Everything about Derivation Linguistics totally explained
In
linguistics,
derivation is "Used to form new words, as with
happi-ness and
un-happy from
happy, or
determination from
determine. A contrast is intended with the process of
inflection, which uses another kind of affix in order to form variants of the same word, as with
determine/determine-s/determin-ing/determin-ed.
A derivational
suffix usually applies to
words of one
syntactic category and changes them into words of another
syntactic category. For example, the
English derivational
suffix -ly changes
adjectives into
adverbs (
slow →
slowly).
Some examples of English derivational suffixes:
- adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
- adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise)
- noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
- noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
- verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
- verb-to-noun: -ance (deliver → deliverance)
Although derivational affixes don't necessarily modify the
syntactic category, they modify the meaning of the base. In many cases, derivational affixes change both the syntactic category and the meaning:
modern →
modernize ("to make modern"). The modification of meaning is sometimes predictable:
Adjective + ness →
the state of being (Adjective); (
stupid→
stupidness).
A
prefix (
write →
re-write;
lord →
over-lord) will rarely change syntactic category in English. The derivational
prefix un- applies to adjectives (
healthy →
unhealthy), some verbs (
do →
undo), but rarely nouns. A few exceptions are the prefixes en- and be-. En- (em- before labials) is usually used as a transitive marker on verbs, but can also be applied to adjectives and nouns to form transitive verb:
circle (verb) →
encircle (verb); but
rich (adj) →
enrich (verb),
large (adj) →
enlarge (verb),
rapture (noun) →
enrapture (verb),
slave (noun) →
enslave(verb). The prefix be-, though not as productive as it once was in English, can function in a similar way to en- to mark transitivity, but can also be attached to nouns, often in a causative or privative sense:
siege (noun) →
besiege (verb),
jewel (noun) →
bejewel (verb),
head (noun) →
behead (verb).
Note that derivational affixes are
bound morphemes. In that, derivation differs from
compounding, by which
free morphemes are combined (
lawsuit,
Latin professor). It also differs from
inflection in that inflection doesn't change a word's syntactic category and creates not new lexemes but new
word forms (
table →
tables;
open →
opened).
Derivation may occur without any change of form, for example
telephone (noun) and
to telephone. This is known as
conversion. Some linguists consider that when a word's syntactic category is changed without any change of form, a
null morpheme is being affixed.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Derivation Linguistics'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://derivation__linguistics.totallyexplained.com">Derivation (linguistics) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
