Question

What type of morpheme is ‘-ness’ in the word ‘kindness’?

• A. Inflectional
• B. Derivational
• C. Root
• D. Free

Answer 1

Answer:

B. Derivational

Derivational morphemes are affixes, or word parts, that change the meaning or part of speech of a word. They can be prefixes or suffixes, and are used to create new words or new forms of existing words. 

Examples of derivational morphemes:

• Un- Changes the meaning of a word, as in "unhappy" 

• -ly: Changes the meaning of a word, as in "lovely" 

• -er: Changes the meaning of a word, as in "teacher" 

• -ful: Changes the meaning of a word, as in "hopeful" 

• -less: Changes the meaning of a word, as in "friendless" 

• -ate: Changes the meaning of a word, as in "proportionate" 

• -ize: Changes the meaning of a word, as in "modernize"