Derivational and

Inflectional
Word
 Word Parts
• There are two kinds of word parts: roots and
affixes.
• A root is a word part that comes from
another language, such as Greek or Latin.
• An affix is a word part that can be attached
to either a root or a base word to create a
new word.
 Inflections vs Derivations
1. Inflectional affixes:
o Mark grammatical properties
o (person, number, gender, tense, aspect)
o don’t change other aspects of meaning
o are required by rules of sentence structure
o create a new “word form”
2. Derivational affixes:
o change meaning
o create a new word
o (typically) have clear meaning
o may change the lexical category of the word
 Inflectional
• There are precisely eight inflectional affixes in
English:
1. -s 3rd person wait --> waits
2. -ing progressive wait --> waiting
3. -edpast tense wait --> waited
4. -enpast participle eat --> eaten
5. -s plural card --> cards
6. -’s possessive dad --> dad’s
7. -er comparative tall --> taller
8. -est superlative weak --> weakest
All of these are suffixes.
 Affixation
Affixes are divided following categories:
Personal affixes; create ‘people nouns’.
Two types of personal affixes:
 Form ‘agent’ nouns (the ‘doer’ of the action)
for example: the suffix -er
writer, runner, broadcaster etc
Form ‘patient’ nouns (the person the action is done to).
for example: the suffix –ee
employee, testee, interviewee
 Affixation
 Negative and privative affixes
 ‘Negative’ adds the meaning ‘not’ to their base.
e.g. the prefixes un-, in-, non-
unhappy, inattentive, non-functional
 ‘Privative’ means something like ‘without X’.
e.g. the suffix –less (useless, hopeless)
 The prefix de- (mean something like ‘cause to be
without’).
e.g. debug or debone
 Affixation
 Prepositional and relational affixes often
convey notions of space and/or time.
e.g. prefixes over- and out-
overfill, overcoat, outrun, outhouse
 Quantitative affixes have something to do with
amount.
e.g. affixes –ful, multi- , re-
handful, helpful, multicultural, reread
 Affixation
 Evaluative affixes consist of:
Diminutives are affixes that signal a smaller
version of the base.
e.g. –let as in ‘booklet or droplet’
Augmentatives are affixes that signal a bigger
version of the base.
e.g. the prefix mega- as in megastore, megabyte’.
 Suffixes
Type of suffixes:
1.Nominal suffixes
are often employed to derive ‘nouns’ from
verbs, adjectives and nouns.
-age Coverage, leakage, voltage,
orphanage, yardage
-al Arrival, renewal, recital, referral
-ant Applicant, defendant
 Suffixes

-dom Kingdom, martyrdom, freedom

-ee Standee, employee, trainee
-ess Princess, stewardess, hostess
-hood brotherhood, neighborhood, childhood
-ism Racism, feminism, fatalism
-ship Friendship, censorship, membership
 Suffixes
2. Verbal suffixes
There are four suffixes which derive verbs
from other categories.
-ate Fluorinate, regulate, originate
-en Blacken, broaden, quicken, ripen
-ify Humidify, solidify, purify
-ize Computerize, hospitalize, emphasize
 Suffixes
3. Adjectival suffixes
can be divided into two groups:
– Relational adjectives
the role is to relate the noun the adjective
qualifies to the base word. e.g.
Colonial officer means officer having to do
with the colonies.
 Suffixes
Some adjectival suffixes:
-able Readable, fashionable, comprehensible,
-ible flexible
-al Cultural, accidental, colonial
-ous Homogeneous, prestigious, ambiguous
-less Speechless, hopeless, thankless
-ive Connective, explosive, offensive,
preventive
 Suffixes
• Qualitative adjectives
express more specific concept of qualitative
meaning. e.g.
This a grammatical sentence.
(compare to; she is a grammatical genius)
• Adverbial suffixes
type of adverbial suffixes:
-ly Shortly, hardly, dryly
-wise Lengthwise, marketwise, saleswise
 Prefixes
English prefixes can be classified semantically
into some groups.
1.The group that quantify over ‘their base words’
meaning.
‘one’ uni- : unilateral, unification
‘twice or bi- : bilateral, bifurcation
two’
‘many’ Multi-: multi-lateral, polyclinic
‘half’ Semi-: semi-conscious
 Prefixes
2. Locative prefixes
‘against’ Counter-: counterbalance, counterattack
‘inside’ Intra-: intramuscular, intravenous
‘along with’ Pare-: paramedic, paranormal
‘across’ Trans-: transcontinental, transmigrate
3. Temporal prefixes that express notions like
‘before, after or new’.
‘before’ Ante-, pre-, fore-: antechamber, preconcert, foresee
‘after’ Post-: postmodern, postmortem
‘new’ Neo-: neoclassical, neo-Latin
 Prefixes
4. Prefixes which express negation

‘wrong’ Mal-: malfunction, malnutrition

‘wrongly’ Mis-: misinterpret, mistrial
‘against’ Anti-: anti-abortion, anti-hero
Dis-: disagree, discharge, disproof
Un-: uneducated, uncomplicated,
unreadable
 References

• Lieber, R. (2009). Introducing morphology.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Plag, I. (2003). Word formation in English.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Scalise, S. (1984). Generative morphology.
Holland: Foris Publication.