Nature of Language Quiz 5

Shortening words/phrases to form new words

Acronym formation Alphabetic abbreviations - initialisms Clipping Backformation

Alphabetic abbreviations - initialisms

An initialism is also a combination of the first letters of each word, but the individual letters are pronounced separately in the new word. FBI, LOL, www, url, Atm, BFF BTSOOM

Combining:

Blending Compounding Derivations - adding affixes: prefixes, suffixes and infixes

Changing the meaning of existing words

Change in part of speech Metaphorical extension Broadening Narrowing Amelioration Semantic drift Reversal Reappropriation

Creating new words:

Coining (neologisms) Generification - trade names Appropriation of proper nouns (people's names) Origins in slang

Borrowing:

Direct Indirect (calques) • Borrowing o One of the most common sources of new words in English is the process simply labeled borrowing, that is, the taking over of new words from other languages. o Throughout its history, the English language has adopted a vast number of words from other languages. o Sometimes a new sound comes along with new words. The voiced fricative / ʒ / became part of English through borrowed French words such as measure and rouge. o Other languages, of course, borrow terms from English. o In some cases, the borrowed words are used with quite novel meanings. o Borrowed words - directly from another language - speakers of English do this quite aggressivley Menu = Italian Kindergarten = German Guitar = Spanish Trek = African When another words borrow from English Footobooru (Japanese) The t and b aren't allowed in one word in Japanese. They have to change the word to match their phonetic constraints

Metaphorical extension

Metaphorical Extension o when a language does not have just the right word for a concept - we often take an existing word and extend its meaning When we say something is metaphorical it is a non literal meaning Taking something you'd use as a literal meaning then making it abstract Don't literally float an idea Surf the net - not surfing

Reappropriation

Reappropriation - a group reclaims a word that was used in a disparaging way towards them Queer Smoggie (Middlesborough industrial town, north England)

Colloquialism

informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing Broad term referring to phrases used in informal speech: ain't talking to people you know well. Ex: guy

Acronym formation

o Acronyms are new words formed from the intial letters of a set of other words. These can be forms such as CD ("compact disk") or SPCA ("Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals"). o Scuba - self contained underwater breathing apparatus o Innovations such as the ATM ("automatic teller machine") and the required PIN ("personal identification number") are regularly use with one of their elements repeated, as in sometimes I forget my PIN number when I go to use the ATM machine. The ATM example is also known as an "initialism". Acronyms o Take first letters of each of more than one words and pronounce as if it is a word NASA Radar Laser PIN (number) LOL Acronym - take first letters of first word, put them together, and then if they are ok with phonotactic constraints you say it as a word - NASA, radar, laser, PIN,

Generification - trade names

o Exs: google, Kleenex, granola, zipper o Some neologisms are created as trade names (possibly from some technical term or compound) - acetylsalicylic acid: Aspirin - Kimberly Clark's created name for their facial tissue: Kleenex Generification: o Taking a specific product name and using it 'generically' to refer to that product in general - Kleenex - now used to refer to all tissues - Xerox [] Im going to Xerox this - xerox is a company that makes photocopies but it is not the only one - Hoover (created from vacuum cleaner inventor's name - an eponym used generically - especially in the UK) - Band aid []elast a blast for Europe. Bandages is a non trade name? I don't think so, we had a lexicon gap. - Tupper ware - Google - it was a noun and we converted it to a verb

Amelioration

o Making the meaning more positive - Lean - used to mean emaciated, now implies, athleticism and good looks - revolutionary - no longer means undesirable overthrow of status quo. [] now used as term for desirable novelty... a revolutionary new...

Origins in slang

o Many coned words appear first as slang - dude - does not really come from any words - nerd

Appropriation of proper nouns (people's names)

o New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms. When we use the eponyms teddy bear, derived from US president Theodore (teddy) Roosevelt, and jeans (from the Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first made). Use of proper nouns (eponyms) o A trait or characteristic (or invention) of a person gets associated with them - General George Hooker - cause when his troops moved place to place ladies would come with. SO they called them hookers girls - Volta discovered volt

Slang

o Nowhere are we more creative than is slang o What is slang? 'A kind of language occurring chiefly in casual, playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence or effect' A key point - much slang is dialect specific - with specific words and phrase developed and used within specific cultural, geographic, ethnic or other group. o Slang fits under colloquialism but has more restrictive notions. Happens in more closely defined groups. More narrow than colloquialism. Very bonding socially. Pittsburgh students - Yinz. It is inclusive but exclusive because others won't know the term. Creates a sense of community. Anti Establishment

Coining (neologisms)

o The invention and general use of totally new terms, or coinage, is not very common in English. o Exs: google, Kleenex, granola, zipper. o New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms. When we use the eponyms teddy bear, derived from US president Theodore (teddy) Roosevelt, and jeans (from the Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first made). Coining new words - creating a neologism O invention of a new, previously nonexistent word o Create a new sound sequence and link it with a meaning o Some neologisms are created as trade names (possibly from some technical term or compound) - acetylsalicylic acid: Aspirin - Kimberly Clark's created name for their facial tissue: Kleenex • Neologisms o We can very quickly understand a new word, neologism, and accept the use of different forms of that new word in the language. o This ability must derive in part from the fact that there is a lot of regularity in the word formation processes in a language.

Broadening

o The use of existing words to include more than the original referents - Cool - used originally to describe jazz musicians - and a specific style of jazz - Office - used as a term in the religious field - e.g. papal office. any place you sit and do business. Used to be related to Roman Catholic Church [] now it is used much more broadly - Camp- used to mean just military camp

Narrowing

o Words can become more specialized - less general - Engine used to mean an engineered contrivance - now restricted to something with a mechanical source of power - Wife - In old English used to mean any women - now just married - Meat - used to mean 'food' now specific to animal flesh food - Gay - used to mean merry, joyous, now still used in this way... but also narrowed to mean homosexual

Reversal

o tend to occur in American slang Bad : previously negative Square: previously honest Straight: previously upright, decent Dank: previously - wet and smelly.... Now 'very good'

Semantic drift

the tendency for words' meanings to morph gradually over time to the point that the distance between the original meaning and the current one can be quite striking: silly used to mean blessed ???

Backformation

• Backformation o A very specialized type of reduction process is known as backformation. o Typically, a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (usually a verb). A good ex of back formation is the process whereby the noun television first came into use and then verb televise was created from it. o Ex: donate from donation. Emote from emotion. Enthuse from enthusiasm and liaise from liaison. o One very regular source of back formed verbs in English is based on the common pattern work-worker. The assumption seems to have been that if there is a noun ending in -er (or something close in sound), then we can create a verb for what the nouner - er does. Hence, an editor will edit, and sculptor will sculpt, etc. o Backformation - a new word is created by removing a suffix (sometimes a prefix) to form a word that never existed before - Donate (verb backformed from noun donation) - Edit (verb backformed from noun editor) - Enthuse (verb from noun enthusiasm) - Gruntle (verb from verb disgruntle) Some other creative backformation processing... (in these, we have created new bound roots!): Alcoholic... alco-holic........work-holic... choco-holic Marathon.... Mar-athon....walk-athon, phon-athon o Backformation - in many cases change the vocabulary of the word. This is how its different from clipping. o The idea that there was a noun or whatever o Donation was original word and then it was back formed to become donate (verb) o To edit - came from original word editor o Gruntle (verb) - a verb backformed from disgruntled and its more positive o Alcoholic and you split it and take off part and add another part

Blending

• Blending o The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is also present in the process called blending. However, in blending, we typically take only the beginning of one word and join it to the end of the other word: to talk about the combined effects of smoke and fog, we can use the word smog. Ex: brunch, motel. o To describe the mixing of languages, some people talk about franglais and Spanglish. o In a few blends, we combine the beginnings of both words. A blend from the beginnings of two French words velours croche ("hooked velvet") is the source of the word Velcro. o putting two words together by taking a part out of them o Blending words to create new words - take two or more words, compound, and clip off part of one or both brunch Netiquette - internet ettiquete glamping televangelist guestimate skort chillax Internet - International network fracket Staycation chilax

Clipping

• Clipping o The element of reduction that is noticeable in blending is even more apparent in the process described as clipping. o This occurs when a word of more than one syllable (facsimile) is reduced to a shorter form (fax), usually beginning in casual speech. o The term gasoline is still used, but most people talk about gas. o Exs: ad, bra, cab, condo, fan, flu, perm, phone, plane, porn, and pub. o English speakers also like to clip each other's names. o Exs: chem, exam, gym, lab, math, prof, typo. o 'snipping' a section of a word to form a shorter word - Exam, prof, photo op, Condo Types of clipping: o Foreclipping: net from internet o Hindclipping: cell from cell phone o Innovative clipping: blog from ?

Compounding

• Compounding o In some of the examples we have just considered, there is a joining of two separate words to produce a single form. This combining process, technically known as compounding, is very common in languages such as German and English, but much less common in languages such as French and Spanish. o Common English compounds are bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket, waterbed, fast food restaurant, full-time job. o Combining words: compounding - Take two existing words and joining them to create a new word 1) closed form - compound creates a single word: may be different classes of words or not Landlord N+N Highchair Adj+N = noun Underarm Preposition + noun = noun Scarecrow Verb + noun = noun Housewife (househusband) o They typically end up as nouns o Hyphenated form - when using two words to create an individual meaning icy-cold well-meant pre-school cross-examine

Change in part of speech

• Conversion o A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction), is generally known as conversion or "category change" and "functional shift". o Bottle... we bottled the home brew o Butter... have you buttered the toast? o Chair... someone has to chair the meeting. o Vacation... They're vacationing in Florida. o The conversion can involve verbs becoming nouns, with guess, must and spy as the sources of a guess, a must and a spy. o Phrasal verbs (to print out, to take over) also become nouns (a printout, a takeover). o One complex verb combination (want to be) has become a new noun, as on He isn't in the group, he's just a wannabe. o Many more examples in the book o Verbs can become adjectives o A number of adjectives have become verbs. o Some compound nouns have assumed other functions, exemplified by the ball park appearing in a ball park figure (as an adjective) or a verb. o It is worth noting that some words can shift substantially in meaning when they go through conversion. o The verb to doctor often has a negative sense, not normally associated with the source noun a doctor. o Conversion change part of speech - e.g. noun to verb, verb to adjective, preposition to verb Bottle (noun) - we think of bottle as a noun on its own, but it can also be use adverb Guess - Original was a verb - but now noun - oh I have a guess Ask? People - plural noun - we now use it "we peopled the room with enthusiastic fans" verb Must - original verb. But how it's a noun. Impact - verb noun Spy - noun verb See through ? Down - preposition verb Crazy - Adj "he is crazy" Total

Derivations - adding affixes: prefixes, suffixes and infixes

• Derivation o This is the most common word-formation process to be found in the production of new words. This process is called derivation and it is accomplished by means of a large number of small "bits" of the English language that are not usually given separate listings in dictionaries. These small "bits" are generally described as affixes. Some familiar examples are the elements un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism, and -ness. • Prefixes and Suffixes o Affixes that are added to the beginning of the word (un-, mis-) are called prefixes. Other affixes that are added to the end of the word (-less, - ish) and are called suffixes. • Infixes o There is a third type of affix, not normally used in English, but found in some other languages. This is called an infix, which is an affix that is incorporated inside another word. EX: Hallebloodylujah! We could view these "inserted" forms as a special version of infixing in English. Combining words and affixes Derivations - Adding an affix to create a new word ( we will discuss the details of this process in the morphology lectures). There a re multiple affixes that can used to create new words/ meanings - Prefixes: un-, de-, pre-, anti- Suffixes: -less, -ful, -able, -dom o We love creating 'new' words this way o Infixes - not common in English - restricted use to expletives -often used grammatically in other language o We can easily see the process when we look at derivations added to new or slang words - nerdy, Dorkdom, Uncool o all the prefixes/ suffixes cannot stand by themselves but they change the meaning of a word when they are added

hypocorism

• Hypocorisms o A particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and British English, produces forms technically known as hypocorisms. o In this process, a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then y or ie is added to the end. This is the process that results in movie (moving pictures) and telly (television). Brekky (breakfast). o A word alternation/ formation implying affection (e.g. nickname), closeness, diminution (baby-talk) o Reducing a word to a single syllable and then adding -ie, - ey, or -y. o Very common in the UK and former British colonies - Telly, comfy, brekky, hankie, mummy (mommy), pressie - Billy, mopsy, cathy, sweetie o Also adding -ling, -ette, -let, -kin - Munchkin, dumpling... o reduplication (repeating word) - Choo - Choo

Indirect (calques)

• Loan Translation o A special type of borrowing is described as loan translation or calque. In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. Interesting examples are the French term ..., which literally translates as "scrape-sky", the Dutch ... ("cloud- scratcher") or the German ... ("cloud scraper"), all of which were calques for the English skyscraper. o So many other examples ????????????????? o A word borrowed from another language is translated literally into English - Weltanschauung (German) worldview - Wolkenkratzen (German) cloud scraper (skyscraper) o Calques - we are taking a word and translating it into English and using the English version