Back-formation
Back-formationis the process or result of creating anew wordviamorphology,typically by removing or substituting actual or supposedaffixesfrom alexical item,in a way that expands the number oflexemesassociated with the correspondingroot word.[1]James Murraycoined the termback-formationin 1889.[2](Oxford English Dictionary Onlinepreserves its first use of 'back-formation' from 1889 in the definition ofto burgle;fromburglar.)[3]
For example, thenounresurrectionwas borrowed fromLatin,and theverbresurrectwas then back-formed hundreds of years later from it by removing the-ionsuffix.This segmentation ofresurrectionintoresurrect+ionwas possible becauseEnglishhad examples of Latin words in the form of verb and verb+-ionpairs, such asopine/opinion.These became the pattern for many more such pairs, where a verb derived from a Latin supine stem and a noun ending inionentered the language together, such asinsert/insertion,project/projection,etc.
Similar phenomena
[edit]Back-formation may be similar to the reanalyses orfolk etymologieswhen it rests on an erroneous understanding of themorphologyof the longer word. For example, the singular nounassetis a back-formation from the pluralassets.However,assetswas not originally a plural; it is aloanwordfromAnglo-Normanasetz(modernFrenchassez). The-swas reanalyzed as a plural suffix.
Back-formation varies fromclipping– back-formation may change the word'sclassor meaning, whereas clipping creates shortened words from longer words but does not change the class or meaning of the word.
Words can sometimes acquire new lexical categories without anyderivationalchange in form (for example,ship(in the nautical sense) was first a noun and later was used as a verb). That process is calledconversionor zero-derivation. Like back-formation, it can produce a new noun or a new verb, but it involves no back-forming.
In English
[edit]Back-formation may be particularly common in English given that many English words are borrowed from Latin, French and Greek, which together provide English a large range of common affixes. Many words with affixes have entered English, such asdismantleanddishevelled,so it may be easy to believe that these are formed from roots such asmantle(assumed to mean "to put something together" ) andshevelled(assumed to mean "well-dressed" ), although these words have no history of existing in English.
Many words came into English by this route:peasewas once amass noun(as in "pease pudding"), but was reinterpreted as aplural,leading to the back-formationpea.The nounstatisticwas likewise a back-formation from the field of studystatistics.In Britain, the verbburglecame into use in the nineteenth century as a back-formation fromburglar(which can be compared to theNorth Americanverbburglarizeformed by suffixation).
Other examples are
- Noun "taxon", a unit of classification intaxonomy,derived fromGreektaxis(arrangement)+nomia"distribution"[citation needed]
- Singular "sastruga",plural" sastrugi "(fromRussian): new Latin-type singular "sastrugus" has been used sometimes[citation needed]
- Singular "syringe",from plural" syringes "; the original Greek singular issyrinx[citation needed].Similar in nature is "phalange",from plural" phalanges "; the original singular beingphalanx.[citation needed].
- Singulartamale,from the pluraltamales;the originalSpanishsingular istamal.[citation needed]
- Verbs "edit" fromeditor,"babysit" frombabysitter,and "spelunk" fromspelunker[citation needed]
- Verb "donate" fromdonation[citation needed]
- Verbs "euthanase" or "euthanize" from the nouneuthanasia.[citation needed]
- Verb "prepone" from the verb "postpone" to mean "to advance." While used predominantly in Indian English, the earliest known use is from the works ofJohn Irland,and predates the use of English in India.[4]
The verbtranslateis a back-formation fromtranslation,which is from Latintrāns + lāt-+-tio.Lāt-is from the very irregular (suppletive) verbferō'to carry.'Trānslāt-in Latin was merely a semi-adjectival form oftrānsferōmeaning '[something] having been carried across [into a new language]' (cf.transfer). The result of the actiontrānsferō textum'to translate a text' was atextus trānslātus'a text that has been translated.' Thus the verb in English is really from a (semi-)adjectival form in Latin.
Even though many English words are formed this way, new coinages may sound strange, and are often used for humorous effect. For example,gruntled(fromdisgruntled) is used only in humorous contexts, as whenP. G. Wodehousewrote, "I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled", or the character Turk in the American sitcomScrubstold another character, "I don't disdain you! It's quite the opposite – I dain you."[5]As it happens,gruntleanddainare both attested much earlier, but not as antonyms of the longer forms.[6]
Back-formations frequently begin in colloquial use and only gradually become accepted. For example,enthuse(fromenthusiasm) is gaining popularity, though today it is still generally considered nonstandard.[7]
The Latin prepositionversus,meaning against, has frequently been mistaken by children and teenagers as the present tense of a verb "to verse." A reference to a school sports competition "the Sharksversusthe Jets "might be interpreted as" the Sharks are versing the Jets. "While this use of the verb has been reported in North America and Australia since the early 1980s, very few dictionaries have accepted it as standard.[8]
The immense celebrations in Britain at the news of the relief of theSiege of Mafekingbriefly created the verbto maffick,meaning to celebrate both extravagantly and publicly. "Maffick" is a back-formation fromMafeking,a place-name that was treated humorously as agerundorparticiple.There are many otherexamples of back-formations in the English language.
Abutleris often described as "one who buttles," a verb which remains non-standard.
River names
[edit]Back-formations are frequent amongst river names in the England due to a number of reasons. Place names of Brittonic origin are especially susceptible to Folk Etymology and back-formations due to language and knowledge of the place names dying out with thearrival and settlement of Anglo-Saxon tribes.Frequently river names are derived from nearby settlements with the suffix -ford. Typically because it is assumed that the first half of the name is in reference to the river or stream. Below are some examples of these-ford back-formations.
River Alre
Theriver Alrein Hampshire, was named due to a false assumption that the nearby villageAlresfordwas named after the river which it was located near. In reality its name comes from theOld Englishalor.[9][10]
River Chelmer
TheRiver Chelmerin Essex is named after the town of Chelmsford (Chelmeresford) which is derived from the Saxon personal nameCēolmǣr.[11]
In other languages
[edit]Israeli Hebrew
[edit]Back-formation inIsraeli Hebrewoften violates the prescriptive rules of theAcademy of the Hebrew Language.[12]For example:
- משאבּmasháb"resource" (prescriptive form: משאבmash'áv) is a back-formation from the plural form משאבּיםmashabím.[12]
- עקרבּakráb"scorpion" (prescriptive form: עקרב‘aqráv) is a back-formation from the plural form עקרבּיםakrabím.[12]
See also
[edit]- List of English back-formations
- Folk etymology
- Backronym
- Retronym
- Rebracketingor juncture loss
- Onomasiology
- Unpaired word
References
[edit]- ^Crystal, David.A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Sixth Edition,Blackwell Publishers, 2008.
- ^Booty, O.A. (24 August 2002).Funny Side of English.Pustak Mahal.ISBN9788122307993.Retrieved8 April2018– via Google Books.
- ^"Oxford Dictionaries Definition of burgle in English".Oxford Dictionaries Online.Oxford University Press. Archived fromthe originalon April 21, 2017.Retrieved20 April2017.
- ^"Oxford English Dictionary".Retrieved2023-09-26.
- ^"Archived copy".Archived from the original on 2009-12-18.Retrieved2009-08-13.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^Brown, Lesley (1993).The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles.Oxford: Clarendon.ISBN0-19-861271-0.
- ^See "Discussion of enthuse,"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enthuse
- ^"Why Do Kids Say" Versing "?".Retrieved2024-02-20.
- ^Ekwall, E. (1928) English River-Names. Oxford University Press, p. 9
- ^Klingelhöfer, E. C (1992) Manor, vill, and hundred: the development of rural institutions in early medieval Hampshire. Ontario, p. 177
- ^Eilert Ekwall (1928).English River Names.OUP. p. xli.
- ^abcSee p. 56 inGhil'ad Zuckermann(2020),Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond,Oxford University PressISBN9780199812790/ISBN9780199812776.