Name Vandreia Sehnem

Homework 3
ESC 757 Language and Linguistics
Fall 2014
1. Identify word formation processes
Go to the Word of the Year list for 2013: http://www.americandialect.org/becauseis-the-2013-word-of-the-year
Choose 20 words from the list that exemplify the following processes (clipping,
blending, acronymy, alphabetism, shift, zero derivation, word coinage, affixation,
and compounding) and identify the word formation process involved in each
case. Give a short explanation of how the word was formed. You may also use
words from previous years.
1. Slash: used as a coordinating conjunction to mean and/or (e.g., come and
visit slash stay) or so (I love that place, slash can we go there?).
I believe that what happened with this word is shifting. It changed its lexical
category. The common use for slash is as a noun, but in this transformation it
became a conjunction.
2. ACC: aggressive carbon-copy, used to undermine the position of the recipient
of an email, such as ccing the boss or legal counsel.
This is an example of alphabetism. The initials of the words that compose the
expression were put together to form the alphabetism ACC.
3. Cronut: a croissant-doughnut hybrid.
What happened with this word is blending. The words croissant and
doughnut were put together in one word.
4. Thigh gap: a space between the thighs, taken by some as a sign of attractiveness
(also box gap).
What happened with this word I believe to be compounding. Two free
morphemes were put together in order to create a different meaning.
5. Drone: (trans. verb) to target with a drone, typically in a lethal drone strike.
I would say that what happened to this word is shifting. It went from one lexical
category (noun) to another (verb).
6. Cray-cray: slangy shortening and reduplication of crazy.

I believe that this is an example of clipping, along with reduplication. The free
morpheme crazy was shortened to cray, and was reduplicated.
7. #Hashtag: a word or phrase preceded by a hash symbol (#), used on Twitter to
mark a topic or make a commentary.
This is an example of compounding. Two free morphemes, hash and tag,
were joined to mean something else.
8. Meggings: a blend for male leggings.
As it suggests, what happened to this word is blending. The free morphemes
male and leggings were clipped, and then joined to form the word,
meggings.
9.

Hate-watching: continuing to follow a television show despite having an

aversion to it.
This is another example of compounding. The free morphemes hate and
watching were joined.

10. Dancelexia: inability to pull off dance moves (such as misspelling YMCA).
I believe that what happened to this word is affixation. The bound morpheme
lexia was attached to the verb to dance, and it became a noun.
11. Feels: slangy shortening of feelings.
In this example, I believe that what happened is clipping. The word feelings
was shortened to feels and still has the same meaning.
12. Self-deportation: policy of encouraging illegal immigrants to return voluntarily
to their home countries.
What happened with this word I believe to be prefixing. The bound morpheme
self was combined with the free morpheme deportation.
13. Evolution: change of opinion.

This might be an example of zero derivation.

14. Superstorm: an unusually large and destructive storm, such as Hurricane
Sandy.
Compounding; the free morphemes super and storm were joined.
15. Job creator a member of the top one-percent of moneymakers.
Also an example of compounding; the free morphemes job and creator
were joined.
16. Botoxionist a doctor who administers Botox injections.
Affixation; the noun Botox and the affix ist became botoxionist.
17. Artisan, artisanal faux-fancy term used to describe food and other products.
I believe that what happened to this word is affixation. The suffix al was
added to the noun artisan, and it became an adjective.
18. Cloud online space for the large-scale processing and storage of data.
I believe that what happened with this word is shifting. The word was given
another meaning.
19. Brony adult male fan of the My Little Pony cartoon franchise.
I can identify two changes to this word. First, we can see clipping; the free
morpheme brother became bro, and the free morpheme pony became ny,
then we have a blending bro + ny to form brony.
20. Assholocracy rule by obnoxious multi-millionaires.
I believe that what happened to form this word is suffixing. The bound
morpheme cracy, works as a suffix to the free morpheme Asshole.
References
Because is the 2013 word of the year. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2014, from http
%3A%2F%2Fwww.americandialect.org%2Fbecause-is-the-2013-word-of-theyear

2. Identifying Inflectional errors in ELLs writing.

Read the following writing sample from an 11 Spanish L1 ELL.
Underline all of the words where there is an error of morphological
inflection (an error involving one of the inflectional morphemes).
What inflectional morpheme does this writer struggle with most?
Science affect my life by give me life. When it rain I cant go to the
park and playing baseball. When I go to the doctor he drill my caps
in. when I go to home I play on my computer and sometimes I go in
the internet. Science affect my home by given me heat and light. It
also give in me food. It affects in school by using the computer. It
also make me go to school in a bus without walking.
Explanation: It seems that the learner is struggling most with the 3 rd person
singular inflectional morpheme s, as it can be noticed in the words affect
(affects), give (gives), rain (rains), drill (drills), make (makes). The learner
does not seem to be aware of the English rule of 3 rd person singular verb
agreement, which requires the addition of an s, or es to the verb, in order to
agree with the subjects he, she, and it.

3. Description of a classroom activity: Design a classroom activity for English

Language Learners (ELLs) that teaches some aspect of English morphology
(word-building) with prefixes, suffixes, and roots. This is not a full lesson plan.
Its narrative description of the activity. Your narrative should be about 1 page
typed and double-spaced.
a. Define the learners: beginners? Intermediate? Advanced? Age of
students? L1 (if relevant to the activity)?
b. Define the learning objective(s) of the activity.
E.g. Students will learn the meanings of the prefix un- and
be able to use it productively to create their own words.
c. Describe the activity.
i. Make the activity fun and interactive. E.g. a game! Try to use
visuals, role-playing, and/or TPR (Total Physical Response).
ii. Keep it simple. Focus one prefix or suffix or one word family.
Even focusing on one prefix, suffix or root is OK.

This lesson plan is meant for teenage high-beginner level, ESL students. The objective of
this class is to familiarize the students with the derivational suffix er in English, to
change verbs into nouns (note: it does not apply to all verbs, the teacher needs to explain
the difference, but it is important to familiarize the students with the main agents, where
this transformation works). Students will build the words together with meaningful
examples, based on their own experience.
For the activity the teacher will need to bring pictures illustrating different
professions/agents, such as painter, writer, teacher, soccer-player, hunter, house-cleaner,
singer, and swimmer. The teacher gives the pictures to the students, and after modeling
the activity to the students, with her/his own example, the teacher asks the students to
describe what the people in their pictures are doing. Example: The man on my picture is
painting. He is a painter. The man on my picture is cleaning the house, he is a housecleaner.
While the students are describing their pictures the teacher writes the words on
the board, so that he/she can point to the pattern (er ending) when all the students have
described their pictures.
After helping the students to identify the pattern (the verb to teach becomes the
noun teacher, for example), the teacher asks the students to think of one of their family
members and their occupation. Students take turns coming to the front of the classroom,
and acting out the given occupation for the rest of the class to guess, as a way to
practice and get familiarized to the derivational morpheme er.