Page 20 - E-book

DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY

Derivational morphemes are affixes which are

added to a lexeme to change its meaning or

function. They are used to make a new, different

lexeme (for example, -ly changes the

adjective sad into the adverb sadly).

Inflectional morphology

Inflectional morphemes are affixes which carry

grammatical meaning (for example, the plural -

s in cats or progressive -ing in sailing). They do not

change the part of speech or meaning of the word;

they function to ensure that the word is in the

appropriate form so the sentence is grammatically

correct.