ABSTRACT
This chapter examines in more detail some aspects of the group-forming tendencies in word-formation that were exemplified by words in -nik and -acious. It explores how group-forming tendencies operate in our everyday use of language. If a word happens to have a referent which excites popular interest, or a meaning which is depreciatory, it is the more likely to provide the focus for a group. A word which proves later to contain a group-forming element is not necessarily one which is frequently used or particularly in vogue at any time: the elements of bulldozer, cavalcade, Utopia do not at first glance look likely to appear in new coinages. The sense-groups into which prefixes fall show a different general pattern from the sense-groups of suffixes. One of the largest semantic groups into which -arian words fall is that of terms referring to those who hold moral or political beliefs, such as egalitarian, or necessitarian.
