Derivational Morphology and Word Classes

The process of creating new words by adding affixes (prefixes or suffixes) to existing words, changing the word's meaning and often its lexical class.

A unit of meaning that stands alone as a word and can be used in a sentence, represented by a base form like 'help'.

The process of adding affixes to a word to modify its meaning or grammatical function without changing its core meaning.

Words that can be extended by adding affixes, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Words that are limited in number and cannot be easily extended by adding affixes, including determiners, conjunctions, pronouns, and prepositions.

The process of creating a new word by changing the lexical category of an existing word without adding any affixes. For example, 'run' (verb) becoming 'a run' (noun).

The part of a word that remains after removing any affixes, providing the core meaning of the word.

Prefixes or suffixes that are added to a base word to create a new word with a different meaning or lexical category

The process of forming new words by adding prefixes or suffixes to existing words, changing the word's meaning and often its grammatical category.

A prefix that means 'remove' or 'reverse' when attached to verbs. It is used to create words with opposite meanings.

A suffix used to form verbs from nouns or adjectives. It often means 'to make' or 'to treat as'.

A suffix used to form verbs from nouns or adjectives, often meaning 'to make' or 'to become'.

A suffix that can be used to derive verbs from nouns, adjectives, or, rarely, other verbs. It can indicate an action or process related to the base word.

The process of creating new nouns by adding a suffix to another noun, often signifying a related concept or quality.

The process of creating new adjectives by adding a suffix to an existing noun, often signifying a characteristic or quality associated with that noun.

The process of creating new verbs from existing nouns,often signifying an action related to the noun.

The process of creating new verbs from adjectives, often signifying the action of making something have that quality.

A suffix that means 'property of being X,' where X is the base adjective. It transforms adjectives into nouns. e.g., purity, equality, ferocity.

A suffix that means 'property of being X,' where X is the base adjective. It transforms adjectives into nouns. It is the most widely applicable suffix for this purpose. e.g., happiness, fierceness, sensitiveness

A suffix that means 'property of being X,' where X is the base adjective. It transforms adjectives into nouns. e.g., conservatism, radicalism.

A suffix that forms nouns from verbs, denoting 'action or consequence of Xing,' forming abstract nouns. e.g., performance, ignorance, reference, convergence.

A suffix that forms nouns from verbs, denoting 'action or consequence of Xing,' forming abstract nouns. e.g., announcement, commitment, development, engagement.

A suffix that forms nouns from verbs, denoting 'action or consequence of Xing,' forming abstract nouns. e.g., painting, singing, building, ignoring.

A suffix that forms nouns from verbs, denoting 'action or consequence of Xing,' forming abstract nouns. e.g., denunciation, commission, organisation, confusion.

A suffix that forms nouns from verbs, denoting 'action or consequence of Xing,' forming abstract nouns. e.g., refusal, arrival, referral, committal.

A suffix that primarily forms nouns expressing a person who does the action denoted by the accompanying verb (agent nouns). e.g., painter, singer, organiser, grinder.

A suffix that means 'somewhat X,' where X is the base adjective. It forms adjectives from other adjectives. e.g., greenish, yellowish, smallish.

A prefix that means 'not.' It negates the meaning of the base adjective. e.g., ungood (bad), unjust, unable, unhappy.

A negative prefix with allomorphs il-, im-, ir-, and in-. It negates the meaning of the base adjective. e.g., illegal, impossible, irresponsible, intangible.

A prefix that means 'repeated action.' Attaching it to a verb indicates the action is done again. e.g., rewatch, rewash

Prefixes used to negate or reverse the action of the base verb. e.g., untie, untangle; denominalize, decompose; dismiss, discharge

The process of forming verbs from other verbs, primarily using prefixes. There is no suffix used in this process.

A word class is a group of words that share similar grammatical properties and functions in a language.

Word classes are often referred to as parts of speech in traditional grammar and lexical categories in modern linguistics.

The assumption that a word's class is primarily determined by its meaning is incorrect. For instance, "perform" and "performance" both refer to the same activity but belong to different word classes due to their grammatical behavior.

Word classes are determined by the grammatical behavior of words, including how they are inflected (changed) and how they function in sentences.

Some adverbs are derived from adjectives by adding the suffix -ly. Examples include "quickly" from "quick" and "slowly" from "slow."

Not all adverbs end in -ly. Some are simple (e.g., "often," "always") while others are morphologically complex but lack the -ly suffix (e.g., "nowhere," "everywhere").

Conversion is the process of creating a new word class from an existing one without any change in form. For example, "fast" (adjective) can be used as an adverb (e.g., "The car drove fast").

Derivational morphology involves adding affixes (prefixes or suffixes) to create new words or change their word class.

Derivational morphology can change the word class of a base word. For example, adding -ly to an adjective forms an adverb.

The process of adding the suffix -ess to a noun often indicates a female version of the noun. For example, "actress" refers to a female actor.

Suffixes like -ship, -hood, -let, -ette indicate states of being, size, or specific categories. Examples include "friendship," "brotherhood," "piglet," and "cigarette."

The suffix -er often indicates a person associated with a particular activity or profession. Examples include "guitarist" and "librarian."

Nouns can be derived from adjectives and verbs. For example, "happiness" is derived from the adjective "happy" and "arrival" is derived from the verb "arrive."

Derivational morphology doesn't always create a new word class. Some suffixes like -ist or -ian create new nouns within the same class (e.g., guitarist, Marxist).

The existence of some derived words, like 'actress,' is arbitrary, meaning there is no logical reason why one exists while others don't (e.g., 'writress').