Lexical Change vocab Flashcards
How Lexis can change
Creating new words
Adapting words
Borrowing words
Affixation
Prefixes: the addition of a morpheme to the beginning of a root word e.g. microwave, multimedia
Suffixes: the addition of a morpheme to the end of a root word e.g. radicalising
Conversion
When a word changes it’s word class without adding a suffix e.g. bottle, text
Compound
Combining separate words to create a new word, sometimes using a hyphen e.g. happy hour, laptop, man-flu
Blend
Two words fusing to make a new one e.g. snog, motel
Acronym
A word made up from initial letters of a phrase - sounded out as a word e.g. NASA
Initialism
A word made up from initial letters, each letter is pronounced e.g. AKA
Clipping
A new word produced by shortening an existing one e.g. edit, obvs
Borrowing/Loan word
The introduction of a word from one language to another - they can become anglicised or remain similar to the original e.g. chocolate (Nakuatl), pundit (Sanskrit)
Eponym
The name of a person after whom something is named e.g. Sandwich, Braille
Proprietary names
The name given to a product by one organisation becomes the commonly used name e.g. Hoover, Kleenex
Neologism
A new word/expression or a new meaning for existing expression e.g. wicked