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【Abstract】A comparison and contrast of word-formation between English and Chinese is beneficial for teachers and students， in thatthose two languages not only have much in common in the way of creating words， but also possess their own special methods of word-formation.
【Key words】word-formation； Chinese； English； comparison and contrast
【作者簡介】张媛（1991- ），女，汉族，舞阳县人，西京学院外国语学院，助教。
Words， known as a combination of sounds， forms and meaning， are too hard to remember without the skillful methods， especially for second language learners. This paper analyses various ways ofChinese and English word-formation so that similarities and differences are found betweenthe two languages.
Similar major means of word-formation
Word-formation is beneficial for vocabulary enlargement， the common ways of which are affixation， blending， shortening， conversion and so on.
Affixation
Affixationrefers to adding derivational affixes to roots to product new words. According to the positions where affixes occur， they are divided into two subcategories： prefixes and suffixes.
Most English prefixes modify the meaning of stems without changing their word class， and therefore the following classification of English prefixes is based on sense.
negative prefixes
They are used for expressing the negative or opposite meaning. For example：
a-： as in atypical， asocial.
dis-： as in disagree， disable.
un-： as inunfair， unusual.
pejorative prefixes
mal-： as in maladaptive， malpractice.
mis-： as in mistake， mistrust.
prefixes of degree or size
extra-： as in extramarital， extraordinary.
hyper-： as in hyperactive， hypertension.
micro-： as in microwave， microfilm.
prefixes of orientation and attitude
anti-： as in antibody， antichrist.
pro-： as in prodemocracy.
locative prefixes
fore-： as in forehead， forecast.
inter-： as in intermediate， interaction.
prefixes of time and order
ex-： as in ex-husband， ex-wife.
re-： as in recreate， rewrite.
number prefixes
bi-： as in bicycle， biaxial.
tri-： as in triangle.
multi-： as in multimedia， multicultural.
conversion prefixes
en-： as in enrich， enable.
a-： as in asleep， alive.
miscellaneous prefixes
auto-： as in automatic， autonomy.
neo-： as in neoclassical， neologism. Contrast to prefixes， suffixes in English work in the opposite way， which means they mainly transform the word class instead of the meaning of stems. Here are four categories of suffixes.
noun suffixes
-er （-or， -ee， -ist）： as in worker， visitor， employee， pianist.
-ion： as in action， solution.
-hood： as in childhood， fatherhood.
（2） verb suffixes
-ize/ise： as in realize， symbolize.
-en： as in lighten， broaden.
（3） adjective suffixes
-ous： as in curious， ambitious.
-ish： as in foolish， childish.
（4） adverb suffixes
-ly： as in quickly， slowly.
-ward： as in backward.
Chinese， as a non-morphological language， is incomparable with English suffixes above. That is to say， Chinese affixes are limited in quantity. The role of Chinese affixes is mainly to change the grammatical function of the bases， rather than the semantic meaning of words.
Some functional prefixes may phonetically help balance words in pronunciation and grammatically indicate the plural form of pronouns， for example： 老-（phonetic prefix）： 老虎， 老鄉，老爷…；阿-（phonetic prefix）： 阿姨， 阿三…；最-（grammatical prefix）： 最好， 最多… most of the other prefixes contain various semantic meanings， just like the following ones： 次- （next to/poor）： as in次要， 次日；非- （not）： as in非法， 非正常；反- （against）： as in反攻， 反抗， 反射；双- （double/two）： as in 双层， 双方.
Unlike English suffixes forming different classes of word， Chinese suffixes basically constitute nouns， as shown in the following cases： -员 （member/person）： as in 演员， 会员；-学 （subject）： as in 文学，哲学；-室（room）： as in 办公室，教室；-品（object）： as in物品，化妆品；-子/头/儿（meaningless）： as in孩子，一会儿，老头子.
1.2 Blending
Blending is a process of word-formation in which a new word is formed by combining the meanings and sounds of two words， one of which is not in its full form or both of them are not in their full forms （Wang Aiguo， 1997）. Here are two typical kinds of English and Chinese blends.
English blends：
head trail
smoke fog → smog motorist hotel → motel
head head
situation comedy → sitcom communication satellite → comsat
Chinese blends：
女孩当新娘→ 嫁把新娘接来→ 娶
Shortening
Shortening， also called abbreviation， is a way to produce new words through cutting down original words or phrases without changing their semantic meaning. With a strong new creative ability， word shortening is especially remarkable in scientific or newspaper style.
【Key words】word-formation； Chinese； English； comparison and contrast
【作者簡介】张媛（1991- ），女，汉族，舞阳县人，西京学院外国语学院，助教。
Words， known as a combination of sounds， forms and meaning， are too hard to remember without the skillful methods， especially for second language learners. This paper analyses various ways ofChinese and English word-formation so that similarities and differences are found betweenthe two languages.
Similar major means of word-formation
Word-formation is beneficial for vocabulary enlargement， the common ways of which are affixation， blending， shortening， conversion and so on.
Affixation
Affixationrefers to adding derivational affixes to roots to product new words. According to the positions where affixes occur， they are divided into two subcategories： prefixes and suffixes.
Most English prefixes modify the meaning of stems without changing their word class， and therefore the following classification of English prefixes is based on sense.
negative prefixes
They are used for expressing the negative or opposite meaning. For example：
a-： as in atypical， asocial.
dis-： as in disagree， disable.
un-： as inunfair， unusual.
pejorative prefixes
mal-： as in maladaptive， malpractice.
mis-： as in mistake， mistrust.
prefixes of degree or size
extra-： as in extramarital， extraordinary.
hyper-： as in hyperactive， hypertension.
micro-： as in microwave， microfilm.
prefixes of orientation and attitude
anti-： as in antibody， antichrist.
pro-： as in prodemocracy.
locative prefixes
fore-： as in forehead， forecast.
inter-： as in intermediate， interaction.
prefixes of time and order
ex-： as in ex-husband， ex-wife.
re-： as in recreate， rewrite.
number prefixes
bi-： as in bicycle， biaxial.
tri-： as in triangle.
multi-： as in multimedia， multicultural.
conversion prefixes
en-： as in enrich， enable.
a-： as in asleep， alive.
miscellaneous prefixes
auto-： as in automatic， autonomy.
neo-： as in neoclassical， neologism. Contrast to prefixes， suffixes in English work in the opposite way， which means they mainly transform the word class instead of the meaning of stems. Here are four categories of suffixes.
noun suffixes
-er （-or， -ee， -ist）： as in worker， visitor， employee， pianist.
-ion： as in action， solution.
-hood： as in childhood， fatherhood.
（2） verb suffixes
-ize/ise： as in realize， symbolize.
-en： as in lighten， broaden.
（3） adjective suffixes
-ous： as in curious， ambitious.
-ish： as in foolish， childish.
（4） adverb suffixes
-ly： as in quickly， slowly.
-ward： as in backward.
Chinese， as a non-morphological language， is incomparable with English suffixes above. That is to say， Chinese affixes are limited in quantity. The role of Chinese affixes is mainly to change the grammatical function of the bases， rather than the semantic meaning of words.
Some functional prefixes may phonetically help balance words in pronunciation and grammatically indicate the plural form of pronouns， for example： 老-（phonetic prefix）： 老虎， 老鄉，老爷…；阿-（phonetic prefix）： 阿姨， 阿三…；最-（grammatical prefix）： 最好， 最多… most of the other prefixes contain various semantic meanings， just like the following ones： 次- （next to/poor）： as in次要， 次日；非- （not）： as in非法， 非正常；反- （against）： as in反攻， 反抗， 反射；双- （double/two）： as in 双层， 双方.
Unlike English suffixes forming different classes of word， Chinese suffixes basically constitute nouns， as shown in the following cases： -员 （member/person）： as in 演员， 会员；-学 （subject）： as in 文学，哲学；-室（room）： as in 办公室，教室；-品（object）： as in物品，化妆品；-子/头/儿（meaningless）： as in孩子，一会儿，老头子.
1.2 Blending
Blending is a process of word-formation in which a new word is formed by combining the meanings and sounds of two words， one of which is not in its full form or both of them are not in their full forms （Wang Aiguo， 1997）. Here are two typical kinds of English and Chinese blends.
English blends：
head trail
smoke fog → smog motorist hotel → motel
head head
situation comedy → sitcom communication satellite → comsat
Chinese blends：
女孩当新娘→ 嫁把新娘接来→ 娶
Shortening
Shortening， also called abbreviation， is a way to produce new words through cutting down original words or phrases without changing their semantic meaning. With a strong new creative ability， word shortening is especially remarkable in scientific or newspaper style.