Ways of word formation

1. Read the text and do the tasks that follow.

Word formation is a creation of a new word. The most common types of word formation are conversion, affixation, compounding, acronyms and abbreviations.

Conversion is a process by which new words are created by using a word in new functions, i.e. changing its original grammatical class to another class. For example, help, n, to help, v.

Affixes are classified into prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes are added to the beginning of the word. We use prefixes to change meaning. They rarely change the part of speech. For example, un + helpful = un helpful. Suffixes are attached to the end of the word. We normally use suffixes to change a word to a different part of speech: help (verb) + less = help less (noun), helpless (adjective) + ly = helpless ly (adverb).

Compounding consists in the combination of two or more roots to form a new word. We sometimes write compound nouns as two words, sometimes with a hyphen and sometimes as one word. For example, blood pressure, car-park, helpline. The second element of the compound usually determines the grammatical category to which the whole compound belong.

Abbreviations are the shortening of words and expressions, for example, i.e., which stands for that is, from id est, sitcom, which stands for situational comedy. Some abbreviations are acronyms.

Acronym isa new word formed from the initial letters of other words. There are two main types of acronyms, namely: 1. Acronyms which are pronounced as a word; e.g. NASA (= N ational A eronautics and S pace A dministration). 2. Acronyms which are pronounced as sequences of letters; e.g. VIP (= very important person).

2. In pairs/groups discuss the following questions:

· What is word formation?

· What ways of word formation were mentioned in the text? Define each of them.

· What are their main functions?

· What is the difference between acronyms and abbreviations?

· How are the acronyms differentiated?

3. What abbreviations are often used for these words or phrases? Think of your own sentences with these abbreviations.

1. for example

2. and so on

3. Street

4. in other words

5. Mister

6. Doctor

4. Think of the abbreviations used at airports. Give their full forms and use them in sentences of your own.

ENGISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

1. Read the text and do the tasks that follow.

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