DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES IN ENGLISH
Abstract
This paper describes morphemes which are the smallest units of language which have meaning, especially derivational morphemes. Derivation is one of the kinds of word formation. Derivational morphemes are bound morphemes or affixes which derive or create new words by either changing the meaning or the part of speech or both. English derivational morphemes can be classified into two namely derivational prefixes and derivational suffixes. Most of the English prefixes do not change part of speech although they are derivational. The derived words undergo the change of meaning. On the contrary, Most of derivational suffixes change part of speech.
1. Introduction
Language consists of two aspects namely form and meaning. In relation to meaning, the smallest meaningful unit in language is morpheme. Morpheme is defined as the smallest meaningful unit of a language (Lim Kiat Boey, 1975 : 37). Words are made up of morphemes. The word teachers, for example, consists of three meaningful units or morphemes, teach, –er, and –s. The morpheme teach forming the word teachers has the lexical meaning; the morpheme –er means the doer of teaching; the morpheme –s has plural meaning. We can identify the meaning of the morpheme teach although it stands alone but we cannot identify the meaning of morphemes –er and –s in isolation. We can identify the meaning of the morpheme –er and –s after they combine to the morpheme teach. The morphemes which can meaningfully stand alone are called free morphemes while the morphemes such as –er and –s, which cannot meaningfully stand alone are called bound morphemes. Bound morphemes must be attached to free morphemes. Bound morphemes are also called affixes which can be classified into prefix, infix, and suffix. English only has two kinds of bound morphemes namely prefixes and suffixes. There are not infixes in English. Bound morphemes are classified into two namely derivational and inflectional morphemes. This article tries to discuss derivational morphemes. These morphemes are complicated so that understanding what derivational morphemes are is important.
2. Derivational Morphemes
As mentioned above, bound morphemes consist of inflectional and derivational morphemes. Inflectional morphemes are those which do not create new meaning. These morphemes never change the syntactic category of the words or morphemes to which they are attached (Bauer, 1988: 12). They only refine and give extra grammatical information about the already existing meaning of words which they are attached to. The word books, for example, consists of a free morpheme book and an inflectional morpheme –s. The bound morpheme –s does not change the syntactic category of the morpheme book. The bound morpheme –s does not change the lexical meaning of book. It only gives grammatical meaning which shows that the word books is plural. Book is a noun and books is still a noun.
Different from the word books which contains the bound morpheme –s which does not create new meaning of the word book, the word happiness contains a bound morpheme –ness which creates new meaning of the word happy. The bound morpheme like –ness is called derivational morpheme. A derivational morpheme is the morpheme which produces a new lexeme from a base (Bauer, 1988: 12). Sari (1988: 82) says that derivational morphemes are bound morphemes which derive (create) new words by either changing the meaning or the part of speech or both. In the word happiness, the bound morpheme –ness creates a new word by changing both the meaning and the part of speech. Happy is an adjective but the derived word happiness is a noun. Some derivational morphemes create new meaning but do not change the syntactic category or part of speech. The word unhappy, for example, consists of the base happy and the derivational morpheme (prefix) un-. Happy is an adjective and the derived word unhappy is also an adjective.
In English, derivational morphemes can be prefixes or suffixes. All prefixes in English are derivational. All prefixes in English modify the meaning although they do not modify the syntactic category. For examples, the derivational prefix in- in inefficient, un- in undo, re- in rewrite, dis- in dislike and a- in amoral modify the positive meaning to the negative meaning but do not change the syntactic category of the derived words; efficient is an adjective and the derived word inefficient is also an adjective; do is a verb and the derived word undo is also a verb; write is a verb and the derived word rewrite is also a verb; moral is an adjective and the derived word amoral is also and adjective. All the derivational prefixes explained above have the meaning ‘not’. Most derivational suffixes change both the syntactic category and the meaning. Only a few of them do not change the syntactic category. The derivational suffixes which change the syntactic category can be noun-forming suffixes, verb-forming suffixes, adjective-forming suffixes, and adverb-forming suffixes.
3. Types of English Derivational Morphemes
The rule of thumb to identify that the bound morphemes are derivational is the occurrence of new meaning creation or new word creation of the derived words. In dictionaries the derivation word is generally listed as a separate word from its base. The new meaning or the new word which occurs in the derivation process can be accompanied by the change of part of speech or not. In other words some derivational morphemes, as described above, change the part of speech and some of them do not change the part of speech. In English, derivational morphemes can be both the prefixes and suffixes.
Based on the fact described above, the types of English derivational morphemes can be classified into two, derivational prefixes and derivational suffixes. The further description can be seen below:
3.1 Derivational Prefixes
All prefixes in English are derivational so that all the prefixes in English create new meaning or create new words. The creation of new meaning can be accompanied by the change part of speech or not. Most prefixes do not change part of speech. The prefix which changes the part of speech, for example, is the prefix en-. The prefix en- changes the bases into verbs. The word enlarge for example, consists of the prefix en- and the base large. The prefix en- changes the adjective large to the new verb enlarge. The prefix en-in the word endanger changes the noun to verb. The prefix a- in aside changes the noun side to the adverb aside. The other prefixes which do not change part of speech are explained as follows:
3.1.1 Prefix un-
There are two kinds of the prefix un- in English. The first is attached to adjectives to form new adjectives, and the second is attached to verbs to form new verbs. The two kinds of the prefix un- do not change the part of speech. The prefix un- attached to adjectives means ‘not’. Fromkin (1990: 130) calls this derivation antonym or negative. Look at the following examples of prefix un- attached to adjectives:
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Adjective) (Adjective)
un- able unable ‘not able’
un- afraid unafraid ‘not afraid’
un- aware unaware ‘not aware’
un- fit unfit ‘not ft’
un- free unfree ‘not free’
un- happy unhappy ‘not happy’
un- important unimportant ‘not important’
un- intelligent unintelligent ‘not intelligent’
un- lucky unlucky ‘not lucky’
un- smooth unsmooth ‘not smooth’
un- true untrue ‘not true’
The prefix un- can also be added to the adjectives of the derived words that have been formed by morphological rules (Fromkin, 1990 : 130). The examples are as follows:
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Adjective) (Adjective)
un- acceptable unacceptable ‘not acceptable’
un- avoidable unavoidable ‘not avoidable’
un- believable unbelievable ‘not believable’
un- predictable unpredictable ‘not believable’
un- reachable unreachable ‘not reachable’
un- readable unreadable ‘not readable’
un- sinkable unsinkable ‘not sinkable’
un- touchable untouchable ‘not touchable’
Based on the examples above the rule of the prefix un- attached to adjectives can be stated as: {un-} + ADJECTIVE à new ADJECTIVE. This rule says that the prefix un- attached to an adjective creates a new adjective. The new adjective is indicated by the change of meaning. In this case the prefix un- means ‘not’
The second prefix un- joins with verbs to form new verbs. In this case the prefix un- means ‘to do the opposite of ’ (Hornby, 1986: 935). The following are the examples of the prefix un- which combines with verbs:
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Verb) (Verb)
un- bind unbind ‘to do the opposite of binding’
un- cover uncover ‘to do the opposite of
covering’
un- do undo ‘to do the opposite of doing’
un- dress undress ‘to do the opposite of
dressing’
un- load unload ‘to do the opposite of loading’
un- lock unlock ‘to do the opposite of locking’
un- tie untie ‘to do the opposite of tying’
From the examples above, the rule of prefix un- attached to verbs can be stated as: {un-} + VERB à new VERB. This rule says that the prefix un- attached to a verb creates a new verb. The new verb is indicated by the change of meaning namely ‘to do the opposite of’.
3.1.2 Prefix in-
The prefix in- is the derivational bound morpheme mostly attached to adjectives. This prefix does not change the part of speech either. The meaning of this prefix is ‘not’. Look at the examples below:
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Adjective) (Adjective)
in- accurate inaccurate ‘not accurate’
in- tolerant intolerant ‘not tolerant’
in- efficient inefficient ‘not efficient’
in- expensive inexpensive ‘not expensive’
in- fertile infertile ‘not fertile’
in- formal informal ‘not formal’
in- legal illegal ‘not legal’
in- moral immoral ‘not moral’
in- perfect imperfect ‘not legal’
in- polite impolite ‘not polite’
in- complete incomplete ‘not complete’
in- consistent inconsistent ‘not consistent’
in- regular irregular ‘not regular’
in- responsible irresponsible ‘not responsible’
in- relevant irrelevant ‘not relevant’
From the examples above, the rule of prefix in- attached to adjectives can be stated as: {in-} + ADJECTIVE à new ADJECTIVE. This rule says that the prefix in- attached to an adjective creates a new adjective. The new adjective is indicated by the change of meaning ‘not’ in the derived word. The prefix in- attached to nouns are very rare. The following are the examples of the prefix in- attached to nouns.
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Noun) (Noun)
in- balance imbalance ‘absence of balance’
in- decorum indecorum ‘lack of decorum’
in- decision indecision ‘the state of being
unable to decide’
The morpheme in- is realized by different phonetic representations depending on the phonemes following it. The phonetic representation (pronunciation) is not always symbolized by the letters. The word incomplete, for example, which is the word formation of the prefix in- and the free morpheme complete, is pronounced / iŋk∂mpli:t/ when pronounced rapidly. The phone [ŋ] is not written.
The change of phonetic representation because of the meeting of phonemes in morphological process is called morphophonemic change. The morpheme in- which attaches to the bases with bilabial phonemes in initial position will change to im-. In other words, the morpheme in- will be pronounced im- if it meets the bilabial phonemes. The examples are as follows:
Prefix Base /bilabial/ Derived word
in- balance imbalance
in- perfect imperfect
in- moral immoral
The morphophonemic process of the prefix in- to im- is illustrated as: {in-} + base (initial bilabial phonemes) à [im-].
The morpheme in- which attaches to the bases with the phoneme /k/ in initial position will change to /iŋ-/. The phone [ŋ] is not symbolized by the orthographic symbol but we can hear this sound when it is pronounced rapidly as explained above. The examples are as follows:
Prefix Base /k/ Derived word
in- complete incomplete / iŋk∂mpli:t/
in- correct incorrect /iŋk∂rekt/
in- consistent inconsistent /iŋk∂nsist∂nt/
The morphophonemic process of the prefix in- to iŋ- is illustrated as: {in-} + base (the phoneme /k/) à / iŋ-/.
The morpheme in- which attaches to the bases with liquid phonemes in initial position will change to liquid phonemes. The morpheme in- in this case will be pronounced like the phone of the liquid phonemes which follow it. The examples are as follows:
Prefix Base /liquids/ Derived word
in- legal illegal
in- rational irrational
The morphophonemic process of the change of the prefix in- to liquids is illustrated as: {in-} + base (initial liquid phonemes) à / liquids/.
The morpheme in- which attaches to the bases with vowel phonemes in initial position will be pronounced /in-/. The examples are as follows:
Prefix Base /liquids/ Derived word
in- efficient inefficient
The morphophonemic process of the change of the prefix in- with vowels is illustrated as: {in-} + base (initial vowel phonemes) à /in-/. Based on the explanation above, the morpheme {in-}has the allomorphs /im-/, /iŋ-/, /ir-/,/il-
/im-/ /iŋ-/
{in-} /ir-/
/il-
/in-/ morpheme allomorphs
3.1.3 Prefix re- The prefix re- is the derivational bound morpheme attached to verbs to form new verbs. The meaning of the prefix re- is ‘again’. Look at the examples below:
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Verb) (Verb)
re- adjust readjust ‘adjust again’
re- arrange rearrange ‘arrange again’
re- consider reconsider ‘consider again’
re- construct reconstruct ‘construct again’
re- count recount ‘count again’
re- decorate redecorate ‘decorate again’
re- pay repay ‘pay again’
re- print reprint ‘print again’
re- select reselect ‘select again’
re- write rewrite ‘write again’
Based on the examples above, the rule of prefix re- attached to verbs can be stated as: {re-} + VERB à new VERB. This rule says that the prefix re- attached to a verb creates a new verb. The new verb as the derived word is indicated by the change of meaning ‘again’.
3.1.4 Prefix dis-
The prefix dis- is a derivational morpheme which can be attached to verbs to form new verbs. This prefix has several meanings but its basic meaning is ‘not’
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Verb) (Verb)
dis- agree disagree ‘not agree’
dis- allow disallow ‘refuse to allow’
dis- appear disappear ‘be seen no more’
dis- believe disbelieve ‘refuse to believe’
dis- like dislike ‘not like’
dis- close disclose ‘allow to be seen’
dis- connect disconnect ‘take apart’
dis- continue discontinue ‘give up’
dis- obey disobey ‘not obey’
Based on the examples above, the rule of the prefix dis- attached to verbs can be stated as: {dis-}+ VERB à new VERB. The new verb is indicated by the change of meaning. In this case, the prefix dis- brings the basic meaning ‘not’ to the verb.
The prefix dis- can be attached to nouns to form new nouns. The following are the examples.
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Noun) (Noun)
dis- advantage disadvantage ‘unfavorable
condition’
dis- comfort discomfort ‘absence of comfort’
dis- harmony disharmony ‘lack of harmony’
dis- honor dishonor ‘absence of honor’
Based on the examples above, the rule of the prefix dis- attached to nouns can be stated as: {dis-}+ NOUN à new NOUN. The new noun is indicated by the change of meaning. In this case, the prefix dis- brings the basic meaning ‘not’ to the noun.
The prefix dis- can also be attached to adjectives to form new adjectives. The examples are as follows:
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Adjective) (Adjective)
dis- able disable ‘make unable to do
something’
dis- honest dishonest ‘not honest’
dis- similar dissimilar ‘not similar’
Based on the examples above, the rule of the prefix dis- attached to adjectives can be stated as: {dis-}+ ADJECTIVE à new ADJECTIVE. The new adjective is indicated by the change of meaning. In this case, the prefix dis- brings the basic meaning ‘not’ to the adjectives. The prefix dis- attached to verbs are more productive than that attached to nouns and adjectives (Bauer, 1983 : 220).
3.1.5 Prefix mis-
The prefix mis- is the derivational bound morpheme attached to verbs to form new verbs. The new meaning created by this prefix is ‘wrong’. The following is the list of verbs to which the prefix mis- can be attached.
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Verb) (Verb)
mis- direct misdirect ‘direct wrongly’
mis- judge misjudge ‘judge wrongly’
mis- match mismatch ‘match wrongly’
mis- quote misquote ‘quote wrongly’
mis- remember misremember ‘remember wrongly’
mis- understand misunderstand ‘understand wrongly’
Based on the examples above, the rule of the prefix mis- attached to verbs can be stated as: {mis-}+ VERB à new VERB. The new verb is indicated by the change of meaning. In this case, the prefix mis- brings the basic meaning ‘wrong’ to the verb.
3.1.6 Prefix pre-
The prefix re- is the derivational bound morpheme attached to verbs to form new verbs. The new meaning created by this prefix is ‘before’. The following is the list of verbs to which the prefix pre- can be attached.
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Verb) (Verb)
pre- arrange prearrange ‘arrange before’
pre- cook precook ‘cook before’
pre- determine predetermine ‘determine before’
pre- select preselect ‘select before’
pre- wash prewash wash before’
Based on the examples above, the rule of the prefix pre- attached to verbs can be stated as: {pre-}+ VERB à new VERB. The new verb is indicated by the change of meaning. In this case, the prefix pre- brings the meaning ‘before’ to the verb.
3.1.7 Prefix a-
The prefix a- is a derivational morpheme which can be attached to adjectives to form new adjectives. This prefix has several meanings but its basic meaning is ‘not’
Prefix Base Derived word Meaning
(Adjective) (Adjective)
a- moral amoral ‘not concerned with
morals’
a- political apolitical ‘uninvolved with
politics’
a- typical atypical ‘not typical ’
a- sexual asexual ‘without sex’
a- social asocial
3.2 Derivational Suffixes
Most of the derivational suffixes in English change the part of speech. The derivational suffixes which do not change the part of speech are not as many as the derivational prefixes. The derivational suffixes which do not change the part of speech are –ist in artist and dentist; -ian in musician and librarian; and -hood in childhood, neighborhood, brotherhood, and motherhood. The following is the description of derivational affixes which change the part of speech.
3.2.1 Noun-Forming Suffix
Noun-forming suffixes are the derivational suffixes which change the words or morphemes to nouns. The following is the explanation of derivational suffixes which form nouns
3.2.1.1 Suffix –er
The suffix –er attached to a verb is a derivational morpheme which change verbs to a noun. The suffix creates a new meaning ‘a person who performs an action’. The following are the examples of the suffix –er attached to verbs.
Base Suffix Derived word
(Verb) (Noun)
box -er boxer
drive -er driver
kill -er killer
paint -er painter
sing -er singer
speak -er speaker
teach -er teacher
train -er trainer
write -er writer
3.2.1.2 Suffix –ment
The suffix –ment is the derivational morphemes which can be attached to some verbs to form nouns . This suffix brings the new meaning ‘abstract noun’ . The following are the examples of the suffix –ment attached to verbs.
Base Suffix Derived word
(Verb) (Noun)
agree -ment agreement
develop -ment development
argue -ment argument
commit -ment commitment
govern -ment government
move -ment movement
3.2.1.3 suffix –ness
The suffix –ness is the derivational morphemes which can be attached to adjectives to form nouns expressing a state or a condition. The following are the examples of the suffix –ness attached to adjectives.
Base Suffix Derived word
(Adjective) (Noun)
bright -ness brightness
bitter -ness bitterness
happy -ness happiness
hard -ness hardness
lonely -ness loneliness
sad -ness sadness
3.2.1.4 Suffix –ion
The suffix –ion is the derivational morpheme which can be attached to verbs to form nouns . The following are the examples of the suffix –ion attached to verbs.
Base Suffix Derived word
(Verb) (Noun)
educate -ion education
discuss -ion discussion
act -ion action
3.2.2 Adjective-Forming Suffixes
Adjective-forming suffixes are the derivational suffixes which change the words or morphemes to adjectives. The following is the explanation of derivational suffixes which form adjectives
3.2.2.1 Suffixe –able
The suffix –able is the derivational morpheme which changes the bases to adjective. In this case, the bases can be either verbs or nouns. The following are the examples:
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Verb) (Adjective)
eat -able eatable
predict -able predictable
read -able readable
sink -able unsinkable
understand -able understandable
wash -able washable
write -able writable
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Noun) (Adjective)
comfort -able comfortable
market -able marketable
profit -able profitable
3.2.2.2 Suffix –ful
The suffix –ful is the derivational morpheme which changes the bases to adjective. In this case, the bases are nouns. The following are the examples:
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Noun) (Adjective)
beauty -ful beautiful
care -ful careful
use -ful useful
wonder -ful wonderful
pain -ful painful
3.2.2.3 Suffix -less
Like suffix –ful, the suffix –less is the derivational morpheme which changes the bases to adjective. In this case, the bases are nouns. The following are the examples:
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Noun) (Adjective)
home -less homeless
use -less useless
care -less careless
3.2.3 Verb-Forming Suffixes
Verb-forming suffixes are the derivational suffixes which change the words or morphemes to verbs. The following is the explanation of derivational suffixes which form verbs
3.2.3.1 Suffix –en
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Adjective) (Verb)
wide -en widen
ripe -en ripen
sharp -en sharpen
short -en shorten
3.2.3.2 Suffix –ify
The suffix –ify is the derivational morphemes which change the base to verb. The base can be adjective and noun. The examples are as follows:
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Adjective) (Verb)
clear -ify clarify
pure -ify purify
specific -ify specify
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Noun) (Verb)
identity -ify identify
beauty -ify beautify
3.2.3.3 Suffix –ize
The suffix –ize is the derivational morphemes which change the base to verb. The base can be nouns and adjective The examples are as follows:
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Noun) (Verb)
apology -ize apologize
memory -ize memorize
victim -ize victimize
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Adjective) (Verb)
local -ize localize
real -ize realize
mobile -ize mobilize
vocal -ize vocalize
3.2.4 Adverb-Forming Suffixes
Adverb-forming suffixes are the derivational suffixes which change the words or morphemes to adverbs. The following are the examples of derivational suffixes which form adverbs
Base Suffix Derived Word
(Adjective) (Adverb)
clear -ly clearly
beautiful -ly beautifully
careful -ly carefully
angry -ly angrily
loud -ly loudly
slow -ly slowly
happy -ly happily
4. Conclusion
Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of language. They are meaningful because they have either lexical or grammatical meaning. Morphemes can be classified into two namely free morphemes and bound morphemes. Free morphemes are those which can meaningfully stand alone while bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot meaningfully stand alone. It means that bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes. Bound morphemes are also called affixes which can be prefixes, infixes, or suffixes. Derivational morphemes are bound morphemes or affixes which derive (create) new words by either changing the meaning or the part of speech or both English only has prefixes and suffixes. Bound morphemes can be inflectional or derivational. In English, derivational morphemes can be prefixes and suffixes. In English, all prefixes are derivational but most of the prefixes in English do not change part of speech. Only several prefixes change the part of speech On the other hand, most derivational English suffixes change part of speech. Only small number of suffixes do not change part of speech.
The English prefixes which change the part of speech, for example, are en-. which changes the bases into verbs, en-which changes the noun to verb and a- which changes noun to adverb. The other prefixes which do not change the part of speech are un-, in-, dis-, re-, mis-, pre-, and a-. The English suffixes which change part of speech can be noun-forming suffixes such as –er, –ment, – ness, and –ion; adjective-forming suffixes such as –full and –less; verb-forming suffixes such as –en, –ify, and –ize; and adverb forming suffixes such as –ly.
REFERENCES
Bauer, Laurie. 1983. English Word Formation. New York : Cambridge University
Bauer, Laurie. 1988. Introducing Linguistic Morphology. Edinburgh : Edinburgh
University Press.
Jovanovich Group (Australia
University Press.
Lim Kiat Boey. 1975. An Introduction to Linguistics for the Language Teacher.
Sari, Nirmala. 1988. An Introduction to Linguistics. Jakarta
Kebudayaan.
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