Question

A second language speaker uses the word [phonetic] as a singular noun because she interprets the word [phonetics] as a plural noun. In doing so, she is deducing a new word by the process of _________.

• A. Blocking
• B. Back formation
• C. Bracketing
• D. Back tracking

Hint:

Back formation is when a word is created by removing an affix, such as turning "phonetics" into "phonetic" by removing the "-s."

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1: Understanding the process.
Back formation is a linguistic process where a new word is created by removing a suffix from an existing word. In this case, the second language speaker is interpreting "phonetics" as a plural noun and creating a singular form "phonetic" by removing the plural "-s."
Step 2: Analyzing the options.
- (A) Incorrect, as blocking refers to a situation where one rule blocks the application of another, not the creation of a new word by removing a suffix.
- (B) Correct, as back formation involves creating a new word by removing a suffix, which is what is happening in this case.
- (C) Incorrect, bracketing refers to a syntactic phenomenon, not the creation of a new word.
- (D) Incorrect, back tracking refers to revisiting earlier steps in a process, not word formation.
Step 3: Conclusion.
Thus, the correct answer is (B) Back formation.