Morphological derivation
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Morphological derivation, in
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a
prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
or suffix, such as For example, ''unhappy'' and ''happiness'' derive from the root word ''happy.'' It is differentiated from
inflection In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
, 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''.


Derivational patterns

Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational suffix or other
affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are Morphological derivation, derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as ''un-'', ''-ation' ...
. Such an affix usually applies to
word A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...
s 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 An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
into an
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
(''slow'' → ''slowly''). Here are examples of English derivational patterns and their suffixes: * adjective-to-
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
: ''-ness'' (''slow'' → ''slowness'') * adjective-to-
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
: ''-en'' (''weak'' → ''weaken'') * adjective-to-adjective: ''-ish'' (''red'' → ''reddish'') * adjective-to-
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
: ''-ly'' (''personal'' → ''personally'') * noun-to-
adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
: ''-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''). Some words have specific exceptions to these patterns. For example, ''inflammable'' actually means ''flammable,'' and ''de-evolution'' is spelled with only one ''e,'' as ''devolution.''


Derivation and inflection

Derivation can be contrasted with
inflection In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
, in that derivation produces a new word (a distinct
lexeme A lexeme () is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning, a unit of morphological analysis in linguistics that roughly corresponds to a set of forms ta ...
), whereas inflection produces grammatical variants (or forms) 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, derivations and inflections can share homonyms, that being, morphemes that have the different 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. A derivation can produce a lexeme with a different part of speech but does not necessarily. For example, the derivation of the word ''uncommon'' from ''common'' + ''un-'' (a derivational morpheme) does not change its part of speech (both are adjectives). An important distinction between derivational and inflectional morphology lies in the content/function of a listeme. 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

Derivation can be contrasted with other types of word formation such as compounding. 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 linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
in that inflection does not create new
lexeme A lexeme () is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning, a unit of morphological analysis in linguistics that roughly corresponds to a set of forms ta ...
s 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 In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
* Nominalization * Word formation * Word root


References

{{reflist *Speech and Language Processing, Jurafsky, D. & Martin J., H. Linguistic morphology Etymology