jujun@love.blogspot: Juni 2010

ngenet bareng -bareng teman ma teman sekelas

definition of derivation

Derivation is "Used to form new words, as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine. A contrast is intended with the process of inflection, which uses another kind of affix in order to form variants of the same word, as with determine/determine-s/determin-ing/determin-ed.^[1]

A derivational suffix usually applies to words of one syntactic category and changes them into words of another syntactic category. For example, the English derivational suffix -ly changes adjectives into adverbs (slow → slowly).

Some examples of English derivational suffixes:

adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise) in British English or -ize (archaic → archaicize) in American English and Oxford spelling
noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
verb-to-noun (concrete): --er (write-writer)

Although derivational affixes do not necessarily modify the syntactic category, they modify the meaning of the base. In many cases, derivational affixes change both the syntactic category and the meaning: modern → modernize ("to make modern"). The modification of meaning is sometimes predictable: Adjective + ness → the state of being (Adjective); (white→ whiteness).

A prefix (write → re-write; lord → over-lord) will rarely change syntactic category in English. The derivational prefix un- applies to adjectives (healthy → unhealthy), some verbs (do → undo), but rarely nouns. A few exceptions are the prefixes 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 verb: circle (verb) → encircle (verb); but rich (adj) → enrich (verb), large (adj) → enlarge (verb), rapture (noun) → enrapture (verb), slave (noun) → enslave (verb).

Note that derivational affixes are bound morphemes. In that, derivation differs from compounding, by which free morphemes are combined (lawsuit, Latin professor). It also differs from inflection in that inflection does not create new lexemes but new word forms (table → tables; open → opened).

Kindness is derived from kind.
Joyful is derived from joy.
Amazement is derived from amaze.
Speaker is derived from speak.
National is derived from nation.

Concrete nouns and abstract nouns

Further information: physical body and abstract object

Concrete nouns refer to physical bodies that can be observed by at least one of the senses (for instance, "chair", "apple", or "Janet"). Abstract nouns, on the other hand, refer to abstract objects, that is ideas or concepts (such as "justice" or "hatred"). While this distinction is sometimes useful, the boundary between concrete and abstract is not always clear; consider, for example, the noun "art", which usually refers to a concept (e.g., "Art is an important element of human culture") but which can refer to a specific artwork in certain contexts (e.g., "I put my daughter's art up on the fridge").

In English, many abstract nouns are formed by adding noun-forming suffixes ("-ness", "-ity", "-tion") to adjectives or verbs. Examples are "happiness" (from the adjective "happy"), "circulation" (from the verb "circulate") and "serenity" (from the adjective "serene").