Derivational
morphemes
Viktoriya POLTAVETS SÖNMEZ
07271045
I. Morphology
• Morph (form) + ology (science of)
• -- > Morphology (the science of
word forms)
• The study of the internal
structure of words
• The rules by which words are
formed
• Traditionally, the term “morphology”
refers to the study of “morphemes”.
• But…what’s a morpheme?
I. 1. What is morpheme?
• Dictionary:
• Morpheme
• (môr'fēm')
• n.
• A meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word,
such as man, or a word element, such as -ed in
walked, that cannot be divided into smaller
meaningful parts.
• morphemic mor·phem'ic adj.
• morphemically mor·phem'i·cal·ly adv.
http://www.answers.com/topic/morpheme
• A morpheme is a piece of
phonological information that has a
conventionalized meaning arbitrarily
associated with it.
EX:
speak (v.) + -er = speaker (n.)
The “-er” that changes “speak” to “speaker” is a part of
what’s known as the derivational morphology of English.
Derivational morphology deals with morphemes that change
the lexical category of the word they are added to.
Since “-er” changes “speak”, a verb, to “speaker”, a noun, we
can say it derives the noun “speaker” from the verb “speak”.
I.1.1.Derivational
morphemes
• Far more numerous than inflectional
morphemes
• Allow productivity (involved in the coining
of new words)
• Can be prefixes, or suffixes
• Suffixes usually, but not always, change
word class
• Prefixes, usually don’t
• Derivational morphemes derive one word
from another.
• They have the following properties:
• - They affect the meaning of the morpheme
that they attach to.
• E.g. re- means to redo the process, de- means
to undo the process, un- means not….
• - They can change the grammatical category
of the word they attach to.
• E.g. noun becomes adjective, adjective
becomes verb, etc.
• - They can be used to create new words, such
as debug, reboot, unbirthday, etc.
English Affixes
(based on the position)
Prefix: An affix that
occurs before a
morpheme
Suffix: An affix that
occurs after a
morpheme
It changes the type of
meaning of the word.
It changes the
category and/or the
type of meaning of
the word, so it is
said to create a new
word.
e.g. suffix –ment in
government
English Prefixes
Examples of Negative Prefixes:
unnondisaExamples of size and degree prefixes:
mini- suboversuper-
English Suffixes
Class preserving
suffixation:
-er  lecturer
-ian librarian
-ist  scientist
-let  piglet
Class changing
suffixation:
Verb  Noun
perform
performance
Adjective  Adverb
nice  nicely
Adjective  Noun
active  activity
Some examples of English
Derivational Morpheme
•
•
•
•
•
•
-ic
-ance
-ly
-ity
-able
-ship
: Noun  Adj
: Verb  Noun
: Adj  Adv
: Adj  Noun
: Verb  Adj
: Noun  Noun
; alcohol  alcoholic
; clear  clearance
; exact  exactly
; active  activity
; read  readable
; friend  friendship
• re-
: Verb  Verb ; cover  recover
• in-
: Adj  Adj
; definite  indefinite
How to teach derivation
morphemes in the
classroom?
ACTIVITY 1.
Add the prefix un to each word.
The prefix un means the opposite.
happy
lock
zip
Un + happy =
Un + lock =
Un + zip =
Sixth grade
ACTIVITY 2.
Add the prefix dis to each word
The prefix dis means the opposite.
like
dis + like = …………………………………………….
agree
connect
dis + agree =……………………………………….
dis + connect = …………………………….
Complete the sentences. Use the negative form of the
adjectives in the box.
Comfortable,friendly, patient, polite, possible, sensitive, tidy, tolerant.
1 My bedroom is always……………………… .
2 Everyone does things differently – you shouldn’t be
……………………… .
3 It’s ……………………… if you don’t say ‘Thank you’ in
English.
4 I bought a new bed because the old one was quite
……………………… .
5 I think it’s ……………………… to get all the answers
correct!
6 He laughed at her when she was upset. He’s very
……………………… .
7 Our new neighbours are a bit ……………………… . They
didn’t say ‘hello’ this morning.
8 Wait a minute! Don’t be so ……………………… .
REFERENCES:
• Akkan, Hakan "Turkish EFL Learners' Awareness
and Use of English Morphology in Guessing the
Meanings of Unknown Words from Context: A
Case Study"
www.belgeler.com
• http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/8351/
• http://www.scribd.com/doc/61488125/Morpholog
y-Problem-Set-Turkish
• www.english.web.tr
• Yule,G. (2006). The study of language. United
Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.