Moving on to the word formation process itself, there are many methods used to coin new words. Some of them are blending, backformation, conversion, compounding, derivations, clipping, and acronyms. Among these processes, three of them are the most used ones to form new words. These are derivation, borrowing and compounding. Besides these three processes, the other processes are also dynamic in creating new words but are not as much used as the three mentioned above.
Firstly, derivation is considered as “the most common word formation process to be found in the production of new English words” (Yule 2006). Derivation is the process of creating new words with the use of prefixes, suffixes and infixes. The table below shows some examples of prefixes, suffixes and infixes.
As far as the process of borrowing is concerned, it is also considered as “one of the most common sources of new words in English” (Yule 2006). “Borrowing”, as the name suggests, is all about taking words or borrowing words from another language. The English language borrowed “nearly a hundred languages in the last hundred years” (Finegan 2007). Some examples of borrowing are organised in the table below.
“Calque” is a type of borrowing. It is also known as a ‘loan translation’ because “there is direct translation of elements of word into the borrowing language” (Yule 2006). “Gratte-ciel” (a French term) is a very common example of calque. “Gratte-ciel” can literally be translated as “sky scraper”.
The last most common word formation process remaining is compounding. Compounding is the process of combining words together to form a new word that “does not denote two things, but one” and that is “pronounced as one unit” (Winicwski 2007). In simpler words, compounding means joining together two different independent words to create a one. Typically there are three types of compounding namely, solid, hyphenated and open compounding. The table below show examples of each of the three types of compounding.
Besides these three major word formation processes, there are also minor word formation processes. They are minor in the sense that they are not as much used as borrowing, derivation and compounding in coining new words. Acronymic formations, clipping, onomatopoeia, blending and back formation would fall in the category of minor word formation processes. “Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words” (Yule 2006). Examples of acronyms could be UBS (United Bus Services) and MBC (Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation). Clipping is a process of reducing a multi-syllabic word into a monosyllable. An example of such a word formation would be “fax” formed from “facsimile”. Onomatopoeia is the process of forming words based on the actual sounds of the action. For example “boom” is the sound of an explosion. Blending is formed by the merger of sounds and meanings of two or more other words. An example of blending is “modem” (modulator + demodulator). “A very specialised type of reduction process is knows as back formation” (Yule 2006). Generally, in back formation, a noun is reduced to a verb. An example is the reduction of the noun “television” to the verb “televise”.
(b) Analyse the importance of word formation mechanism in maintaining the vitality of language [20].
Before tackling the aim of the question, it would be wise to try and see what is actually the importance of words. Basically, words are the most important tools of communication between humankind. Words are omnipresent and are used everywhere. They are used to identify objects. For instance, the word “cat” represents that small, four legged, full of fur and doing “miaow miaow” creature. Without the word “cat”, it would be difficult to call a cat a cat. Moreover, words are used for entertainment purposes in plays and films. Imagine you are watching a play or a movie and there is not a single word uttered by the characters. It would seem very strange. On the social, individual or political levels, words are as equally important. In politics, party leaders often use flowery words to convince the population to vote for them. So we see the importance of words in the everyday life.
When new words are formed in a language, it definitely helps increase the vocabulary of that language. If we take the English language as example, we see the vast vocabulary it has in its anchor. This is because this language has borrowed, derived or else has created new words. If the vocabulary of a language increases, the language has a possibility to be considered as an international language. Here again we should take English language as example. English is an international language. This is greatly because of the word formation mechanism used to coin new words in the language. With a lot of vocabulary in the English language, the latter has become versatile. A word can be changed into a very or an adjective. An example is the word “danger” which can be transformed into the verb “endanger” and adjective “dangerous”. So word formation increases the importance of language.
When a language creates new words, by borrowing for instance, it not only helps maintain that language’s own vitality but also other languages can borrow from the initial language. For example English borrowed the word “sofa” from Arabic, and Creole borrowed the word “sofa” from English. When English borrows, there are other languages that borrow from the “borrower” language. This keeps other languages alive as well.
A language can die. Absence of word formation process can cause its death. There are many ways in which a language can die. “Many of India’s languages are at risk of dying our” (National Geographic News 2009). Linguists have maintained that a language dies due to several occurrences like influence of the west, lack of speakers of that language and most importantly, lack of word formation kills a language. In Mauritius, the Bhojpuri language is feared to be extinct. This is why the government has decided to inculcate Bhojpuri in the curriculum of primary schooling.
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Bibliography
~ Finegan, Edward. “Language: Its structure and use”. Boston Thomson Wadsworth,2007 print.
~ Martina, Wagner. “Word formation process: How new words develop in the English language”. LING 301 Lexical semantics. Ms Kraft. Winter term 2010.
~ Paroma Basu in New Delhi, India for National Geographic News. Feb 26 2009.
~Wisniewski, Kamil. “word formation”. Tlumaczenia Anglelski. N.p 2007. Web 22 March 2011.
~ Yule , George. “The study of language”. New York. Cambridge University Press 2006 print
