VII. Language variation (语言变化）

1. Lexical change(词汇的变化）：changes in lexis.

2. Invention: (新造词）new entities.

3. Compounding 合成词）New words are sometimes constructed by combining two old words.

4. Blending: (混合词）：It is a relatively complex form of compounding, in which two roots are blended by joining the initial part of the first root and the final part of the second root, or by joining the initial parts of the two roots.

5. Abbreviation or clipping (缩写）A new word is created by cutting the final part or cutting the initial part.

6. acronym 取首字母的缩写词）It is made up from the first letters of the name of an organization, which has a heavily modified (修饰） headword.

7. metanalysis (再分化）It refers to a process through which a division is made where there were note before.

8. Back-formation (逆构词） It refers to an abnormal(非正常） type of word-formation where a shorter word is derived by deleting(去掉） an imagined affix from a longer form already present in the language.

9. Analogical creation:(类比造词）It can account for（说明） the co-existence of two forms, regular and irregular, in the conjugation(结合） of some English verbs.

10. Borrowing（借用）：English in its development has managed to widen her vocabulary by borrowing words from other languages.

11. Phonological change(音变）：It is related to language variation in the phonological system of language. It includes loss,(省音） addition,（加音） assimilation,（ 同化）dissimilation.（异化）

12. Grammatical change: Changes in both morphology（词法） and syntax（句法） are listed under this heading.

13. Semantic change:(语义变化）It includes broadening,（语义扩大） narrowing,（语义缩小） meaning shift,（意义转化） class shift（词性转换） and folk etymology.（词源变化）

14. Orthographic change ：(正字法）Changes can also be found at the graphetic level.