Word-building

Word-formation is the process of creating new words from the material available in the language according to its structural and semantic formulas and patterns. For instance, the noun driver is formed after the pattern V + -er, i.e. a verbal stem + the noun-forming suffix -er. The meaning of the derived noun driver is related to the meaning of the stem drive- ‘to direct the course of a vehicle’ and the suffix - er meaning ‘an active agent’: a driver is ‘one who drives’ (a carriage, motorcar, railway engine, etc.). Word-formation is a morphological naming because it uses morphemes existing in the language.

There are two major types of word-formation: word-derivation and word-composition.

Words created by word-derivation have only one derivative base. The basic ways of forming-words in word-derivation are affixation and conversion. Affixation (progressive derivation)is the formation of a new word with the help of affixes, e.g. cleanness from clean, to overdo from to do, etc. Conversion is the formation of a new word by bringing a stem of this word into a different part-of-speech paradigm, e.g. a fall from to fall, to slave from a slave.

Word-composition is the formation of a new word by combining two or more stems which occur in the language as free forms, e.g. door-handle, house-keeper.

Apart from principal there are some minor types of modern word-formation, i.e. shortening, blending, acronymy, sound interchange, sound imitation, distinctive stress and back-formation.

Affixation includes suffixation and prefixation. Suffixation is the formation of words with the help of suffixes. Suffixes usually modify the lexical meaning of the base and transfer words either to a different part of speech or transfer a word to a different lexico-semantic group: employ – employee, director – directorship. Prefixation is the formation of words with the help of prefixes. Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the base. They don’t shift words to a different part of speech: to write – to rewrite.

Suffixes and prefixes may be classified along different lines.