In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either:

• the processes through which words can change (i.e. morphology), or
• the creation of new lexemes in a particular language

• WORD FORMATION
  • ABSTRACT RULES FOR WORD FORMATION
    • Morphological
      • based on meaning
        • ( changes the core meaning ) Morphological derivation
          • is the process of forming a new word from an existing word , derivation produces a new word (a distinct lexeme)
            • governor, government, governable, misgovern, ex-governor, and ungovernable ( root word = govern )
          • derivational affixes
          • Phonosemantic derivatives
        • ( does not change the core meaning ) Modifying or morphological Infection
          • in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories
            • governing , governed , governers
          • Inflectional affixes , WORD INFLECTION
          • phonosemantic inflections
    • Non Morphological
      • Abbreviation
      • Acronyms
      • Initialisms
      • Alphabetism
      • Blending
      • Compounding
  • APPLIED RULES TO WORDS
    • NOMENCLATURE

A common method of word formation is the attachment of inflectional or derivational affixes.

Examples include: the words governor, government, governable, misgovern, ex-governor, and ungovernable are all derived from the base word (to) govern

Inflection is modifying a word for the purpose of fitting it into the grammatical structure of a sentence. For example:

manages and managed are inflected from the base word (to) manage worked is inflected from the verb (to) work talks, talked, and talking are inflected from the base (to) talk

Examples includes:

• etc. from et caeter

Main article: Acronym An acronym is a word formed from the first letters of other words.[5] For example:

NASA is the acronym for National Aeronautics and Space Administration IJAL (pronounced /aidʒæl/) is the acronym for International Journal of American Linguistics

A lexical blend is a complex word typically made of two word fragments. For example:

• smog is a blend of smoke and fog
• brunch is a blend of breakfast and lunch.
• stagflation is a blend of stagnation and inflation
• chunnel is a blend of channel and tunnel, referring to the Channel Tunnel

Although blending is listed under the Nonmorphological heading, there are debates as to how far blending is a matter of morphology.

Compounding is the processing of combining two bases, where each base may be a fully-fledged word. For example:

• desktop is formed by combining desk and top
• railway is formed by combining rail and way
• firefighter is formed by combining fire and fighter

Compounding is a topic relevant to syntax, semantics, and morphology.