Derivation in Nepali
In linguistics, the formation of new words from free morphemes is a very common process. The process of word formation (शब्दनिर्माण / शब्दरचना) in Nepali can be divided into inflection (रुपायन) and derivation (व्युत्पादन). In this blog post, we'll briefly discuss derivation and its types in Nepali.
You can read about inflections in Nepali at:
Exploring the Building Blocks: A Simple Guide to Morphemes in Nepali
Nominal Inflections: The Morphological Adaptations of Nepali Nouns, Pronouns and Adjectives
Derivation in Nepali
Derivation is a process of forming new words from existing roots. In contrast to inflection, which is a process of word formation that maintains the lexical category of the root, derivation can change the lexical category of the root. Derivation in Nepali is a highly productive process. It can be categorized into four types:
Affixation (सर्ग प्रक्रिया)
Compounding (समास प्रक्रिया)
Reduplication (द्वित्य प्रक्रिया)
Euphonic Combination (सन्धि प्रक्रिया)
Affixation
Affixation is the process of word formation by attaching free morphemes - affixes - to the roots. In Nepali, there are two types of affixes: prefix (उपसर्ग) and suffix (प्रत्यय) and hence, the two type of affixation namely, prefixation and suffixation.
# Suffixation
ईख + आलु = ईखालु
पहाड + इया = पहाडिया
पूर्व + एली = पूर्वेली
# Prefixation
अधि + कृत = अधिकृत
उप + नाम = उपनाम
दुस् + साहस = दुस्साहस
Suffixation
Suffixation is a process of word formation by the addition of bound morpheme to the end of the root. The bound morpheme involved in suffixation is called suffix (प्रत्यय/परसर्ग). On the basis of the root they attach to, there are two types of suffixes in Nepali and they are:
Primary Suffix (कृत् प्रत्यय)
Secondary Suffix (तद्वित प्रत्यय)
A primary suffix (कृत् प्रत्यय) is added to the end of a verb root to form a primary derivative word (कृदन्त शब्द). A primary derivative word belongs to noun (नाम), verb (क्रियापद), adjective (विशेषण) or adverb (क्रियाविशेषण).
A secondary suffix (तद्वित प्रत्यय) can be applied to anything but a verb root to form a secondary derivative word (तद्वितान्त शब्द). Such suffixes act on noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb and primary derivative word.
On the basis of their ability to maintain or change the lexical category of the base they get attached to, suffixes in Nepali can be of two types. They are:
Class Maintaining Suffix
Class Changing Suffix
A class maintaining suffix maintains the lexical category of the root after suffixation. Some of the class maintaining suffixes in Nepali are given in Table 3.
A class changing suffix changes the lexical category of the root after suffixation. Some of the class maintaining suffixes in Nepali are given in Table 4.
Prefixation
Prefixation is the process of word formation in which a bound morpheme is attached to the beginning of a root. Prefix (उपसर्ग) is the bound morpheme which is involved in the process of prefixation. In Nepali, the process of prefixation produces noun, adjective and adverb only.
Prefixes in Nepali can have various effects in the meaning of the base they get attached to. Some of the possible effects of prefixation on meaning of the root are listed below.
Express the lack of
Express too much of
Express negative meaning of the root
Add special meaning to
Prefixes in Nepali can be divided into three types and they are:
Prefixes from Sanskrit (तत्सम उपसर्ग)
Prefixes from Nepali (तत्भव उपसर्ग)
Prefixes from other sources (आगन्तुक उपसर्ग)
Prefixes from Sanskrit are the prefixes that are taken from Sanskrit language. Some of such prefixes and their meanings are given in Table 5.
Prefixes from Nepali are the prefixes that are from Nepali language itself. Some of such prefixes and their meanings are given in Table 6.
Prefixes from other sources are the type of prefixes that are taken from sources other than Sanskrit and Nepali. Some of such prefixes and their meanings are given in Table 7.
Compounding
Compounding occurs when two or more words combine to form a new word. In Nepali, there are six types of compounding, all of which are listed below:
Determinative Compound (तत्पुरुस समास)
Numeral Compound (द्विगु समास)
Appositional Compound (कर्मधारय समास)
Adverbial Compound (अव्य्यीभाव समास)
Attributive Compound (बहुब्रीहि समास)
Copulative Compound (द्वन्द्व समास)
Determinative Compounding
कामलाई चोर = कामचोर
जग्गाको धनी = जग्गाधनी
भोकले मरी = भोकमरी
रोगबाट मुक्त = रोगमुक्त
Numeral Compounding
सात कोसीको समूह = सप्तकोसी
पाँचवटा पत्रको समूह = पञ्चपात्रो
चार खण्डको समूह = चौखण्ड
Appositional Compounding
फुफू + दिदी = फुफूदिदी
आमा + छोरी = आमाछोरी
प्रिय + जन = प्रियजन
Adverbial Compounding
यता + उता = यताउता
ध्यान + पूर्वक = ध्यानपूर्वक
यस + अर्थ = यसर्थ
Attributive Compounding
लामो पात भएको = लमपाते
चारवटा मुख भएको = चौमुखी
लाज नभएको = निर्लज्ज
Copulative Compounding
चाल र चलन = चालचलन
तल र माथि = तलमाथि
धन र सम्पत्ति = धनसम्पत्ति
Determinative Compound
A determinative compound is formed when the first word loses its case marker (विभक्ति चिन्ह) when combining with the second root. Such compounds express the meaning of the second root and the meaning of the first word is lost in the process. There are six types of determinative compounds, all of which are listed and described in Table 8.
Numeral Compound
When a numeral adjective (सङ्ख्यावाचक विशेषण) and collective noun (समूहवाचक नाम) combine, a numeral compound is formed. Some of such compounds are given below:
Independent Form => Compound Word
नौ गेडाको समूह => नौगेडी
आठ आनाको समूह => अठन्नी
तीन कोणको समूह => त्रिकोण
सात ऋषिको समूह => सप्तऋषि
नौवटा रात्रिको समूह => नवरात्री
Appositional Compound
An appositional compound is formed when:
An adjective (विशेषण) combines with an adjective
A noun (नाम) combines with a noun
An adjective combines with a noun
A metaphor (उपमा) combines with a word to be compared (उपमेय)
An attribute (आरोप) combines with a word to be attributed (आरोप्य)
All the independent words forming an appositional compound have equal importance. Types and example of appositional compounds are given in Table 9.
Adverbial Compound
An adverbial compound is usually an indeclinable word (अव्यय) formed when two indeclinable words or any other words combine. Some of such compounds are listed below:
Independent Form => Compound Word
आज + भोलि => आजभोलि
बिना + पैसा => बिनापैसा
रात + दिन => रातदिन
फल + स्वरूप => फलस्वरूप
यस + कारण => यसकारण
Attributive Compound
An attributive compound is an adjective, which is formed when two or more words combine. An attributive compound expresses a new meaning, which is different from that of the independent words. The types of attributive compound are described in Table 10.
Copulative Compound
Copulative compounds are formed when two or more words connected by a conjunction combine by losing the conjunction. The types of copulative compound are listed in Table 11.
Reduplication
Reduplication (द्वित्व) means repetition. It is a process of word formation in which a root or a part of the root repeats in order to derive a new word. Reduplication can be classified into three distinct types and they are:
Total Reduplication (पूर्ण द्वित्व)
Partial Reduplication (आंशिक द्वित्व)
Echo Reduplication (आपरिवर्तित द्वित्व)
Total Reduplication
बाटो + बाटो = बाटैबाटो
तान + तान = तानातान
तँ + तँ = तँतँ
Partial Reduplication
सम्मान + सम्मान = ससम्मान
झगडा + झगडा = झैझगडा
तयार + तयार = तम्तयार
Echo Reduplication
तेल + तेल = तेलसेल
खटन + खटन = खटनपटन
घर + घर = घरसर
Total Reduplication
New words are formed when an entire word repeats in the process of word formation. Such words express varied levels of intensity to the meaning represented by the root. Some of such compounds are given below:
Independent Form => Compound Word
खल खल => खलखल
खेद खेद => खेदाखेद
तान तान => तानातान
Partial Reduplication
In partial reduplication, only a part of a word is repeated to form a new word. Some of such compounds are given below:
Independent Form => Compound Word
झगडा झगडा => झैझगडा
कसले कसले => क-कसले
सल्लाह सल्लाह => सरसल्लाह
Echo Reduplication
A word formed due to echo reduplication is similar to the one formed due to total reduplication. The only difference is that the initial syllable of the second copy of the root replaced by a similar sounding substring. The process of echo reduplication expresses higher level of intensity to the meaning of the root. Some of such compounds are given below.
Independent Form => Compound Word
केटो केटो => केटोसेटो
नरम नरम => नरमकरम
टाल् टाल् => टालटुलEuphonic Combination
Euphonic Combination is the joining of two phonemes from two different words to derive a single word. In Nepali, we can find two different categories of the euphonic combination. The first category contains all the types of euphonic combination taken from Sanskrit (तत्सम सन्धि) as Nepali is one of the languages which is derived from Sanskrit. The other category contains the types of euphonic combination specific to Nepali language (तत्भव सन्धि).
Sanskrit Euphonic Combination
उप + अध्यक्ष = उपाध्यक्ष
महा + इन्द्र = महेन्द्र
अधि + आत्मा = अध्यात्म
Nepali Euphonic Combination
मोटा + आइ = मोटाइ
जाउ + अत = जावत
राती + ओली = रत्यौली