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Derivation

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Derivation is the formation of new lexemes by means of affixation, i.e. the attachment of bound morphemes to the stem forms of lexemes. The word classes that can be extended by derivation are the open or lexical classes of a language: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Dutch makes use of both prefixation and suffixation (but not of infixation). Moreover, Dutch has one circumfix, a combination of a prefix and a suffix, with a collective meaning, ge...te, as in geboomte trees. The simultaneous use of a prefix and a suffix can also be found in participia praeverbalia such as behaard hairy from haar hair. In addition, Dutch also uses conversion to derive new lexemes.

Derivation can change the word class of the input lexeme. The inputs for a particular derivational process are often members of one particular lexical category (N, V, or A), and so are the outputs. In some instances of derivation, input word and output word differ only in lexical subcategory. For example, intransitive verbs can become transitive verbs. The processes available in Dutch are:

Table 1

Input > Output	Type of change	Source	Derived word
A > N	Suffixation	schoon beautiful	schoonheid schoon-heid beauty
	Conversion	katholiek catholic	katholiek catholic (person
V > N	Suffixation	spreek speak	spreker sprek-er speaker
	Prefixation	praat talk	gepraat ge-praat talking, chit-chat
	Conversion	val fall	val fall
N > N	Suffixation	moeder mother	moederschap moeder-schap motherhood
	Prefixation	mens man, human being	onmens on-mens brute, beast
N > A	Suffixation	meester master	meesterlijk meester-lijk masterly
V > A	Suffixation	lees read	leesbaar lees-baar readable
A > A	Suffixation	blauw blue	blauwig blauw-ig blueish
	Prefixation	gewoon usual, common	ongewoon on-gewoon unusual
N > V	Suffixation	analyse analysis	analyseer analys-eer analyze
	Prefixation	huis house	verhuis ver-huis move
	Conversion	fiets bicycle	fiets cycle
A > V	Suffixation	kalm calm	kalmeer kalm-eer calm down
	Prefixation	bleek pale	verbleek ver-bleek turn pale
	Conversion	zuiver pure	zuiver purify
V > V	Suffixation	krab scratch	krabbel krabb-el scratch
	Prefixation	rijd ride	berijd be-rijd ride

There is a tendency for prefixation to be category-neutral (there are four exceptions: be-, ver-, ont- and ge-), whereas suffixation is often category-changing.

extra

This asymmetry between prefixation and suffixation has led some scholars of Dutch morphology to adopt the so-called Righthand Head Rule (RHR), proposed for English by (Williams 1981), as a principle that is also valid for Dutch. This rule says that the rightmost constituent of a complex word is the head of that word, and hence determines the syntactic (sub)category of the complex word. For instance, the word leesbaar readable is an adjective thanks to its head, the suffix –baar. As suffixes are the rightmost elements in a structure, they are predicted to be category-determining, while prefixes are not. Category determination does not necessarily mean category change. There are suffixes, for example, that create nouns from nouns. However, the suffix will determine the syntactic subcategory of its output, in particular gender. For instance, nouns with a diminutive suffix are neuter, whatever the gender of their base, as shown by the pair (de) moeder (the) mother - (het) moedertje mother-DIM little mother, dear mother. Depending on one’s theory of syntax and morphology, the notion 'head' can be more or less useful. In the analysis of compounds, the most syntax-like kind of word formation, it has the advantage that many properties of the whole compound can be predicted from the properties of one of its constituents. After all, the head constituent also occurs as an independent word and has independent properties such as gender (for nouns) or valency (for verbs). If affixes, however, are treated as heads, the theory has to equip them with categorial properties. See (Bauer 1990) for a critical discussion of the notion 'head' in morphology.

Dutch presents some counterevidence to the RHR: the nominalizing prefix ge- and a number of verbalizing prefixes have category-changing power. What remains true, however, is that in Dutch all suffixes (but not all prefixes) are category-determining. The relevance of the RHR for Dutch is defended by (Trommelen and Zonneveld 1986). They are, however, forced, to introduce certain ad hoc rules in order to cope with the cases of category-changing prefixation. Another attempt to save the RHR as a generalization for Dutch is (Neeleman 1993)which also deals with the class of category-changing prefixes.

Adverbs are special: they can only be outputs, not inputs of derivation. They can be derived from adjectives by means of suffixation, for instance hogelijk highly from hoog high. Exceptions are strakjes soon and eventjes for a moment which are derived without meaning change from the adverbs straks and even.

Some derivational processes can be used simultaneously in the formation of polycomplex words. For instance, the prefix on- and the suffix –baar appear together in the adjective onuitstaanbaar insufferable that has no positive counterpart *uitstaanbaar. This does not mean that there is a circumfix *on...baar, however, because this pattern can be obtained by the combination of two independent word formation processes (Booij 2010).

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Geert Booij, Jenny Audring	December 2015