Derivational morphemes add new meanings and can change the part of speech of a word, creating new words. Inflectional morphemes do not change meaning or part of speech but add grammatical information like number, tense, or comparison. Derivational morphemes are less productive and more unpredictable in meaning than inflectional morphemes.

1. •Root + Derivational Morpheme  a new word with a
new meaning. (usually change grammatical class)
create new words, listed in the dictionary (ex)
happy vs. Happiness;
•not required by syntax
•not very productive
(ex) dis-like, *dis-hate (ungrammatical)
•in English, can be prefixes or suffixes

2. •Root + Derivational Morpheme  a new word with a
new meaning. (usually change grammatical class)
change the part of speech or the meaning of a word;
(ex) part-of-speech: us-able (Verb  Adj),
trouble-some (N Adj), happi-ness (Adj  N),
judg-ment (VN), symbol-ize (NV),
happi-ly (Adj  Adv)
(ex) meaning:
anti-feminist, dis-comfort, ex-boyfriend,bi-sexual
(ex) both: use-less (VAdj)

3. • Inflectional morphemes have grammatical meaning or
function in the sentence.
 do not change meaning or part of speech, just add
extra grammatical information
 not listed in the dictionary
 in English, only suffixes
 Ex: Bound morphemes s (PLU, GEN) shoe, shoes, shoe’s
 nouns
• Other example
• Bound Morpheme ‘to’  in connection with a verb (‘ an
infinitive with to’)
• Bound Morphemes: Ex. –s, -ed
• He sails the ocean blue.
• He sailed the ocean blue.

4. • -s third-
person singular • She waits at home.
present
• She waited at home.
• -ed past tense • She is eating the donuts.
• -ing • Mary has eaten the donuts.
progressive • She ate the donuts.
• -en past • Lisa’s hair is short.
participle • Lisa has shorter hair than Kate.
• -s plural • Lisa has the shortest hair.
• -’s possessive
• -er comparative
• -est
superlative

5. Derivational Inflectional
further from
position closer to stem
stem
productive?* (often) no (usually) yes
(often)
meaning? predictable
unpredictable
*Productivity = the extent to which a
word-formation rule can be applied to
new morphemes, to form new words;

7. • Affix: a morpheme that comes at the beginning
(prefix) or the ending (suffix) of a base
morpheme.
• Note: An affix usually is a morpheme that
cannot stand alone.
• Examples: -ful, -ly, -ity, -ness. A few
exceptions are able, like, and less.

8. • Prefix: an affix that comes before a
base morpheme. The in in the word
inspect is a prefix.
• Suffix: an affix that comes after a
base morpheme. The s in cats is a
suffix.

9. Prefixes Suffixes
Bound morphemes which occur Bound morphemes which occur
only before other morphemes. following other morphemes.
Examples: Examples:
un- (uncover, undo) -er (singer, performer)
dis- (displeased, disconnect), -ist (typist, pianist)
pre- (predetermine, prejudge) -ly (manly, friendly)

10. • What is the difference in meaning
between apple and apples?
• What is the difference in form?
• What does this tell you about these
two words?

11. • Words can have an internal structure much
like the syntax of phrases.
• Morphemes such as the, -s, and re- near the
grammatical end of the continuum are called
grammatical morphemes.
• Note that grammatical morphemes include
forms that we can consider to be words like
the, a, and, and of and others that make up
parts of words like –s and -ed.
• Examples.
pencils walked

15. • Content words denote concepts such
as subjects, actions, and ideas
noun, verb, adjective, adverb
• Content words are open class words
new words can be added
• Example of new words :
Steganography the art of hiding
information in electronic text

16. • Function words express Grammatical
Functions
e.g., preposition, article, conjunctions, pro
nouns
• Function words connect the content
words to the larger grammatical context.
• Function words are also called ‘closed
class’ words no new words added to this
class.