Contents introduction chapter I. Word formation in modern englsh

Sound and stress interchange. These are unproductive ways of forming words synchronically. Sound interchange may be defined as an opposition in which words or word forms are differentiated due to an alternation in the phonemic composition of the root. The change may affect the root vowel, as in food n → feed v; or root consonant as in speak v → speech n; or both, as in life n → live v. It may also be combined with affixation: strong a → strength n; or with affixation and shift of stress as in democrat → democracy. In the word breath – to breathe, sound-interchange distinguishes only between words, does not differentiate word-forms of one and the same word. Sound interchange can be divided into some types: 1) vowel interchange – food/to feed; blood/ bleed; 2) vowel interchange combined with affixation: strong-strength; long/length; 3) consonant interchange: advice/advise; prove/proof; 4) consonant interchange combined with vowel interchange: breath/to breathe; life/to live. Stress interchange is also non-productive type which is based on a shift of stress (or change of stress, or semantic stress, or morphological stress), e.g. ´transport – to trans´port; ´export – to ex´port. The difference in stress often appeared after the verb was formed and was not therefore connected with the formation of the new word. It could be brought about by analogy or purely phonetical reasons. Change of stress mostly accompanied either the formation or the borrowing of the word.
Blending. They are also called portmanteau-words are formed by combining phonemes from different words, for example, smog= smoke+fog; numeracy= number+literacy. Blendings have also become part of the vocabulary in English language: subtopia= suburban+utopia. In a partial blend, one entire word is concatenated with a splinter from another. An entire word may be followed by a splinter:
dumb + confound → dumbfound
fan + magazine → fanzine
An entire word may replace part of another:
adorable + dork → adorkable
disgusting + gross → disgrossting.
Blendings may be defined as formation that combine two words that include the letters or sounds they have in common as a connecting element (slimnastics < slim+gymnasttcs; mimsy < miserable+flimsy;
galumph < gallop+triumph; neutopia < new+utopia).
The process of formation is also called telescoping. The analysis into immediate constituents is helpful in so far as it permits the definition of a blend as a word with the first constituent represented by a stem whose final part may be missing, and the second constituent by a stem of which the initial part is missing. The second constituent when used in a series of similar blends may turn into a suffix. A new suffix -on; is, for instance, well under way in such terms as nylon, rayon, silon, formed from the final element of cotton. This process seems to be very active. In present-day English numerous new words have been coined recently: Reaganomics, Irangate, blacksploitation, workaholic, foodoholic, scanorama etc.