Exam on Shortening and Conversion in English Morphology

The process of creating a new word by adding a derivational affix to an existing base.

The process of reducing a word or phrase in form to create a shorter expression while preserving its essential meaning.

The process of borrowing a word from one language and adopting it into another.

The process of forming new words by combining two independent words without shortening.

kindergarten → kinder

advertisement → ad

unhappy → happy

teacher → teach

A shortened form of a word or phrase, including initialisms, acronyms, and other shortened written forms.

A word formed only by removing the final syllable of a longer word.

A word created by joining parts of two different words.

A familiar or affectionate form of a personal name.

BBC

FBI

NATO

USA

Acronyms are always written in lowercase, while initialisms are always uppercase.

Acronyms come from a single word, while initialisms come from a phrase.

Acronyms are pronounced as a word (e.g., NATO), while initialisms are pronounced letter by letter (e.g., BBC).

Acronyms are formed by clipping, while initialisms are formed by blending.

A word-formation process in which parts of two or more words are combined to form a new word.

The process of shortening a longer word by removing one or more syllables, retaining its basic meaning and word class.

Adding a derivational suffix to a base to create a new word.

Reducing a phrase to a single word by replacing each word with its initial letter.

Final clipping (back-clipping)

Medial clipping

Initial clipping (fore-clipping)

Phrasal clipping

omnibus → bus

laboratory → lab

helicopter → copter

brunch = breakfast + lunch

It removes the middle part of a word while retaining the beginning and ending.

It removes both the beginning and the ending, leaving only the middle.

It removes the beginning of a word while retaining the ending.

It shortens a phrase by clipping one of its component words.

A clipping process that retains only the final syllable of the original word.

A clipping process that retains only the initial syllable of the original word.

A process that removes both the beginning and the ending of a word, leaving only the central portion.

A process that shortens a phrase rather than a single word.

Fore-clipping

Blending

Phrasal clipping

Acronym formation

A shortened, affectionate form of a name such as 'Billy' for 'William'.

The combination of two or more independent words joined as a compound without shortening.

The combination of parts of two or more words into a new word, typically involving some shortening of the source words.

The reduction of a phrase by replacing each word with its initial letter.

smog (smoke + fog)

brunch (breakfast + lunch)

Aussie (Australian)

phone (telephone)

Both bases remain fully recognizable inside the new word.

Parts of the original words are shortened and combined, rather than both bases appearing in full.

An acronym is formed from the initial letters of a phrase.

A suffix is added to a clipped form to create a hypocorism.

A shortened, familiar, or affectionate form of a word, especially a personal name.

A blend formed from the beginning of one word and the end of another.

A word-initial letter used to represent a phrase or title.

A change of grammatical category without adding an affix.

Joining two independent words into a compound.

Clipping a longer word followed by the addition of a suffix such as -y or -ie.

Taking only the initial letters of a phrase.

Adding a derivational prefix to a noun.

As an acronym

As a blend

As a hypocorism

As a phrasal clipping

Conversion

Blending

Fore-clipping of 'seminar'

Hypocorism

NASA

telly

smog

phone

smog : smoke + fog

Dr. : Doctor

Mike : Michael

phone : telephone

The formation of a new word by adding a derivational affix to a base.

A change in a word's part of speech that occurs without adding an overt affix or changing its form.

A shortening process in which a syllable is removed from a longer word.

The combination of parts of two words into a single new word.

Because the new word always loses its semantic content.

Because the change in grammatical category happens without an overt derivational affix.

Because it only applies to words of zero syllables.

Because it produces words that have no meaning.

Traditional conversion is creative and one-off, while occasional conversion is conventional and listed in dictionaries.

Traditional conversion refers to affixation, while occasional conversion refers to compounding.

Traditional conversion is established and conventional, while occasional conversion is creative and used temporarily for a particular context.

Traditional conversion produces nouns, while occasional conversion produces only adjectives.

They watered the plants.

She adulted for the first time today.

I will email you the report.

Please empty the box.

A word changes its form completely while staying in the same word class.

A word takes on some grammatical features of another word class without fully changing its grammatical behavior.

An affix is added to a base to change its grammatical category.

Two words combine into a new blended form with a different part of speech.

Affixation deriving a noun from an adjective.

Partial conversion / substantivation, depending on the textbook.

Blending of two adjective stems.

Final clipping of a longer noun.

The process of removing syllables from a noun to make a hypocorism.

The process in which a word, often an adjective, is used as a noun or noun-like expression.

The process of creating an acronym from initial letters.

The process of converting a verb into an adjective by adding -ing.

the rich

a native

the unemployed

the young

The word must always be preceded by the definite article 'the' and can take full plural marking.

The word does not behave like an ordinary count noun and does not normally take regular plural marking.

The word can only function as a verb, never as a noun-like expression.

The word must be derived by adding a derivational suffix.

Proper noun → Common noun

Verb → Adjective

Adjective → Adverb

Fore-clipping of a noun

Form is unchanged; function is the same part of speech; context is irrelevant.

Form is unchanged; function is a different part of speech; context tells us whether the usage is established, occasional, or partial.

Form is shortened; function is a new part of speech; context involves a phrase rather than a single word.

Form has a derivational affix; function is a different part of speech; context is conventional.

Adjective → Verb

Noun → Verb

Verb → Noun

Blending

I went for a walk.

Please empty the box.

We summered in the countryside.

She is a native of London.

Noun → Verb

Adjective → Verb

Verb → Noun

Substantivation of an adjective

Because they contain derivational prefixes, not inflectional endings.

Because the base conversion occurs without an affix; -ed and -s are regular inflectional endings added afterward.

Because they are shortened forms produced by clipping.

Because they are blends of two different words.

Monday (noun) → Don't Monday me (verb, used creatively for one context)

email (noun) → to email (verb, established usage)

smoke (noun) + fog (noun) → smog

Australian (adjective) → Aussie (hypocorism)

Fore-clipping of a longer word

Zero-derivation (conversion) from a proper noun to a common verb.

An acronym formed from the company's initials.

Partial substantivation.

That the two terms refer to completely unrelated phenomena that never overlap.

That different textbooks classify phenomena such as 'the rich' under either term, depending on the framework.

That 'the rich' is not a real example of any morphological process.

That the two terms are always interchangeable in every textbook.

Conversion and inflection are both examples of adding derivational affixes.

Conversion changes a word's grammatical category without adding an affix; inflection adds grammatical endings such as tense or number markers to an already existing word.

Inflection creates new words of a different lexical category, while conversion only affects pronunciation.

Conversion and inflection are the same process because they both produce new words.

happy → unhappy

clean (adjective) → to clean (verb)

breakfast + lunch → brunch

advertisement → ad