Word-building is one of the main ways ofenriching vocabulary. English word-formation is the system of derivative typesof words and the process of creating new words from material available in thelanguage after certain structural and semantic formulas and patterns. The maindistinction is made between two basic types of wordformation: word-derivation and word-composition.

 Theprincipal ways of forming words in word-derivation are affi xation andconversion. Words consisting of a root and an affix or several affixes arecalled derived words and this process of wordformation is known as affixation,e.g. establishment (from establish), faceless (from face), attractive (from attract).

Conversion is the process of making newwords by changing one category of parts of speech from words of another, e.g. a hand – to hand, to make – a maker.

 Word-composition is the formation of a newword by combining two or more stems which can occur in the language as freeforms, e.g. bank-manager, troublemaker,highway, market-leader.

 There are five main or productive ways ofword-building in Modern English: Affixation, Word-Composition, Conversion,Shortening or (Abbreviation), Blending.

 There are also secondary or non-productiveways of wordbuilding: Sound interchange, Stress interchange, Reduplication,Sound Imitation, Back -formation.

 Thescheme of word-building is presented on the diagram.

 Diagram 1