SEMANTIC 

DERIVATION
THE TYPES OF SEMANTIC
DERIVATION
• Derivation is the process of forming a new word from an existing one, often by
adding a prefix or suffix, such as un- or -ness. 
• It is differentiated from inflection, which is the modification of a word to form
different grammatical categories without changing its core
meaning: determines, determining, and determined are from the root determine.
• Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational suffix or other affix.
Such an affix usually applies to words of one lexical category and changes them into
words of another such category.
• adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
• adjective-to-verb: -en (weak → weaken)
• 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 → deliverance)
• verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer)
• However, derivational affixes do not necessarily alter the lexical category; they
may change merely the meaning of the base and leave the category unchanged:
• a prefix (write → re-write; lord → over-lord) rarely changes the lexical category 
• the prefix un- applies to adjectives (healthy → unhealthy) and some verbs
(do → undo) but rarely to nouns.
• a few exceptions are the derivational prefixes en- and be-. En- is usually a
transitive marker on verbs, but it can also be applied to adjectives and nouns to
form transitive verbs: circle (verb) → encircle (verb) but rich (adj)
→ enrich (verb), large (adj) → enlarge (verb), rapture (noun)
→ enrapture (verb), slave (noun) → enslave (verb).
• When derivation occurs without any change to the word, such as in the
conversion of the noun breakfast into the verb to breakfast, it's known
as conversion, or zero derivation.
• Derivation that results in a noun may be called nominalization. It may involve the
use of an affix (employ → employee), or it may occur via conversion (the
derivation of the noun run from the verb to run). 
• In contrast, a derivation resulting in a verb may be called verbalization ( from the
noun butter to the verb to butter).
• Inflection applies in more or less regular patterns to all members of a part of
speech (nearly every English verb adds -s for the third person singular present
tense), while derivation follows less consistent patterns (for example,
the nominalizing suffix -ity can be used with the adjectives modern and dense,
but not with open or strong). However, derivations and inflections can share
homonyms, that being, morphemes that have the same sound, but not the same
meaning. For example, when the affix -er, is added to an adjective, as in small-er,
it acts as an inflection, but when added to a verb, as in cook-er, it acts as a
derivation.
• A derivation can produce a new word (or new part of speech) but is not required
to do so. For example, the derivation of the word "common" to "uncommon" is a
derivational morpheme but doesn't change the part of speech (adjective).
• An important distinction between derivational and inflectional morphology lies in
the content/function of a listeme. Derivational morphology changes both the
meaning and the content of a listeme, while inflectional morphology doesn't
change the meaning, but changes the function.
• Derivational patterns differ in the degree to which they can be called productive. A
productive pattern or affix is one that is commonly used to produce novel forms.
For example, the negating prefix un- is more productive in English than the
alternative in-; both of them occur in established words, but faced with a new
word which does not have an established negation, a native speaker is more
likely to create a novel form with un- than with in-. The same thing happens with
suffixes. But the suffix -ist is more productive and, thus, can be found more often
in word formation not only from proper names.
• Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred by the name of something closely associated
with that thing or concept.

• Polysemy, the capacity for a word or phrase to have multiple meanings, sometimes results from relations of
metonymy. Both metonymy and metaphor involve the substitution of one term for another. In metaphor, this
substitution is based on some specific analogy between two things, whereas in metonymy the substitution is based
on some understood association or contiguity
• Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers
to the whole of something or vice versa.
• A synecdoche is a class of metonymy, often by means of either mentioning a part
for the whole or conversely the whole for one of its parts.
   Examples from common English expressions:
• suits for businessmen 
• wheels for car
• boots for soldiers.