Non-productive ways of word-formation in Modern English.

Back-formation (regressive derivation) is the derivation of new words by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words (often through misinterpretation of their structure), e.g. an editor > to edit, enthusiasm > to enthuse etc.

The earliest attested examples of back-formation are a beggar > to beg; a burglar > to burgle; a cobbler > to cobble.

The most productive type of back-formation in present-day English is derivation of verbs from compounds that have either –er or –ing as their last element, e.g. sightseeing > to sightsee; proofreading > to proofread; mass-production > to mass-produce; self-destruction > to self-destruct; a baby-sitter > to baby-sit etc.

Onomatopeia (Gr. onoma ‘name, word’ and poiein ‘the make’) (sound imitation, echoisms) is the formation of words by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with an object producing this sound.

Semantic classification of onomatopeic words:

-sounds produced by people: to babble, to chatter, to giggle, to grumble, to titter, to grumble etc.;

- sounds produced by animals (to moo, to neigh, to mew, to purr etc.), birds (to twitter, to crow, to cackle etc.), insects and reptiles (to buzz, to hiss);

-water imitating sounds: to bubble, to splash etc.;

-sounds imitating the noise of metalic things: to clink, to tinkle etc.;

-sounds imitating a forceful motion: to crash, to whisk, to clash etc.

Sound-interchange is the gradation of sounds occupying one and the same place in the sound form of one and same morpheme in various cases of its occurrence.

Historical causes of sound-interchange:

ablaut (vowel gradation), i.e. a change of one to another vowel accompanying a change of stress, e.g. to ride – a road; to bear – a burden; to bite – a bit etc.;

umlaut (vowel mutation), i.e. a partial assimilation to a succeeding sound, e.g. full – to fill, a tale – to tell etc.;

consonant interchange, e.g. to speak – a speech, to bake – a batch, to live – a life etc.

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