Essay On Derivational Process

Derivational process is a morphological operation in which we are able to create a new word from an old word. In order to do that, we can add a prefix or a suffix to the certain word. For instance, by adding affixes like the suffix – ness or prefix – un, we create a new word like happiness or unhappy. Both words derive from the root word happy. Derivational process tends to take a word from a certain lexical category (part of speech) and change it to another category. For example the suffix – ly that is English derivational process, changes a word from an adjective to an adverb (quick becomes quickly). However derivational affixes do not always change the lexical category of a word. They sometimes change the whole meaning of the base and leave the category the same as it was. A prefix hardly changes the lexical category in English (write – rewrite). The prefix –un applies to adjectives (happy – unhappy)

Some of the examples of zero derivation is the word fast used as an adjective e.g. it is a fast car, as well as it can be used as a noun e.g. we usually fast during Easter. Also the word fair that can be used as a noun e.g. Take the kids to the fair or as a verb e.g. they are fair people. In order to understand zero derivation, we just have to put our cognitive abilities with understanding the meaning and its process in a sentence. And finally the word blunt, it can be used to say “a blunt knife” or even “you should blunt the knife”. Hurford and Heasley (1983) support that when we study zero derivation not one, but three processes should be carefully measured. These processes are morphological (when the form of the word changes, by adding a prefix or suffix), syntactic (when the part of speech changes) and semantic (when new meaning is developed). The zero derivation or conversion, is a result of the derivational process but with the exception of not adding any bound morphemes by the beginning or at the end of a