Other word-formation processes

Other word-formation processes in English, they include :

A. Cliticization,
B. Conversion,
C. Clipping,
D. Blends
E. Back formation,
F. Acronyms,
G. Onomatopoei,
H. Coinage.
A. Cliticization
Cliticization is a process of attaching the morphemes which behave as a word to
another word. It includes auxiliary reduction, negative contraction, and to contraction. They
annot stand alone as independent forms, because they no longer constitute a syllable. words
are enable to stand alone as independent forms for phonological reasons. Such elements,
called clitics, must be attached to another word in the sentence. Auxiliary am, for nstance,
can be reduce into other variant (-‘m ) which cannot stand alone as an independent word.

Some examples of cliticizatins.

No. Types of cliticization The original form Reduce

1. Auxiliary reduction Is ‘s
Are ‘re
Has ‘s
Have ‘ve
Had ‘d
Will ‘ll
Would ‘d
2. Negative contraction Not n’t
3. to contraction Want+to Wanna
Going+to Gonna
Have+to Hafta
Ought+to Oughta
Used+to Usta
Got+to Gotta
Supposed+to Supposta
I’m+going+to I’mma

You know, cliticization and affixation apparently have similarity because they refer
to the elements which cannot stand alone as an independent word. They should be added to
other word. But they are two different things. Affixes do not belong to the lexical category,
while clitis belong to the lexical category such as a verb.
 B. Conversion
Conversion refers to the process of changing or converting syntactic
categoryor part of speech without changing its form in any way. It can change the
category as ell as the meaning of a word even thougt it does not undergo affixatios.
Categorizer conversion into to subcategories :
1. Complete conversion.
Complete conversion is a process of altering a word from one syntactic
category to another without any altering as well as attachment an affix.
The syntactic category retains the original form of the word. The verb hate for
instance, can be inverted into the noun hate and do not undergo shifting form.

More examples of complete conversion.

No. Form
Noun Verb
The table To table
The file To file
1. Nouns to verbs The father To father
The girl To girl
The fan To fan
2. Verbs Nouns
To think a think
Verbs to nouns To hate a hate

3. Adjectives verb
Pure To pure
Adjectives to verbs Slow To slow
Close To close
Dry To dry
Brave To brave
4. Adjectives Nouns
Patient The patient
Adjectives to nouns Rich The rich
Calm The calm
Modern The modern
Sick The sick

2. Approximate conversion.

Approximate conversion is a process of shifting a word from one syntactic category to

another dealing with the changing its grammatical function. It may undergo a slight change of
pronunciation or spelling. It refers to two areas : 1. The voice of final consonant,
2. The shift of the stress.
1. The voice of final consonant it occurs when the voice of the final consonant of word is
shifted such as from advice to advise.
2. The shift of the stress, when a verb of two syllables is converted into a noun, the stress
sometimes shifted from the second to the first sybllable such as the verb conduct converted
into anoun by altering the second syllable to the first syllable.
C. Clipping

Clipping is a word-formation processes in English in which one or more syllable of

word is reduced without changing the meaning of word. For example dad, it is the result of
reduction from daddy in that it still retains the meaning of the original word.

Yousefi ( 2009 ) proposes four kinds of clipping,

1. Back clipping is the end of a word is reduced, while beginning is retained. Some
examples : dorm from dormitory, pres from president, gov from government.
2. Fore clipping, exactly retains the final part of a word and reduces the beginning part of
word. for examples : phone is clipped from telephone, chute is clipped from parachute,
roach is clipped from cockroach.
3. Middle clipping is called syncope. It retains the middle part of a word. In other words, it
reduces the beginning as well as final part of a word, and then retains the middle of a
word. The flu, for example, is clipped from influenza.
4. Complex clipping is a kind of clipping used in compuon words. In other words, a
compound word is clipped or shortened.
There are two form of this types.
a. One part of the original compound is shortened, and then the other most often
retains the whole word. In the case of linocut, for example, it is the result of
clipped process from linoceum cut. This example shows us that the final part of
the first word is shortened ( linoleum), and then the second word is not
shortened, it retains the intact word cut.
b. Sometimes both halves of compound are clipped as in nevicert ( navigation
certificate ). The second example shows that both of the word in the ompound are
shortened in which the final part of each words are clipped.
D. Blending

Blendimg is a fusion of two ore more words to create a new one, usually by taking
the beginning of other word and the end of other word one. The brunch, for example, is
derived from breakfast + lunch, and then wifi is derived from Wireless + Fidelity.

E. Backformation

Backformation is a process of forming a new word by the deleting an affix from an

existing word. This process is the opposite of process of suffixation, it reduces one or more
affixes from the existing word. It concerns mainly to the creating of verb from noun.
There are three major sources of backformation in English.
1. Nouns or compounds nouns are ended with –er, -or, -ar, or –ing. Examples :edit-editor,
baby-sit-baby-sitter.
2. Nouns are ended with –tion or –ion. Example, articulate-articulation
3. Nouns are ended by various forms in which they do not belong to the member of both the
two previous sources.
F. Acronym

Acronym is a process of creating a new word by taking the initial or beginning letters of a
series of word, or Initial letters taken from several words and new word is created from that
string. It often consists of capital or small letters. There are three different forms of acronyms.

1. It is pronounced as a succession of letters, where the letters stand for full words such as
EU standing for European Union, and UISAM/UINAM standing for University Islamic
State Alauddin of Makassar. ATM Automated Teller Machine
2. The letters stand for constituents of a compound or even for syblables such as AC
satnding for Air condition.
3. Letters are pronounced as a word such as RAM standing for Random Access Memory,
SONAR standing for Sound Navigation And Ranging, VIP standing for Very Important
Person, ASEAN standing for Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
G. Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a way of creating a new word by imitating like they sound when
pronounced, in other word, this word represent the sound associated what it is named.For
examples : oink (for pigs), meow (for cats), moo (for cows), tweet (for birds), buzz (for bees).

H. Coinage

Coinage is a process of creating a new word by involving the extension of a

product name from a specific reference to a more general one. The examples are
Escalator, heroin, factoid, frisbee, google, kerosene, Kleenex, Laundromat, these word are
created in order to name specific product, but now they are used a the generic for
different brands of these type of products.