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derivational morphology describes the processes that form stems (the items in
the lexicon)
stem formation
inflectional morphology describes the processes that form words per se (the
final form of lexical items in sentences):
word formation
English
very little inflectional morphology
limited to the final suffix of words
the highest stem of any English word can be recovered by removing the
inflectional suffix
insofar as stems are formed from other stems, the following formula is true as
well:
a. YES stem (i.e., stems are lexical items and lexical items are things used in
sentences), and continue analysis
EXAMPLES
Conventions
stem (S)
inflectional suffix (IA)
derivational affix (DA)
root
5. We label each derivational affix as to the part of speech of the stem it creates.
Example 1: N arm
Example 2: N arms
Example 3: N armies
N army - the "highest" stem of N armies (the lexical item of which it is the
plural form)
N army contains the N stem arm, from which it has been derived
armies, army, arms, and arm share the same root arm.
Hence:
A stem can be regarded as the common denominator of a group of
inflectionally related forms.
A root can be regarded as the common denominator of a group of
derivationally related stems.