1. Compounding: Combining two or more existing words to create a new word with a new meaning.
* Examples: sunrise, laptop, headache
2. Affixation: Adding prefixes or suffixes to an existing word to change its meaning or grammatical function.
* Prefixes: added to the beginning of a word (e.g., un- in unhappy, pre- in premature)
* Suffixes: added to the end of a word (e.g., -ness in happiness, -ly in quickly)
3. Conversion (or Zero Derivation): Changing the grammatical function of a word without adding any affixes.
* Examples: google (verb) from Google (noun), text (verb) from text (noun)
4. Blending: Combining parts of two or more words, often the first part of one word and the last part of another.
* Examples: smog (smoke + fog), brunch (breakfast + lunch), motel (motor + hotel)
5. Acronymy: Creating a new word from the first letters of a phrase.
* Examples: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)
6. Clipping: Shortening a word, often by removing some of the syllables.
* Examples: phone (telephone), flu (influenza), prof (professor)
7. Back-formation: Creating a new word by removing what appears to be a suffix from an existing word.
* Examples: edit (from editor), laze (from lazy)
These are just some of the most common processes of word formation. There are many other ways to create new words, depending on the language and its historical development.