Question

Which type of morphological process is involved in creating catty from cat?

• A. Inflection
• B. Derivation
• C. Suppletion
• D. Reduplication

Hint:

Derivational morphemes often change the lexical category of a word, while inflectional morphemes only mark grammatical variations.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1: Identify the base and derived form.
The base word is cat (a noun). By adding the suffix -y, we get catty, which functions as an adjective meaning "cat-like" or "spiteful".

Step 2: Recognize the morphological process.
- Inflection changes grammatical categories (e.g., tense, number, case) without changing the word class.
- Derivation creates a new word, often changing word class or meaning.
- Suppletion replaces a form entirely with another root (e.g., go → went).
- Reduplication repeats part or all of a word.
Here, -y creates a new lexical item (adjective), which is derivation.
\[ \boxed{\text{Derivation (Option B)}} \]