Chapter 2 - Academic Vocabulary

Chapter 2: Academic Vocabulary

2c: Word Formation

We often come across new words or technical terms in different subjects. An awareness of word formation processes enables us to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words in academic contexts.

This part will introduce the following common word formation processes:

i) affixation (prefixes and suffixes)
ii) compounding
iii) clipping
iv) blending
v) borrowing (loan words)

iv) Blending
A word blend is a new word created by combining two words. Here are some examples:

Word 1		Word 2		Blended Word
web	+	log	=	blog
breakfast	+	lunch	=	brunch
Chinese	+	English	=	Chinglish
global	+	local	=	glocal

Answers

Word 1			Word 2		Blended Word
	e.g. stagnation	+	inflation	=	stagflation
1.	information	+	graphics	=	infographics
2.	smoke	+	fog	=	smog
3.	net	+	citizen	=	netizen
4.	emotion	+	icon	=	emoticon
5.	education	+	entertainment	=	edutainment
6.	Europe	+	Asia	=	Eurasia
7.	information	+	pandemic/epidemic	=	infodemic

Activity 8

Complete the following table with suitable words to show how the blended words are formed. One has been done as an example:

Word 1			Word 2		Blended Word
	e.g. stagnation	+	inflation	=	stagflation
1.	information	+	graphics	=
2.		+	fog	=	smog
3.	net	+	citizen	=
4.	emotion	+		=	emoticon
5.	education	+	entertainment	=
6.		+		=	Eurasia
7.	information	+		=	infodemic