Derivatiesuffix

Derivatiesuffix, more commonly called a derivational suffix, is a bound morpheme attached to a base word to form a new word with related meaning, often changing its word class. It is a central tool in morphology for building new lexemes and expanding a language’s vocabulary. The term derives from derivation, the process of creating words from existing ones.

In function, derivational suffixes produce words whose core meaning relates to the base, but whose part of speech or semantic nuance shifts. Examples in English include -ness, turning happy into happiness (adjective to noun); -ment, as in enjoy → enjoyment (verb to noun); -able, as in readable (verb/adjective to adjective); -ful and -less, forming adjectives from nouns; -er/-or, turning verbs or nouns into agent nouns (teacher, baker); and -ize, which often yields verbs from adjectives or nouns (modernize).

Derivational suffixes are distinct from inflectional suffixes, which encode grammatical information (such as plural -s or past tense -ed) without creating a new word. Derivational suffixes may dramatically alter a word’s meaning or class and are often productive, though some suffixes are more restricted in use.

Cross-linguistically, many languages employ derivational suffixes. German uses -heit/-keit to form abstract nouns from adjectives (Freiheit, Möglichkeit); Spanish uses -ción in nouns derived from verbs (información from informar). The precise set of derivational suffixes and their productivity varies by language.