Lecture III. Working Definitions of Principal Concepts

Lexical abbreviations may be used both in written and in oral speech. Lexical 
abbreviation is the process of forming a word out of the initial elements (letters, 
morphemes) of a word combination by a simultaneous operation of shortening and 
compounding. 
Clipping consists in cutting off two or more syllables of a word. Words that 
have been shortened at the end are called apocope (doc-doctor, mit-mitten, vet-
veterinary). Words that have been shortened at the beginning are called aphaeresis 
(phone-telephone). Words in which some syllables or sounds have been omitted from 
the middle are called syncope (ma'm - madam, specs - spectacles). Sometimes a 
combination of these types is observed (tec-detective, frig-refrigerator). 
Blendings (blends, fusions or portmanteau words) may be defined as formation 
that combine two words that include the letters or sounds they have in common as a 
connecting element (slimnastics < slim+gymnasttcs; mimsy < miserable+flimsy; 
galumph < gallop+triumph; neutopia < new+utopia). The process of formation is also 
called telescoping. The analysis into immediate constituents is helpful in so far as it 
permits the definition of a blend as a word with the first constituent represented by a 
stem whose final part may be missing, and the second constituent by a stem of which 
the initial part is missing. The second constituent when used in a series of similar 
blends may turn into a suffix. A new suffix -on; is, for instance, well under way in 
such terms as nylon, rayon, silon, formed from the final element of cotton. This 
process seems to be very active. In present-day English numerous new words have 
been coined recently: Reaganomics, Irangate, blacksploitation, workaholic, 
foodoholic, scanorama etc. 
Back formation is a semi - productive type of word-building. It is mostly active 
in compound verbs, and is combined with word-composition. The basis of this type of 
word-building is compound words and word-combinations having verbal nouns, 
gerunds, participles or other derivative nouns as their second component (rush-
development, finger-printing, well-wisher). These compounds and word-combinations 
are wrongly considered to be formed from compound verbs which are nonexistent in 

reality. This gives a rise to such verbs as: to rush-develop, to finger-print, to well-
wish. 
Onomatopoeia (sound-imitation, echoism) is the naming of an action or thing 
by a more or less exact reproduction of a natural sound associated with it (babble, 
crow, twitter). Semantically, according to the source of sound onomatopoeic words 
fall into a few very definite groups. Many verbs denote sounds produced by human 
beings in the process of communication or in expressing their feelings (babble, 
chatter, giggle, grumble, murmur, mutter, titter, whisper). There are sounds produced 
by animals, birds and insects (buzz, cackle, croak, crow, hiss, howl, moo, mew, roar). 
Besides the verbs imitating the sound of water (bubble, splash), there are others 
imitating the noise of metallic things (clink, tinkle) or forceful motion (clash, crash, 
whack, whip, whisk). 
Sentence - condensation is the formation of new words by substantivising the 
whole locutions (forget-me-not, merry-go-round). 
Sound and stress interchange (distinctive stress, the shift of stress). The essence 
of it is that to form a new word the stress of the word is shifted to a new syllable. It 
mostly occurs in nouns and verbs. Some phonetic changes may accompany the shift 
of the stress (export - to export, increase - to increase, break - breach, long -length). 

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