The concept of word derivation

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Introduction The term ‘derivation’ in linguistics is used in two different senses. In one sense it indicates the historical or diachronic development of a word, either from an earlier form of the word or by addition of an affix to an existing word; the Oxford English Dictionary (1961 : 228) defines derivation as,‘Formation of a word from a more primitive word or root in the same or another language; origination as a derivative’. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1965 : 608) defines it as ‘The forrration of a word from an earlier word or base usu. by the addition of an affix usu. noninflectional.. .’ In a second sense derivation indicates the formation of a word synchronically from a word which is said to ‘underly it’; Webster’s defines derivation in this sense : ‘Relation of a word to its base as expressed usu. in terms of presence of an affix, q . . vowel alternation J . . . consonant alternation’ . . . difference of accent J . o . absense of one or more sounds, . . . or zero difference J . . . (2) : the relation of a word to its base when the two do not belong to the same inflectional paradigm '1 *.. ) It is possible to describe a language from two basically different points of view: non-transformational and transformational (explanatory or generative). A non-transformational description is basically concerned with la,beling and classifying the constituents and describing the relationships among those constituents. The primarv aim of an explanatory description’ on 1 he other hand, is that fully adequate grammar must assign to each of an infinite range sentences a structural description indicating how this sentence understood by the ideal speaker-hearer’ (Ghomsky, 1965: 4-5). J