Minor ways of word-formation

Reduplication and related phenomena

A limited number of English words, although they obviously consist of two parts, fail to satisfy the commonly accepted definition of a compound word. They either contain only one free form, the other component being variation of it, or are made up of two nonsensical pseudo-morphemes. Other features they have in common is a stylistically marked (often jocular) character, and a phonetic motivation. The morphophonetic phenomena involved in their creation are reduplication, ablaut and rhyme.

Reduplicative compounds proper are a very mixed group, some of them phonetically motivated (onomatopoeic) words, others made up of pseudo-morphemes. Hush-hush (= secret) and murmur are obvious sound imitations, while reduplicated non-imitative words like goody-goody usually have an ironic ring. Ablaut combinations combine a repetition with a vowel interchange (ablaut), as chit-chat, riff-raff, shilly-shally and a number of others. They often imply irony, a negative evaluation, or are sound-imitations (e.g. ding-dong). Rhyme combinations are usually made up of two pseudo-morphemes: helter-skelter, razzle-dazzle, mumbo-jumbo.

Shortening or clipping of words

This phenomenon has been recorded in English as far back as the 15th century. The process mostly involves long borrowed words, and cuts them down to onesyllable to fit the dominant monosyllabic tendency of English colloquial speech. During the process of clipping, initial, medial, or final part of a word drops off: thus demonstration becomes demo, microphone turns into mike, avant-guarde (Fr) shortens down to vanguard and then to van, and influenza got finally chopped into flu.

Shortening, however, is not simply replacing a longerform with a shorter one, as a clipped word usually differs from its prototype both in meaning and usage. Tele-, for example, does not only mean ‘far’ in Modern English: in words like telecast, teletext, televiewer, etc. it is in fact a shortened variant of television.

Unlike conversion, clipping produces new words in the same part of speech – mostly nouns. Final-clipped words form the bulk of the class: ad (from advertisement), lab (from laboratorium), veg (from vegetable), etc. Initial clippings are rare, mostly established as separate words: story (from history), tend (from attend). Medial clippings are equally few: they usually retain the functional morpheme on a final-clipped stem, like specs (from spectacles) or maths (from mathematics), or drop the unstressed syllable due to the influence of rhythm (this phenomenon is known as contraction or elision): fancy, formed from fantasy.

Abbreviations and acronyms

Abbreviated words are those formed from the initial letters of a (usually long) phrasal term: GPO – General Post Office, D.A. – District Attorney, GMT – Greenwich Mean Time. They are either pronounced as a series of letters (B.B.C.) or, if the written form resembles an English word, it will be read like one (NATO). The words thus formed are called acronyms (from " acros" – " end" and " onym" – " name" in Ancient Greek). Acronyms are frequent in technical speech, laser and radar being the best-known examples. In many cases, a phrase naming a technical device is deliberately chosen to produce an acronymic reading: thus one of the first computers was " Mathematical Analyzer, Numerical Integrator and Computer", which shortened down to MANIAC. The same applies to names of political parties and lobby groups like STOPP (= " Students and Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment").

The most frequently used abbreviations and acronyms are usually familiar to the English-speaking public, but tend to be quickly forgotten as they drop out of active use, as their meanings are not " transparent". An average Englishman would readily recognize P.M. as Prime Minister, but not CND –" Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament", now that its protests are no longer headline news.

Blendings

Blendings, also known as fusions or portmanteau words, or telescoping formations, are made up of parts of two or more words so that the parts they have in common serve as a connecting element. You see it a like a portmanteau – there are two meanings packed into one word, Humpty-Dumpty explained the method to Alice.

Blendings are a very productive class of words in Modern English. Two subclasses are distinguished, those of additive and restrictive blendings. The first class runs together both parts of the sound forms of two words and their meaning, as smog is a combination of smoke and fog, brunch is breakfast and lunch combined, etc. The restrictive type, on the other hand, runs together an attributive phrase, where the first element serves as the modifier of the second: breathalyzer (= breath analyzer), medicare (= medical care), workaholic (= work alcoholic), etc.