English Word Formation and its Application

曹曦

Word formation， in its restricted sense， refers to the processes of how words are formed. It can be further divided into two sub-types： the compositional type （compound） and the derivational type （derivation） in some respects， the study of the process whereby new words come into being in a language like English seems relatively straightforward.

1. Morpheme and Morphology

1.1 The Basic Concept and Function of Morphology

In many languages， what appear to be single forms actually turn out to contain a large number of “word-like “elements. Yet， there are clearly some similarities between the languages， in that similar element of the whole message can be found in both. Perhaps a better way of looking at linguistic forms in different languages would be to use this notion of “elements” in the message， rather than to depend on identifying “words”. Therefore， morphology studies the internal structure of words， and the rules by which words are formed.

1.2 Classification of Morphemes

（1）Free Morphemes

Free morphemes can stand alone as single words， e.g. open and tour ； What we have described as free morphemes fall into two categories. The first category is that a set of ordinary nouns， adjectives and adverbs which we think of as the words which carry the ‘content of messages we convey.

（2） Bound Morphemes

Morphemes as separate words are bound . They are so named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words. Bound morphemes are chiefly found in derived words. They must appear with at least another morpheme，

2 .Word Formation Rules

2.1 Word-formation Processes

Word-formation， in its restricted sense， refers to the process of how words are formed. It can be further divided into two sub-types： the compositional type（ compound） and the derivational type（derivation）.

2. 2 Compounds

The term compound refers to those words that consist of more than one lexical morpheme， or the way two separate words are joined to produce a single form. Compounds can be further divided into two kinds： the endocentric compound and the exocentric compound. Compounds are written in different ways. Some can written as a single word， such as chairman， blackboard. Some can be joined with a hyphen -， such as wedding-ring，

2.3 Other Common Word-formation Processes

（1） Blending

This combing of two separate forms to produce a single new term is also present in the process called blending （Hu 2003：12）. However， blending is typically accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word. For instance： smurk（smoke+murk）， brunch（breakfast/lunch）， telecast（television/broadcast） and the Chunnel（Channel+tunnel）

（2）Clipping

The element of reduction which is noticeable in blending is even more apparent in the process described as clipping （Hu 2003：25）. This occurs when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form， often in casual speech. Common examples are ad（‘a(chǎn)dvertisement）， cab（cabriolet）， fan（fanatic）， sitcom（situation comedy）.

2.4 The Influence of Phonetics of Word Formation

In most cases， these prefixes are not interchangeable， so we do not have “unlegal” or “apossible”， for instance. Of course， fluent speakers have no problem in using the right prefix for the right word， as more than often，the negative adjectives are learned word by word. Intuitively， some （two groups） of these prefixes are obviously related. The variations have the same meaning， but they are superficially different only because the initial sounds in the stem words are different. They are said to be phonologically conditioned.

3 . The Importance and Application of Word Formation Rules

During English teaching if teachers support the students some information of word formation， and some rules about how words are remembered in an easy way， it will be of great help for students to improve their English. Teachers can first give the students the information about the function of word formation， and tell them the methods， then give them quiz to practise its effect. Then you will find that it is a nice way to help the students remember words.

Conclusion

In this thesis， examples of word formation are listed. If we know them better， the words in English may be easier for us to learn. All in all， word formation rules are of great importance for English learners. Therefore， students should master the word formation rules proficiently， then they can learn English better.

References：

[1] Yule，G（2008）. The study of language . Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

[2] Wang wenming （2005）. An Effective Way of Learning English. Wuhan： Wuhan Education Press.

[3] 林承章（2010）. 英語詞匯學[M]. 武漢：武漢大學出版社.