Routledge
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Introducing Language in Use: a Coursebook

Book cover

Activities

Words

Here are six verbs. Each of them is derived by putting a suffix morpheme {-en} on to an adjective.

darken, thicken, moisten, widen, harden, shorten

  1. What is the meaning of the suffix {-en}?
  2. There are many adjectives that do not accept this suffix. Some of them are:

thin, green, hot, wild, happy, peaceful

How do speakers of English express causative meanings — similar to those in (a) — for the adjectives in (b)? Try to find more than one way of doing this for at least one of the adjectives.