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.