Morphology

UNIT 6 INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES

I. DEFINITION

1. Inflection:

Inflection is the addition of certain endings to the base of a word to express a certain grammatical
relationship in a functional aspect.

Inflectional affixes, “which are always suffixes in English, perform

a grammatical function.”

[Jackson, 1980: 53]

Inflectional morphemes don’t change the meaning and word class.

Examples: boy - boys

long-longer-longest

Some common inflectional suffixes

2. Derivation:

Derivation is the formation of a new word from an existing word, root, stem by the addition of a
prefix or suffix.

Derivational affixes often change the meanings of an existing word to form a new word and
may change a word from one word class to another.

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Examples:

True-untrue

pure-purely-purify-pureness-impure

Derivational affixes may be of two kinds:

1. Class-changing derivational affixes change the word class of the word to which they are
attached: –al added to nation makes an adjective out of a noun.
2. Class-maintaining derivational affixes do not change the word class of the word to which they
are attached. Derivational prefixes are usually class-maintaining: re–mark, dis–enthrone, un
refined, etc.

II/ CHARACTERISTICS OF INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES

1. Inflectional suffixes

- Inflectional suffixes do not form stems (that is because we can’t add anything to it)

Examples: relate-relation-relationship-relationships

- Inflectional suffixes follow derivational suffixes.

Examples: teach-teacher-teachers

- They close off the grammatical forms in which they are found.

- Unlike derivational morphemes, inflectional morphemes do not change the essential meaning

or the grammatical category of a word. Adjectives stay adjectives, nouns remain nouns, and
verbs stay verbs.

Examples:

If you add an -s to the noun carrot to show plurality, carrot remains a noun.

If you add -ed to the verb walk to show past tense, walked is still a verb.

- They are parts of the syntax of language since their use is governed by general syntactic rules.

2. Derivational affixes

- Derivational affixes often change the meanings and may change the word class.

- They form stems

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- They may be followed or preceded by other affixes

- They may form words of other grammatical classes.

- They are parts of lexicology since the structure of words themselves is controlled by
lexical rules.

3. Paradigms

A paradigm is a set of related forms of having the same stem but different affixes. We can have
inflectional or derivational paradigms.

Inflectional Paradigm Derivational Paradigm

Teacher Hot Man Depend

Teachers Hotter Manlike Dependent

Teachers’ Hottest Manly Dependence

Mankind Independent

Manhood Independently

III/ A WORD AND ITS RELATIVE DERIVATION

3.1. ADVERBS

1. Adverbs derived from adjectives:

-ly: carefully, beautifully, interestingly

2. Monomorphemic adverbs: often, soon, never, seldom

3. Adverbs without containing –ly: nowhere, everywhere, today, yesterday

4. Adverbs formed by conversion: fast, hard

3.2. NOUNS

1. Nouns derived from nouns:

- -let, -ette, -ie (small X): booklet, cigarette, doggie

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- -ess, -ine: waitress, heroine

- -er, -(i)an (inhabitant of X): New Yorker, Londoner, Texan

- -ship, -hood (state of being an X): kingship, brotherhood

- -ist, -ian (expert on X: scientist, Marxist, logician, politician

2. Nouns derived from adjectives

- -ity: purity, equality, sensitivity

- -ness: goodness, usefulness, happiness

- -ism: socialism, racism

3. Nouns derived from verbs

- -ance, -ence: performance, difference, ignorance, reference

- -ment: announcement, development, commitment

- -ing: singing, painting, building

- -(a)tion: confusion, admission, organization

- -al: refusal, denial, approval

- -er: painter, singer, swimmer, speaker

4. Some non-affixal ways of deriving abstract nouns

- Change in the position of the stress:

permit (n) /ˈpɜː.mɪt/, permit (v) /pəˈmɪt/;

tranfer (n) /ˈtræns.fɜːr/, transfer (v) /trænsˈfɜːr/;

increase (n) /ˈin.kriːs/, increase (v) /ɪnˈkriːs/

- Change in the final consonant: believe (v), belief (n); defend (v), defence (n)

- Change in vowel : sing (v), song (n); sit (v), seat (n)

3.3. ADJECTIVES

1. Adjectives derived from adjectives

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- -ish (somewhat X): greenish, yellowish

- un-(not): unhappy, unbelievable, unlucky

- in-, im-, il-, ir- (not): inedible, impossible, illegal, irregular

2. Adjectives derived from verbs

- -ing: interesting, exciting, disappointing

- -ed: bored, interested, frustrated

- -en (past participle): broken, eaten, eaten

- -able, -ible: readable, breakable, visible, responsible

- -ent, -ant: different, repellent, conversant

- -ive: repulsive, explosive, active

3. Adjectives derived from nouns

- -ful: useful, helpful, beautiful

- -less: useless, hopeless, meaningless

- -al: national, original, personal

- -ish: boyish, childish, selfish

3.4. VERBS

1. Verbs derived from verbs

- re-: reread, repaint, remarry

- de-: decompose, detour

- un-: untie, undress, unlock

- dis-: disbelieve, disagree, dislike

2. Verbs derived from nouns and adjectives

- de-: deforest, debug, delouse

- -ise: organise, modernise, nationalise

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- -ify: purify, unify, beautify

- -en: whiten, straighten

- en-, em-: enlarge, enslave, empower

3. Verbs derived by replacing the final voiceless consonant of a noun with a voiced one.

bath (n) /bɑːθ/ => bathe (v) /beɪð/

breath (n) /breθ/=> breathe (v) /briːð/ wreath

(n) /riːθ/ => wreathe (v) /riːð/

* Some common affixes for reference

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IV/ PRACTICE

EXERCISE 1. The derivational prefix un-

true - untrue

likely - ulikely

acceptable - unacceptable

wise - unwise

real - unreal

common - uncommon

natural - unnatural

graceful - ungraceful

tamed - untamed

refined - unrefined

- What word class is the base of “un-”?

- What is the word class of the resultant word?

- What is the meaning of “un-” in these words?

EXERCISE 2. Here is the new set of data with un-

tie - untie

wrap - unwrap

cover - uncover

dress - undress

fold - unfold

lock - unlock

fasten - unfasten

What word class does un- attach to?

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What is the word class of the derived words?

What does un- mean here?

EXERCISE 3. The derivational suffix –en

red - redden

black - blacken

mad - madden

soft - soften

hard - harden

sweet - sweeten

short - shorten

wide - widen

sharp - sharpen

What word class does this suffix attach to?

When –en is added to a base, what word class does the resulting word belong to?

What does –en mean here?

EXERCISE 4. Each group contains a base and a few suffixes. Match each into a word.
Complete the table below.

1 -ed, live, -en livened

2 -ing, -ate, termin-

3 -er, -s, mor, -al, -ize

4 province, -s, -ism, -al

5 -ly, -some, grue

6 -ity, work, -able

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7 in, -most, -er

8 marry, -age, -ity, -able

9 -dom, -ster, gang

10 -ly, -tion, -ate, affect

EXERCISE 5. Underline the affixes and identify them as Derivational (D), Inflectional (I)

a. princess g. quickly m. grievance

b. findings h. friendlier n. surfer

c. sunny i. shows o. satirize

d. silliest j. brotherly p. easiest

e. rechargeable k. weaker q. treatment

f. brighten l. leaner r. simplify

EXERCISE 6. Add a derivational suffix to each of these words, which already end in a
derivational suffix. Complete the table given below.

1 expression + -ism = expressionism

2 formal +
3 organize +
4 reasonable +
5 purist +
6 industrial+
7 truthful+
8 active+
9 vaccinate+
10 education+

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EXERCISE 7. Add an inflectional suffix to each of these words, which already end in a
derivational suffix. Complete the table given below.

EXERCISE 8. You are given here five bases, or words with their bases italicized. Give all the
words in the derivational paradigm. Do not include words with two bases, like ‘manhunt’ or
‘manpower’. Complete the table given below.

1 sin sinful, sinfulness, sinless, sinlessness, sinne

2 kind

3 live (adj)

4 nature

5 sensitive

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EXERCISE 9. Matching exercises

Match each expression under A with the one statement under B that characterizes it.

A B

1. noisy crow a. compound noun

2. scarecrow b. root morpheme + derivational prefix

3. the crow c. phrase consisting of Adj +N

4. crowlike d. root morpheme + inflectional affix

5. crows e. root morpheme + derivational suffix

f. grammatical morpheme + lexical morpheme

EXERCISE 10. Why is it said that inflectional suffixes are part of the syntax of the English
language?

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