Derivational Morphology free essay sample

Bound Morphemes like-ify and –cation are called derivational morphemes. When they are added to base, anew word with a new meaning is derived ? Example : The addition of –ify to pure= Purify means â€Å"to make pure† The addition of –cation to purify= Purification means â€Å"the process of making pure†. ? This means that we must have a list of the derivational morphemes in our mental dictionaries as well as the rules that determine how they are added to a root or stem. The form that results from the addition of derivational morpheme is called a derived word. ? Derivational Morphemes have clear semantic content. ? In this sense they are like content words, except that they are not words. ? As we have seen, when a derivational morpheme added to a base, it adds meaning. ? The derived word may also be of a different grammatical class than the original word, as shown by suffixes such as –able and-ly ? Example : When a verb is suffixed with –able the result is an adjective, as in desire +able = desirable When the suffix –en is added to an adjective, a verb is derived, as in dark +en = Darken When =ie is added to an adjective, a noun is formed, as in sweet +ie = sweetie Other examples: Noun to adjectiveVerb to Noun Adjective to adverb boy+-ish= Boyish clear+-ance = clearanceexact+-ly = exactly virtue+ -ous= virtuoussing+-er=singerclear+-ly =clearly Noun to VerbAdjective to NounVerb to Adjective moral+-ize= Moralizetall+-ness= tallnessread+-able=readable hast+-en=hastenfree+-dom=freedomcreate+-ive= creative ? Some derivational suffixes do not cause a change in grammatical class. We will write a custom essay sample on Derivational Morphology or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Prefixes never do. Examples: Noun to NounVerb to VerbAdjective to Adjective friend +-ship = friendshipun- + do= undopink+-ish= pinkish ? Derivational affixes appear to come in two classes. In one class, the addition of suffix triggers subtle changes in pronunciation. Example: when affix –ity to specific (pronounced specific with a k sound), we get specificity (pronounced â€Å"specifisity† with an s sound) When deriving Elizabeth +an from Elizabeth, the fourth vowel sound changes from the vowel in Beth to the vowel in Pete. Other suffixes such as –y,-ive, and –ize may induce similar changes : sane to sanity, deduce to deductive ? On the other hand, suffixes such as –er,-ful,-ish,-less,-ly and-ness may be tacked onto a base word without affecting the pronunciation, as in baker, wishful, boyish, needless, sanely, and fullness ? Moreover, affixes from the first class cannot be attached to base containing an affix from the second class: need+ less+ ity, Moral = ize; but affixes from the second class may attach to bases with either kind of affix: moral =ize = er, need + less +ness. INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY: ? Function words like to, it, and be are free morphemes. Many languages, including English, also have bound morphemes that have a strictly grammatical function. ? They may change properties such as tense, number, person, case, gender. Such bound morphemes are called inflectional morphemes ? Unlike derivational morphemes, they never change the grammatical category of the stems to which they are attached. Consider the forms of the verb in the following sentences: English Inflectional MorphemesExamples -sthird person singular presentShe wait-s at home. -edpast tenseShe wait-ed at home. -ingprogressiveshe is eat-ing the donut. -en past participleMary has eat-en the donuts. s pluralShe ate the donut-s -‘spossessiveDisa’s hair is short. -ercomparativeDisa has short-er hair than Karin. -estsuperlativeDisa has the short-est hair. ? Inflectional Morphemes in the English follow the derivational morphemes n a word. Thus, to the derivationally complex word commit +ment one can add a plural ending to form commitments, but the order of affixes may not be reversed to derive the impossible commit+s+ment= commitsment. ? Another distinction between inflectional and derivational morphemes is that inflectional morphemes are PRODUCTIVE: they apply freely to nearly every appropr iate base ( excepting â€Å"irregular† forms such as feet, not foots). ? Most nouns takes an –s inflectional suffix to form a plural, but only some nouns take the derivational suffix-ize to form a verb† idolize but not picturize. In distinguishing inflectional from derivation morphemes we may summarize as follows: INFLECTIONALDERIVATIONAL 1. Grammatical function1. Lexical function 2. No word class change2. May cause word class change 3. Small or no meaning change3. Some meaning change 4. Often required by rules of grammar4. never required by rules of grammar 5. Follow derivational morphemes in a word5. precede inflectional morphemes in a word 6. Productive6. Some productive, many non- productive