The formal criterion of both derivation and composition is, of course, a combinatory comportment of the derivatives and compounds which is, in all respects, identical with that of corresponding single monemes. It is, not doubt, quite essential to determine whether a language makes use of derivation, or composition, or both: languages vary a good deal in that respect. But this have little to do with the distinction between monemes that do not indicate their relations to the context (dependants) and those that are meant to mark those relations (functionals); both composition and derivation yeld units which may function as dependents ( 'farm-yard', 'yellowish') or as functional ('on-sto', Lat. 'in-ter', 'in-tr-ā', 'in-tr-ō').
- Martinet (1962), a pag.95