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DERIVATION AND ITS AFFIXES Mamedova M.A.
Mamedova Madina Ashuralieva - English Teacher, ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT, BUKHARA ENGINEERING-TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, BUKHARA, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: this article is about the derivation and its affixes, their usage in the sentences. Here are discussed in turn noun, verb, adjective and adverb derivational affixes with their examples. By the way, derivational affixes of two kinds: class-changing and class-maintaining are given with their examples.
Keywords: derivational affixes, inflectional suffixes, characteristics, paradigms, grammatical class, conversion, syllables, morphemes.
English has over sixty common derivational affixes, and there is no theoretical limit to their number. Derivations have a 'low functional load', in the sense that each single derivation occurs rarely and is limited to a few specific combinations with particular stems. Even though derivational affixes do have characteristics, which may enable us to distinguish them from inflectional suffixes, it should be noted that the distinction between the two types of affixes is not always clear-cut, e.g. the 'past participle' suffix -ed is used to form adjectives of the red-haired type.
Derivational affixes can change the word class of the item they are added to and establish words as members of the various word classes. They are inner with respect to inflections, so that if derivations and inflections co-occur, derivations are inner, closer to the stem, and inflections are outer, furthest from the stem, as shown in the table below.
Table 1. Derivation and inflection table
Example Base form + Derivation + Inflection
Frightened fright - en - ed
Activating active - ate - ing
Payments pay - ment - s
As a final observation, it must be said that derivational affixes do not always cause a change in grammatical class. The derivational affix re-, for example, derives reconsider from consider, yet both are verbs. Also, compare populate/depopulate, intelligent/unintelligent, probable/improbable.
Thus, staff and star are basically nouns, but they can also be used as verbs, with no affix as in the sentence 'The manager did not staff the restaurant properly' and 'I don't think Susan is the best actor to star in that new film'. Sometimes a word consisting of two or more syllables may undergo a change of word class, with the only indicator being a change in the stress pattern. ('Stress' as used here means the impression of more energy in the articulation of the stressed syllable, which usually results in its sounding louder and longer than other syllables in the same word. The symbol (') occurs in front of the stressed syllable.) We shall regard 'stress' as a derivational affix.
Table 2. Stress table
NOUNS VERBS
'contract con'tract
'defect de'fect
im'port 'import
Derivational affixes are of two kinds: class-changing and class- maintaining. Class-changing derivational affixes change the word class of the word to which they are added. Thus, resign, a verb + -ation gives resignation, a noun. Class-maintaining derivational affixes do not change the word class of the word but change the meaning of the derivative (i.e. the word which results from the derivation). [1]
Class-changing derivational affixes, once added to a stem, form a derivative which is automatically marked by that affix as noun, verb, adjective or adverb. The derivations are said to determine or govern the word class of the stem. We shall discuss in turn noun, verb, adjective and adverb derivational affixes. Each of them has two distinct patterns of derivation depending on the word class with which the affix is associated.
For example, nouns may be derived from either verbs or adjectives; verbs from either nouns or adjectives; adjectives from either nouns or verbs; and adverbs from either adjectives or nouns. As will be shown below, English class-changing derivations are mainly suffixes.
Noun derivational affixes are also called 'nominalizers', e.g.
Table 3. Noun derivational affixes table
VERB + AFFIX NOUN
Leak - age leakage
Argu(e) - ment argument
Betray - al betrayal
Verb derivational affixes, also known as 'verbalizers', are used to form verbs from other stems. When compared with other derivational affixes, they are rather rare. This may be accounted for by the fact that verbs are the most basic forms in English: while they are used to derive other words, they themselves are not readily derived from other forms. [1]
Table 4. Verb derivational affixes table
NOUN + AFFIX VERB
Fright - en frighten
Pressur(e) - ize pressurize
Adjective derivational affixes or 'adjectivizers' are used to form adjectives when added to a given stem. In English, adjectives are generally formed from nouns, more rarely from verbs
Table 5. Adjective derivational affixes table
NOUN + AFFIX ADJECTIVE
Season - al seasonal
Wretch - ed wretched
Summarizing our article is devoted to derivation and compounding, two of the most general and most predictable processes of combining morphemes to form new words.
References
1. Cook W. "Introduction to Tagmemic Analysis", Holt Reinhart and Winston.
