Overview: Verbal Derivation

Verbal Derivation Goals: 

• To Identify…

  • 1. • Verb to noun derivational morphemes

       • Verb to verb derivational morphemes

       • Phonological changes in derived forms

• To Determine…

  • 1. • The underlying form for each derivational morpheme 

       • How to write derivational affixes 

Key Concepts: 

• • Verb

  • Noun

  • Root

  • Morpheme

  • Derivation

  • Derivational meanings (agentive, causative, passive, etc., as applicable)

Time Estimate: 

1-2 days 

Materials Needed: 

• • Curated list of 50 verbs, representing all tone classes and stem structures (as applicable)

  • Notebooks

  • Writing utensils (Pens, pencils, etc.) 

  • Lecture board plus chalk/markers

Discuss Word Derivation

The workshop leader should begin this session by presenting examples of how various morphemes can be added to words to change their meaning, using examples from the LWC and/or other languages in the area. 

Identify Derivational Morphemes

After the presentation on example word derivations, the workshop team can proceed to discovering different verb to noun derivations that exist in the language being researched (agentives, for example).* For each derivational morpheme discovered, the group should determine its underlying form and its allomorphs. The team should then take time to discuss how the morpheme will be written. 

Next, the group should identify verb to verb derivations, such as causatives and passives. It is recommended to research at least 4 or 5 productive extensions (if applicable). Once again, the team should determine the underlying form and allomorphs for each derivational morpheme. Afterwards, the group can make provisional decisions on how these morphemes should be written. 

*Some of these may have already been discovered while studying nominal morphology in Unit 2. 

Create an Orthography Guide for Derivational Morphemes

Create a simple orthography guide for writing derived words, along with examples. 

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