7.2 How Language Changes Lexis Flashcard

Front

What is Derivation?

Back

The process of forming a new word by adding a prefix or suffix to an existing word.

Front

What is Clipping?

Back

The process of shortening a word by removing parts of it, while retaining its meaning.

Front

What is a characteristic of clipped words?

Back

They keep the grammatical function of the original words.

Front

How is language change described?

Back

Language change is constant and ongoing.

Front

What is an Acronym?

Back

A word formed from the initial letters of a phrase, pronounced as a new word (e.g., 'scuba').

Front

What is Blending?

Back

The process of combining parts of two or more words to create a new word (e.g., 'brunch' from 'breakfast' and 'lunch').

Front

What is Compounding?

Back

The process of combining two or more whole words to create a new word (e.g., 'toothbrush').

Front

What is Borrowing in linguistics?

Back

The process of taking words from one language and incorporating them into another.

Front

What is Conversion?

Back

The process of changing a word's grammatical category without altering its form (e.g., 'to run' as a verb and 'a run' as a noun).

Front

What is Initialism?

Back

An abbreviation consisting of the initial letters of a series of words, pronounced letter by letter (e.g., 'USA').