Term 4- Week 9

Words are constantly being created and evolving. A new word or lexeme (including multi-word lexemes) is a Neologism. They are rarely created without one of the following processes:

• affixation- when derivational morphemes are added to create new meaning. E.g. YouTube--> YouTuber

• shortening - when morphemes in the word are dropped. E.g. Photograph--> Photo, Refrigerator-->Fridge

• compounding- when two separate words are combined. E.g. main circuit board--> motherboard. 

• blending- when the morphemes from separate words are combined. E.g. Brother + Romance--> Bromance

• backformation- when affixes are incorrectly removed to switch classes. E.g. televise was formed 20 years after television

• conversion of word class-  when a word switches classes without morphological change. E.g. email (noun)--> email (verb)

• initialism, acronym- when letters representing a longer lexeme are used in its place. E.g. Automatic Teller Machine-->ATM, Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus--> Scuba.  *The difference is that acronyms are pronounced as if they are a word, while the letters are said for an initialism. 

• contraction- when letters are removed but marked with an apostrophe. E.g. Do not--> Don't. 

• borrowings- when words are 'borrowed' from another language. E.g. tsunami (meaning sudden and destructive wave from Japanese)

• commonisation- when proper nouns (often brand names) become the common term. E.g. esky, lamington.

• abbreviation- part acronym, shortening and initialism. E.g. St.-->"street". VCAA--> "V" is said but then "CAA" becomes car.