Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Surprisingly

Discuss if the ing-suffix in the word Surprisingly is an inflectional or derivational suffix.

1) The word suprisingly is an adverb.
2) in this case, we know that the ing-suffix is an inflectional ing-participle that can only be attached to verbs.
3) thus, if suprise + ing , the word class of this word should remain as a verb.
4) however, the ly suffix can only be attached to adjectives to form verbs. (surprising+ly) --> Adjective ---> adverb where there is a change in word class.
5) thus ing-suffix cannot be an inflectional suffix.
6) it should instead be a derivational suffix that changes the word class of the word surprise
(surprise+ing) to an adjective.
7) also, inflectional suffix must appear at the end of the word. In this case, it is followed by another suffix -ly
8) thus, the 'ing' suffic is clearly not inflectional. It can only be derivational

What is wrong with the word Kingsdom

Kingsdom,

the word kingsdom is made up of king+s+dom.
In this case, there is a problem as -s suffix is a plural suffix that is inflectional and can only occur with nouns.
However, it is incorrect to place -dom suffix behind the word kings as Kings is not a free morpheme, there cannot be another occurence of suffix after the inflectional suffix (unless it is a possessive). Inflectional Suffix always en

thus in this case, the word kingsdom cannot be possible.
It should instead be King+dom+s where the derivational suffix -dom comes before the plural suffix -s. this is still possible as the derivational suffix does not change the word class of the word king (still noun)

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