bermensch, and the termloan word itself is believed to have come from the German Lehnwort. Nowadays, some Spanish speakers eat perros calientes (literally dogs hot) or hot dogs. The American concept of boyfriend was a borrowing, with sound modification, into Japanese as boyifurendo, but as a calque into Chinese as male friend or nan pengyu.

Compounding
It's combining process, technically known as compounding, is very common in languages such as German and English,but much less common in languages such as French and Spanish. Common English compounds are bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook,wallpaper, wastebasket and waterbed. All these examples are nouns, but we can also create compound adjectives (good-looking, low-paid) and compounds of adjective (fast) plus noun (food) as in a fast-food restaurant or a full-time job.

Blending
The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is also present in the process called blending.However, blending is typically accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the otherword. In some parts of the USA, theres a product that is used like gasoline,but is made from alcohol, so the blended word for referring to this product is gasohol. To talk about the combined effects of smoke and fog, we can use the word smog. In places where they have a lot of this stuff, they can jokingly make a distinction between smog, smaze (smoke + haze) and smurk (smoke + murk).Some other commonly used examples of blending are bit (binary/digit), brunch (breakfast/lunch), motel (motor/hotel), telecast (television/broadcast) and the Chunnel (Channel/tunnel),

Clipping
The element of reduction that is noticeable in blending is even more apparent in the process described as clipping. This occurs when a word of more than one syllable (facsimile) is reduced to a shorter form(fax), usually beginning in casual speech. The term gasoline is still used, but most people talk about gas, using the clipped form. Other common examples are ad (advertisement), bra (brassiere),cab (cabriolet), condo (condominium), fan (fanatic), flu (influenza), perm (permanent wave), phone, plane and pub (public house). English speakers also like to clip each others names, as in Al, Ed, Liz, Mike, Ron, Sam, Sue and Tom.
A particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and British English,produces forms technically known as hypocorisms. In this process, a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to the end. This is the process that results in movie (moving pictures) and telly (television). It has also produced Aussie (Australian), barbie (barbecue), bookie (bookmaker),brekky (breakfast) and hankie (handkerchief). You can probably guess what Chrissy pressies are.

Backformation
A very specialized type of reduction process is known as backformation.Typically, a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (usually a verb). A good example of backformation is the process whereby the noun television first came into use and then the verb televise was created from it. Other examples of words created by this process are: donate (from donation), emote (from emotion), enthuse (from enthusiasm), liaise (from liaison) and babysit (from babysitter). Indeed, when we use the verb backform (Did you know that opt was backformed from option?), we are using a backformation

Conversion
A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction), is generally known as conversion. Other labels for this very common process are category change and functional shift.A number of nouns such as bottle, butter, chair and vacation have come to be used, through conversion, as verbs: We bottled the home-brew last night; Have you buttered the toast?; Someone has to chair the meeting; Theyre vacationing in Florida. These conversions are readily accepted, but some examples, such as the noun impact being used as a verb, seem to impact some peoples sensibilities
rather negatively.The conversion process is particularly productive in modern English, with new uses occurring frequently. The conversion can involve verbs becoming nouns, with guess, must and spy as the sources of a guess, a must and a spy.Phrasal verbs (to print out, to take over) also become nouns (a printout, a takeover). One complex verb combination (want to be) has become a new noun,
as in He isnt in the group, hes just a wannabe.Verbs (see through, stand up) also become adjectives, as in see-through material or a stand-up comedian. Or adjectives, as in a dirty floor, an empty room, some crazy ideas and those nasty people, can become the verbs to dirty and to empty, or the nouns a crazy and the nasty.

Acronyms
Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words.These can be forms such as CD (compact disk) or VCR (video cassette recorder) where the pronunciation consists of saying each separate letter. More typically, acronyms are pronounced as new single words, as in NATO, NASA or UNESCO. These examples have kept their capital letters, but many acronyms simply become everyday terms such as laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), radar (radio detecting and ranging), scuba (selfcontained underwater breathing apparatus) and zip (zone improvement plan)

Derivation
The most common wordformation process to be found in the production of new English words. This process is called derivation and it is accomplished by means of a large number of small bits of the English language which are not usually given separate listings in dictionaries. These small bits are generally described as affixes.Some familiar examples are the elements un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism and -ness which appear in words like unhappy, misrepresent, prejudge, joyful,careless, boyish, terrorism and sadness.

Prefixes and suffixes
We can see that some affixes have to be added to the beginning of the word (e.g. un-). These are called prefixes. Other affixes have to be added to the end of the word (e.g. -ish) and are called suffixes. All English words formed by this derivational process have either prefixes or suffixes, or both. Thus, mislead has a prefix, disrespectful has both a prefix and a suffix, and foolishness has two suffixes.

Infixes
There is a third type of affix, not normally used in English, but found in some other languages. This is called an infix and, as the termsuggests, it is an affix that is incorporated inside another word. It is possible to see the general principle at work in certain expressions, occasionally used in fortuitous or aggravating circumstances by emotionally aroused English speakers: Hallebloodylujah!,Absogoddamlutely! and Unfuckinbelievable!. We could view these inserted forms as a special version of infixing in English.However, a much better set of examples can be provided from Kamhmu,a language spoken in South-East Asia.