Clipping is a word creation process that takes a historically, multi-syllabic word and removes one or more syllables to form a smaller word. Some examples are: ad from advertisement, gas from gasoline, phone from telephone, and flu from influenza.
Because clipping does not change the lexical category or semantic interpretation of a word, the above cartoon actually illustrates a word creation process called back-formation.
Back-formation is similar to clipping but it can change the lexical category and/or semantic interpretation of a word. Examples include: couth from uncouth, and the verb burgle from the noun burglar.
Back-formation is similar to clipping but it can change the lexical category and/or semantic interpretation of a word. Examples include: couth from uncouth, and the verb burgle from the noun burglar.
Affixing is the process of creating words by adding prefixes, suffixes or infixes.
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