2. 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:
3. 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
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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
7. Properties of some derivational
affixes in English:
-ation is added to a
verb
finalize
confirm
un – is added to a
verb
tie
wind
to give a noun
finalization
confirmation
to give a verb
untie
unwind
8. - al is added to a
noun
institution
universe
• - ize is added to an
adjective
concrete
solar
to give an
adjective
institutional
universal
• to give a verb
concretize
solarize
9. 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.
10. -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.)
11. 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.)
12. 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)
16. 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.
17. 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
18. 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
19. 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.)
20. 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
21. So, there is no
necessary relationship
among syllables,
morphemes and
words. Each is an
independent unit of
structure.
22. 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.
