4. Word Formation

07002023 Park Sang Woo

context

4.5 Clipping4.6 Acronymy4.7 Back-formation4.8 words from Proper Names

4.5 Clipping

Another common way of making a word is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part off the original and using what remains in-stead. This is called clipping.

4.5 Clipping

There are four common types of clipping

a. Front clipping

b. Back clipping

c. Front and back clipping

d. phrase clipping

a. Front cliping

Quake (earthquake)

Copter (helicopter)

Scope (telescope)

Phone (telephone)

b. Back clipping

Dorm (dormitory)

Memo ( memorandum)

Stereo (stereophonic)

Gent (gentleman)

Fan (fanatic)

Disco (discotheque)

c. Front and back clipping

Flu (influenza)

Fridge (refrigerator)

d. Phrase clipping

Pub (public house)

Zoo (zoological garden)

Pop (popular music)

Perm (permanent waves)

4.6 Acronymy

Acronymy is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of names of social and political organizations or spe-cial noun phrases and technical terms.

Words formed in this way are called ini-tialisms or acronyms, depending on the pronunciation of the words.

4.6.1 Initialismsa. Letter represent full words :

VOA •Voice of America

BBC •British Broadcasting Corporation

C/O

P. C

UFO

• Care of

• Postcard

• Unidentified flying ob-ject

4.6.1 Initialismsb. Letters represent constituents in a compound or

just parts of a word

TV •television

ID •Identification or identity card

TB

GHQ

• tuberculosis

• General Headquarters

4.6.2 Acronyms

• Acronyms are words formed from initial letters but pronounced as a normal word, for example radar ( radio detecting and ranging)

, and WAVES (Women Appointed for vol-untary Emergency Service), etc.

4.6.2 AcronymsMore examples are as follows:

NATO •The North Atlantic Treaty Organization

AIDS •Acquired immune deficiency syndrome

BASIC • Beginner’s all-purpose symbolic instruction code

4.6.2 Acronyms

CORE •Congress of Racial Equality

laser •Light wave amplification by simu-lated emission of radiation

TEFL • Teaching English as a foreign language

4.6.2 AcronymsSome acronyms are formed with the initial letter of

the first word plus the whole of the second, e.g.

N-bomb • nuclear bomb

D No-tice

•Defense Notice

4.6.2 Acronyms

G-man •Government man

D Day •Decimalization day

V-Day • Victory Day

4.7 Back-formation( 역성어 )

• Back-formation is considered to be the oppo-site process of suffixation. As we know, suf-fixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to bases, and back-formation is therefore the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes.

• 동사 → 명사 파생 형이 아니라 그 반대 순서로 어휘가 파생 ex) edit (from editor), animate (from animation)

4.7 Back-formationBack-formation usually involves the follow-

ing types of words:

1.Abstract nouns

• Diagnose -diagnosis• Donate - donation• Enthuse - enthusiasm• Emote - emotion

4.7 Back - formation

2. Human nouns

• Loaf – loafer• Sculpt – sculptor• Burgle - burglar• Beg - beggar

4.7 Back - formation

3. Compound nouns and

others

• Eavesdrop – eavesdrop-ping

• Merry make – • merry making• Babysit - babysitter

4.7 Back-formation

4. Adjectives

• Drowse – drowsy

• Laze - lazy• Frivol -frivo-

lous

4.8 Words from Proper Names

Modern English has a large number of words which come from proper nouns.

They include names of people, names of places, names of books and trade names.

1. Names of people

Words of this group are from names of sci-entists, inventors, etc. e. g. ampere, farad, ohm, volt, watt from French physicist Am-pere, British physicist Faraday, German physicist Ohm, Italian physicist Volta and Scottish inventor Watt respectively.

These terms are now used as measurements of electricity.

2. Names of placesMany words denoting products, objects or

materials come from the names of places where they were first produced, e.g. china (porcelain), from the homeland China, afghan ( a kind of knitted rug) first made in Afghanistan, jersey (sweater) from Cham-pagne in France where the wine champagne was first produced, and rugby ( a sport of ball games) from a British Rugby School, which used to be known for the game.

3. Names of books Quite a few words come from names of books and

thus take on the meanings associated with the names described in the books. For example, utopia ( a imaginary perfect society) is from Sir Thomas Moore's book Utopia, Odyssey ( an extend jour-ney) from Homer’s epic The Odyssey, which de-scribes all the hardships Odysseus experienced on his voyage home after the fall of Troy, and Babbit (a person concerned mainly with business and po-sition, caring little for art or culture) from the novel Babbit by Sinclair Lewis.

4. Tradenames

When proper nouns are commonized, many of them have lost their original identity

Words that are commonized from proper nouns have rich cultural associations and thus stylistically vivid, impressive and thought-provoking, e. g.

4.Tradenames

• [19] I want to be TV’s czar of script and grammar.

• [20] Churchill, a bent Pickwick in blue uni-form, looked up at him with majestic good humor, much older, more dignified, more assured.

• [21] It is with procrustean thoroughness that the Soviet government squelches all dissent.

4.Tradenames

• The word czar refers to the em-perors of Russia until 1917, but it originates from the Roman Emperor Caesar. Now it is used to denote ‘any one with great or unlimited power’, ‘authority’.

czar

4. Tradenames

•The word Pickwick, not only de-scribes the outward appearance of Churchill but also depicts his inward personality, building up an amiable image in the reader’s mind, so vivid and striking as if right in front of one.

Pick-wick

4.Tradenames

• The word procrustean conjures up quite a different image. It is from Pro-crustes, a giant of Attica who tortured travelers by stretching or cutting off their limbs to make them fit his bed, hence ‘ruthless in trying to force con-formity’. The soviet government treats the dissent with the same cruelty as Procrustes did with the travelers, leav-ing an unforgettable picture of horror and terror.

pro-crustea

n

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