Derivational affixes are Immediate Constituents of derived words in all parts of speech.
Derivational affixesare added to derivational bases.
Affixes can be of two types: prefixes and suffixes.
Major Types of Word-formation
Prefixes modify the lexical meaning but rarely transfer a word into a different part of speech: hear (v) → overhear (v), fair (adj) → unfair (adj), president (n) → ex-president (n), etc.
Suffixes also modify the lexical meaning but not necessarily transfer a word into a different part of speech: king (n) → kingdom (n), book (n) → bookish (adj), rapid (adj) → rapidly (adv), etc.
Major Types of Word-formation
A derivational pattern is a regular meaningful arrangement, which imposes rigid rules on the order and the nature of the derivational base and affixes that may be brought together to create a new word.
Derivational patterns are also known as structural formulas. Here are some examples of derivational patterns: n + -sf → N (friend + ship), v + -sf → N (sing + er), etc.
Major Types of Word-formation
Conversion is the formation of a new word by putting a stemof the already existing word into a different paradigm ( fly (noun) – fly (verb)), thus, by changing the category of a part of speech without adding any derivative elements, so that the original and the converted words become homonyms.
E.g., the paradigm of the verbfly → fly, flies, flying, flew, flown,
the paradigm of the nounfly → fly (sg) and flies (pl).
Major Types of Word-formation
Conversion is highly-productive and widely-spread among verbs and nouns. Converted words can sound extremely colloquial, e.g. I’ll microwave the chicken for you.
Conversion can be explained by the analytical character of the English language, deficit of inflections and abundance of monosyllabic and disyllabic words in different parts of speech.
