Inflection
Derivation
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Different parts of speech have different variant forms
a word can take.
Noun
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Singular
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Plural
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dog
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dogs
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box
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boxes
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apparatus
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?apparatuses
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Adjective
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Positive
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Comparative
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Superlative
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tall
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taller
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tallest
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cheap
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cheaper
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cheapest
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Verb
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Non3rdsgpres
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3rdsgpres
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past
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past part.
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present part.
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walk
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walks
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walked
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walked
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walking
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steal
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steals
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stole
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stolen
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stealing
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break
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breaks
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broke
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broken
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breaking
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Forms like walk, walks, walked, walking are called the inflected
forms of the word. Affixes like -s and -ed are called
inflectional affixes. This kind of morphological combination
is called inflectional morphology.
There are lots of other affixes that aren't inflectional
affixes. For example, un- combines with happy
to produce unhappy; un- is not an inflectional
affix. The reason is productivity. Almost all nouns
nouns have plural forms. Almost all adjectives have comparative forms.
All verbs have present participle forms. But not all adjectives
have un- forms. We don't say * unhot or * untall.
In fact it's easier to come up with an adjective that isn't an
un- adjective than it is to come up with one that is.
When an affix combines with just about every member of some part of speech
we call it productive.
All inflectional affixes
have the following two properties: (a) they are very productive;
and (b) they don't change the part of speech of a word. The inflectional
forms of a verb are verbs. So when you learn how
to make the inflectional forms of verbs in a language
you've learned an important structural feature about of the language
that applies to (just about) all verbs. The affix -ness
changes adjectives into nouns (happy and happiness),
so it's not an inflectional affix.
We call the affixes that aren't aren't inflectional
derivational affixes.
The affix -ness is a derivational affix.
Just about every affix is derivational: un-, -ity,
-tion, -able, and so on. Notice some are prefixes
and some are suffixes.
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Root
Stem
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Adapted from: Bauer, Laurie (1983:20-21): English word-formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Root and stem are terms used in the literature to designate
that part of a word that remains when affixes have been removed,
but the two terms involve different classes of affixes.
A root is a form which is not further analysable, either in terms of derivational or inflectional morphology. It is that part of word-form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed. A root is the basic part always present in a lexeme.
In the form untouchables the root is
touch, to which first the suffix -able, then the prefix
un- and finally the suffix -s have been added.
Since compounds are words formed by combining words
into new words, they may have two roots.
A compound word like wheelchair has two roots, wheel and
chair.
The following diagram shows how the root of unfathomable
is fathom, much as the root of untouchable
is touch.
A stem is of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology.
A stem is what is left behind when the inflectional affixes are removed.
In the form untouchables,
the only inflectional affix is plural -s,
and when that is removed, the stem left behind
is untouchable.
In the form touched the stem is touch;
In the form wheelchairs the stem is
wheelchair.
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