UNIVERSITATEA VALAHIA DIN TRGOVITE Facultatea de tiine Umaniste Specializarea: Romn- Englez

AFFIXATION (PREFIXES and SUFFIXES)

Student: Broiu Ctlina Gabriela Anul: III Semestrul: I Grupa: I

TRGOVITE 2012

AFFIXATION ( PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES)

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. There are different ways of classifying affixes. The most obvious way is according to their position with regard to the base, whether they are prefixes or suffixes. More fine-grained classifications run into numerous problems. Thus, affixes are often classified according to the syntactic category of their base words, but, this does not always work properly because affixes may take more than one type of base. Another possible basis of classification could be the affixes semantic properties, but this has the disadvantage that many affixes can express a whole range of meanings, so it would often not be clear under which category an affix should be listed. Yet another criterion could be whether an affix changes the syntactic category of its base word. Again, this is problematic because certain suffixes sometimes do change the category of the base and sometimes do not. Consider, for example, -ee, which is category-changing in employee, but not so in pickpocketee. There is one criterion that is rather unproblematic, at least with suffixes, namely the syntactic category of the derived form. Any given English suffix derives words of only one category (the only exception to this generalization seems to be -ish, see below). For example, -ness only derives nouns, -able only adjectives, -ize only verbs. Prefixes are more problematic in this respect, because they not only attach to bases of different categories, but also often derive different categories. We can, however, divide affixes into common semantic categories: Personal affixes (create people nouns) Form agent nouns (the doer of the action) for example: the suffix er: writer, runner, broadcaster etc. (All of the forms derived with er denote concrete nouns, either persons or things, related to their base verbs by participating in the action).

Form patient nouns (the person the action is done to) for example: the suffix ee: employee, testee, interviewee etc. Negative and privative affixes Negative adds the meaning not to their base. e.g. the prefixes un-, in-, non-: unhappy, inattentive, non-functional Privative means something like without X. e.g. the suffix less (useless, hopeless) e.g. the prefix de- (mean something like cause to be without): debug or debone

Prepositional and relational affixes: often convey notions of space and/or time. e.g. prefixes over- and out-: overfill, overcoat, outrun, outhouse etc.

 Quantitative affixes: have to do with amount. e.g. ful, multi- , re-: handful, helpful, multicultural, reread. Evaluative affixes consist of: Diminutives affixes that signal a smaller version of the base: e.g. let as in booklet, droplet. Augmentatives affixes that signal a bigger version of the base: e.g. the prefix mega- as in megastore, megabite. Diminutives and augmentatives frequently have other nuances of meaning. For example, diminutives often convey affection or endearment. Augmentatives sometimes have pejorative overtones. SUFFIXES 1. Nominal suffixes Nominal suffixes are often employed to derive abstract nouns from verbs, adjectives and nouns. Such abstract nouns can denote actions, results of actions, or other related concepts, but also properties, qualities and the like: -age: coverage, leakage, spillage, acreage, voltage, yardage; -al: arrival, overthrowal, recital, referral, renewal; -ance (with its variants -ence/-ancy/-ency): absorbance, riddance, retardance; dependence, dependency, or expectance, expectancy. -ant: applicant, defendant, disclaimant; -dom: kingdom, cameldom, maoridom; -ee: employee, biography, amputee; -eer: auctioneer, budgeteer, cameleer, mountaineer, pamphleteer; -er: teacher, singer, writer; -ees: princess, stewardess, lioness, tigress, waitress; -ful: bootful, cupful, handful, tumblerful, stickful; -hood: adulthood, childhood, farmerhood; -an: technician, historian, Utopian; -ing: building, wrapping, stuffing; -ism: blondism, Parkinsonism, conservatism, revisionism, Marxism; -ist: ballonist, careerist, fantasist, minimalist; -ity: curiosity, productivity, profundity, solidity; -ment: assessment, endorsement, involvement, treatment; -ship: apprenticeship, clerkship, friendship, membership, statesmanship; *Quality noun forming -ness is perhaps the most productive suffix of English. With regard to potential base words, -ness is much less restrictive than its close semantic relative -ity. The suffix can attach to practically any adjective, and apart from adjectival base words
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we find nouns as in thingness, pronouns as in us-ness and frequently phrases as in over-thetop-ness, all-or-nothing-ness.

2. Verbal suffixes There are four suffixes which derive verbs from other categories (mostly adjectives and nouns), -ate, -en, -ify and -ize. -ate: fluorinate, regulate, dissonate; -en: blacken, broaden, quicken, ripen; -ify: humidify, solidify, purify; -ize: computerize, hospitalize, emphasize; 3. Adjectival suffixes -able/ible: agreeable, perishable, variable; changeable; comprehensible, discernible, flexible, reversible; -al: accidental, colonial, cultural, federal, institutional, modal; -ary: complementary, evolutionary, fragmentary, legendary, precautionary; -ed: empty-headed, pig-headed, air-minded, fair-minded; -esque: Chaplinesque, Hemingwayesque, picturesque; -ful: beautiful, insightful, purposeful, tactful; -ic/-ical: electric - electrical, economic - economomical, historic - historical, magic magical; -ish: clearish, freeish, sharpish; -ive: connective, explosive, fricative, offensive, passive, preventive, primitive; -less: expressionless, hopeless, speechless, thankless; -ly: brotherly, daughterly, fatherly, womanly; -ous: curious, barbarous, famous, synonymous, tremendous; 4. Adverbial suffixes -ly: shortly, hardly, dryly; -wise: sarongwise, lengthwise; PREFIXES The prefixes of English can be classified semantically into the following groups: First, there is a large group that quantify over their base words meaning, for example, one (uni-, unilateral, unification), twice or two (bi-, bilateral, bifurcation and di-, disyllabic, ditransitive), many (multi-, multi-purpose, multi-lateral and poly-, polysyllabic, polyclinic), half (semi-, semi-conscious, semi-desert), all (omni-, omnipotent, omnipresent), small (micro-, micro-surgical, microwave), large (macro-, macroeconomics, macro-biotic), to excess (hyper-, hyperactive, hypermarket and over-, overestimate, overtax), not sufficiently (undernourish, underpay). Second, there are numerous locative prefixes such as circum- around (circumnavigate, circumscribe), counter- against (counterbalance, counterexample), endo-internal to X (endocentric, endocrinology), epi- on, over (epiglottis, epicentral), inter-between (interbreed, intergalactic), intra- inside (intramuscular, intravenous), para4

along with (paramedic, paranormal), retro- back, backwards (retroflex, retrospection), trans- across (transcontinental, transmigrate). Third, there are temporal prefixes expressing notions like before (ante-, pre and fore, as in antechamber, antedate, preconcert, predetermine, premedical, forefather, foresee), after (post-, poststructuralism, postmodify, postmodern), or new (neo-, neoclassical, NeoLatin). A fourth group consists of prefixes expressing negation ( a(n)-, de-, dis-, in-, non-, un-, see below for examples). Numerous prefixes do not fit into any of the four groups, however, and express diverse notions, such as wrong, evil (mal-, malfunction, malnutrition), badly, wrongly (mis-, misinterpret, mistrial), false, deceptive (pseudo-), together, jointly (co-), in place of (vice-) etc. The negative prefixes appear to be more complex in their distribution and behavior than most of the other suffixes and their domains overlap considerably: a-: achromatic, asexual, ahistorical, asymmetrical; anti-: anti-war, anti-abortion, anti-capitalistic, anti-scientific, anti-freeze; de-: decolonize, decaffeinate, deflea, depollute, dethrone, deselect; dis-: disassemble, disassociate, discharge, disconnect, disproof; in-: incomprehensible, inactive, intolerable, implausible, illegal; non-: nonbiological, non-commercial, non-returnable; un-: unbind, uncork, unleash, unsaddle, unwind, unwrap; The vast majority of prefixes do not change the syntactic category of their base words, they merely act as modifiers. Furthermore, it can be observed that they generally attach to more than one kind of syntactic category (verb, adjective, or noun) and do not influence the stress pattern of their bases.

REFERENCES: 1. Adams, Valerie, 2001, Complex Words in English, Harlow: Longman. 2. Bauer, Laurie, 2001, Morphological Productivity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3. Plag, Ingo, 2003, Word formation in English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.