Types of lexical information: inflection and word formation

Why word formation? Who needs it?
- e.g. new product brands, new inventions...

Take a look at this homepage to get an idea of the work of linguists:

                       http://www.lexicon-branding.com/ourwork.html

- poets as James Joyce create new compound words to be able to express their

 

  thoughts.
- Lewis Carroll created new words for his poem 'Jabberwocky' in order to create
  sound associations.
                                     Example: slithy → could be a blend of slimy and slither
                                                    wiffling → soundless wiffling
                                                    

Inflections and word formation are branches of morphology

- e.g. poets create derivations (stem+affix) and compounds (stem+stem) for new word formation

- the use of inflections (stem+affix) to put words in correct syntagmatic relations.



  

Branches of morphology

	FUNCTION  (external  structure)	FORM  (internal structure)
Inflection	- attaching word to context (syntagmatic) by changing its grammatical form - no change of meaning	- adding affixes, stem vowel change
Derivation (word formation)	- creation of new words - change in meaning - change in POS	- adding affixes to a stem
Compound (word formation)	- creation of new words - change in meaning	- compounding two stems (+affixes)

Allomorph: morphemes can be variant in their pronunciation without changing their meaning. 
Example: change of pronunciation to express a plural
                   - adding plural -s
                   change of pronunciation to express change of time
                   - adding 3^rd person singular -s