Derivational Affixation

1
Derivational Affixation

• nation N
• nation al ADJ
• nation al ize V
• nation al iz ation N
• inter nation al iz ation N

2
Hierarchical Structure of Derivation

• Adjective
• un Adjective
• Noun atic
• system

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition.
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 53.
3
What do Derivational Morphemes give us?

• ? NEW words / different words
• ? RELATED Meaning, BUT NOT THE SAME (happy vs.
  unhappy)
• ? Maybe different grammatical categorymaybe not

4
What do Inflectional Morphemes give us?

• ? Same word (different tense, number,
  person/agreement, case) usually used in the
  syntax of the language
• ? Same basic meaning
• ? No change in grammatical category

5
How can knowing about morphology help you?

• ? To COMPREHEND unknown words when you encounter
  them
• ? For GUESSING unknown words
• ? To LEARN unknown / new words
• ? To MEMORIZE OR REMEMBER them

6
Productive Affixes

• -able Vable V ? ADJ
• -ness ADJness ADJ ? N
• -er Ver V ? N
• un- unADJ ADJ ? ADJ
• -ity ADJity ADJ ? N
• -th ADJth ADJ ? N
• -en ADJen ADJ ? V

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition.
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
7
Types of Accidental Gaps

• 1. Some sound sequences OK, but not used in
  English
• (e.g., blick, slarm, krobe)
• 2. Some derived forms do not exist
• no unpossible (only impossible)
• 3. Some gaps / missing word in English lexicon
• no generic common word for BOVINE (only COW and
  BULL)

8
Accidental Derivational Gaps

• permit commit transmit
• -sion permission commission transmission
• -ive permissive commissive transmissive
• -ible permissible commissible transmissible
• in- impermissible (incommissible) intransmis
  sible
• -al (permittal) committal transmittal
• -er (permissioner) commissioner
  (transmissioner)
• -er permitter committor
  transmitter

Miller, George A. 1996. The Science of Words. New
York Scientific American Library, p. 109.
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Morphological Analysis

• Adjective Meaning
• ugly very unattractive
• uglier more ugly
• ugliest most ugly
• pretty nice looking
• prettier more nice looking
• prettiest most nice looking
• tall large in height
• taller more tall
• tallest most tall

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman Nina Hyams.
2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition.
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 65.
10
Zulu (Morphology Exercise 5)

• PREFIX NUMBER ROOT GLOSS SUFFIX
  CLASS
• um- SINGULAR
• aba- PLURAL
• 
  -i NOUN
• 
  -a VERB
• faz married
  woman -i
• fan boy
  -i
• zal parent
  -i
• fundis teacher /
  teach -i / a
• baz carver / carve
  -i / a
• lim farmer / farm
  -i / a
• dlal player /
  play -i / a
• fund reader /
  read -i / a

11
Chickasaw (Morphology Ex 17 or 18)

• a. Root morphemes
• 1. chaaha to be tall
• 2. hopoba to be hungry
• b. Morphemes
• 1. -tok past tense
• 2. sa- I
• 3. chi- you
• 4. he/she
• c. ispokni to be old
• 1. chisipokni you are old
• 2. sipoknitok he was old
• 3. hoosipokni they are old

12
Samoan (Morphology Exercise 9 or 10)

• a.
• (1) they weave lalaga
• (2) they travel savavali
• (3) he sings pese
• b.
• Morphological rule for making third person
  plural from third person singular verb forms in
  Samoan
• Reduplicate the second syllable from the end.