4.2.9 Reduplication

Reduplication is a morphological process which marks a grammatical or semantic contrast by repeating all or a part of the base to which it applies. Repetition of the whole base is called a full reduplication, and repetition of a part of the base is called partial reduplication.

Some Examples of Full Reduplication

Some Examples of Partial Reduplication

Part V: Word-Formation

Word-formation is the process of coining new words from existing ones. Each word-formation process will result in the production of a specific type of word. If we know these word-forming devices, it will be easier to study the different types of words that exist in the English language. In the discussion of word-formation processes, we shall use the terms which were already introduced in the previous chapters, e.g., free forms which can stand alone; bound forms which cannot occur alone; stems which carry the basic meaning of the word; affixes which add the meaning to the word. If a stem consists of a single morpheme, it is called a root or a base. Roots constitute the core of words and carry their basic meaning. Stems and roots may be bound or free; however, affixes are always bound. Georgious Tserdanelis and Wai Yi Peggy Wong define the word-formation process as “the systematic relationships between roots and words derived from them, on the one hand, and between a word and its varied inflected, i.e., grammatical forms, on the other” (2004, p.156). The most important word-formation processes are derivation, compounding, conversion, blending, backformation, clipping, acronyms, and stress and tone placement.

5.1 Derivation/Affixation

Russian lexicologists approach the problem of derivation slightly differently. They term one of the word-formation processes as affixation, not derivation. The principle is the same, but the difference is in terms. We will use affixation and derivation interchangeably. Affixation is defined as “the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to different types of bases” (Ginzburg, Khidekel, Knyazeva, & Sankin, 1979, p. 114). Derivational affixes are divided into suffixes and prefixes. Prefixes are added to the beginning of bases, e.g., upload (up+load), and suffixes are added to the end of bases, e.g., employment (employ+ment). The formation of words with the help of prefixes is prefixation, while the process of formation of words with adding suffixes to the bases is suffixation.

Derivation, or affixation, creates a new word by changing the category or the meaning of the base to which it applies, e.g., teach (v)+ er (suffix) = teacher (n); beauty (n)+ful (suffix)=beautiful (adj). Derivation is a productive means of coining new words in English. There are more than sixty common derivational affixes, and there is no limit to their application.

Some English Derivational Affixes

Affix	Change	Semantic Effect	Examples
Suffixes
-able	V  A	able to be X’ed		readable
-ation	V  N	the result of X’ing		realization
-er	V  N	one who X’s		teacher
-ing	V  N V  A	the act of X’ing in the process of X’ing		playing the sleeping girl
-ion	V  N	the result or act of X’ing		graduation
-ive	V  A	having the property of doing X		impressive
-ment	V  N	the act or result of X’ing		achievement
-al	N  A	pertaining to X		legal
-ial	N  A	pertaining to X
-ian	N  N N  A	pertaining to X		politician Russian
-ic	N  A	having the property of X		organic
-ize	N  V	put in X		hospitalize
-less	N  A	without X		jobless
-ous	N  A	the property of having or being X		curious
-ate	A  V	make X		activate
-ity	A  N	the result of being X		similarity
-ize	A  V	make X		modernize
-ly	A  Adv	in an X manner		silently
-ness	A  N	the state of being X		kindness
Prefixes
ex-	N  N	former X		ex-wife
in-	A  A	not X		incompetent
un-	A  A V  V	not X reverse X		unhappy undo
re-	A  A	X again		revisit

Each line in this table can be considered a word-formation rule, which predicts how new words may be formed. Thus, if there is a rule whereby the suffix –ment may be added to the verb achieve, resulting in a noun, denoting the act or result of achieving, then we can predict that if the suffix –ment is added to certain verbs, the result will be a new noun.

These rules may be used to analyze words as well as to form new words. Derivation can also create multiple levels of word structure. Although it may seem complex, correctional, unkindness, and organizational have structures consistent with the rules in the table (above).

Organizational

In the example with the word unkindness, the observation here is that the prefix un- readily combines with adjectives before it converts to a noun. We see from these examples that complex words have structures consisting of hierarchically organized constituents.