Morphemes

[grannysmith]

Are inflectional morphemes always suffixes?
To my understanding, derivational morphemes change the word class and/or the meaning of the word, whereas inflectional morphemes change the tense/number of the word.
E.g. determine --> predetermine is a derivational morpheme?
determine --> determines is an inflectional morpheme?

[grannysmith]

Also, are both contractions and elisions considered reductions?

[ealam2]

Inflectional morphemes are always suffixes. Like -ing, -ed, -s

Yes. Derivational morphemes change the meaning or class of a word while inflectional morphemes give only grammatical information which is your tense and number (singular or plural).

determine --> predetermine
"pre-" is a derivational morpheme as it changes the meaning of the word.

determine --> determines
"-s" is an inflectional morpheme as it gives grammatical information. The subject of "determines" would be singular.



Elision is the reduction of sounds.
Contractions may be considered reduction as in omitting vowels/letters.

Hope this helped!

[boxcat]

Are inflectional morphemes always suffixes?

In english? yes*

* this depends on your analysis. Some people might consider ablaut as a kind of inflectional morpheme.
 
sing->sang->sung
man-> men
mouse-> mice

Generally it's regarded as a sound change (look up Apophony and related pages on wiki), so I would stick to that for the purposes of EngLang. But if you're bored one day, the question "Is ablaut inflection?" might provoke some discussion in class.

E.g. determine --> predetermine is a derivational morpheme?
determine --> determines is an inflectional morpheme?

You're spot on with those examples of derivational morphemes vs. inflectional morphemes. Why not make yourself some lists? List all the inflexional morphemes you can think of, then as many derivational morphemes are you can. What test could you apply to a morpheme to provide evidence of it belonging to one category or the other? does the morpheme affect the syntax or agreement with verbs/nouns?

As for contractions and elisions, i'd've said you'd wanna have a cuppa 'n look 'em up on the 'net.

[grannysmith]

In english? yes*

* this depends on your analysis. Some people might consider ablaut as a kind of inflectional morpheme.
 
sing->sang->sung
man-> men
mouse-> mice

Generally it's regarded as a sound change (look up Apophony and related pages on wiki), so I would stick to that for the purposes of EngLang. But if you're bored one day, the question "Is ablaut inflection?" might provoke some discussion in class.

Cheers for that. I would've thought those would be inflectional, considering that they are indicating tense/plurality; they don't change word class or meaning.

So a sound change is not considered a morpheme?

As for contractions and elisions, i'd've said you'd wanna have a cuppa 'n look 'em up on the 'net.

So elisions are omissions/reductions in sound to make connected speech smoother (and hence are more prevalent in spoken discourse), whereas contractions are reductions in letters and are grammatically correct ?

[ealam2]

In formal writing, you would tend to avoid using contractions.