Back formation: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 15:55, 7 September 2008

Back formation is a type of word formation in which a word is assumed to have a morphological structure (for instance, a root and an affix) that it did not originally have and is then decomposed. Often monomorphemic words are decomposed into a root and a affix if the language has a productive affix with the same phonological form as a part of the word that underwent back formation.

Comments

The process can be schematically represented as follows:

Initial morphological structure: (abcdef)_stem; the language also has a productive affix with the form (ef).

Morphological structure after back formation: (abcd)_stem(ef)_suffix.

For example, edit is a result of backformation from editor, sculpt from sculptor (decomposed as having the productive suffixes –or or –er used to build words denoting a person who performs the action denoted by a verb).

Synonym

retrograde formation

References

Campbell, Lyle & Mauricio J. Mixco. 2007. A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

Other languages

German Rückbildung

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Back formation''' (also known as retrograde formation) is a type of word formation in which a word is assumed to have a morphological structure (for instance, a root and an affix) that it did not originally have and is then decomposed. Often monomorphemic words are decomposed into a root and a affix if the language has a productive affix with the same phonological form as a part of the word that underwent back formation. The process can be schematically represented as follows:
+'''Back formation'''  is a type of [[word formation]] in which a word is assumed to have a morphological structure (for instance, a [[root]] and an [[affix]]) that it did not originally have and is then decomposed. Often monomorphemic words are decomposed into a root and a affix if the language has a productive affix with the same phonological form as a part of the word that underwent back formation.
+===Comments===
+The process can be schematically represented as follows:
 * Initial morphological structure: ('''''abcdef''''')<sub>stem</sub>; the language also has a productive affix with the form (''ef'').
@@ Line 7: / Line 11: @@
 For example, ''edit'' is a result of backformation from ''editor'', ''sculpt'' from ''sculptor'' (decomposed as having the productive suffixes ''–or'' or ''–er'' used to build words denoting a person who performs the action denoted by a verb).
-==References==
+===Synonym===
+*[[retrograde formation]]
+===References===
 * Campbell, Lyle & Mauricio J. Mixco. 2007. A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
+===Other languages===
+German [[Rückbildung]]
+{{dc}}
+[[Category:Morphology]]
+[[Category:Diachrony]]