Affixation

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics which studies the vocabulary of a given language

and deals with the structure, history and meaning of words. Lexicologists may specialize
either in the synchronic or in the diachronic study of language.

What is a word?

If you had to define what a word is, you might first think of the word as a unit in the
writing system, the so-called orthographic word: a word is an uninterrupted string of
letters which is preceded by a blank space and followed either by a blank space or a
punctuation mark. At first sight, this looks like a good definition that can be easily
applied, as we can see in the sentence
Linguistics is a fascinating subject.
We count 5 orthographic words: there are five uninterrupted strings of letters, all of
which are preceded by a blank space, four of which are also followed by a blank space,
one of which is followed by a period. However, things are not always as straightforward.
Benjamin’s girlfriend lives in a high-rise apartment building
The result depends on a number of assumptions. If you consider apostrophies to be
punctuation marks, Benjamin's constitutes two (orthographic) words. If not, Benjamin's
is one word. If you consider a hyphen a punctuation mark, high-rise is two
(orthographic) words, otherwise it's one (orthographic) word. The last two strings,
apartment building, are easy to classify, they are two (orthographic) words, whereas
girlfriend must be considered one (orthographic) word. However, there are two basic
problems. The first one is that orthography is often variable. Thus, girlfriend is also
attested with the spellings <girl-friend>, and even <girl friend> (fish brackets are used to
indicate spellings, i.e. letters). Such variable spellings are rather common (cf. word-
formation, word formation, and wordformation, all of them attested), and even where
the spelling is conventionalized, similar words are often spelled differently, as evidenced
with grapefruit vs. passion fruit. The notion of what a word is, should, after all, not
depend on the preferences of individual writers or the arbitrariness of the English
spelling system. The second problem with the orthographically defined word is that it
may not always coincide with our intuitions. Thus, most of us would probably agree that
girlfriend is a word (i.e. one word) which consists of two words (girl and friend), a so-
called compound. If compounds are one word, they should be spelled without a blank
space separating the elements that together make up the compound. Unfortunately, this
is not the case. The compound apartment building, for example, has a blank space
between apartment and building.
Furthermore, a purely orthographic notion of word would have the disadvantage of
implying that illiterate speakers would have no idea about what a word might be. This is
plainly false.
 What, is responsible for our intuitions about what a word is, if not the orthography? The
word could be defined in four other ways: in terms of sound structure (i.e.
phonologically), in terms of its internal integrity, in terms of meaning (i.e. semantically),
or in terms of sentence structure (i.e. syntactically).
The morpheme is the smallest unit of form that has meaning and certain functional
relations in a given linguistic system. Morphemes are the meaningful elements of a
word. For example: true is a single morpheme, untrue contains two morphemes
UN- +TRUE, untruthfulness contains 5 morphemes : UN- + TRUE + -TH + -FUL +
-NESS.

Morphemes cannot be equated with syllables. On the one hand a single morpheme can
have more than one syllable, as in river, harvest, gorilla, etc. On the other hand there
are sometimes two or more morphemes in a single syllable, as in kissed (KISS + ‘PAST
TENSE’), cats (CAT + ‘PLURAL’), men’s (MAN + ‘PLURAL’ + ‘POSSESSIVE’). Some
morphemes like boy, orange, dog can stand alone as words and are therefore called
free morphemes. Others function only as parts of other words and are known as bound
morphemes UN-, -NESS, -ER, etc.

The lexeme is an item of the vocabulary.

A lexeme (also lexical item) the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that
can be distinguished from other similar units. It is an abstract unit which occurs in many
different forms in actual spoken or written sentences. (e.g. all inflected forms such as
sings, singing, sang, sung would belong to the one lexeme sing). Similarly, such
expressions as bury the hatchet, give up, school boy would each be considered a single
lexeme. In a dictionary, each lexeme has a separate entry or sub-entry.

From a lexical point of view, the structure of the word consists of:

root – the basic morpheme from which a word is derived

stem – the part of a word that participates in the formation of a new word

affixes – an addition to a stem or root in order to build a new word

music (root/stem) + -al (affix) = musical

musical (stem) + -ly (affix) = musically

A stem may be either identical with the root, or derived from a root with the help of a
suffix.
A single word is conceived as a base consisting of a single free morpheme (cat, pen),
while a derivative word is conceived as consisting of a stem and affix (prefix or suffix),
thus being polymorphic.

Affixes should be distinguished from inflections:

Examples of inflections:
Nominal inflections: s to mark plurality (humans), ‘s to show genitive case (human’s)
Verbal inflections: -(e)s to mark 3rd person sg, present tense (He humanizes…), -ed to
show past simple (He humanized…), -ing to mark the present participle humanizing)
Examples of affixes: human N, humane A, human-ity N, human-ism N, human-istic A,
human-itarian A, human-itarian-ism N, human-ize V, human-ly Adv.

Inflections encode grammatical categories: nominal categories (number and

case) and verbal categories (tense, person). Inflectional morphemes are relevant
syntactically. They do not produce new words, but different forms of the same word.
Inflections can only occur at the end of the words, while affixes are attached either on
the left or on the right of the word.

In contrast affixes have as a result new lexemes, they change the class of words to
which the base belongs. Affixes are relevant semantically. Affixes may have not only a
final position, but also an initial position, hence the labels: prefix and suffix.

Criteria for the classification of affixes

Affixes may be classed according to function, origin, the part of speech that they form,
productivity, lexical-grammatical meaning.

1. Classification of affixes according to their function:

Governing derivational affixes are affixes which change the class of the word to
which they are added. They are generally suffixes:
dark+ -en > darken Adj +suffix > V
But there are also few prefixes:
be- + friend > befriend Prefix + N > V

Restrictive derivational affixes do not change the class, determining only a change of
meaning. They may be
prefixes:
mis- + fortune > misfortune prefix + N > N
self- + confident > self-confident
suffixes:
kitchen + -ette > kitchenette N + suffix > N
hero + -ism > heroism
2. Classification of affixes according to their origin
Prefixes of Germanic origin
for- forbid, forgive,
fore- forefather, foreman, foresight
mis- misassociate, misapprehend, misvalue
out- outgrowth, outpost, outdated
over- overcharge, overdue, oversimplify
under- undereducate, underground, undersecretary
up- upgrade, uplift, uproot
with- withdraw, withstand

Prefixes of Latin origin

bi- bifocal, bimonthly, biweekly
de- decaf, decompose
dis- disagree, disconnect
em-, en- empower, enable, enthrone
in-( im-), i- illegal, inaccurate, imperfect, irrecoverable, irreducible
non- noncombatant, nonconformist
pre- pre-eminent, prenatal
self- selfcommand, selfcommittment, self-schooled
sub- subdivide, subspecies
super- supersonic, superstructre
trans- transliterate, transoceanic

Prefixes of Greek origin

anti- antibody, anti-inflationary, antithesis
bio- biography, biohazard
geo- geomorphology, geopolitics
hydro- hydrodynamics, hydroelectric
hyper- hyperbole, hyperfiction, hypertext
macro- macroscopic, macrosociology
micro- microwave, microprocessor
psycho- psychobiology, psychodrama, psychogenesis
tele- telebanking, telecommute, teleshopping, teleworking,

Suffixes of Germanic origin:

-dom freedom, officialdom
-er hacker, worker
-ful restful, spiteful
-hood manhood, priesthood
-ing wedding, winnings
-ish boyish, womanish,
-ly greatly, godly, daily
-ness greatness, selfishness
-ship authorship, scholarship
-th growth, width
-ward backward, skywards
-wise clockwise, likewise
-y booky, classy, smoky, sunny
 Suffixes of Romance (Latin, French, Italian ) origin
-able bankable, copyrightable,
-al recital, renewal
-an, -ian electrician, syntactician
-ation formation, hibernation
-ee assignee, grantee,
-ence/-ance patience, resistance
-ese journalese, Japanese
-ess lioness, waitress
- ette kitchenette, novelette
-(i)fy intensify, simplify
- ic allergic, syntactic
-ical economical, fanatical
-ism colloquialism, terrorism
-ity faculty, university
-ize, -ise moralize, moralise
-ment judgment, puzzlement
-or actor, conductor

Suffixes of Greek origin

-graphy lexicography, photography
-ic periodic, magnetic
-ism alphabetism, womanism, youthism
-logy musicology, phraseology
- phobia claustophobia, arachnophobia

1. Classification of affixes according to the word class they form

Depending on the class to which the derived word belongs, suffixes are called
nominalizers (or noun formatives) if the derived word is a noun, adjectivisers (or
adjective formatives) if the result of derivation is an adjective, verbalizers (or verb
formatives) and adverbializers (or adverb formatives).
According to the stem to which they are added, these formatives fall into several
patterns:

Nominalizers are added to the following stems:

Verb stem + Nominaliser > Noun
marry + -age > marriage
arriv- + -al > arrival
drive + -er > driver
Adjective stem + Nominalizer > Noun
free + -dom > freedom
American + -ism > Americanism

Adjectives fall into the following productive patterns:

Noun Stem + Adjectivizer > Adjective
 sentiment + -al > sentimental
beauty + -ful > beautiful
woman + -ish > womanish
friend + -less > friendless
Verb stem + Adjectiviser > Adjective
eat + -able > eatable
distrust + -ful > distrustful

Verbalizers fall into the following patterns:

Noun stem + Verbaliser > Verb
length + -en > lengthen
idol + -ise > idolise
Adjective stem + Verbaliser > Verb
black + -en > blacken
American + -ise > Americanise

Adverbialisers:
Adjective stem + Adverbialiser > Adverb
slow + -ly > slowly
Noun Stem + Adverbialiser > Adverb
end + -long > endlong
sky + -ward(s) > skyward(s)

2. Productivity
Productivity is given by the frequency with which an affix is used in the language
and with which speakers use it in order to create new words. According to this criterion,
affixes are regarded as productive (also called active), semi-productive and
unproductive. The most productive affixes can be added to almost any stem in order to
form a new word. Unproductive affixes are no longer used to form new derivatives.
Productivity is usually associated to the idea of dynamism in language.

Productive prefixes are:

anti-, ex-, extra-, dis-, de-, mis-, non-, out-, re-, self-, sub-, under-.
Semi-productive prefixes are:
ante-, arch-, com-, co-, counter-, hyper-, in-, mid-, neo-, pro-, post-, sub-, super-,
semi-, trans-, ultra-, up-, vice-.
Unproductive prefixes are: en-, fore-, with-.

Productive suffixes are:

-able, -an, -ed, -er, -ic, -ist, -ism, -ing, -ish, -ize, -ly, -less, -tion.
Semi-productive suffixes are:
-ate, -dom, -ful, -hood, -eer, -ette, -ling, -let, -ship, -ward(s).
Unproductive suffixes are:
-ance, -age, -ent, -en, -ify, -ive, -ary, -some, -th.

3. Classification of affixes according to their meaning:

 Affixes can be grouped according to some common semantic traits which are
added to the grammatical ones.
Some affixes express the idea of ‘collectivity’: -dom, -hood, -ism, -ship, -ery
(brotherhood, friendship).The idea of ‘female being’ is expressed by: -ess, -ine, -trix,
-ette (usherette, waitress) but also objects of lesser value: articlette, cigarette,
storyette, essayette). Diminutive suffixes express the idea of ‘smallness’: -ie, or -y:
birdie, doggie, kiddy, puppy. These get an emotional colouring or a colloquial character,
when attached to nouns denoting adult persons, usually family members: daddy, auntie,
Betty, Lizzie, etc. Other suffixes indicate disapproval: -ard (drunkard, dullard), -ling
(weakling, priestling), -ster (gangster, rhymester)