Word Formation

构词[法]

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’, and ‘derivational’. 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.

最一般的涵义指构成词的整个形态变化过程，即包括屈折（表示语法关系的词形变化）和派生（表示词汇关系的词形变化）两大类。较狭窄的涵义，构词法只指派生过程，又细分为“组构”或“复合”和“派生”等小类。文献中还有几种其他的分类法。生成语法中，构词规则规定如何从一类词形成另一类词。