Abstract
This paper proposes the integration of what are currently seen as discreet computer processes for analysing word formation within a single descriptive schema. It attempts to identify fundamental behaviours that are at work in word-formation and which have a generic application across all word-based languages. It does not describe in detail any particular solutions to particular problems of analysis but seeks rather to propose a framework for analysis within which individual systems might be developed in such a way as to contribute to a broad general solution. The emphasis is upon language independent systems which have little or no need of knowledge bases except where those knowledge bases can be demonstrated to have a universal application to the vast majority of natural language. It also seeks to identify processes used in word formation analysis that have a wider application in linguistic analysis beyond word formation itself.