Sound-interchange is the formation of a new word due to an alteration in the phonemic composition of the root of a word.
Sound-interchange can be of two types:
vowel-interchange, e.g. full – fill; in some cases vowel-interchange is combined with suffixation, e.g. long – length;
consonant-interchange e.g. believe – belief.
Minor Types of Word-formation
New words formed by sound imitation denote an action or a thing by more or less exact reproduction of the sound which is associated with it.
Let’s compare such words from English and Russian:
cock-a-dodoodle-do – ку-ка-ре-ку,
bang – бах, бац (сильный удар).
Minor Types of Word-formation
According to the source of sound:
words denoting sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication or expressing their feelings, e.g. chatter, boo;
words denoting sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, e.g. moo, buzz;
words imitating the sounds of water, the noise of metallic things, movements, e.g. splash, scratch, swing.
Minor Types of Word-formation
Distinctive stress is the formation of a new word by means of the shift of the stress in the source word, e.g.,
'increase (n) – in'crease (v),
'subject (n) – sub'ject (v).
Minor Types of Word-formation
Backformation is the formation of a new word by cutting off a real or supposed suffix, as a result of misinterpretation of the structure of the existing word.
This type of word-formation is built on analogy, e.g.
In reduplication new words are formed by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes or with a variation of the root-vowel or consonant, e.g. walkie-talkie, riff-raff, hurdy-gurdy.
