Word Formation - Compounding Words, Blending and Clipping

          People in general have no difficulty coping the new words. We can very quickly understand a new word in our language and accept the use of different forms of that new word. The ‘Word Formation Process’ is regarded as the branch of Morphology, and it has a significant role in expanding the vocabulary that helps us communicate very smoothly. The word formation processes of compounding, blending and clipping are important concepts when creating words. Also included for download are vocabulary lists of common English compounds, clipped words, and blends. Word formation occurs when compounding, blending or clipping existing words to create new words. Below we will cover the definition of these terms and give you several examples of each.

Compounding is the word formation process in which two or more lexemes combine into a single new word. Compound words may be written as one word or as two words joined with a hyphen. For example: noun-noun compound (note + book → notebook), adjective-noun compound (blue + berry → blueberry), verb-noun compound (work + room → workroom), noun-verb compound (breast + feed → breastfeed), verb-verb compound (stir + fry → stir-fry), adjective-verb compound (high + light → highlight), verb-preposition compound (break + up → breakup), preposition-verb compound (out + run → outrun), adjective-adjective compound (bitter + sweet → bittersweet), preposition-preposition compound (in + to → into). 

Blending is the word formation process in which parts of two or more words combine to create a new word whose meaning is often a combination of the original words. Blending is very similar to compounding, but it is characterized by taking only parts of words and joining them. For example: advertisement + entertainment → advertainment, breakfast + lunch → brunch, guess + estimate → guesstimate, motor + hotel → motel, smoke + fog → smog, telephone + marathon → telethon, web + seminar → webinar, etc. Blended words are also referred to as portmanteaus. 

Clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced or shortened without changing the meaning of the word. Clipping differs from back-formation in that the new word retains the meaning of the original word. For example: advertisement – ad, alligator – gator, gymnasium – gym, influenza – flu, laboratory – lab, mathematics – math, telephone – phone, etc. The four types of clipping are back clipping, fore-clipping, middle clipping, and complex clipping. Back clipping is removing the end of a word as in gas from gasoline. Fore-clipping is removing the beginning of a word as in gator from alligator. Middle clipping is retaining only the middle of a word as in flu from influenza. Complex clipping is removing multiple parts from multiple words as in sitcom from situation comedy.

In conclusion, now we know that Word-Formation Processes are the methods in which words are formed by deploying different types of rules. We can create new words by following the above word-formation methods. We need to do one thing: we have to follow the fundamental rules or processes of word-formation.