Verb Derivation: derivational morphology

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo

Morphology Lecture Series X

We examined noun derivations (Noun Derivation) in our previous class. We are moving into another important area of derivations: verb derivations. We will look at Deadjectival Verbs, Denominal Verbs and Deverbal Verbs.

The verb is a lexical category that can function as the head of the verb phrase.

Verbs belong to the open class category that can be derived through affixes.

Verbs can be derived from nouns and adjectives and other verbs, giving us deadjectival verbs, denominal verbs and deverbal verbs.

1. Deadjectival Verbs

Deadjectival verbs are derived from adjectives with the use of various affixes.

Factitive (verbs that presuppose the complement to be true and derived from adjectives) and inchoative (verb meaning ‘to become’ or ‘to begin to be’ also derived from adjectives) verbs are types of verbs derived from adjectives.

English has many suffixes that perform the function of changing nouns or adjectives to verbs.

The prefix en- is a class changing prefix that changes adjectives to factitive verbs as seen in the following English and Russian illustrations:

1. Adjective Verb

a. rich en-rich

b. large en-large

c. able en-able

d. courage en-courage

Russian

2. Adjective Verb

a. čern-yj ‘black’ čern-it’ ‘make black’

b. высокий ‘high’ высокий-it ‘make high’

c. после́дней ‘new’ после́дней-it ‘make new’

d. белый ‘white’ белый-it ‘make white’

The suffixes –ize, ify, and –en, etc. are attached to adjectives to derive inchoative verbs in English. For example:

3. Adjective Verb

a. general general-ize

b. familiar familiar-ize

c. pure pur-ify

d. just just-ify

e. deep deep-en

f. dark dark-en

Bontoc uses the infix –um- to derive inchoative verbs from adjectives as illustrated in the following examples:

4. Adjective Verb

a. fikas ‘strong’ f-um-ikas ‘to be strong’

b. kilad ‘red’ k-um-ilad ‘to be red’

c. pusi ‘poor’ p-um-usi ‘to be red’

Spanish forms inchoative verbs with colour adjectives:

5. Adjective Verb

a. verde ‘green’ verd-ear         ‘become green’

b. negro ‘black’ negr-ear         ‘become black’

The suffix –ear is attached to the colour adjectives in the derivation of the inchoative verbs.

2. Denominal Verbs

Another function of derivational morphemes is the derivation of verbs from nouns.

The suffixal morpheme –an with its allomorph -in derives verbs from nouns in Tzeltal as illustrated in (6). The data is taken from Nida (1949, p. 116).

6. Noun Verb

a. bet ‘loan’ -betan  ‘to loan’

b. ˀip ‘strength’ -ˀipan ‘to nourish’

c. k’op ‘speech’ -k’opan  ‘to speak with’

d. ˀabat ‘servant’ -ˀabatin  ‘to serve’

e. mul ‘sin’ -mulin ‘to commit sin’

Let us also consider the data in (7) for verb derivation in English.

7. Noun Verb

a. beauty beaut-ify

b. class class-ify

c. national national-ize

d. moral moral-ize

e. haste hast-en

f. light light-en

g. vaccine vacin-ate

h. pollen pollin-ate

3. Deverbal Verbs

Deverbal verbs are verbs derived from other verbs.

Repetitive verb (a verb with the meaning of ‘again’), reversive verb (a verb meaning reverse or undo the result of the base verb), applicative verb (a verb that creates a new object argument), causative verb (a verb that caused the action of the base to occur), anticausative verb (a verb indicating no agent role in an event), etc. are some type of verbs derived from verbs.

The prefixes re-, in English derives repetitive verbs when attached to some verbs.

8. Verb Verb

a. cover re-cover

b. write re-write

c. run re-run

d. turn re-turn

e. appear re-appear

Japanese and Kujamaat Jóola derive causative verbs from simple verbs.

Consider the following examples in (9).

Japanese

9. Verb Verb

a. ik ‘go’ ik-ase ‘made to go’

b. yom ‘read’ yom-ase ‘made to read’

c. tabe ‘eat’ tabe-sase ‘made to eat’

Japanese makes use of the suffix –ase ~-sase to form causative verbs.

In Chichewa, the causative is

formed with the causative affix –ets while it is formed with the suffix –ndi

in Songhai and attached to the verb as indicated in the following

sentences taken from Tallerman (2009, p.208-209).

Chichewa

10.

a. mtsuko    u-na-gw-a.

waterpot  SU-PAST-fall ASPECT

‘The waterpot fell.’

b. mtsikana   a-na-u-gw-ets-a     mtsuko

girl          SU-PAST-OBJ-fall-CAUS-ASPECT  waterpot

‘The girl made the waterpot fall.’

11.

a. Garba nga tasu di

Garba eat rice   the

‘Garba ate the rice.’

b. Ali nga-ndi     tasu di

Ali eat-CAUS rice the

‘Ali caused the rice to be eaten.’

In these examples, we can see changes in the structure of the sentences along with the causative suffixes.

The languages mentioned here are some of the languages that mark causatives morphologically.

Most other languages do not, it is only the structure of the sentence that will change.

Exercises

1. Discuss the derivational functions of affixes.

2. Consider the following data from Kannada. Determine the meaning of the suffixes.

khacita ‘certain’ khacitate ‘certainty’

bhadra ‘safe’ bhadrate ‘safety’

ghana ‘weighty’ ghanate ‘dignity’

(Sridhar 1990, p270, 278)

3. Consider the following data from Vietnamese and answer the questions that follow.

nhe ‘soft’ nhe nhe ‘less soft’

xinh ‘pretty’ xinh xinh ‘less pretty’

do ‘red’ do do ‘somewhat red’

xanh ‘blue/green’ xahn xahn ‘somewhat blue/green’

a. Isolate the morphemes.

b. Determine the process involved.

c. Determine the meaning of the affixes.

NB

a. In the next lecture, we will examine Derivation  of Adjectives and Adverbs.

b Excerpts are taken from Arokoyo (2017).

References

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House.

Nida, A. Eugene. (1949). Morphology: the descriptive analysis of words. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Sridhar, S. N.  (1990). Kannada. (Descriptive grammars series). London: Routledge.

Tallerman, Maggie. (2009). Understanding syntax. London: Hodder Arnold.