word-formation (n.)

In its most general sense, the term refers to the whole process of MORPHOLOGICAL variation in the constitution of WORDS, i.e. including the two main divisions of INFLECTION (word variations signalling GRAMMATICAL relationships) and DERIVATION (word variations signalling LEXICAL relationships).

In a more restricted sense, word-formation refers to the latter processes only, these being subclassified into such types as ‘compositional’ or ‘compound’ (e.g. black bird from the free elements black + bird), and ‘derivational’ (e.g. national, nationalize, etc., from the addition of the bound elements -al, -ize, etc.). Several possibilities of further subclassification are available in the literature on this subject. In GENERATIVE grammar, word-formation rules (WFR) specify how to form one class of words out of another.