Morphological derivation

Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or
suffix, such as -ness or un-. For example, happiness and unhappy derive from the root word happy.

It is differentiated from inflection, which is the modification of a word to form different grammatical categories without changing its
core meaning: determines, determining, and determined are from the root determine.[1]

Contents
Derivational patterns
Derivation and inflection
Derivation and other types of word formation
Productivity
See also
References
External links

Derivational patterns
Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational suffix or other affix. Such an affix usually applies to words of
one lexical category (part of speech) and changes them into words of another such category. For example, the English derivational
suffix -ly changes adjectives into adverbs (slow → slowly).

Here are examples of English derivational patterns and their suf

fixes:

adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)

adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise) in British English or -ize (final → finalize) in American English and
Oxford spelling
adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish)
adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally)
noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer)
However, derivational affixes do not necessarily alter the lexical category; they may change merely the meaning of the base and leave
the category unchanged. A prefix (write → re-write; lord → over-lord) rarely changes the lexical category in English. The prefix un-
applies to adjectives (healthy → unhealthy) and some verbs (do → undo) but rarely to nouns. A few exceptions are the derivational
prefixes en- and be-. En- (replaced by em- before labials) is usually a transitive marker on verbs, but it can also be applied to
adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs: circle (verb) → encircle (verb) but rich (adj) → enrich (verb), large (adj) → enlarge
(verb), rapture (noun) → enrapture (verb), slave (noun) → enslave (verb).

When derivation occurs without any change to the word, such as in the conversion of the noun breakfast into the verb to breakfast,
it's known as conversion, or zero derivation.
Derivation that results in a noun may be called nominalization. It may involve the use of an affix (such as with employ → employee),
or it may occur via conversion (such as with the derivation of the noun run from the verb to run). In contrast, a derivation resulting in
a verb may be called verbalization (such as from the nounbutter to the verb to butter).

Derivation and inflection

Derivation can be contrasted with inflection, in that derivation produces a new word (a distinct lexeme), whereas inflection produces
grammatical variants of the same word.

Generally speaking, inflection applies in more or less regular patterns to all members of a part of speech (for example, nearly every
English verb adds -s for the third person singular present tense), while derivation follows less consistent patterns (for example, the
nominalizing suffix -ity can be used with the adjectives modern and dense, but not with open or strong). However, it is important to
note that derivations and inflections can share homonyms, that being, morphemes that have the same sound, but not the same
meaning. For example, when the affix -er, is added to an adjective, as in small-er, it acts as an inflection, but when added to a verb, as
in cook-er, it acts as a derivation.[2]

Derivation and other types of word formation

Derivation can be contrasted with other types of word formation such as compounding. For full details see
Word formation.

Note that derivational affixes are bound morphemes – they are meaningful units, but can only normally occur when attached to
another word. In that respect, derivation differs from compounding by which free morphemes are combined (lawsuit, Latin
professor). It also differs from inflection in that inflection does not create new lexemes but new word forms (table → tables; open →
opened).

Productivity
Derivational patterns differ in the degree to which they can be called productive. A productive pattern or affix is one that is
commonly used to produce novel forms. For example, the negating prefix un- is more productive in English than the alternative in-;
both of them occur in established words (such as unusual and inaccessible), but faced with a new word which does not have an
established negation, a native speaker is more likely to create a novel form with un- than with in-. The same thing happens with
suffixes. For example, if comparing two words Thatcherite and Thatcherist, the analysis shows that both suffixes -ite and -ist are
productive and can be added to proper names, moreover, both derived adjectives are established and have the same meaning. But the
suffix -ist is more productive and, thus, can be found more often in word formation not only from proper names.

See also
Agglutination
Collocation
Inflection
Nominalization
Word formation
Word root

References
1. Crystal, David (1999): The Penguin Dictionary of Language, Penguin Books, England.
2. Sobin, Nicholas (2011).Syntactic Analysis The Basics(https://books.google.com/books?id=X0lSCdzzJOsC&printsec
=frontcover#v=onepage&q=derivation&f=false) . West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 17–18.ISBN 978-1-4443-3895-9.

Speech and Language Processing, Jufarsky

, D. & Martin J.,H.
External links
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsDerivation.htm

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Morphological_derivation&oldid=878869131

"

This page was last edited on 17 January 2019, at 13:26(UTC).

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.