How words are formed? One of the top ways to improve your vocabulary.

We use word formation techniques to create new words. These techniques create new lexemes from old ones.( Lexemes are basic units of words. e.g. cat)

Word formation can be done by a number of methods: Compounding, Derivation, Blending, Calque, Neologism etc.

Compounding: Compounding is a procedure of framing a lexeme from at least two stems. In it, we stick at least two words to make one longer word.

Noun-Noun: railcar - rail + car

Adjective-Noun: - blackberry - black + berry

    Rhyming Compounding

Derivation: It is a process of forming new words by modifying a root without adding other roots.

Adjective-verb: drinkable - drink

     Affixation Derivation: It is a process of forming new words by adding affixes to different types of derivative bases.

Dutiful

Conversion or affix less derivation or zero inference: It is the procedure of changing over an expression of one linguistic shape to an expression of another syntactic frame without changing its spelling or elocution.

To jump – a jump

Blending: Process of forming a word by merging two or more other words.

Guesstimate – guess + estimate

Motel – motor + hotel

Biopic – biographical + picture

Calque or Loan Translation – A word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal translation.

Latin: Gospel – bona adnuntiatio

           Wisdom tooth: dentes sapientiae

Loanword A word credited from an outside language.It is neither altered nor translated to suit local language.

Italian: Pizza, Scenario

French: Index, Agenda

Neologism:

Neologisms are newly coined terms that are in common use.

App: Application for android

Staycation: A vacation at home

Clipping or shortening:

 The process of shortening a word without changing its meaning.

Math - Mathematics

Phone - Telephone

Pub - Public house

Acronyms:

The process of extracting and putting together the first letters of the words in a phrase.

ESL – English as a second language.

ASAP – As soon as possible.

I.e. – id est – that is

E.g. – exempli gratia – for example

Collocations:

A collocation is at least two words that frequently go together. These blends sound common to local English speakers.

Fast food, a snappy feast and so on.

Knowing about word formation techniques can help us in understanding words.