api: YAML JSON TOON Database
version: 1.0.0
format: json
dataset:
  slug: morphological-processes
  title: Morphological Processes
  description: Ways in which words are formed and modified.
  summary: "The ways words are formed and changed: inflection, derivation, compounding, reduplication, clipping, blending and acronyms, plus conversion, back-formation, suppletion, ablaut, affixation, initialisms and eponyms."
  use_when:
    - You need to classify how a word was formed.
    - You are teaching or analyzing word structure.
  caveats:
    - Some words are formed by more than one process, and categories overlap (an initialism and an acronym differ only in pronunciation).
    - Examples are drawn from English; other languages use these processes differently or not at all.
  related:
    - parts-of-speech
    - syntactic-terms
    - language-families
  category: Linguistics
  category_slug: linguistics
  tags: linguistics,morphology,words
  view_count: 0
  entry_count: 14
  fields:
    - section: data
      field: process
      type: string
      example: Inflection
    - section: data
      field: description
      type: string
      example: Changing word form to express grammatical featu…
    - section: data
      field: example
      type: string
      example: walk -> walked
data:
  - process: Inflection
    description: Changing word form to express grammatical features.
    example: walk -> walked
  - process: Derivation
    description: Creating a new word with a different meaning or category.
    example: teach -> teacher
  - process: Compounding
    description: Combining two or more words.
    example: blackboard
  - process: Reduplication
    description: Repeating all or part of a word.
    example: goosebumps? no, bye-bye
  - process: Clipping
    description: Shortening a word without changing meaning.
    example: advertisement -> ad
  - process: Blending
    description: Combining parts of two words.
    example: breakfast + lunch -> brunch
  - process: Acronym
    description: Forming a word from initial letters.
    example: NASA
  - process: Conversion
    description: Changing a word's category without changing its form (zero derivation).
    example: to google (noun to verb)
  - process: Back-Formation
    description: Creating a new word by removing a supposed affix from an existing one.
    example: edit from editor
  - process: Suppletion
    description: Using unrelated forms for related grammatical forms.
    example: go -> went
  - process: Ablaut (Internal Change)
    description: Changing a vowel inside a word to mark a grammatical difference.
    example: sing -> sang -> sung
  - process: Affixation
    description: Adding a prefix or suffix to a base.
    example: re- + write, kind + -ness
  - process: Initialism
    description: A word formed from initial letters pronounced one by one.
    example: FBI
  - process: Eponym
    description: A word derived from a person's or place's name.
    example: sandwich, from the Earl of Sandwich