In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either:
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:
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:
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:
Compounding is a topic relevant to syntax, semantics, and morphology.