Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dio
Bachelor Program in English Language Tea
Structures and Functions of Language
Student Name: ____________________________________ ID ________________ NRC _________________
Week: FOUR
DERIVATIONAL AND INFLEXIONAL MORPHOLOGY
There are two main types of word-building involving bound morphemes. The first is called
INFLECTION. Examples of inflection are the plural -s which is added to nouns (dog-s), the past tense -ed
which is added to regular verbs (bark-ed) and the comparative -er which is added to adjectives (louder).
Inflection adds some functional information to the element to which it is added, but does not drastically
change the meaning of the word.
The second type of word-building is called DERIVATION and it changes the category or at least the
meaning of the element to which it is added. An example is the difference between run and runner; by
adding -er we change the meaning from an activity to a person involved in that activity. Another example
of derivation is when un-, in- or im- is added to a word to make it negative: unhappy, indiscreet or
impossible. Both types of word-building involve affixation; that is, the addition of bound morphemes (or
affixes) to a word stem. Accordingly, we can identify two types of affixes by their function –
INFLECTIONAL and DERIVATIONAL.
DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY
There are morphemes in English that are called derivational morphemes because when they are
conjoined to the other morphemes (or words) a new word is derived or formed. The new word may have
a new meaning than in the original word and may even be in a different grammatical class than the
underived word.This, when a verb is siffixed with –able, the result is a an dejetive as in:
desire +able or adore +able. Or, when the suffix –en is added to an adjective, a verb may be derived, as
in dark+en. One may form a noun from an adejctive, as in sweet +ie. A few other examples are:
Some of the morphological rules are productive, meaning that they can be used freely to form new words
from the list of free and bound morphemes. The suffix -able appears to be a morpheme that can be
conjoined with any verb to derive an adjective with the meaning of the verb and the meaning of -able ,
which is something like “ able to be” as in accept +able, blame+able , pass+able, change+able,
breath+able, adapt + able and so on. The meaning of able has also been given as “ fit for doing” or fit for
being done”
1. VERB + able = “ able to be VERB –ed”
e.g accept + able = able to be accepted
The productivity os this rule is illustrated by the fact that we find -able in such morphologically complex
words as un + speakabl(e) + y
un + come +at+able.
We have already noted that there is a morpheme in English meaning “ not” which has the form un – and
which, when combined with adjectives like afraid, fit , free, smooth, American, and British, forms the
antonyms, or negatives, of these adjectives; for example: unafraid, unfit, un. American and so on.
We can also add the prefix un – to derived words that have been formed by morphological rules:
The rule that forms these words may stated as:
2
un + ADJECTIVE = NOT ADJECTIVE
We yet find happy and unhappy, cowardly and uncowardly, but no sad and unsad or brave and unbrave.
The starred forms that follows may be merely accidental gaps in the lexicon. The rule seems to be
freely applicable to an adejective form
derived from a verb
as in unenlightened, unsiplified,
uncharacterized, unauthorized, undistinguished,
Howeever, that one can not always know the meaning of the words derivaded from free and derivational
morphemes from the morphmes themselves.
Therefore, although the words in a language are not the most elemental sound-meaning units, they ( plus
the morphemes) must be listed in our dictionaries. The morphological rules also are in he gramamr,
revelaing the relation betwwen words and proving the means for forming new words.
Morphological rules may be more or less productive. The rule that adds an -er to verbs to verbs in
english to produce a noun menaing “ ones who perfomn and action once or habiltually” appears to be
very productive morphlogical rule; most english verbs accept this suffix: lover, hunter, preductor
(notice qthat –or and -er have the same pronunciation), examiner, exam- taker, analyzer and so forth.
Now concider the folloging:
The suffix –ity found in many other words in English like chastity, scarsity, and curiosity; and -th occurs in
health, wealth, depth,width and groth. We find -en in saddden, ripen, redden, weaken, deepen. Still the
phrase * the fiercity of the lion sounds somewhat strange, as does the sentences * I am going to thinnen
the sauce. Somenone could use the word coolth, but when such words as fircity, fullen, coolth are used,
ususually ir is either an error or an attemp at humor.
It is possible that in such cases a morphological rule that was once productive is no longer so. Our
knowledege is the related pairs, however, may permit us to use these examples in forming new words, by
the analogy with exiting lexical items.
INFLEXIONAL MORPHEMES
Inflexional morphemes never change the syntactic
category of the words or morphemes to which they are
attached. They are always attached to complete words.
Consider the forms of the verbs in the following
sentences:
English is no longer a highly inflected language. But we
do have other inflected endings. The plurality of many counts nouns, for example boy / boys and cat /
cats. At the present history of English there are eight bound inflexional affixes:
The eight English inflectional morphemes
EXERCISES
I. Identifying morphemes The following piece is taken from ‘Here Comes the Son’, a review of the film
about John Lennon (N#803:48). Divide each word into morphemes and indicate whether each morpheme
is free or bound. If bound, state whether derivational or inflectional. Discuss any problems which you
encountered in your analysis.
“ But here we have Nowhere Boy, a new biopic of John Lennon, and the surprise is that it’s rather fresh
and watchable. Director Sam Taylor Wood avoids the Beatles clichés by focusing on John’s early years,
before he left for Hamburg with Paul and George, and long before he became more famous than Jesus”
Bound morphemes
Free morphemes
Derivational
II. Complete the tables by adding suffixes and mark the stress on each other.
Inflexonal
IV. Write down an adjective or adjectives formed from these nouns or verbs.
Thought
Attracct
dirt
care
pain
knowledge
comfort
fame
Create
dander
suit
rely
Fog
politics
sun
wash
Home
enjoy
music
break
Use
V. write the one proper description fron the list under B for each word in A.
A
B.
a. terrorized
______
1. free root
b. uncivilized
______
2. Bound root
c. torrorize
______
3. Iflexional suffix
d. lukewarm
______
4. Derivational suffix
5. inflexional prefix
6. derivational prefix
PREFFIXES ANTI / ANTE.
When the meaning is ‘before’ or ‘in front of’, you need to use ANTE-. It comes from the Latin
word ANTE which has the same meaning. ANTE- is used to form words like ANTENATAL (= before birth)

When the meaning is ‘against’ or ‘preventing’, you need to use anti-, which comes from the Greek
word anti. It's used to form words such as antifreeze (= a substance that prevents water from freezing)
or antidepressant (= a drug used to relieve depression).

Words which begin with anti- are sometimes hyphenated, typically when the word following antibegins with a vowel (e.g. anti-aircraft, anti-inflammatory) and always when the base word begins with
a capital letter (e.g., anti-American).
1. Write the correct prefix anti or ante to the following words.
_____biotic
_____diluvian
_____depressant
_____natal
_____hero
_____chamber ______abortion
______clockwise
_____bellum
______date
Derivational and Inflectional Affixes For each word below, indicate whether the word is morphologically simple (S), includes an
inflectional affix (I), or includes a derivational affix (D).
1. rider ____
6. radish ___
2. Reader ____
7. lens
_____
3. colder
8 . redness
___
_____
4. redder
9. legs ____
___
5. silver ___
10. rotation _____
TREE DIAGRAM
Derivation:
1. Dividing it up with hyphens
e.g. truth-ful-ness
truth
=
truthful =
one morpheme
base form + bound morpheme
truth-ful
truthfulness = base form + bound +
bound
truth-ful-ness
Now we can represent word in the tree diagram.
I. Represent these words in a three diagrama.
a)
unkindnesses, b) distasteful, c) activate d) confrontational e) digitalizes f) disengagement g) unlockable
i) unpalatable
Examples:
h) endearment