DERIVATION
Thursday, November 8, 2007
DERIVATION = the process by which affixes combine with roots to create new words (e.g. in 'modern-ize', 'read-er', '-ize' and '-er' are derivational suffixes). Derivation is viewed as using existing words to make new words. The inflection/derivation difference is increasingly viewed as shades of gray rather than an absolute boundary. Derivation is much less regular, and therefore much less predictable, than inflectional morphology. For example, we can predict that most English words will form their plural by adding the affix <-s> or <-es>. But how we derive nouns from verbs, for example, is less predictable. Why do we add <-al> to 'refuse', making 'refusal', but '-ment' to 'pay' to make 'payment'? 'Payal' and 'refusement' are not possible English words. We have to do more memorizing in learning derivational morphology than in learning inflectional morphology.
Labels: Morphology
