DERIVATIONAL AND INFLECTIONAL PARADIGMS

I> DERIVATIONAL PARADIGM

II> INFLECTIONAL PARADIGM

• “A paradigm … is a set of related forms having the same stem but different affixes” [Stageberg, 1983:129].

I> Derivational paradigm

• “Is a set of related words composed of the same base morpheme and all the derivational affixes that can go with this base” [Stageberg,1965: ]

• E.g.: kind, unkind, kindness, kindly, kindliness, kindless, kindlessness

child, childish, childishly, childishness, childlike, childless, childhood

• derivational paradigms are not characteristically universal: a particular morphological rule can only be applied to a subset of potential words and derivational affixes differ in productivity

• e.g. the rule that a noun plus the derivational suffix –ship produces a new noun can not be applied to all English nouns.

there are various specific derivational paradigms which can not be generalized into formulas

each base morpheme together with certain potential derivational affixes form a particular paradigm, e.g. the noun base beauty and its derivational words beautiful, beautifully, beautify form a noun paradigm

II> Inflectional paradigms

• “is a set of related words composed of the same stem and all the inflectional suffixes that can go with this stem” (Tô Minh Thanh, 2003: ).

Types of Inflectional paradigms

II.1> Noun paradigm: at most 4 forms: - Stem (singular form): boy- Singular possessive: boy’s- Plural possessive: boys’- Plural: boys

Note• not all nouns have these 4 forms. E.g.: many take

“noun + of + noun” structure instead of possessive forms (e.g. the roof of the house, the windows of the rooms),

- some only have singular form and go with singular verb (e.g. money, salt, milk)

- some have only singular form but go with plural verb (e.g. people, police)

- some exist in singular form but go with either plural or singular verb depending on the context (e.g. sheep, fish, jury),

- some always have plural form but go with singular verb (e.g. measles, mathematics, linguistics)

- others always have plural form and go with plural verb (e.g. jeans, trousers, clothes).

II.2> Verb paradigm• Up to 5 forms:

- stem (bare form): swim

- third person singular present tense form: swims

- present participle: swimming

- past tense: swam

- past participle: swum.

Note- most verbs follow three-form paradigm: stem, third person

singular present tense, and present participle (except be, do and have: 3rd person singular present tense allomorphs are is, does and has)

- the past tense form and the past participle form are identical in the case of regular verbs

- for most of irregular verbs the allomorphs of past tense and past participle are replacive, additive, suppletive, or zero

E.g.: Stem Past tense Past participle Zero put put putReplacive drink drank drunkAdditive fall fell fallenSuppletive go went gone

II.3> Comparable paradigm• maximally 3 forms

- Stem: kind

- comparative form(-er): kinder

- superlative form (-est): kindest

Note• 4 main groups that usually follow the three-form

comparable paradigm: - one-syllable adjectives- some two-syllable adjectives particularly the ones

ending in –ly or –y or –ow (e.g. happy, narrow, friendly)

- several adverbs of one or two syllables (e.g. hard, early)

- preposition near (e.g. I sit nearest the blackboard).• most of adjectives and adverbs of two or more than two

syllables take more and most in comparative and superlative forms

e.g.: careful/carefully – more careful/more carefully – most careful/most carefully).

• some irregular adjectives/adverbs have replacive and or addictive, and suppletive allomorphs in their comparable paradigm,

e.g.:

- Suppletive: well/good better best

- Replacive & additive

little less least

far farther/futher farthest/furthest

II.4> Pronoun paradigm (irregular paradigm) SINGULAR

Subject Object Prenominal possessive

Substitutional possessive

1st I Me My Mine

2nd You You Your Yours

3rd M He Him His His

F she Her Her Hers

N It It Its Its

PLURALSubject Object Prenominal

possessiveSubstitutional possessive

1st We Us Our Ours

2nd You You Your Yours

3rd They Them Their Theirs

Interr. relative

Who Whom whose Whose