Introduction to Linguistics, Session 6, Thursday, 2006-11-23

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Introduction to Linguistics, Session 6, Thursday, 2006-11-23


WORDS AND THEIR PARTS II
Guest Lecturer: Thorsten Trippel



DEFINING DERIVATION:
Derivation is the process of adding a morpheme to a base by which the meaning and/ or word class of the base changes!

Example derivations

BASE-------------------- AFFIX------------------ RESULT
Write (verb) ---......--------er ----------------------writer (noun)
Write (verb) -------......----ing -------..-------------writing (noun)
Write (verb) -------......---re- ----------------------rewrite (verb)
Treat (verb)--------.....-- -ment --....---------------treatment (noun)
Treat (verb) --------.....--mis- ------..--------------mistreat (verb)
Treatment (noun) -...........mis- -------------..-------mistreatment (noun)



Consequences of derivation

Suffixes change the word class of the base, prefixes the meaning!
Derived words are productive, i.e. they can be used for further word formation, either serving as a base in derivation, or they can be inflected.
The list of derivational affixes is fixed (it is a closed class).


Some English SUFFIXES

Suffix ------------Word class ---------Word class
-------------------------(base)------------ (derived)
-able ------------------verb --------------adjective
- ant ------------------verb --------------noun
- (at)ion ------------...-verb --------------noun
-er --------------------verb-------------- noun
-ing -------------------verb --------------noun
-ing -------------------verb ........................adjective
-ive -------------------verb -------------adjective
-ment ---------------.-verb -----.--------noun
-ful -------------------noun -------------adjective
-(i)al ----------------.-noun -------------adjective
-(i)an --------------.--noun ----------.---adjective
-ic ------------------.-noun ----------.---adjective
-ize ------------------noun --------.-.-.--verb
-less -----------------noun----------.--- adjective
-ous -----------------noun ----------.---adjective
-ate -------------..---adjective ------..---verb
-en ---------------.--adjective --------..-verb
-ity ------------..----adjective -------..--noun
-ize -----------------adjective -----....---verb
-ly ------------------adjective -------....-adverb
-ness ---------------adjective ----.....----noun



Some English PREFIXES
Anti-
De-
Dis-
Ex-
In-
Mis-
Re-
Un- (with adjectives)
Un- (with verbs)



Zero derivation

Zero derivation is a special phenomenon in English:
Words can change word classes without the addition of other morphemes (by adding an empty morpheme)

Examples:
BASE ------------Zero Derivation
Xerox -------------to xerox
Thread -------.----to thread
House -----------.-to house