Back-formation in a new theoretical universe: An introduction

Back-formation is defined as a type of morphological change in which a base word is created ex novo paralleling an extant morphological alternation that serves as a model as in the verb to televise from the noun television. This analogical procedure is generally held to aim at increasing paradigm regularity. In this survey, several questions will be discussed with respect to the nature, the extension and the inner motivation of back-formation as well as its generalizability as a mechanism for language modeling and change.