Derivation of the word english

In morphology, derivation is the process of creating a new word out of an old word, usually by adding a prefix or a suffix. The word comes from the Latin, «to draw off,» and its adjectival form is derivational.

Linguist Geert Booij, in «The Grammar of Words,» notes that one criterion for distinguishing derivation and ​inflection «is that derivation may feed inflection, but not vice versa. Derivation applies to the stem-forms of words, without their inflectional endings, and creates new, more complex stems to which inflectional rules can be applied.»

The derivational change that takes place without the addition of a bound morpheme (such as the use of the noun impact as a verb) is called zero derivation or conversion.

Examples and Observations

«Derivational morphology studies the principles governing the construction of new words, without reference to the specific grammatical role a word might play in a sentence. In the formation of drinkable from drink, or disinfect from infect, for example, we see the formation of new words, each with its own grammatical properties.»

– David Crystal, «How Language Works.» Overlook Press, 2005

Derivation vs. Inflection

Morphology may be divided into derivation—rules that form a new word out of old words, like duckfeathers and unkissable—and inflection—rules that modify a word to fit its role in a sentence, what language teachers call conjugation and declension.»

– Steven Pinker, «Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language.» Basic Books, 1999

«The distinction between inflectional morphology and derivational morphology is an ancient one. Fundamentally, it is a matter of the means used to create new lexemes (derivational affixes among other processes) and those used to mark the role of the lexeme in a particular sentence (accidence, inflectional morphology)…

«It seems that although we probably can maintain a distinction between inflectional and derivational morphology relatively well in English—albeit with certain problematical cases which do not invalidate the fundamental notion—the distinction is not helpful to us in understanding any other aspects of the morphology of English. The classification might be useful in terms of typology, but does not throw much light on the behavior of English morphological processes.»

– Laurie Bauer, Rochelle Lieber, and Ingo Plag, The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology. Oxford University Press, 2013

Derivation, Compounding, and Productivity

«Word-formation is traditionally divided into two kinds: derivation and compounding. Whereas in compounding the constituents of a word are themselves lexemes, this is not the case in derivation. For instance, -ity is not a lexeme, and hence taxability is a case of derivation. The word income tax, on the other hand, is a compound since both income and tax are lexemes. Changing the word class of a word, as happened in the creation of the verb to tax from the noun tax, is called conversion, and may be subsumed under derivation…

«Morphological patterns that can be systematically extended are called productive. The derivation of nouns ending in -er from verbs is productive in English, but the derivation of nouns in -th from adjectives is not: it is hard to expand the set of words of this type such as depth, health, length, strength, and wealth. Marchand (1969: 349) has observed some occasional coinings like coolth (after warmth) but notes that such word coinings are often jocular, and hence do not represent a productive pattern. If we want to coin a new English noun on the basis of an adjective, we have to use -ness or -ity instead.»

– Geert Booij, «The Grammar of Words: An Introduction to Linguistic Morphology.» Oxford University Press, 2005

Changes to Meaning and Word Class: Prefixes and Suffixes

«Derivational prefixes do not normally alter the word class of the base word; that is, a prefix is added to a noun to form a new noun with a different meaning:

Derivational suffixes, on the other hand, usually change both the meaning and the word class; that is, a suffix is often added to a verb or adjective to form a new noun with a different meaning:

• patient: outpatient
• group: subgroup
• trial: retrial
• adjective — dark: darkness
• verb — agree: agreement
• noun — friend: friendship«

– Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, and Geoffrey Leech, «Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English.» Longman, 2002

Affixation.
The process of affixation consists of coining a new word by adding an
affix or several affixes to some root morpheme. Affixes are
classified into productive and non-productive types. By productive
affixes we mean the ones, which take part in deriving new words in
this particular period of language development. For example, the
suffix -ish produces a great number of adjectives such as baldish,
oldish, youngish, mannish, fattish, longish, etc.

Conversion
is a special type of affixless derivation where a newly-formed word
acquires a paradigm and syntactic functions different from those of
the original word. Conversion consists in making a new word from some
existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, the
morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged. The new
word has a meaning which differs from the original one, but it can
more or less be easily associated with it. e.g. nurse (n.)> to
nurse (v.)

Substantivation
is the process in which adjectives (or participles) acquire the
paradigm and syntactic functions of nouns [A> N]. It is
distinguished two main types of substantivation: complete and
partial. Completely substantivized adjectives have the full paradigm
of a noun (singular and plural case forms, definite and indefinite
articles, demonstrative and possessive pronouns). e.g. adj. native
(rіdny)> n. a native, the native, two natives, a native’s
character.

Compounding
is the productive type of word-building in which new words are
produced by combining two or more stems. (blackbird, sunflower,
girl-friend, ashtray, bedroom, birthday)

There
are two main ways of shortening:
contraction (clipping) and abbreviation (initial shortening).
Contraction (clipping) is to make a new word from a syllable (rare
two) of the original word.

There
are four types of contraction:

1)
Final clipping (apocope) — omission of the final part of the word eg
doc> doctor, lab> laboratory, vac> vacation, ad>
advertisement

2)
Initial clipping (apheresis) — omission of the fore part of the word
eg phone> telephone, plane> airplane, story> history, Fred>
Alfred

3)
Medial clipping (syncope) — omission of the middle part of the word
eg maths> mathematics, fansy> fantasy, specs> spectacles

4)
Mixed clipping — omission of the fore and the final parts of the word
eg tec> detective, flu> influenza, fridge> refrigerator,
Liz> Elizabeth

The
second way of shortening is to make a new word from the initial
letters of a word group and called abbreviation (initial shortening).
They are subdivided into five groups:

1)
Acronyms. These words are read in accordance with the rules of
orthoepy, eg UNO (United Nation Organization), UNESCO (United Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization), NATO (North
Atlantic Treaty Organization)

2)
Alphabetic abbreviations. In this case letters get their full
alphabetic pronunciation and a full stress, eg the USA (the United
States of America), B.B.C. (British Broadcasting Corporation), M.P.
(Member of Parliament), F.B.I. (Federal Bureau of Investigation), CV
(Curriculum vitae), EU (European Unity).

3)
Compound abbreviations. The first immediate constituent is a letter
and the second — a complete word, eg A-bomb (Atomic bomb), V-day
(Victory day), Z-hour (Zero hour)

4)
Graphic abbreviations. They are used in texts for economy of space
and are pronounced as the corresponding unabbreviated words, eg Mr.
(Mister), m. (Mile), ft. (Foot), v. (Verb), pp. (Pages), etc.

5)
Latin abbreviations. They are read as separate letters or are
substituted by their English equivalents, eg i.e. (That is), am (in
the morning), ld (in some place), ef (compare), pa (Lat. Per annum)

Phrasal
Verbs
Phrasal verbs are combinations of a verb and adverb or a verb and
preposition (or verb with both adverb and preposition). They divided
into two groups: non-idiomatic (retain their primary local meaning),
eg come in, come out, take off, put down, drink up, etc. and
idiomatic (can not be derived from their immediate constituents), eg
bring up, bear out, give in, fall out, etc.

1. Non-productive
   ways of word-formation

Sound
interchange is the way of word building when some sounds are changed
to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English; it was
productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European
languages.

The
causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of
Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during
the period of the language development known to scientists., e.g. to
strike — stroke, to sing — song etc. It can be also the result of
Ancient Umlaut or vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing
the root vowel because of the front vowel in the syllable coming
after the root (regressive assimilation), e.g. hot — to heat
(hotian), blood — to bleed (blodian) etc.

In
many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have
voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced
consonants because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at
the end of the word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g.
bath — to bathe, life — to live, breath — to breathe etc.

Stress
interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin:
nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last
syllable, e.g. `accent — to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in
the following way: French verbs and nouns had different structure
when they were borrowed into English; verbs had one syllable more
than the corresponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated
in English the stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable
(the second from the end) . Later on the last unstressed syllable in
verbs borrowed from French was dropped (the same as in native verbs)
and after that the stress in verbs was on the last syllable while in
nouns it was on the first syllable. As a result of it we have such
pairs in English as: to af`fix -`affix, to con`flict- `conflict, to
ex`port -`export, to ex`tract — `extract etc. As a result of stress
interchange we have also vowel interchange in such words because
vowels are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed
positions.

1. Affixation.
   Itsmaintypes

Affixation
is the process of adding a morpheme (oraffix)
to a word to
create either

(a)
a different form of that word (e.g., bird → birds),
or

(b)
a new word with a different meaning (bird → birder).

Types
of affixes on the basis of places

Affixes
can be of four types on the basis of their places. That means, on the
basis of the part of the root word they are added into; affixes can
be of four different types:

• Prefixes

Affixes
that are added in beginning of any root word are called prefixes.

1. Negative
   prefixes: in-, un-, non-, dis-, a- etc. (connect-disconnect,
   moral-amoral, justice-injustice)

2. Size
   and degree affixes: mini-, over-, sub-, super- etc.
   (skirt-miniskirt, man-superman, set-subset)

• Suffixes

Affixes
that are added in end of any root word are called suffixes.
(cat-cats, fool-foolish, respect-respectful)

• Infixes

Affixes
which get added in mid part of a single root word are called infixes.
In Standard English grammar, infixes do not exist.
(Hallebloodylujah!,Absogoddamlutely!Unfuckinbelievable!)

• Circumfixes

Circumfixes
are exact opposites of infixes. They round / circle the root word.
That means, a circumfix gets divided into two parts and these two
parts are placed in beginning and end of the root word respectively.
Don’t exist in Standard English.

Types
of affixes on the basis of functions

• Inflectional
  affixes

Inflectional
affixes suggest grammatical information about the word.

-s,
-ed, -en, -ing, -s, -‘s, -er, -est (gives, watched, gone, taken,
flying, cats, John’s, better, best)

• Derivational
  affixes

Unlike
inflectional affixes, derivational affixes can «derive»
entirely new words from the existing ones. Thus, they are more
productive than inflectional morphemes.

-ic,
-unce, -ity, -ly, -ive, -abve, -ise (heroic, performance, activity,
badly, creative, sharable, characterise)

Un-,
dis-, anti-, in- (unhappy, disestablish, anticapitalist, indecent)

Re-,
-ship, -ist, -er, -let, -hood (recover, friendship, capitalist,
lecturer, booklet, childhood)

1. Blending
   as a way of word formation in Modern English

Blending
is one of the most beloved of word formation processes in English. It
is especially creative in that speakers take two words and merge them
based not on morpheme structure but on sound structure. The resulting
words are called blends.

In
blending, part of one word is stitched onto another word, without any
regard for where one morpheme ends and another begins. Examples:
brunch (breakfast and lunch), motel (motor hotel), electrocute
(electric and execute), smog (smoke and fog) and cheeseburger (cheese
and hamburger).

1. Clipping
   as a way of word formation. Types of clipping.

Clipping
is a type of abbreviation of a word in which one part is ‘clipped’
off the rest, and the remaining word now means essentially the same
thing as what the whole word means or meant. For example, burger,
formed by clipping off the beginning of the word hamburger.

Clipping
mainly consists of the following types:

Back
clipping
(the
most common type, in which the beginning is retained. The unclipped
original may be either a simple or a composite. Examples
are: ad (advertisement), cable(cablegram), doc (doctor), exam (examination))

Fore-clipping
(retains
the final part. Examples: bot (robot),
net (Internet))

Middle
clipping
(the
middle of the word is retained. Examples
are: flu (influenza), fridge (refrigerator))

Complex
clipping
(Clipped
forms are also used in compounds.
One part of the original compound most often remains intact. Examples
are: cablegram (cable telegram), op
art (optical art), org-man(organization man), linocut (linoleum cut).
Sometimes both halves of a compound are clipped as
in navicert (navigation certificate)

1. Conversion.
   Typical semantic relations within a conversion pair.

In linguistics, conversion,
also called zero derivation,
is a kind of word
formation;
specifically, it is the creation of a word (of
a new word class) from an existing word (of a different word class)
without any change in form.^[1] For
example, the noun green in
golf (referring to a putting-green) is derived ultimately from
the adjective green.

Conversions
from adjectives to nouns and vice versa are both very common and
unnotable in English; much more remarked upon is the creation of
a verb by
converting a noun or other word (e.g., the adjective clean becomes
the verb to
clean).

Typical
semantic relations within a converted pair

I.
Verbs converted from noun (denominal verbs) denote:

1.action
characteristic of the object ape (n) — to ape (v) butcher (n) — to
butcher (v) 2.instrumental use of the object screw (n) — to screw (v)
whip (n) — to whip (v)

3.acquisition
or addition of the object fish (n) — to fish (v)

II.
Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal nouns) denote:

1.
instance of the action:to jump (v) -jump (n); to move (v) — move (n)

2.
agent of the action: to help (v) — help (n), to switch (v) — switch
(n)

3.
place of action: to drive (v) — drive (n), to walk (v) — walk (n)

4.object
or result of the action: to peel (v) — peel (n), to find (v) — find
(n).

1. Derivation
   as a word-formative process in English

Derivation
is the process of forming new words from existing ones by adding
affixes to them, like shame + less + ness → shamelessness. In cases
in which there is a one-to-one correspondence between affixes and
syntactical categories, this is known as agglutination, as seen in
agglutinative languages.

1. Shortening.
   Types of shortening.

Shortening is
the process and
the result of forming a word out of the initial elements (letters,
morphemes) of a word combination.

Shortenings
are produced in 2 ways:

·        To
make a new word from a syllable (rarer two) of the original words.
The latter may lose it’s beginning (telephone – phone, defence —
fence), it’s ending (holidays – hols, advertisement- ad), or both
the beginning and the ending (influenza – flu, refrigerator —
fridge)

·        To
make a new word from the initial letters of a word group: U.N.O –
United Nation Organization, B.B.C. and etc.

1. Word
   composition. Types of compound words. Different
   criteria for classification.

Compounding
or word-composition is one of the productive means of word-formation
in Modern English. Compounds are words that are made up of two
immediate constituents which are both derivative bases. 
Derivative
bases in compounds can have different degrees of complexity:
1.
both bases are simple (weekend, girlfriend).
2.
one base is simple, the other is derivative (a shoemaker).
3.
one base is compound and the other is either simple or derivative
(fancy-dress -> fancydress-ball, маскарад;
fancydress-maker).

Classification
of compounds.
1)
According to the type of word-formation:
a.
compounds proper – are words made up of two derivative bases
(red-current, girlfriend)
b.
derivational compounds – are words formed by affixation or
conversion from a compound derivational base (blue-eyed, a
breakdown)
c.
pseudo-compounds — The constituent members of compound words of this
subgroup are in most cases unique, carry very vague or no lexical
meaning of their own, are not found as stems of
independently
functioning
words. They are motivated mainly through the rhythmic doubling of
fanciful sound-clusters. (loudmouth).
2)
Semantic
a.
subordinate (подчинительные)
– words where one of the derivative bases is the grammatical and
semantical center of the word, as a rule – the 2 one – a head
member. It expresses the general meaning of the word, and the first
one specifies it (girlfriend)
b.
coordinate (сочинительные)
– words where both components are equally important:
—
reduplicated – formed by repeating the base (fifty-fifty)
—
rhyming (walkie-talkie, willy-nilly)
—
additive – denote an object or a person that is two things at a
time (Anglo-Saxon, an actor- manager)

Criteria
of distinguishing between compounds and free-word
combinations.
Compounds
are inseparable lexical units that are presented in dictionaries in
special entries and sub-entries. Compounds are reproduced and used in
speech as lexical units, they are not formed in speech like free-word
combinations. They are only pronounced as lexical units (a red rose,
a redskin).
Inseparability
of compounds has graphical (one word or a hyphen), phonetic (stress),
morphological (only 2 base shows grammatical category) and semantic
(grammatical formes differ from the forms of the motivating words
(richer – more oil-richer) criteria.

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Derivation is the process of creating new words. The technical term derivational morphology is the study of the formation of new words. Here are some examples of words which are built up from smaller parts:

• black + bird combine to form blackbird
• dis- + connect combine to form disconnect
• predict + -able combine to form predictable

Combination processes are also used to form brand-new words which add to the English vocabulary. Some examples from recent years are speed-dating and smartphone.

We can make a more complex word from a simpler one by adding a short element at the beginning or end. Suppose we start from the word kind. We could add the element un- to from unkind:

• un- + kind → unkind

These two parts are of different types:

• Kind can be used as a word on its own. It acts as a root word or lexical base to which we can add other elements.
• We can’t use un- as a word by itself. It has to be attached to a lexical base like kind.

Elements like un- which are attached at the beginning of a root word are called prefixes. The prefix un- can be added to many different lexical bases, such as happy, pleasant, wise (to give unhappy, unpleasant, unwise, and so on).

Again starting with kind as our lexical base, we could instead add the element -ness to form unkindness:

• kind + -ness → kindness

The element -ness is a suffix. It is not used as a word on its own, but has to be attached at the end of a lexical base. For example, it can also be added to rude or blind to give rudeness, blindness.

Adding a prefix or suffix can change the meaning of a word. For example, unhappy means ‘not happy’, so the meaning change is quite important! There are regular patterns to these meaning changes: unpleasant means ‘not pleasant’, unwise means ‘not wise’, and so on.

Adding a suffix can also change the word class: that is, produce a different type of word which behaves differently when it combines with other words in sentences. For example:

• Kind is an adjective that fits into combinations like a kind friend.
• Adding -ness creates a noun, kindness, that fits into patterns like a great kindness.

We can also combine more than one word (or lexical base) to form a more complex word called a compound:

• head + ache → headache
• camera + shy → camera-shy
• dry + clean→ dry-clean

Compounds can be written in different ways: as a single word, with a hyphen, or even as two separate words (e.g. swimming pool). Often there are variant ways of writing the same item (e.g. bus stop, bus-stop).

Another word-forming process is conversion, where a word is shifted to a different word class without adding any elements. This means it is used as a different type of word. For example:

• Eye is usually a noun: it is found in combinations like an eye, blue eyes to refer to a thing or things.
• But, through conversion, it can also be used as a verb to indicate an action: She eyed them suspiciously.

Another example is hopeful:

• This is usually an adjective which indicates a property of something or someone (e.g. a hopeful sign).
• But by conversion it has also come to be used as a noun, as in these Olympic hopefuls, which refers to a group of people (who are hoping for Olympic success).

Other processes for forming words include the following:

• clipping, where words are shortened by removing syllables, e.g. laboratory → lab; Christopher → Chris
• blending, where two lexical bases are blended together, e.g. breakfast + lunch → brunch; gigantic + enormous → ginormous
• initialisms, made up of the first letters of a series of words: frequently asked question → FAQ; laughing out loud → LOL

Some initialisms are pronounced as sequences of letters, e.g. VIP (from very important person). Others are pronounced as ordinary words: for example, NATO (from North Atlantic Treaty Organization) rhymes with the name Plato. Initialisms of this second type are called acronyms.

Derivation is defined as the process of attaching an affix to a base. It is a regular procedure of word formation, which allows languages ​​to designate semantically related concepts with others, in a certain sense considered primitive, by adding affixes. The existence of the derivation makes it possible to have a lexicon that allows the attribution of numerous meanings, from a much smaller number of roots or lexemes. Derivation in linguistics

The derivation is a regular procedure word formation that allows languages designate semantically related concepts with other in a sense considered primitive by adding suffixes (eg knife of knife ). The existence of the derivation allows to have a lexicon that allows to designate numerous senses from a much smaller number of roots or lexemes . Also the derivation is the main source of new words in many languages.

The shunt is similar to certain flexion forms , since both would use morphemes added to the root to express differences. However, flexion does not involve changing referents but rather the added marks have a strictly grammatical purpose. On the other hand, the derivation resembles changes in meaning to the composition .

The derivation is a set of a primitive word together with a prefix or a suffix

In the field of linguistics, the concept of derivation refers to one of the processes of new word formation . This process has a general criterion.

Keep in mind that different words come from the same primitive word. Thus, all words that come from a primitive are known as derived words. In this way, with the primitive word sun, I can form a series of derived words, such as solace, sunstroke, solar, sunny, etc. For the derivation process to be possible it is necessary to apply a series of rules. Derivation in linguistics

1. Demonstrate > demonstra-tion > demonstrable; if, on the other hand, this modification does not occur, it is called a homogeneous derivation:
2. White > whitish-white. The first occurs when it is derived through suffixes, while in the second we find derivatives from prefixes, for example:
3. Paint > repaint; proper > improper, nor is it transformed when using augmentative, diminutive and derogatory suffixes:
   woman > big woman, book > little book, house > shack, etc.

Derivational patterns

Derived morphology often involves the addition of a derivative suffix or other affix . This affix is ​​usually applied to words from one lexical category (part of speech) and converts them into words from another similar category. For example, one effect of the English derivative suffix -ly is to change an adjective into an adverb ( slow → slow ).

Here are examples of English derivation patterns and their suffixes:

• adjective- to- noun : -ness ( slow → slowness )
• adjective-to- verb : -in ( weak → weaken )
• adjective-to-adjective: -ish ( red → reddish )
• adjective to adverb : -ly ( personal → personally )
• noun to adjective : -al ( recreation → recreation )
• noun-to-verb: -fy ( glory → glorify )
• verb-to-adjective: -able ( drink → drinkable )
• verb-to-noun ( abstract ): -ance ( deliver → release )
• verb-to-noun ( agent ): -er ( write → writer )

However, derived affixes do not necessarily alter the lexical category; they can simply change the meaning of the base and leave the category unchanged. A prefix ( write → rewrite ; lord → over-lord ) rarely changes the lexical category in English. The prefix does not apply to adjectives ( healthy → unhealthy ) and some verbs ( do → undo ), but rarely to nouns. Some exceptions are the derived prefixes en- and be- . En- (replaced by em- beforelabials ) is usually a transitive marker on verbs, but 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). Derivation in linguistics

When the derivation occurs without any change in the word, as in the conversion of the noun breakfast to the verb for breakfast , it is known as zero conversion or derivation.

The derivation that results in a noun can be called a nominalization . It may involve the use of an affix (as with employ → employee ), or it may occur through conversion (as with the derivation of the noun run from the verb to run ). In contrast, a derivation that results in a verb may be called a verbalization (as from the noun butter to the verb butter ).

Derivation and inflection

Derivation can be contrasted with inflection , since derivation can produce a new word (a distinct lexeme ) but is not required to change this, while inflection produces grammatical variants of the same word.

Generally speaking, the inflection is applied in more or less regular patterns to all members of a part of speech (for example, almost all verbs in English add -s for the third person singular in the present tense), while the 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 is, morphemes .They 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 it is added to a verb, as in cook-er , it acts as a derivation. ^{Derivation in linguistics}

As mentioned above, a derivation can produce a new word (or a new part of speech), but it doesn’t have to. For example, the derivation of the word “common” to “uncommon” is a derivational morpheme but does not change the part of speech (adjective).

An important distinction between derived and inflectional morphology lies in the content/function of a listeme. Derivative morphology changes both the meaning and content of a listeme, while inflectional morphology does not change the meaning, but changes the function.

A non-exhaustive list of English derivational morphemes: -ful, -able, im-, un-, -ing, -er

A non-exhaustive list of inflectional morphemes in English: -er, -est, -ing, -en, -ed, -s

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 un- or -ness. For example, unhappy and happiness 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]

Derivational patterns[edit]

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, one effect of the English derivational suffix -ly is to change an adjective into an adverb (slow → slowly).

Here are examples of English derivational patterns and their suffixes:

• adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
• adjective-to-verb: -en (weak → weaken)
• 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 noun butter to the verb to butter).

Derivation and inflection[edit]

Derivation can be contrasted with inflection, in that derivation can produce a new word (a distinct lexeme) but isn’t required to change this, 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]

As mentioned above, a derivation can produce a new word (or new part of speech) but is not required to do so. For example, the derivation of the word «common» to «uncommon» is a derivational morpheme but doesn’t change the part of speech (adjective).

An important distinction between derivational and inflectional morphology lies in the content/function of a listeme^{[clarification needed]}. Derivational morphology changes both the meaning and the content of a listeme, while inflectional morphology doesn’t change the meaning, but changes the function.

A non-exhaustive list of derivational morphemes in English: -ful, -able, im-, un-, -ing, -er

A non-exhaustive list of inflectional morphemes in English: -er, -est, -ing, -en, -ed, -s

Derivation and other types of word formation[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

• Agglutination
• Collocation
• Inflection
• Nominalization
• Word formation
• Word root

References[edit]

• Speech and Language Processing, Jurafsky, D. & Martin J.,H.