Derivational Analysis 1.

Introduction This systems assignment focuses on lexis, specifically on the morphological system of derivational affixation and how it can be used to assist learners in acquiring new vocabulary. Similar to the old adage, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life, training students how to identify prefixes and suffixes and teaching them their meanings can help them both acquire new vocabulary more quickly and also become more autonomous learners. According to Thornbury, knowledge of the form and meaning of the most common affixes in English is a useful tool for unlocking the meaning of many words that might otherwise be unfamiliar (2006: 8). Michael McCarthy goes further to say that instruction about the most common affixes (prefixes and suffixes) and their meanings can benefit even very low level students (1990: 100).

2. Analysis In Working with Words, Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman identify three main ways of constructing new words in English: compounding, or adding two existing words together to make a new one; conversion, or using an existing word in a different way, often as a different part of speech; and affixation, adding morphemes to the beginning or end of a word to change the meaning or part of speech (1986: 47). They continue by stating that an understanding of all three aspects of word building is essential if the learner is to make informed guesses about the meaning of unknown items. (Gains and Redman 1986: 48) While words produced by compounding and conversion are usually introduced as regular lexical items, affixation can be taught in a more systematic way, making it a viable focus for classroom instruction. 2.1 Derivational and Inflectional Affixation There are two types of affixation derivational and inflectional. Inflectional morphemes, which are always suffixes in English, simply add a grammatical element to a word without changing its basic part of speech (Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999: 32). Because Englishs eight inflectional morphemes (such as ed, -ing, and s) convey no semantic meaning and thus cannot aid students in acquiring new vocabulary, they are outside of the scope of this assignment. Derivational suffixes, however, are used to change both meaning and use of existing lexical items. In other words, when a derivational morpheme is added to a word, it results in either a different part of speech or the same part of speech with a different lexical meaning (Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999: 31). For example, ment, as in the word achievement (achieve + ment), makes a noun from a verb, changing both the part of speech and the meaning.

Unlike inflectional morphemes, which can only be suffixes, derivational morphemes can be either prefixes or suffixes. Furthermore, according to Larsen-Freeman and CelceMurcias chart, derivational morphemes are categorized as bound morphemes (meaning that they cannot exist on their own, e.g. ment) as opposed to free morphemes (which are words themselves, e.g. achieve): English morphemes

Free

Bound

Lexical

Grammatical

Lexical

Grammatical

Major Parts of Speech

Minor Parts of Speech

Derivational Morphemes

Inflectional Morphemes

(Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999: 31)

Ferdinand de Saussure, in his famous Course in General Linguistics, agrees, arguing that a suffix has no independent existence as a form (1986: 187). However, this is misleading, as some derivational morphemes can also in other circumstances be free morphemes, or forms, in Saussures language (e.g. -less, -able, -free). 2.2 Stems and Roots Before discussing the characteristics of prefixes and suffixes, we must define the words root and stem as Saussure uses them. The stem of a word is the form of the word before any inflection is applied. Thus, the stem of waits, waiting, and waited is wait, and the stem of the word confidently is confident. The root, on the other hand, is the irreducible element common to all the words of one family (Saussure 1986: 184). The root contains no derivational or inflectional affixes, and is often not even a word. For example, the root of the word confidently is confid-, because it is the irreducible elements from the family containing confide, confident, confidant, confidential, etc.

Because English contains little inflection, there is often no practical difference between a root and a stem. For example, in the word eat, the root and stem are both eat. However, Saussure argues that despite the lack of a phonetic difference, the root contains a zero-suffix and is thus different from the stem (1986: 185), a distinction which seems purely academic.

2.3 Prefixes and Suffixes A prefix is a bound morpheme that is attached to the beginning of a stem (Saussure 1986: 186). In English, as is the case with most Indo-European languages (Saussure 1986: 186), prefixes convey only semantic meaning, and not grammatical function. According to The Grammar Book, prefixes usually perform the task of changing the semantic meaning of a word (Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999: 35), such as happy /unhappy, abortion/antiabortion, and use/misuse, though the part of speech usually remains the same. The change often, but not always, produces an antonym of the original word (Thornbury 2006: 8). According to Saussures classification, a suffix is a bound morpheme that attaches to the root of a word, forming a stem, or to an existing stem, forming a new stem of a higher degree (1986: 186). Unlike prefixes, suffixes usually dont change the semantic meaning of a word; rather, they change the part of speech (Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999: 35), such as happy (adj) / happiness (n), hate (n) / hateful (adj), quick (adj) / quickly (adv), apology (n) / apologize (v).