8/16/2019 Inflectional vs Derivational Morphology

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Infectional vs. derivationaland morphemes.In English language, there are four main criteria which are used to make adistinction between derivational and inflectional morphemes. Theyare: productivity, order, ability to change category and relation  to grammaticalcategory and syntax.

1. Productivity

Inflectional suffixes attach to roots/stems in a very predictable way and they can beadded to almost all words in a particular grammatical category. or example, countnoun chosen by chance, almost always allows an inflected plural. !n the contrary, anarbitrarily chosen derivational affix applies only to a restricted class of bases. Inorder to prove this, I have found twenty"seven examples of inflected plural nouns ononly one page and only one derivate ad#ective which has derivational ad#ectivesuffix less on the same page. Inflected plural nouns are: years, pounds, preferences,

 folks, valedictories, discourses, musings, listeners, aromas, pillows, biscuits, sleeves,tables, dreams, sleepers, windows, timbers, canticles, tides, breakers, islands,workers, brothers, nets, mariners, eyes, and efforts. $%onroy, &''(:&)(* The onlyderivate word that I have found on the same page is an ad#ective helpless. $%onroy,&''(:&)(* +espite the fact that derivational ad#ective suffix less is uite common inEnglish language, it typically occurs with only some members of a class of morphemes. or examle, we cannot say happyless or beatyless. Inflectionalmorphemes are very productive and they typically occur with all members of a classof morphemes $for example, the plural morpheme s occurs with almost all nouns*. !nthe other hand, derivational morphemes are usually not very productive and theytypically occur with only some members of a class morpheme.

2. Order

+erivational morphemes occur before any inflectional suffixes are added. They haveto be added to the base before any inflectional affixes -reminds -$%onroy, &''(:&*0ut, inflectional affixes are attached to the base after  any derivational affixes. Inother words, they occur at margins of words, after any derivational morphemes

- remind s- $%onroy, &''(:&*

3. Category change

Inflectional affixes do not change the category of the base to which they attach -boy"boy s - noun " $%onroy, &''(:&)* 1owever, derivational affixes can change thecategory of the base to which they attach - hope $noun* - hopeless $ad#ective* "$%onroy, &''(:233*. 4evertheless, derivational affixes do not necessarily change the

8/16/2019 Inflectional vs Derivational Morphology

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base to which they are added - place $verb* - re place $verb*. $%onroy, &''(:&(* Ihave to point out that inflectional ing is different fromderivational ing. Inflectional ing is added to verb to form progressive tenses: Iwas thinking about time the other day. $%onroy, &''(: &* +erivational ing isattached to verbs to form ad#ectives: There was a disturbing apposition to the

5merican lives we were leading. $%onroy, &''(:(6* 0esides, there is the differencebetween inflectional ed and derivational ed . Inflectional ed is attached to verbs toform past tenses: In %olleton I had enter ed  into the teacher7s life of sustainedregularity. $%onroy, &''(: ()* !n the other hand, derivational ed  is added to verbsto form ad#ectives: 1e was surprised  and embarrassed  by the fuss. $%onroy, &''(:63*

4. Relation to grammatical categories and syntax

Inflectional affixes are categories that are relevant to stating the syntactic rules of the language. 0ecause of that, they are obligatory to the rest of the sentence inwhich they occur in a way that derivational affixes are not.

8he thinks you7re going to lose your shirt again. $%onroy, &''(:'&* 9e can neversay: 8he think you7re going to lose your shirt again.

8uan said you were dis pleased  when you found out that I was coaching him. $%onroy,&''(:('3* 8usan said you were pleased  when you found out that I was coaching him."5lthough the meaning is changed, the sentence is grammatically correct.

  0esides these four ma#or differences, there are other differences as well:

2. The dictionary usually lists derivative lexemes, but not inflected words.

Inflected words are rule"regulated and that7s why regularly inflected forms areusually not listed in dictionaries. +erivatioanal affixes can change both thesyntactic category and the meaning and because of that, they appear indictionaries with derivational morphemes.

&. +erivational morphemes may be prefixes and suffixes, but inflectionalmorphemes are all suffixes in English. English inflectional suffixes are alwaysfinal in the morpheme groups to which they belong.

. +erivational morphemes typically indicate semantic relations within a word,while inflectional morphemes typically indicate syntactic or semantic relations

between different words or sentences.

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