Language has changed over time due to social class, religion, and many other features. There are two different word formation processes called derivation and compounding. Compounding is a type of word formation that involves taking two or more lexemes, combining them, and forming a new word. Every compound word can be put into two categories, endocentric and exocentric. Endocentric words are compound words that have a head. An example of this would be bottle factory. The head of the word is factory and this compound words is describing a type of factory.  Another type of compound words is exocentric. Exocentric words are always nouns. These words do not have a head and there is no category to the word. An example would be hot dog. Hot dog is not describing a type of dog; it is just two words put together.  Many slang words over the generations have been created using this word formation. Compounding is one of the most widespread ways of creating new words and this can be seen in slang words. Slang has both endocentric and exocentric words. Slang as defined by Merriam Webster dictionary is, “an informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of speech.” Examples of slang words that have been created through compounding are hangry, Spanglish, deadass, baby daddy, sugar daddy, baby momma, badass, frenemy, bromance, and low key. Looking at the examples I gave, each word seems to combine two words in order to create a “simpler” word that is than used to describe someone. A person who is hangry means the person is so hungry, they are angry. Although this can not be used to describe every slang word’s word formation, this can help to see how so many slang words have come to be.

 

Booij, G. E. (2005). The grammar of words: An introduction to linguistic morphology. Oxford Univ. Press.

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Slang definition & meaning. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved December 16, 2021, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slang

Where do slang words come from? Wonderopolis. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16, 2021, from https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/where-do-slang-words-come-from

Kittelstad, K. (n.d.). 30 examples of slang words from the past and today. Examples. Retrieved December 16, 2021, from https://examples.yourdictionary.com/20-examples-of-slang-language.html

 

For the final paper, I am looking to discuss derivation vs. compounding. I will discuss each word-formation process for creating new lexemes in depth. I will show any similarities and differences I find between them. I plan to also discuss in my paper topics like right-hand rule, endocentric compounds, and exocentric compounds. I was also thinking about discussing how derivation and compounding may fit into other languages beside English. Maybe see if the differences and similarities are the same but I need to do some more research on that. An issue I feel that may occur is having too much information and needing to make sure I narrow it down to stay focused. I feel this issue is also a positive because this topic will allow me a lot of freedom in what I want to discuss. For now, I am planning to use our textbook as one of my sources. I have found some website’s that look promising, but I have not committed to using any just yet. There is so much information on the internet, I want to make sure the sites are credible before using the information. I found an excerpt from a linguistic book from England that may help in my topic on other languages, but I am still reading through it. I am looking forward to writing this paper on this topic.

Endocentric:

1. Newspaper [[news]n [paper]n]n
2. Textbook [[text]n [book]n]n
3. Classroom [[class]n [room]n]n
4. Handbag [[hand]n [bag]n]n

Exocentric:

5. Showoff [[show]v [off]a]n

1.-ion [[x]y ion]n   y=v,a

subtract—>subtraction

infect —> infection

possess —> possession

2. -ify [[x]n ify] v

simple—> simplify

false—> falsify

class—>classify

3.subtraction—> subtractionify

infection—> infectionify

possession—> possessionify

These outputs do not exist in the English language. They are also not well formed. Having these two suffixes combined negates them. Since the original base of the word is a verb, trying to add another verb ending doesn’t allow the word to be understood. I do not see this process working by taking output from number one as the input for number two.

A simplex word is a word that cannot be broken down any further. They can stand alone and cannot be broken down into more words with their own meanings. A complex word is a word that can be broken down into two or more meaningful constituents. When looking at these words, forbid, forget, forgive, forgo, and forswear, they are all complex words. Each word can be broken apart into two different words. Each word can stand alone. Each word when broken apart has a meaning that can then be used in the complex word. I also believe these words may be systemically related, but I am still a little unsure. I believe the “for” in each of these words has a similar enough meaning to be considered systemically related, but I may be misunderstanding.