Morphological derivation In linguistics, morphological derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happiness and unhappy from the root word happy, or determination from determine. It often involves the addi- tion of a morpheme in the form of an ax, such as -ness, un-, and -ation in the preceding examples. Derivation stands in contrast to the process of inection, which means the formation of gram- matical variants of the same word, as with deter- mine/determines/determining/determined. [1] 1 Derivational patterns Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational sux or other ax. Such an ax usually applies to words of one lexical category (part of speech) and changes them into words of another such category. For example, the English derivational sux -ly changes adjectives into adverbs (slow → slowly). Examples of English derivational patterns and their suf- xes: • adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness) • adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise) in British English or -ize (final → finalize) in American English and Oxford spelling • adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish) • adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally) • noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational) • noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify) • verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable) • verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliver- ance) • verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer) However, derivational axes do not necessarily alter the lexical category; they may merely change the meaning of the base, while leaving the category unchanged. A prex (write → re-write; lord → over-lord) will rarely change lexical category in English. The prex un- applies to adjectives (healthy → unhealthy) and some verbs (do → undo), but rarely to nouns. A few exceptions are the derivational prexes en- and be-. En- (em- before labials) is usually used as a transitive marker on verbs, but can also be applied to adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs: circle (verb) → encircle (verb); but rich (adj) → en- rich (verb), large (adj) → enlarge (verb), rapture (noun) → enrapture (verb), slave (noun) → enslave (verb). Derivation can also occur without any change of form, for example telephone (noun) and to telephone. This is known as conversion, or zero derivation. Derivation that results in a noun may be called nominalization. This may involve the use of an ax (as with happy → happiness, employ → employee), or may occur via conversion (as with the derivation of the noun run from the verb to run). 2 Derivation and inflection Derivation can be contrasted with inection, in that derivation produces a new word (a distinct lexeme), whereas inection produces grammatical variants of the same word. Generally speaking, inection applies in more or less reg- ular patterns to all members of a part of speech (for ex- ample, nearly every English verb adds -s for the third per- son singular present tense), while derivation follows less consistent patterns (for example, the nominalizing sux -ity can be used with the adjectives modern and dense, but not with open or strong). However, it is important to note that derivations and inections can share homonyms, that being, morphemes that have the same sound, but not the same meaning. For example, when the ax -er, is added to an adjective, as in small-er, it acts as an inec- tion, but when added to a verb, as in cook-er, it acts as a derivation. [2] 3 Derivation and other types of word formation Derivation can be contrasted with other types of word for- mation such as compounding. For full details see Word formation. Note that derivational axes are bound morphemes – they are meaningful units, but can only normally occur when attached to another word. In that respect, derivation diាers from compounding by which free morphemes are 1