Lexicology: Principles of Word Formation

Neologisms:

• Objective neologisms - correspond to new objects entering reality 
• Objects which previously didn't exist - e.g. le portable, la stylistique (design)
• Fashion in neologisms - words fall in and out of fashion 
• e.g. where 'chouette' and 'génial' used to be used, now 'super' or 'boum' are used
• Stylistic (subjective) neologisms - created by authors for style and sometimes enter the vocabulary of French 

Structural characteristics of lexical change: 

•  Internal process - whereby the language changes internally 
• This involves neologisms of form - where the form of a word is modified to create a new word 
• And neologisms of meaning - where the meaning is changed
• External process - lexical borrowing

Social characteristics of linguistic change:

• Neologisms have 'creators' and 'deciders' 
• People who invent words and people who decide whether or not they should be accepted into French vocabulary 
• e.g. people who write dictionaries, the Académie Française etc
• There is also the problem of how to integrate neologisms into the normalised system of the French language
• i.e. how they'll function grammatically etc
• Hence the desire to find French alternatives to external neologisms in order to preserve linguistic purity 

Derivation: 

• The process of creating a new word by adding an affix (a prefix or suffix)
• e.g. porter -> portable (suffix) monter -> remonter (prefix)
• Dérivé (derivative) - created through addition of bound morphemes 
• different morphemes can have different meanings 
• e.g. pleuvoir -> pleuvoter (diminutive - mizzle) -> pleuvasser (pejorative - drizzle) -> pleuviner (diminutive - drizzle)
• Dependent or independent morphemes can be added
• Parasynthesis - simultaneously adding a prefix and a suffix to a word
• e.g. anti-américanisme
• Composé (compound) - opposite of dérivé - formed of words which are both independent

Suffixation - Semantic Aspect:

• ant; oeur; ateur (indicate the actor)
• e.g. imprimeur, créateur
• oir; erie (indicate the locality)
• e.g. abattoir, gendarmerie
• ité; ace; isme; tude; esse (indicates a concept)
• e.g. gentillesse, inquiétude
• et(te); in(e); ot(te); eul(le) (indicates a masculine or feminine diminutive or pejorative)
• e.g. maisonette, vieillot (old fashioned), tablette
• oyer (weak quality) 
• e.g. rougeoyer (glow - weak red)
• ir (becoming - indicates process)
• e.g. blanchir, durcir
• Knowledge of the semantic aspect allows for a more nuanced understanding of the language

Prefixation - Semantic Aspect: 

• a- (sans, negation) e.g. amoral
• pré (before) e.g. pré-cuit
• dé (negation) e.g. démonter
• re (again) e.g. refaire, rappeler
• mal (bad) e.g. malbouffe (junk food)

Frequence and Productivity - Suffixes: 

• which suffixes are most frequently used in neologisms? 
• ation; isme; iste; itude
• isme - very frequent e.g. bilingualisme
• itude - very frequent e.g. bogossitude (fam. handsomeness)
• ation - very frequent - e.g. conscientisation (fact of being in public awareness)
• The French speaking population and media often create words which will never be accepted by the language authorities

Frequence and Productivity - Prefixes: 

• re e.g. reintegrer
• mé e.g. méprise
• co (together) e.g. covoiturage (car pooling)
• in (negation) invapotable
• Derivation allows for a lot of linguistic creativity

Phonetic and Semantic Constraints: 

• Adjectives ending in 'al' take 'ité' to make a noun e.g. socialité
• Adjectives ending in 'ard' and 'and' take 'ise' to make a noun e.g branchouillardise (hipterism)
• Adjectives ending in 'e' take 'sse' to make a noun e.g. noblesse
• Adjectives ending in 'ot' take 'erie' to make a noun e.g. bigoterie

Lexical Conversion - Improper Derivation: 

•  This involves the creation of new words without any affixation 
• the word is just moved to a different word category without any morphological change
• Adverbalisation (adjective to adverb) e.g. fort - un homme fort vs chanter fort
• Nominalisation (adjective to noun) e.g. un homme marginal vs un marginal
• Nominalisation (verb to noun) e.g. savoir vs le savoir

Composition:

• Creation of compound nouns
• Words of the same or of different syntactic categories are put together to form one word
• e.g. porte-monnaie  (V+N), sans-travail (Prep+N), pause-café (N+N) 
• Mots valises - whereby the end of the first word and the start of the second word are 'cut off' to create word play 
• e.g. 'adulte' + 'adolescent' = 'adulescent', i.e. an immature adult

Recomposition:

• Deliberate creation of compound nouns, usually by expert in some field 
• e.g. philogie, génocide
• Used with prefixes of which the meaning is properly known
• e.g. ultra, super, néo, trans, éco
• Usually with a Latin or Greek base
• e.g. néo-nomadisme, éco-terrorisme
• The semantic meaning is more clear here than with other affixes
• However the prefixes are not true independent morphemes

Syntagmation/Composition:

• Creating 'words' out of a combination of separate words which represent a different concept together
• e.g. le développement durable 

Abbreviations:

• Acronyms:
• Lexicalised acronyms - acronyms which are pronounced like words e.g. SMIC
• Non lexicalised acronyms - acronyms in which one just says the letters e.g. SDF, SNCF
• Derivations of acronyms can also create new words, e.g. le smicard - a person who receives the minimum wage
• Apocope - shortening of words
• e.g. prof, impec(cable), appart(ement)
• Often happens with place names - e.g. Boul'Saint-Mich = Boulevard Saint-Michel
• Often also includes adding an 'o' to the end, e.g. resto, hebdo etc
• Very 'familier' register

Integration Problems: 

• How to grammatically integrate acronyms into French language structure?
• There are various rules for pluralisation
• If a noun is formed of an adverb and a noun, only the noun is pluralised 
• e.g. les après-midis
• For an adjective and a noun, both are pluralised
• e.g. les francs-maçons (free mason) 
• Exception: les grand-mères BUT les grands-pères
• For recomposed words, the 'prefixe savant' is invariable
• e.g. les auto-écoles
• For nouns including a preposition, only the first noun is pluralised 
• e.g. 'des arcs-en-ciel'
• For a verb and a noun, the verb is invariabe 
• e.g. les porte-monnaies
• For an unhyphenated compound noun, pluralisation follows normal rules
• e.g. les portemanteaux

Semantic Change:

• Sometimes takes place through metaphor
• e.g. 'banque du sang' 
• Often for a new concept, e.g bretelle d'autoroute (lit. motorway 'strap', meaning 'slip road')
• Or through metonymy
• e.g. chaussure de tennis -> tennis (shoe)
• These are all internal processes