Derivation vs.

Inflection Derivation is the process of deriving a new word with new meaning by adding some bound-morpheme to a base Inflection is a change in the form of a word by adding some bound-morpheme to mark the grammatical aspect of the word such as tense, number, etc. Inflection does not result in a new word that you would separately list in a dictionary Inflectional morphemes Serves grammatical function without adding new meaning to the word -s third-person singular She waits at home present - ed past tense She waited at home - ing - en -s - s - er - est progressive past participle plural possessive comparative superlative She is eating donuts She has eaten all the donuts She is eating donuts Marys hair is short Mary is taller than John Mary is the tallest student in class

Morphology and Syntax What is achieved by inflection in one language may be achieved by word-order or the use of function words in other languages English Romnian John likes Mary John o place pe Mary

Johns school is good

Scoala lui John e buna

Word Coinage Words are coined when we create new words by some process other than derivation (e.g. adding an affix to a stem) Eponyms Back-formation Compounds Blends Reduced words Eponyms Words coined from proper names sandwich from Earl of Sandwich jacuzzi from the inventor Candido Jacuzzi

 nicotine from Jean Nicot who brought tobacco plants from Portugal to France paparazzo/paparazzi from the character Signor Paparazzo in La Dolce Vita Back-formations Words that are created by mistakenly or deliberately removing what look like affixes from another word edit from editor televise from television monokini from bikini Compounds Words created by conjoining two or more words e.g. girlfriend, watertight Sometimes spelled with hyphens or spaces between component words e.g. daughter-in-law, White House The meaning of a compound is not always the sum of the meaning of its parts e.g. hot dog Blends Words that are created by conjoining two or more words but with parts of the component words deleted at the juncture breakfast + lunch -> brunch smoke + fog -> smog info + commercial -> infomercial Reduced words Clipping Clip a part of a word to reduce its length Typically the beginning or the end e.g. fax, prof, gym, bus, phone, etc. Acronyms Concatenation of initials of multiple words e.g. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome), NBA (National Basketball Association), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), etc. Rules and exceptions Many words are inflected following a regular rule e.g. dog-dogs, push-pushed Some words are exceptions: they do not follow the regular rule The irregularly inflected forms are called suppletions e.g. child-children, eat-ate Childrens errors or inflected forms of new words suggest that speakers are aware of the regular rules e.g. goed, iPods Morphological analysis Isolate parts of words that are similar in form and meaning Two morphemes can have the same phonetic form e.g. [er] as in bigger vs. drinker

Two or more units are allomorphs of the same morpheme If they have the same meaning If their form can be predicted from their phonological environment e.g. [im], [in], [i] as in impossible, indecent, incompetent