Talk:Word formation

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ehryn.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 05:04, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 August 2021 and 10 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mmorourke.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 05:04, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

[Untitled]

This article is incomprehensibly bad. Why is there no mention of derivation, which is after all the basic method of word formation? --AAikio 21:25, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

• Yes, there is much more to be said. Something about affixes should be added too. Malick78 (talk) 21:14, 10 August 2017 (UTC)

the hyperlink to Peter Koch is wrong User:reji justin (talk) 10:01, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

English verbs from Latin

I would like to know why there are so many English verbs that are formed by taking the past passive participle of a verb in Latin and (usually) replacing the ending with "e". Such as "calculate" (1st conjugation), "supervise" (2nd conjugation), "induct" (3rd conjugation, along side "induce"), "unite" (4th conjugation). It seems a very peculiar way to form a verb! I can't find anything on the subject. Can someone help, and add it to this article, or to the article English verb? Please ping me. Eric Kvaalen (talk) 15:11, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

I read somewhere or other (my favorite source!) that Early Modern English had constructions like do him nominate, meaning "make him nominatus"; and a bit later, the meaning of do shifted so that in such constructions it was understood as a mere intensifier, leaving the participle to be understood as the principal verb. —Tamfang (talk) 06:12, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

@Tamfang: Thanks, that makes sense. I put the question to the Wiktionary Tea room, giving your answer, and got a couple replies, see [1]. One references the Online Etymology Dictionary entry -ate, which talks about adjectives becoming verbs. Eric Kvaalen (talk) 15:07, 19 August 2024 (UTC)