Comparison of inflection and derivationInflection is variation in the form of a word, typically by means of an affix, that expresses a grammatical contrast which is obligatory for the stem’s word class in some given grammatical context. Derivation may be exactly defined as a process of forming new words by the addition of a word element, such as a prefix, suffix or combining form, to an already existing word. The basic distinction between inflection and derivation is mainly morphological. Inflection results in the formation of alternative grammatical forms of the same word, while derivation creates new vocabulary items. Such as the verb work becomes worker if we add the derivational morpheme –er. The adjective poor becomes poorer if we add the inflectional morpheme –er. So, the suffix form –er can be an inflectional morpheme as part of an adjective and also a derivational morpheme as part of the noun.Inflectional operations create forms that are fully grounded and able to be integrated into discourse, whereas derivational operations create stems that are not necessarily fully grounded and which may still require inflectional operations before they can be integrated into discourse. Following is the comparison of inflection and derivation. First in lexical category inflection don’t change the lexical category of the word. But the derivation often change it. In location, inflection tend to occur outside derivational affixes while the derivation tend to occur next to the root. At the type of meaning, inflection contribute syntactically conditioned information, such as number, gender, or aspect while derivation contribute lexical meaning. At affixes used, inflection occur with all or most members of a class of stems, but the derivation are restricted to some, not all members of a class of stems. About productivity and grounding, inflection may be used to coin new words of the same type and create forms that are fully-grounded and able be integrated into discourse, while derivation create forms that are not necessarily fully grounded and may require inflectional operations before they can be integrated into discourse. As mentioned by Finegan and Besnier, English today has only eight remaining inflectional morphemes, two on nouns, four on verbs, and two on adjectives, as shown in the following : Noun include plural(like cars) and possessive(like car’s). Verb include third person(like swims), past tense(like showed), past participle(like shown) and present participle(like showing). Adjective include comparative(like taller) and superlative(like tallest). Word sets like child/children, ox/oxen, and who/whom/when reflect earlier productive inflectional morphemes. The system of English pronouns also gives some hint of an earlier inflectional morphology.In contrast to inflection, derivation is not obligatory and typically produces a greater change of meaning from the original form, and is more likely to result in a form which has a somewhat idiosyncratic meaning, it often changes the grammatical category of a root. Derivation or affixation may be exactly defined as a process of forming new words by the addition of a word element, such as a prefix, suffix or combining form, to an already existing word. For example: re + cover= recover, work + er = worker. A combining form is a bound morpheme, which was originally a full word in Latin or Greek, but which now occurs only in derivatives. For example : autocracy = auto + cracy (suffix), hydrography = hydro + graphy (suffix), telephone = tele + phone (suffix). From the point of view of derivation, no distinction should be made between combining forms and affixes in this book, in which all the combining forms are labeled either as prefixes or suffixes. Derivation has been operation through the whole course of the history of the English language. It is subdivided into prefixation and suffixation.From the point of function, inflection creates variant forms of a word to conform to different functional roles in a sentence or in discourse. They modify the form of a word so that it can fit into a particular syntactic slot. For nouns and pronouns, inflectional morphemes serve to mark grammatical functions like case or semantic notions like number. For verbs, they can mark such things as tense, while on adjectives they serve to indicate degree. The addition of the possessive suffix fits the inflected noun for use in syntax as noun modifier. The noun with the possessive marker can be used as a modifier of another noun, never as a head or main element in a given structure. Thus Lucy + possessive becomes Lucy’s as in Lucy’s desk. However, the word class of the noun has not changed. Although Lucy’s does function like an adjective, it is still not an adjective. It can’t take the affixes –er‘comparative’ and –est ‘superlative’. Derivational affixes serve functions very different from those of inflectional morphemes. A derivational affix can change the part of speech of a word as –ment changes commit from a verb to a noun, or it can alter the meaning of a word as re- changes the meaning of paint to ‘paint again’. It can change the word class of the item they are added to and establish words as members of the various word classes. It do not always cause a change in grammatical class. For example, derives reconsider from consider, yet both are verbs. Also, compare populate/depopulate, intelligent/unintelligent. Furthermore, a shift in grammatical class is not always signaled by an overt marker. Thus, staff and star are basically nous, but they can also be used as verbs with no affix as in the sentence ‘the manager din]d not staff the restaurant properly’ and‘I don’t think Soan is the best actor to star in that new film’.In conclusion, Inflection versus derivation is more a continuum than a strict distinction. Some operations fall in between the prototypical extremes. Operations tend to migrate diachronically from inflection to derivation. inflection is a process which produces different word forms of the same lexeme; whereas derivation creates new words. If derivation and inflection co-occurs, derivations are inner, closer to the stem, and inflections are outer, furthest from the stem.。
