Inflectional vs. Derivational
Morphology
change the part of speech or the basic meaning of a word.are often not productive or regular in form or meaning – they can be selective about what they’ll combine with and may also have erratic effects on meaning.
Derivational Morphemes generally:
typically occur “inside” any inflectional affixes. Thus in governments, - ment, a derivational suffix, precedes –s, an inflectional suffix. in English, may appear either as prefixes or suffixes: pre – arrange, arrangement
Inflectional Morphemes generally:
do not change basic syntactic category: thus big, bigger and biggest are all adjectives.
Express grammatically-required features or indicate relations between different words in the sentence.
Example: Lee love-s Kim, -s marks the 3rd person singular present form of the verb, and also relates it to the 3rd singular subject Lee. occurs outside any derivational morphemes. Thus in ration – al –iz-ation-s , the –s is inflectional, and appears at the very end of the word, outside derivational morphbemes –al, -iz, -ation. In English, are suffixes only.
Some Examples of English Derivational and Inflectional Morphemes
Derivational
- ation-ize-ic-y - ous
Inflectional
-s Plural-ed Past- ing Progressive-er Comparative- est Superlative
Properties of some derivational affixes in English:
-ation is added to a verbfinalize confirm
un – is added to a verb
tiewind
to give a noun
finalizationconfirmation
to give a verb
untieunwind
- al is added to a nouninstitutionuniverse
• - ize is added to an adjectiveconcretesolar
to give an adjectiveinstitutionaluniversal
• to give a verbconcretizesolarize
Unclear Application of Inflectional/Derivational Distinction
For example ,the suffix –ing has several uses that are arguably on the borderline between inflection and derivation.
- ing is used to indicate progressive aspect in verbs, following forms of “ to be”: She is going; He will be leaving; They had been asking. ( This uses is generally considered as inflectional suffix, part of the system for making tense and aspect in English verbs.
-ing is also used to make present participles of verbs, which are used like adjectives: Falling water, stinking mess; glowing embers
( According to the rule that inflection doesn’t change the lexical category, this should be a form of morphological derivation since it changes the verbs to adjectives.)
Another use of –ing is to make verbal nouns: Flying can be dangerous; Losing is painful. ( By the “changes lexical categories” rule, this should also be a derivational affix since it turns a verb into a noun.)
Constituent Structure of Words:
The constituent morphemes of a word can be organized into a branching or hierarchical structure, sometimes called a tree structure. Consider this word below. unusable
un-(prefix)
Use(verb stem)
-able(suffix)
(unusable)
(usable)
unlockable
un-(prefix)
lock(verb stem)
-able(suffix)
Now , let’s consider the word “unlockable.”
Figure 1 Figure 2
(unlockable) (unlockable)
(lockable)(unlock)
Morphology FAQ’s
Word( = Morpheme)• car• thank• true• succotash• under
Word Class• noun• verb• adjective• noun• preposition
1. Can a word = a morpheme?Yes, at least in the sense that a word may contain
exactly one morpheme.
2. Are there morphemes that are not words?Yes, none of the following morphemes is a word.
• un-• dis-• -ness• -s• kempt• (as in unkempt)
• prefix• prefix• suffix• suffix• bound morpheme
3. Can a word = a syllable?Yes, at least in the sense that a word may consist of exactly one syllable.
Word• car• work• in
• whoops
Word Class• noun• verb
• preposition• interjection
4. Are there morphemes that are not syllables?Yes, some of the following morphemes consist of more than one syllable; some of them are less than a syllable:
Morpheme
• under• spider• -s
Word Class
• prep.( >syll.)• noun( >syll.)• ‘plural’(<syll.)
5.Are there syllables that are not morphemes?Yes, many syllables are “less” than morphemes. Just because you can break a word into a syllable doesn’t mean it must consist of more than one morpheme.Word Syllables Comments
Kayak (ka.yak) Neither ka nor yak is a morpheme
broccoli (bro.ko.li) Neither bro nor ko nor li is a morpheme
angle (ang.gle) Neither ang nor gle is a morpheme
jungle (jung.gle) Neither jung nor gle is a morpheme
So, there is no necessary
relationship among syllables,
morphemes and words. Each is an
independent unit of structure.
What is the significance of knowing all these?
• The significance of knowing the nature of words will help us create other words and expand our vocabulary and to be able to know the meaning of words.
• It will help us relate what we learn from our studies, teach how to learn skills and help us to teach the language itself.
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