Word formation and derivation

Abstract

As we have seen in the Introduction, many pairs of words like Dutch boter and English butter, Dutch nieuw and English new show us that the two languages are closely related, even though with the passage of time great differences have arisen between them. One of the major differences between the vocabularies of English and Dutch is the fact that English has absorbed many more Latin and French words than has Dutch — compare education, government, exhibition with onderwijs, regering, tentoonstelling — but a more important difference is the fact that Dutch derives and compounds new words from native Dutch elements whereas English habitually uses a Latin of French word. We cannot speak of a ‘word-book’ but must use dictionary, and we do not use ‘pig meat’ but pork. Dutch can and does do just this, with innumerable compounds like woordenboek and varkensvlees. The fact that large numbers of Dutch words are rather transparently built up from two or more smaller words or derived from another part of speech simplifies the recognition and learning of them, once one has some familiarity with the basic rules of word formation and derivation.