A Comparative Analysis on Word Formation Processes in English and Sinhala

Abstract

Word formation is a process which makes a new word by changing exiting one or adding something to exiting word. It makes a new word. Forming new words is a most influential process to develop a language and to continue it as a live language. There are number of word formation process according to morphology and those processes can be seen in both Sinhala and English languages. Affixation, compounding, conversion, borrowing, blending and clipping are some of them. This study is an effort to find the similarities and dissimilarities of word formation processes between English and Sinhala languages. Thus, the present research aims to study the word formation processes mainly in terms of the two languages in order to discuss the similarities and dissimilarities between them. The oldest available grammar book in Sinhala, “Sidath Sagara” helps to find out the grammatical concept of the forming word in Sinhala and a number of books have been written in English which reveal the word formation processes of it. As the methodology both English and Sinhala books are used and after going through those books the concepts of the forming words can be analysed. those word formation processes can be compared and the research is based on a literature study, which takes a quantitative plane.