inflectional or derivational suffix?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Fame

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2005
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
English
Home Country
Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
-->inflectional (grammatical) (e.g. –ed, -ly, -‘s, -s, -er, -ed, -es, -est, -ing: if it is used to turn a verb into e.g. present participle: example: break -->breaking, eat-->eating)

-->derivational (lexical): words formed by the attachment of lexical affixes are derived from other words, and derivational affixes are those affixes which help in this derivation (e.g. dis-, re-, in-, be-, en-, -ly, -ance, -able, -ize, -ish, -like, -ment, -ing: if it is used to turn the verb into a noun: example: build --> a building, two buildings, nourish-->nourishing)

I know sometimes when a word carries inflectional or derivational suffix, but sometimes it's a bit confusing. Please help confirm if I'm correct with these examples(inflectional is in bold, derivational underlined):
1. He participates quite happily in the communal walks.
2. For some time I have known of her insensitivity to my feelings.
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
-->inflectional (grammatical) (e.g. –ed, -ly, -‘s, -s, -er, -ed, -es, -est, -ing: if it is used to turn a verb into e.g. present participle: example: break -->breaking, eat-->eating)

-->derivational (lexical): words formed by the attachment of lexical affixes are derived from other words, and derivational affixes are those affixes which help in this derivation (e.g. dis-, re-, in-, be-, en-, -ly, -ance, -able, -ize, -ish, -like, -ment, -ing: if it is used to turn the verb into a noun: example: build --> a building, two buildings, nourish-->nourishing)

I know sometimes when a word carries inflectional or derivational suffix, but sometimes it's a bit confusing. Please help confirm if I'm correct with these examples(inflectional is in bold, derivational underlined):
1. He participates quite happily in the communal walks.
2. For some time I have known of her insensitivity to my feelings.

"The distinction between inflection and word-formation [derivation] is not at all clear-cut. There are many examples where linguists fail to agree whether a given rule is inflection or word-formation. The next section will attempt to clarify this distinction." Look here:
Morphology (linguistics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Note that you've given "ing" as both an inflectional as well as a derivational suffix.
Any suffix that transforms a base word, such as "know" into a different tense, etc. without changing the meaning of the underlying word is inflectional. So an inflectional change for grammatical purposes in inflectional.
If you are forming a new word, with a different underlying meaning from the base word (ie. not simply for grammatical correctness) you're adding a derivational suffix.
Consider "feelings". The base word is "feel". I would call the "ings" derivational because "feelings" is a different word. This contrasts with "feeling" as the present participle of "feel". Here the "ing" is inflectional.

Here's my guess: Blue - inflectional, Red - derivational.
1. He participates quite happily in the communal walks.
2. For some time I have known of her insensitivity to my feelings.
common -> commune (derivational) -> communal (inflectional)
sense -> sensitive (derivational) -> insensitive (derivational) -> insensitivity (inflectional)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top