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Correct Answer: inflections yield new words.
inflections are morphological changes added to the base form of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, and case. common examples of inflections include adding -s for plural nouns, -ed for the past tense of regular verbs, and -ing for the present participle or gerund forms of verbs. inflections are crucial for conveying grammatical relationships and structuring meaningful sentences in many languages.
one crucial aspect of inflections is that they do not create new words but rather modify existing ones. when we add -ed to the verb "walk" to form "walked", we are not creating a new word but are altering the form of "walk" to indicate the past tense. similarly, adding -s to "cat" to make "cats" changes the number from singular to plural but does not create an entirely new word separate from "cat." the core meaning and root of the word remain intact.
in contrast, derivation is a process that does lead to the creation of new words by adding prefixes or suffixes that change the meaning or part of speech of the original word. for example, adding the suffix -ize to "scandal" forms "scandalize," which changes the word from a noun to a verb. derivation can significantly alter the meaning and grammatical function of the base word, resulting in a new word with a new identity.
thus, the statement that "inflections yield new words" is not true. inflections alter the form of existing words to express different grammatical aspects but do not create new words. this distinction is fundamental in understanding the difference between inflection and derivation in morphology. inflections are primarily about modifying a word's form to fit grammatical structures, whereas derivation is about creating new words with new meanings or functions.
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