Chapter 5

A word and its relatives: derivation

 5.6 Adjectives derived from
adjectives
• Prefixes predominate
• Un-adjectives –most dictionaries may not
even list them
• In with allomorphs such as il-ir-im as in
INTANGIBLE, ILLEGAL, IRRESPONSIBLE,
IMPOSSIBLE –see examples (22), the use of IN
is more restricted.
 Cont…
(22) eatable/ uneatable
readable/ unreadable
lawful/ unlawful
touchable/ untouchable
edible/ inedible
legible/ illegible
legal/ illegal
tangible/ intangible
 5.7: Adjectives derived from
members of other word classes
• The modifier very and the comparative
construction (more… than) show that
interesting, drunk and damaged are adjectives
—examples:
(23) a. A not very interesting book.
b. The party-goers sounded very drunk.
c. The car seemed more damaged then the
lamp- post.
 Cont…
• Suffixes that form adjectives from verbs:
-- -able to be Xed: breakable, readable, reiable,
watachable
-- ent,-ant “tending to X”: repellent, expectant,
conversant
--ive ‘tending to X’: repulsive, explosive,
speculative
 Cont…
• Suffixes that form adjectives from nouns
(27) -ful, e.g. joyful, hopeful, helpful, meaningful
(28) -less, e.g. joyless, hopeless, helpless,
meaningless
(29) -al, e.g. original, normal, personal, national
(30) -ish, e.g. boyish, loutish, waspish, selfish
 5.8 Verbs derived from verbs
• Prefixes– re and negative ones such as un, de,
dis, ex:
31 paint, enter repaint, re-enter
32 tie, tangle untie, untangle
33 compose, sensitise decompose,
desensitise
34 entangle, believe disentangle,
disbelieve
 Cont…
• Look at the columns in (35): Intransitive and
Transitive
LIE (past lay) LAY (past laid)
RISE (past rose) RAISE (past raised)
FALL (pas fell) FELL (past felled)
SIT (past sat) SET (past set)
 Cont…
• Transitive verbs are ones with an ‘object’
noun phrase, usually indicating the thing or
person that is the goal of the action of the
verb
• (36) a. Jill laid the book on the table.
• b. The book lay on the table
 Cont…
• Intransitive verbs, such as lay in (36b), lack
such an object.
• The transitive verbs in (35) are all causative
–’cause to X’ where X stands for the meaning
of the corresponding intransitive
• Involve conversion as in (37)
a. Jill boiled the water.
b.The water boiled
 5.9. Verbs derived from members
of other word classes
• Some affixes for deriving verbs from nouns
are: (38)-(40).
38 de-, e.g. debug, deforest, delouse
39 -ise, e.g. organise, patronise, terrorise
40 -(i)fy, e.g. beautify, gentrify, petrify
 Cont…
• Verbs derived by replacing the final voiceless
consonant of a noun with a voiced one, perhaps with
some vowel change too (41).
Nouns Verbs
BATHBATHE
BREATH BREATH
HOUSE[…S] HOUSE[…Z]
WREATH WREATHE
 Cont…
• The suffixes –ise and –ify can derive verbs
from adjectival bases too, as in NATIONALISE,
TENDERISE, INTENSIFY and PURIFY
 Cont…
• When the roots they are attached are bound
(e.g. CAUTERISE, SANITISE, PETRIFY, SATISFY,
MAGNIFY),it is often impossibe to decide
whether these roots are fundamentally
nominal or adjectival.
• The suffix –ate is the same.
• Suffixes play a larger role than prefixes in
English derivational morphology
 Cont…
• One prefix to be mentioned– en, with an
allomorph em
• ‘cause to become X’ or ‘cause to possess or
enter X’ from a few adjectives and nouns:
ENFEEBLE,ENSLAVE,EMPOWER,ENRAGE,
ENTHRONE,ENTOMB.
• Adjectives BOLD and LIVE as bases, the prefix
en: EMBOLDEN, ENLIVEN
 Cont…
• (e.g. TIGHTEN, LOOSEN,STIFFEN,WEAKEN,
WIDEN,REDDEN,DEEPEN,TOUGHEN)
• These verbs have either an intransitive meaning
‘become X’ or an transitive one ‘ cause to
become X’
• It turns out that the adjectives that can be bases
for deriving –en verbs are all monosyllabic and all
end in plosives (the sounds usually spelled
p,b,t,d, © k and g)
5.10 Conclusion: generality and
idiosyncrasy