Linguistics An Essential Introduction

In all the examples discussed so far in this chapter, words are formed by applying WFRs that combine bases with affixes or with other bases. But this is not the only way in which languages get new words! There are a range of word-formation processes that ignore morphological structure and cannot be captured by WFRs — in some cases, it is difficult to capture them by any kind of rule.

A relatively simple case is clipping, where a polysyllabic word is shortened (“clipped”) to one (sometimes two) syllables. Most commonly, this is the first syllable (as in lab from laboratory or pop music from popular music), or the last syllable (as in phone from telephone or gator from alligator). But the syllable can also occur in the middle of the original word, in which case it is often the first stressed syllable (as in tec from detective), but it does not have to be (as in flu from influenza).

There are also cases of complex clippings, where one or both parts of a compound are clipped. Examples of the former are op art from optical art, examples of the latter are sitcom from situational comedy, pol-sci from political science and sci-fi from science fiction. Note that in the last case, the pronunciation of the syllable fi changes from [fɪ] to [faɪ] — whether or not such changes occur in clippings is not predictable, but generally, clippings are based on phonology and retain the phonological structure.

Slightly different from complex clipping are blends. These are also based on two words, but the two words do not typically form a compound, and instead of consisting of the first part of each word, as is typical of complex clippings, they consist of the first part of the first word and the final part of the second word, where these words are typically (but not always) chosen such that they have an overlap where they are joined:

In the newer blends staycation and frenemy and in the older blend motel the words are blended at a point in their structure where they have the same vowel. This is the most common pattern. In the older blend smog, there is a similarity in vowel quality at the point where the words are blended, in the older blend brunch there is no similarity at all (breakfast has an /ɛ/, lunch has an /ʌ/).

Acronyms are derived from pieces of the spelling of a word or phrase rather than from its pronunciation. Acronyms are pronounced as a normal word based on the derived spelling:

If, instead, the letters are pronounced individually, this is called an initialism or alphabetism:

Alphabetisms are sometimes respelled to better match the pronunciation, as with MC from master of ceremonies, which is pronounced [ɛm si] and so is sometimes spelled as emcee.

There are also cases of mixed acronyms and alphabetisms, where some letters are pronounced individually and others like a word: