3.5 Derivational Morphemes

As demonstrated in the highlighted words in the excerpt, derivational morphemes (or affixes) are added to a base word to create a new word which differs from the base word in meaning or part of speech (or both). This process of forming words is called affixation or derivation. Complex words are derived from affixation. Words created in this way are called derivatives (complex words).

Affixation is the most common way of making new words in English. The two primary kinds of affixations are

• prefixation (the addition of a prefix) and

• suffixation (the addition of a suffix), while clusters of affixes can be used to form complex words.

1. Prefixation (Most prefixes do not change the part of speech (POS) of the original word. But some do.)

a). POS maintaining:

• • • indefinite adj. -- adj.

    • hyperactive adj. -- adj.

    • co-author n. -- n.

    • multimedia n. -- n.

    • review v. -- v.

    • e-mail, e-commerce, e-dating

    • iPhone, iPad, iPod

    • biology, biochemical, biofuel

b). POS altering:

• • • asleep v. → adj.

    • bewitch n. → v.

    • outsmart adj.→ v.

2. Suffixation (Most suffixes change the part of speech of the original words. Others make concrete nouns abstract.)

a) POS altering:

• beauty → beautiful → beautifully (n. → adj. → adv.)

• pore → porous (n. → adj.)

• discuss → discussable (v. → adj.)

• social → socialist (adj. → n.)

• assist → assistant (v. → n.)

b) POS maintaining:

• woman womanhood

(noun-concrete) → (noun-abstract)

• friend friendship

(noun-concrete) → (noun-abstract)

• profit profiteer

(noun-abstract) → (noun-concrete)

5. Multiple affixations:

Some words contain more than one affix. Take the word 'industrialization' as an example. It has three suffixes: -al, -ize, and -tion. They are added in the root word 'industry' in order, as shown in the tree diagram.

1. Watch this mini lecture from Prof. Handkle explaining how to do morphological analysis of the derivative word 'carelessness'.

2. Watch this mini lecture from Prof. Handkle explaining how to do morphological analysis of the derivative word 'overgeneralization'.

3. Diagram the words 'underestimate' 'deconstructivism' and 'antiestablishmentarianism' on a piece of paper or in an electronic file. Then upload a copy of your diagram to your e-portfolio on the course website. (This is counted as a in-class activity).