INFLECTIONAL VS.
DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY
Inflection is the process of which affixes combine with roots to indicate basic
grammatical categories of tense and plural
Cat + s= cats
Dog + s= dogs
Pan + s= pans
Plan + s= plans
Day + s=days
Talk + ed = talked
Pack + ed = packed
Kick + ed = kicked
Plant + ed = planted
Mark + ed = marked
Inflection is seen as the process of adding general meaning to existing words and not
the creation of new words
English has got three categories of meanings which are known as inflectional
categories. These are
Number in nouns
Tense/ aspect in verbs
Comparison in adjectives
INFLECTIONAL CATEGORIES
Word class to which inflection applies Inflectional categories Regular affixes used to express category
Nouns Number -s, -es, book- books , judge judges, bush –
bushes, cat- cats
-‘s Neema’s , Mum’s
Possessive
Verbs 3rd person – singular present -s it rains, Steve writes
past tense
perfect aspects -ed, painted,clapped
-ed, ha painted , has clapped
Adjectives comparative -er, taller, smaller, cleaner
superlatives -est, tallest, smallest, cleanest
Inflectional Morphology/morphemes
1. They are class maintainers, they do not change basic syntactic category: thus big,
bigg-er, bigg-est are all adjectives, cheat- cheated- verbs
2. In English, are suffixes only.
3. It cannot be recursive.
4. Once it has been added to a word, no other morpheme can be added to it, be it
inflectional or derivational.
5. It mostly performs grammatical function
6. They could come after derivational morphemes but a derivational morpheme cannot
come after an inflectional morpheme
7. Some inflectional morphemes do not even change anything in the root morpheme.
DERIVATIONAL CATEGORIES
AFFIX CLASSES OF NATURE OF EXAMPLES
WORDS CHANE IN
MEANING
Prefix – ion Nouns and Negation/opposite
adjectives
Suffix – ity Adjectives Change to noun Electric - electricity
Obese - obesity
Prefix – un Verbs and Reverse action/ Tie- untie
adjectives opposite quality Clear -unclear
Suffix -ous Nouns Change to Fame- famous
adjectives
Prefix –re Verbs Repeat action Tie- retie
Write- rewrite
Suffix –able Verbs Change to adjective/ Print – printable
undergo action of Manage-
the verb manageable
Derivation Affixes
Derivation is the process by which affixes combine with roots to create new words eg
Modern + ize = modernize
Read +er = Reader
-ize, er = are derivationsl affixes
Derivation is seen as using existing words to make new words
For example we can predict that most English words will form their plural by adding –es, or s
Another common distinction is the one between derivational and inflectional affixes.
Derivational morphemes makes new words from old ones. Thus creation is formed from
create by adding a morpheme that makes nouns out of (some) verbs.
Derivational morphemes generally
1. They are known as class changers in that they generally change the part of speech or
the basic meaning of a word.
2. Are often not productive or regular in form or meaning
3. Typically occur "inside" any inflectional affixes. x.
4. In English, may appear either as prefixes or suffixes
5. A derivational morpheme is recursive.
6. A derivational morpheme cannot be added after an inflectional morpheme
7. It changes the meaning of whatever word it is added to.
8. When you add a derivational morpheme to a root morpheme, sometimes, certain
letters are elided
Derivational suffixes: they derive new words when they are added to base words. They
affect the meaning as well as the classes of such words.
Noun derivational suffixes: They are used to derive nouns from other words. describe + ion
= description, invite + ee = invitee, jealous + y =jealousy etc
Verb derivational suffixes: these are suffixes used to derive verbs from other words. E.g.
Mode + fy=modify, length + en =lengthen, motive+ ate = motivate etc
Adjective derivational suffixes: these are suffixes used to derive adjectives from other
words e.g achieve + able = achievable, worth + less = worthless, book + ish = bookish etc
Adverb derivational suffixes: these are suffixes used to derive adverbs from other words.
foolish + ly = foolishly, clock + wise= clockwise etc
Inflectional suffixes: these suffixes unlike the deriational suffixes do not derive new words.
They only inflect the base words for tense, aspect, plurality, possession, superlatives,
comparatives, etc. In other words, they indicate grammatical functions of words. Examples:
Noun inflectional suffixes: they are used to indicate plurals. We have it in several forms: -
s(boy/boys), -es(mango/mangoes), -ies (lorry/lorries), -ves(knife/knives), -ice(louse/lice), -ia
(medium/media, stadium/stadia), -i(radius/radii), -x(plateau/plateaux), -a (criterium/criteria,
phenomenon/phenomena).
They can also show possession.
Verb inflectional suffixes: third person singular suffixese.g(walk/walks), the continuous
aspect suffix ‘ing’ eg (sing/singing), the past tense suffix ‘ed’ eg (look/looked, eat/ate), the
perfective aspect suffix e.g (see/seen, know/known)
Adjective inflectional suffixes: they are used to express the comparative and superlative
degree of adjecives e.g big/bigger, good/best, large/largest
COMMON DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL
MORPHOLOGY
Inflectional morphology maintain class while derivational change the class
Dance – danced
Cool – cooler coolest
Instruct – instructor
Lecture – lecturer
Instruct – instructor
Edit- editor, editorial
1. Number of allowable affixes
Inflectional can attach only one category while there is no limits on derivational morphology
2. Distribution
All inflectional affixes are suffixes attached at the end of a stem while derivational affixes are
both suffixes and prefixes
Clean- cleans, cleaning, cleaned, cleaner, cleanest
Friend- friendly, unfriendly, unfriendliness,
3. Order of appearances
Inflectional affixes always follow the derivational affixes in case a word has two or have both
the derivational and inflectional
4. Productivity
Inflectionals are highly productive whereas the derivationals are semi productive
5. Range of application
Inflectionals have wide range of application. It can join members of a given category eg can
join all nouns
Derivatioanls have a narrow range of application
Un- anable, unhappy, untouched etc
SYNTAX
Syntax (to put in order).
This is the study of the order of and the arrangement of words into larger units, as
well as the relationships holding between elements in this hierarchical units.
Syntax refers to the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form
phrases, clauses, and sentences
Syntax also refers to the study of the syntactic properties of a language
Syntax is the proper order of words in a phrase or sentence
Syntax refers to the format in which words and phrases are arranged to create
sentences is called syntax.
Syntax follows on rules such as order of the word and the form words in their various
possible positions.
Syntax aims at studying the structure and types of sentences such as question,
commands, of clauses such as relative or adverbial clauses, and the phrases such as
positional or verbal phrases. It is an intensive and complex area of language.
The boy cut the tree
The tree was cut by the boy
*the tree cut the boy
*the boy the tree cut
*cut tree, boy the the
The dog and the cat hid under the table
The cat and the dog hid under the table
Under the table hid the cat and the dog
*table under his the cat and the dog
*cat dog the under table hid the
*the hid under the table the cat and dog
Basic elements
Sentence - A set of words that is complete in itself, typically containing a subject and
predicate
A group of words that express a thought
Clause – a group of words that function as a sentence
There are two basic forms – independent and dependent
Phrase – a short group of words that are often used together and make meaning
A group of words that is part other than a whole a sentence
Noun phrase - NP
Verb phrase - VP
Adjectival phrase – Adj P
Adverbial phrase – Adv P
Prepositional phrase – PP
The teacher taught the students
NP VP
The boy can climb the tree
NP Aux VP
PHRASE STUCTURE RULES, (PS RULES)
1. S= NP, VP
2. S=NP Aux, VP
3. NP = Det N
4. NP – N only
5. NP = Det, N, PP
6. NP= N, S’
7. VP= V, NP
8. VP= V only
9. VP= V( NP, PP) Optionals
10. VP= V, NP, PP
11. VP = V ,S’
12. Adj P = Adj only
13. Adj P = Adj, PP
14. VP = V, Adj
15. VP = Adv, V, NP, Adv
Phrase Head Category Name
NP N Noun
VP V Verb
PP P Preposition
AP A Adjective
AdvP Adv Adverb
Examples
NP VP
the black dog found the puppy
Analyzing the phrase structure of English sentences
Step 1
set down the basic pair of branches for two principal constituents -
the Subject NP and the predicate VP - at the top of the phrase
structure
Step 2
label the syntactic category (part of speech) of each of the words that
make up the sentence
distinguish between transitive and intransitive verbs
o transitive verbs have an active subject (i.e., an agent) doing
something to an object (i.e., patient)
Step 3
locate the boundary between the subject NP and predicate VP of S
Step 4
for each N , V, Adj, Adv, and Prep, project a labeled phrasal node:
NP, VP, AdjP, AdvP, PP
Step 5
connect the remaining constituents to the nodes they belong to: link
them to the constituents they relate to
1. The dog ate the bone
S= NP, VP
2. The chef cooks the soup
S= NP, VP
3. We built a still in the woods
S= NP, VP
4. The boy walks
S= NP,VP
5. The soldiers crept silently through the trees
S= NP, VP
6. The tall boy spilled his milk
7. He looked at the dog
More sentences.
1. This lady can teach the girls
2. Nancy can slaughter the chicken
3. The boy walked into the house
4. I hate war
5. Smoking is nauseating
6. People live in houses
7. The boy is cooking ugali
8. The dog frightened the child
Types of Sentence Structures
The four basic sentence structures are the:
1. Simple: A sentence with only one independent clause.
2. Compound: Two (or more) simple sentences joined by a conjunction or an
appropriate mark of punctuation.
3. Complex: A sentence that contains an independent clause (or main clause) and at least
one dependent clause.
4. Compound-complex: A sentence with two or more independent clauses and at least
one dependent clause.
Functional Types of Sentences
1. Declarative
2. Interrogative
3. Imperative
4. Exclamatory
