Running Head: THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 1

The Morphology and Syntax of Word Ending in -able, -ic, nd -ical

Monchi Liu

Colorado State University

THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 2

Introduction

Vocabulary teaching is essential to improve the expression ability of learners in the

process of learning English language. It is necessary for ESL/EFL teachers to study and master

morphological and syntactical knowledge before they teach. English adjectives contain many

derivational suffixes. They have flexible and extensive meanings and uses. Generally, typical

form does not exist in English adjectives, however, derivational suffixes are commonly

associated with adjectives (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 2015). For example, -able is one of

the derivational suffixes of English adjectives. It has always been an important and difficult point

for English vocabulary study to determine the types of nouns that -able can be attached to to

create adjectives. In China, the meanings and uses are hard to distinguish and master for many

high school students, even college students, because the existing vocabulary books do not

elaborate on this phenomenon very clearly. This paper will mainly focus on the semantic

meanings and syntactic uses of derivational suffixes -able, -ic and -ical.

It is not practical to teach students adjectives by rote learning. The accumulation and

expansion of English vocabularies is not as simple as just remembering word forms, instead, it is

a comprehensive learning challenge. One of the learning methods is to analyze the constituent

forms, which means analyzing and studying the affixes and stems of a word. From the point of

view of studying the English language, these ingredients and their semantic meanings can help

students understand English adjectives comprehensively. It is always a meaningful topic to be

discussed from the point of view of teaching.

English Adjectival Suffix -able

It is well known that English contains a huge number of words, of which derived and

compound words take a large proportion. Additionally, most English words have their own
THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 3

morphological shapes. Suffixes have the functions to change the part of speech and semantic

meanings of a word. The suffix -able is one of the most used English adjectival suffixes (Quirk

et al., 1985). Abundant language material will be used as a base to analyze the uses of English

adjectival suffix –able specifically.

To begin with, from the point of view of etymology, -able was borrowed from Old

French. The suffix -able in Old French was a variant from the Latin suffix -abilis and -ibilis (The

American Heritage Dictionary, 2011). In modern English, people treat -ible as a variant of -able.

It is mainly because the word-formation ability of -able is far beyond -ible. Besides, sometimes

people compare -able with the word able and make an incorrect conclusion that -able equals to

enable. Typically, -able has the same meaning as able. It means “1. susceptible, capable, or

worthy of a specified action: debatable. 2. inclined or given to a specified state or action:

changeable” (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2011, pp. 4). However, the suffix -able and the

word able are not related from the etymology point of view. Able was borrowed from Old

French, from the Latin word habilis (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2011, pp. 4). In modern

English, it can be used to form phrasal modal, such as be able to.

Transitive verbs can be associated with -able to form adjectives, especially causative

verbs. It can produce gradable adjectives with -able, such as washable and drinkable (Quirk et

al., 1985). Transitive verbs have to be followed by objects to constitute the verb-object

combination. When -able is attached to a transitive verb, the verb becomes an adjective.

However, verb feature(s) will not completely disappear. It will still contain the meaning(s) of the

verb. For example, washable silk means the silk which can be washed, changeable plan means

the plan which can be changed. The suffix -able is a deverbal suffix and related to the passive

(Quirk et al., 1985). For example, acceptable gift means gift which can be accepted. Sometimes,
THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 4

when an -able adjective occurs in a sentence, the subject and object in this sentence can be

regarded as patient and agent. For example: His story is not refutable by us. In this sentence, the

us is the agent, and his story is the patient. Therefore, this sentence is also interpreted as We

cannot refute his story, that is, an -able adjective can be paraphrased by the passive voice, but

it’s not passive voice itself. Such adjectives can be called passive adjectives (Quirk et al., 1985).

But there is a point that should be noticed. Back to the last example, that is a negative sentence.

Passive adjectives in -able are mainly used in negative clauses or with negation affixation. For

example, “His story is not refutable/is irrefutable; instead of His story is refutable, we would

normally use His story can be refuted” (Quirk et al., 1985). However, sometimes -able has a

sense paraphrasable as “apt-to-verb”, for example, changeable, suitable, and perishable, eg. apt-

to change, suit, perish, etc.

The suffix -able also can be associated with intransitive verbs to form adjectives.

Intransitive verbs must not be followed by objects to constitute the verb-object constituent. If an

intransitive verb has to form the verb-object constituent, a particle is needed. However, phrasal

verbs usually form -able adjectives without a particle: We can rely on John has the same

meaning as John is reliable.

Most -able adjectives are transparent in their meanings (Aronoff, 1976). This means the

meanings can be understood by analyzing the morphological structure of the -able adjectives.

Their meanings can be inferred from root words and suffixes, such as washable, rentable,

understandable, usable, and so on. Some others are transparent as well but contain certain

extended meanings. For example, the partially transparent meaning of respectable is “socially

acceptable because of having a good character or appearance or behaving in a way that is

approved”, thus, extend to large enough or good enough to be acceptable (The Cambridge
THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 5

English Dictionary, 2017 April 25). Also, there are some individual words where their extended

meanings occupy the main position in their definitions, such as considerable. The basic

explanation is worthy of consideration, while its extended meaning is large in amount, extent, or

degree (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2011). The latter explanation is currently universal.

Since the meanings of most -able adjectives are transparent, they can be divided into two

subcategories: one is denominal (N-able), such as fashionable, sizeable; the other is deverbal (V-

able), such as acceptable, moveable. When they form nouns, the former one commonly is

associated with -ness instead of -ity such as fashionableness rather than fashionability,

sizeableness rather than sizeability and the like, while the latter type does not have these kinds of

restrictions, such as acceptableness, acceptability, moveableness, and movability (Aronoff,

1976).

As it has been discussed in previous paragraphs, some of V-able adjectives could contain

passive patterns, such as questionable: liable to be questioned; others contain active meanings,

such as changeable: liable to change. Research showed that the root of V-able adjectives which

include passive patterns are transitive verbs, however, the root of V-able adjectives which

contain active patterns are intransitive verbs (Mettinger, 1990). The author also claimed that

some roots of V-able adjectives can be either transitive or intransitive verbs, which means V-able

adjectives can be subdivided as Vt-able and Vi-able adjectives.

English Adjectival Suffixes -ic and -ical

The suffixes -ic and -ical form numerous English words including nouns (e.g. fabric),

verbs (e.g. mimic), and especially adjectives (e.g. scientific). According to The American

Heritage Dictionary (2011), suffix -ic comes from Old French suffix -ique, which was a variant

from Latin suffix -icus and Greek suffix -ikos. Originally, it was used to name subjects, such as
THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 6

logic, arithmetic, and rhetoric. Later, -ics, one of its variants, became the predominant form of

the suffix. Not only can it form subjects, but also many others, such as gymnastics, linguistics,

mathematics, and tactics. Different opinions appeared about adjectives formed using -ic and -

ical. Marchand (1969) pointed out that suffix -ical was the expansion and extension of -ic.

Although people used the suffix -ic, the frequency of its word-formation of adjectives was low.

However, there were some different opinions. It was presented that the word-formation ability of

-ic is much better than -ical in modern English, and most of the formation of new English words

end in -ic instead of -ical (Hancock & Todd, 2005; Swan, 2005). For example, synthetic, bionic,

and electronic.

There are three conditions on the word-formation of adjectives with the suffixes -ic and -

ical. Some adjectives can only end in -ic, e.g. alcoholic, basic, linguistic, public. Some can only

end in -ical, e.g. chemical, practical, radical. Some can end in both -ic and -ical, but sometimes

they have semantic differences, e.g. classic and classical, classic means “a. belonging to the

highest rank or class, b. serving as the established model or standard, and c. having lasting

significance or worth”, while classical means “a. of or relating to the ancient Greeks and

Romans, especially their art, architecture, and literature, b. of or relating to European music

during the latter half of the 18th and the early 19th centuries, and c. of or relating to, or being a

variety of a language that is epitomized by a prestigious body of literature” (The American

Heritage Dictionary, 2011). Sometimes they don’t have semantic differences, e.g. geographic

and geographical, problematic and problematical. Sometimes they have slight differences, e.g.

magic and magical, magic as an adjective means “a. of, relating to, or invoking the supernatural,

b. possessing distinctive qualities that produce unaccountable or baffling effects”, whereas

magical means “a. of, relating to, or produced by magic, b. enchanting; bewitching” (The
THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 7

American Heritage Dictionary, 2011). It will be based on convention or rhythm of a sentence if

there is no difference or a slight difference (Allen, 2008).

It has always been a troublesome issue of the correct use of -ic and -ical in discourse.

Marchand (1969) stated that adjectives that end in -ic came from substantives, whereas

adjectives that end in -ical derive from stems ending in the suffix -ic. Ross (1998) claimed that

adjectives that end in -ic commonly have concrete meanings; on the contrary, adjectives that end

in -ical typically show abstract meanings. For example, economic and economical, economic

usually means “of or relating to the production, development, and management of material

wealth, as of a country, household, or business enterprise”, while economical means “designed

or functioning to make effective use of money or effort invested” (The American Heritage

Dictionary, 2011). He specifically focused on intrinsic characteristics of objects of study so that

technical adjective terms with suffix -ic were used most frequently (Ross, 1998). Additionally,

proper nouns and racial adjectives only are associated with suffix -ic, e.g. Byronic, Gothic, and

Slavic.

Prefixes also deal with adjective meanings when the difference between suffixes -ic and-

ical are differentiated. It was claimed that if two adjectives, derived from the same root, which

end in -ic and -ical have prefixes, it is more likely for people to use the -ic ending adjective

(Kaunisto, 1999). For example, the adjective prehistoric is used more frequently than

prehistorical. Gries (2003) agreed with Kaunisto (1999) by pointing out that prefixes can be used

to distinguish -ic and -ical adjectives, however, prefixes cannot be broken away from the

analyses of the semantic differences. If there are obvious differences between their semantic

meanings, such as classic and classical, economic and economical, their semantic meanings

should be considered.
THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 8

Syntactic uses are different when English adjectives appear in different positions of a

sentence. It is necessary to distinguish the syntactic uses of -ic and -ical ending adjectives to

better understand their different uses. The -ic and -ical ending adjectives are more likely to

function as an attributive adjective; sometimes they function as predicative; sometimes they

function as both (Gries, 2003). Take magic and magical as an example, magic barely functions

as predicative. People usually form a sentence as The moment was magical instead of The

moment was magic. Also, political normally functions as an attributive, while politic typically

functions as predicative (Gries, 2003).

Collocations are also used to differentiate -ic and -ical. For instance, electric and

electrical generally can be treated as synonyms because they both connected with electricity.

Some dictionaries list two separate entries based on their collocations. The Cambridge English

Dictionary (2017 April 25) lists several collocations with electric and electrical respectively.

Under the electric entry, there is blanket, car, kettle, and light; under the electrical entry, there is

equipment, goods, and devices. Normally nouns connect with electric when then represent the

use of electricity as power and connect with electrical when the relationship with electricity is

more ambiguous (Ross, 1998). Exploring -ic and -ical ending adjectives from a collocations

point of view might be the best approach for adjectives like electric and electrical because the

collocations affect their semantic meanings (Kaunisto, 1999).

Adjectives that are associated with suffixes -ic and -ical have similarities and disparities.

Some of them are completely identical, others are the other way around. To distinguish the

difference of meanings and uses between -ic and -ical, semantic differences, context, prefixes,

syntactical uses, and collocations are needed.

THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 9

Overall, the study of English adjectival suffixes -able, -ic, and -ical benefits English

language learners’ knowledge of word usage. English vocabulary teaching occupies a large

percentage in the whole English teaching process. Chinese students, including high school and

college students, mainly need to learn vocabulary for exams. So, students only remember what

the words mean in Chinese and ignore the most important fact, how they should be used.

Teachers become the porter of dictionaries and students become the warehouse of vocabularies.

The purpose of learning English should be learning how to use it precisely rather than rote

memorization. English word-formation has certain rules that can be followed. Mastering these

suffixes correctly on their semantic meanings and syntactic uses greatly helps students enlarge

their vocabulary and vocabulary competence. From this paper, it can be concluded that it is

necessary to learn certain English suffixes because these suffixes are essential elements that

enhance students’ vocabulary competence. As long as students understand the meaning of

suffixes, stems and prefixes, it is possible to infer the basic explanation of a word.

Comprehensively considering the relationship between roots and suffixes may enable students to

fully understand the accurate meanings. Although the grammatical function of these three

suffixes are strong, it will not work well without being associated with other morphemes.

Therefore, not only should English vocabulary teachers teach students roots, suffixes, and

prefixes, but also help students combine these elements with language, society, and culture.
THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX OF –ABLE, -IC, AND -ICAL 10

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Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (2015). The Grammar Book: Form, Meaning, and Use

for English Language Teachers. National Geographic Learning, 394.

Gries, S. T. (2003). Testing the sub-test: An analysis of English-ic and-ical

adjectives. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 31-61.

Hancock, I., & Todd, L. (2005). International English Usage. London: Routledge.

Kaunisto, M. (1999). Electric/electrical and classic/classical: Variation between the suffixes -ic

and ‐ical. English Studies, 343-370.

Marchand, H. (1969). The categories and types of present-day English word-formation: A

synchronic-diachronic approach. Second Edition. Munchen: Beck.

Mettinger, A. (1990). Comparing the incomparable? English adjectives in -able and their

rendering in Modern Chinese. Further Insights into Contrastive Analysis, 423-432.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & J. Svartvik (1985) A comprehensive grammar of the

English language. London and New York: Longman, 1555.

Ross, N. J. (1998). The -ic and -ical Pickle. English Today, 14(2), 40-44.

Swan, M. (2005). Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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