Chapter 4: Morphology

 
 
 

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4.5 Survey of English word-formation patterns 
Figure 4.5 renders the most common way of classifying word-formation patterns in English 
and is to serve as a frame for the following sections (cf. Plag 2003, Lieber 2005, Schmid 
2011). 
Figure 4.5: Survey of basic word-formation patterns in English 
 
 
 
4.5.1 Compounding 
Compounding is the process of joining at least two free lexical morphemes or simple lexemes 
to form a complex lexeme. Compounds can be distinguished from syntactic phrases with the 
help of a number of criteria: in compounds, the main stress is typically, but not always, on the 
first constituents (cf. ˈblackbird vs. black ˈbird); the first constituent cannot be inflected (cf. 
*wallspaper); the head cannot be replaced by one in coordination (cf. *let’s buy a newspaper 
and a wall one); and compounds are typically lexicalized, which means that the meaning of 
the compound tends to differ and go beyond the meanings of its parts. For example, a holiday 
is not just, or no longer, a holy day, as its components suggest, but typically extends over 
several days and mainly marked by the fact that people do not work. 
 In terms of morphological form, if compounds consist of nothing else than two lexemes (e.g. 
wallpaper, mousemat, daydream), they are commonly called root compounds and described 
in terms of the word-classes of their constituents (cf. Table 4.5). Compounds containing 
bound morphemes in addition to free ones, e.g. meeting point, theatre-goer or good-looking, 
are known as synthetic compounds.
morphemic patterns 
non-morphemic patterns 
compounding 
affixation 
conversion 
prefixation 
suffixation 
blending 
acronym- 
formation 
clipping 
back- 
formation 
reduplicative 
formations 
English word-formation patterns 

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The most frequent and productive types of compounds are listed in Table 4.5 (Schmid 2011: 
122): 
Table 4.5: Most frequent and productive types of compounds in terms of morphological form