WORD FORMATION IN SLANG (DERIVATION).

            Word formation is the ways in which new words are created, invented or formed based on other words or morphemes. Such words become part of language especially because it is mostly used and identified by many. As years pass by, we form more new words. Also, because of new structures and changes, a language needs to borrow, acquire, or combine new words. An article by Nordquist on the “Types of word formation in English” discuses that, word formation can denote either a state or a process, and it can be viewed either diachronically (through different periods in history) or synchronically (at one particular period in time). Most English vocabulary arises by making new lexemes out of old ones, either by adding an affix to previously existing forms, altering their word class, or combining them to produce compounds (Nordquist, 2020). According to Wikipedia (2021), slang words are words or phrases which are usually common in spoken conversation and informal writings but avoided in formal writings. It sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to particular groups of people.  Slang words are formed by abbreviating or removing one or more letters in a word and they can also be formed to make new words. Examples of some slang words are FYI, OMG, See ya, Are you kidding me, I feel you, Chill, Lowkey, Shook, Extra, Lit, Mood and Tea (Lăpușneanu, 2021). Tea for instance is usually used when someone is gossiping for example “What happened at the party, spill the tea”, When someone is shook it means they are shocked or incredibly surprised for example “OMG I’m shook! I need to watch the movie ASAP” and when someone is extra, it means they are unnecessarily dramatic, excessive, over the top or a drama queen for example, “She invited the entire school to her birthday, She’s so extra!” (Lăpușneanu, 2021).

The textbook by Booij (2005), describes derivation to be the creation of words by modification of a root without the addition of other roots. Often the effect is a change in part of speech. The basic function of derivational processes is to enable the language user to make new lexemes. Lexemes belong to lexical categories such as N (nouns), V (verbs) and A(adjectives) and derived lexemes may belong to a different category other than their bases (Booij, 2005). Suffixes in general is a letter or groups of letters that are placed at the end of a word and add meanings to them (Fry, 2006). A derivational suffix is a morphological derivation that consists of adding a suffix to a root word. Some derivational suffixes which are mostly used include “ion”, “ly”, “able”, “ish”, “less”, “ship”, “ness”, “ment”, “ful” and many others. For example, the noun “vacation” is derived from the verb vacate by the addition of-ion. Also, adding “er” to the word “teach” creates a new word which is “teacher”. Other examples of these suffixes in words are lovable, waitress, careless, development, friendship, happiness, smartest, painter, childish, scholarly, actor, fearful, gullible and sharpen (Fry, 2006).

REFERENCES

Booij, G. E. (2005). The Grammar of Words: An Introduction to Linguistic Morphology, 2^nd Edition. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Fry, E.B., Ph.D. & Kress, J.E., Ed.D. (2006). The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Lăpușneanu Diana, (2021) 45 Popular Slang Words from Around the World and Their Meanings. Retrieved from https://www.mondly.com/blog/author/dianalapusneanu/

Nordquist, Richard. (2020, August 27). Types of Word Formation in English. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/word-formation-1692501

Wikipedia contributors. (2021, December 7). Slang. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:48, December 14, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slang&oldid=1059100888

I do not really know what topic to write about for my final paper and looking at the topics available I cannot find much to say even for this blog post; hence, it has taken me days to finally come up with something. However, I was initially thinking of doing endocentric and exocentric compounds, but I think I will find it easier if I do Morphology: Basic Notions, where I would specifically focus on simple and complex words, the relations between words, paradigmatic and syntagmatic morphology, the functions of morphology, morphology and the lexicon and a few others. From my research I found out that morphology: basic notions deal with the internal structures of words, and this helps to know how new words are formed, how words are analyzed by dividing them into smaller parts, and how they function with respect to existing complex words in the lexicon. Simplex and complex words are a sub-topic which I will also be expanding on to find out the similarities and differences between them. Simplex words are made up of single parts and they are words that help to express a message clearly whereas complex words are formed by joining simplex words with other words and can be broken down into constituents. I did some research, but I still do not have any other sources yet except the linguistics textbook titled “The Grammar of Words” by Geert Booij, but I will look for peer reviewed sources on the CSI library online and a couple of legit sources from other sites. I know I will face a lot of challenges writing this paper because there is not much to say, and I do not want my paper to be full of tautology either. I initially wanted to write on simplex and complex words only, but I realized it was not much especially after reading the textbook, so I decided to include more topics. Personally, I still suggest that I would prefer writing an exam as compared to writing a paper.

1. Ice cream – exocentric – [[Ice]n [cream]n] N
2. Green pepper – endocentric – [[green]a [pepper]n] N
3. Rice pudding – endocentric – [[rice]n [pudding]n] N
4. Strawberry – endocentric – [[straw]n [berry]n] N
5. Cheeseburger – endocentric – [[cheese]n [burger]n] N

1. Ion – verb to noun

-ion, [[X]v ion] n

Introduce – Introduction, Abduct – Abduction, Reduce – Reduction

2. Ed – Noun to Verb

-ed, [[X]n, a ed] v where Y = N, A

Wait (n, v) – Waited, Want (n, v) – Wanted, Act (n, v) – Acted

3. Output-Input

Introduction – Introductioned, Abduction – Abductioned, Reduction – Reductioned

With the resulting words formed for the output-input, my chosen words were all not well-formed. Also, they are all not already-existing words. Nothing seems to work about this process because they are words that already end with the affix “ion” and therefore do not sound right if “ed” is added as an affix. Again, since these affixes do not work together, there is no other example used with these same affixes that will work, especially in situations like finding a category-changing affix for verbs-nouns or noun-verbs. However, these words need to be in its original form or have the right affixes matched up to make an actual or already existing word.

Words can be broken down in various ways and may have meanings attached to them, some words may be broken down and not have any form of significant meaning. However, I also learned that a morpheme cannot be divided any further, but it adds meaning to a word. I would say that words like “forbid”, “forget”, “forgive”, “forgo” and “forswear” can be considered as complex words because they are words made up of multiple parts that can be divided into two or more constituents or morphemes, and depending on the word, they might either make meaning or not when broken down. Simplex words for example, are made up of single or simple parts and cannot be divided into two or more constituents or morphemes because they would not make any meaning but when they stay in their original form, they make a full meaning. Complex words obviously consist of simplex words which make up their prefixes, followed by the root or affix. The given words can all be broken down into two parts (constituents/ morphemes) where the word “for” (prefix) is a word on its own as well as the affixes “bid”, “get”, “give”, “go” and “swear” are all words that can stand on its own too and make sense. Therefore, I think they are complex words.