1. Morphological Changes:
* Affixation: This is the most common way words change their meaning and function. It involves adding prefixes (at the beginning), suffixes (at the end), or infixes (within the word) to a base word. Examples:
* Prefixes: `un-` (unhappy), `re-` (rewrite), `pre-` (pre-game)
* Suffixes: `-ing` (walking), `-er` (baker), `-ly` (quickly)
* Infixes: un-freakingbelievable (informal)
* Conversion: This is when a word changes its grammatical category without any change in form. For instance, a noun can become a verb: "Google" (noun) to "Google" (verb).
* Compounding: This combines two or more words to form a new word: `sun` + `flower` = `sunflower`.
* Clipping: This shortens a word, like `telephone` to `phone`.
* Blending: This combines parts of two words, like `smoke` + `fog` = `smog`.
2. Semantic Change:
* Meaning shift: This is when the meaning of a word changes over time. For example, the word "meat" originally referred to food in general, but now it specifically refers to animal flesh.
3. Phonetic Change:
* Sound changes: These are changes in the pronunciation of words over time. For example, the word "knight" used to be pronounced with a "k" sound at the beginning.
Could you provide more context or an example of what you mean by "base word change"? This would help me understand your question better and provide a more accurate answer.