I need to determine what and how the meaning of words change when the
suffix "-ness" or "-ility" or "ity" etc. is added. I have a huge list of these
character-building words and I need to make them as uniform as
possible.

Some of the words are: 

RELIABLE      vs.      RELIABILITY

RESOURCEFUL   vs.      RESOURCEFULNESS

HONEST        vs.      HONESTY

SINCERE       vs.      SINCERITY

ACCOUNTABLE   vs.      ACCOUNTABILITY

ALTRUISM      vs.      ALTRUISTIC

OPEN          vs.      OPENNESS


Thanks, 

Nick in Kingston, WA

Hello alias:

Thanks for the fascinating question. Basically, what you are doing by
adding these endings to the words in the lefthand column is
transforming an adjective (e.g., honest) into a noun (e.g., honesty).
Actually, the sub-type of noun that we are looking at here is
"non-count nouns".

Count and Non-Count Nouns
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/grammar/countnoncount.html

The difference in meaning can be summarized as a change between a one
time quality (e.g. "he did an honest thing") to a character trait
(e.g., "he always displays honesty").

The noun created is typically defined as "the quality or condition of
being" whatever the adjective was.

For example, *honesty* is defined as "the quality or condition of
being honest."
Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=honesty

So basically, you've taken a descriptive word and turned it into
something that can be used as a character trait.

One thing to note is that you've made an error in your above list. The
word "altruistic" should be in the lefthand column (it is the
adjective) and "altruism" should be in the righthand column (it is the
noun). Even though the ending changes when the transformation is done,
you cannot assume that the resulting word will be smaller than the
original. Such is the craziness that is the English language. I could
find no cut and dried rules that tell you in all cases which suffix is
added to which adjective or how the original word is altered before
that happens. However, I will continue to look for this information,
if it exists.

I hope that the above information answers your question. If I have
misunderstood your intent, please let me know using the Clarification
Request feature - and please allow me to provide clarification before
you rate this answer.

Thanks. 

websearcher-ga


Search Strategy (on Google):

non-count nouns honesty
honest honesty sincere sincerity grammar
honest honesty noun adjective
derivational morphemes ity ness
rules ness ity suffixes

---

Clarification of Answer by websearcher-ga on 09 Jan 2003 08:50 PST

Hi alias:

While I'm having trouble finding rules online for which ending to add
and how, I believe I can piece together the rules on my own - if you
indeed want them. If you do, please let me know using the
Clarification Request feature.

Thanks. 

websearcher-ga

Thanks for your answers and clarifications, it helped me out just fine!