WHAT IS WORD FORMATION?

Word formation is simply the creation of a new word. Another name for word formation is morphology, which is the study of the morphemes of a language and how they are joined together to create new words. In the English Language, new words are formed on the basis of other words or morphemes (word parts) The following are some of the ways in which new words are formed:

1. Affixation: This refers to adding affixes before or after the base or stem of a word to form a new word. Affixation is of two types, namely: A. Adding prefixes to a base to form a new word, e.g. in +discipline = indiscipline, dis + advantage = disadvantage, im + possible = impossible, etc. B. Adding suffixes to a base to form a new word, .eg. good + ness = goodness, educate + ion = education, beautiful + ly = beautifully, etc.
2. Compounding: This is the process of linking together two or more bases to form a new word, e.g. book + shop = bookshop, candle + stick = candlestick, word + watch = watchword, news + break = newsbreak, break + fast = breakfast, etc.

There are other ways or rules of word formation, such as conversion, reduplication, clipping, and so on. For a more detailed discussion of this topic, watch the following video lecture titled 10 Rules of Word Formation: