English Affixation

1.      Affixation

Affixes are the bound morphemes which are added to base forms of words.  Yule, 2010 defines affixes as "a large number of small “bits” of the English language which are not usually given separate listings in dictionaries" (58). For example, "re-", "dis-", "-s", "-ed" are some common affixes in English language.

The root words for affixes to be added in English are always lexical / content words, but not grammatical / function words. Thus, affixes can be added only with noun, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

And, the process of adding such affixes into base forms of words is called affixation. For example, the words "recover", "discover", "covers" and "covered" all have been passed through affixation process as they have been made from adding the affixes "re-", "dis-", "-s" and "-ed" into the base word "cover".

2.      Types of affixes on the basis of places

Affixes can be of four types on the basis of their places. That means, on the basis of the part of the root word they are added into; affixes can be of four different types:

I)                   Prefixes

Affixes that are added in beginning of any root word are called prefixes. In the above example, "re-" and "dis-" are prefixes as they have been added in the beginning of the base form "cover".

Prefixes contribute to change the meaning of a root word into different but related meanings. Some changes due to prefixes are given below.

a)      Negative prefixes: in-, un-, non-, dis-, a- etc.

Justice                    >          Injustice

Grammatical           >          Ungrammatical

Linear                     >          Nonlinear

Connect                 >          Disconnect

Moral                     >          Amoral

b)      Size and degree affixes: mini-, over-, sub-, super- etc.

Skirt                       >          Miniskirt

Hear                       >          Overhear

Set                         >          Subset

Man                       >          Superman

II)                Suffixes

Affixes that are added in end of any root word are called suffixes. In "covers" and "covered", for example, "-s" and "-ed" are suffixes because they get added into the root in end of the word.

Suffixes too contribute to change the meaning of the root word into some other related meanings. Besides, they may have some grammatical function - to "inflect" - which will be described later.

Some common examples of suffixes are:

-ful:      Respect            >          Respectful

-ish:      Fool                 >          Foolish

-ist       Marx                >          Marxist

-s         Cut                   >          Cuts

-s         Cat                   >          Cats

III)             Infixes

Affixes which get added in mid part of a single root word are called infixes. In Standard English grammar, infixes do not exist.

But, "It is possible to see the general principle at work in certain expressions, occasionally used in fortuitous or aggravating circumstances by emotionally aroused English speakers: Hallebloodylujah!, Absogoddamlutely! and Unfuckinbelievable!" (Yule 2010, 59). In these examples, three words - "bloody", "goddam", and "fucking" - have been inserted in middle of the original words "hallelujah", "absolutely" and "unbelievable" respectively.

IV)             Circumfixes

Circumfixes are exact opposites of infixes. They round / circle the root word. That means, a circumfix gets divided into two parts and these two parts are placed in beginning and end of the root word respectively. As infixes, circumfixes too do not exist in Standard English.

3.      Types of affixes on the basis of functions

Affixes either denote grammatical information of the word, or they entirely change the word into a new one. In this way, affixes can be described as of two types on the basis of functions.

I)                   Inflectional affixes

Inflectional affixes suggest grammatical information about the word. For example, in the word "bags", the suffix "-s" suggests plurality of the word. Similarly, the suffix "-er" in the word "clearer" suggest that it is comparative form of the base adjective "clear".

 

Besides the grammatical information, inflectional affixes can not affect much in meaning. Neither can they change the word class of the root words.

Since inflectional affixes are deeply related to grammatical function of the word (and thus function of the sentence), it belongs to not only morphology, but syntax as well. Inflections in words occur because of syntactic rules. It is a bridge between two levels of linguistic study: morphology and syntax. "Syntax and inflections are complementary and constitute the principal part, if not the whole, of what we are calling grammar. Jointly, they determine the grammaticality (i.e. the grammatical well-formedness) of sentences…" (Lyons 1981, 102).

There are only eight inflectional affixes in English. And, all of them are suffixes. Four of them add into verbs, two into nouns and two into adjectives.

Verbs:

-s         >          cuts, gives, catches, flies                                                3SG.NONPAST

-ed       >          watched, put, went, ran, flied, caught                             PAST

-en       >          watched, gone, taken, given, cut, caught                        PERFECTIVE

-ing      >          cutting, giving, catching, flying                            PROGRESSIVE

Nouns:

-s         >          cats, buses, sheep, oxen                                                PLURAL

-'s        >          cat's, cats', John's, bus's                                                POSSESSIVE

Adjectives:

-er        >          smarter, more handsome, better                                    COMPARATIVE

-est      >          smartest, most smartest, best                                         SUPERLATIVE

As seen in the above examples, a single inflectional affix may have different forms (allomorphs of a same morpheme). For example, the 3SG.NONPAST "-s" can be "-es", and "-ies"; and the PERFECTIVE "-en" can be "-ed", null or in other forms.

II)                Derivational affixes

Unlike inflectional affixes, derivational affixes can "derive" entirely new words from the existing ones. Thus, they are more productive than inflectional morphemes. For example, in the words "disestablish" and "establishment", "dis-" and "-ment" are derivational affixes because they created entirely new but related words from a single root word "establish".

As seen in "disestablish" and "establishment", derivational affixes can be either prefixes or suffixes.

Derivational affixes are of course limited, but beyond simple counting as in inflectional affixes.

Many derivational affixes change the word classes (traditionally called "parts of speech"). Thus, they are mostly used to derive different word forms from a root word. Examples include:

-ic                    Hero                >          Heroic                          Noun >Adjective

-ance                Perform            >          Performance                 Verb>Noun

-ity                   Active              >          Activity             Adjective>Noun

-ly                    Bad                  >          Badly                           Adjective>Adverb

-ive                  Create              >          Creative                       Verb>Adjective

-able                Share               >          Sharable                       Verb>Adjective

-ise                   Character         >          Characterise                 Noun>Verb

Some other derivational affixes do not change the word class but create considerable changes in meaning. Some of them can make the word opposite.

Un-                  Happy              >          Unhappy

Un-                  Do                   >          Undo

Dis-                  Establish           >          Disestablish

Anti-                Capitalist          >          Anticapitalist

In-                    Decent             >          Indecent

Others just create different but related words belonging to the same class.         

Re-                  Cover               >          Recover

-ship                 Friend              >          Friendship

-ist                   Capital             >          Capitalist

-er                    Lecture >          Lecturer

-let                   Book                >          Booklet

-hood               Child                >          Childhood

If a word has both derivational and inflectional suffixes, derivational is closer than the inflectional one. First, derivation occurs, and it is followed by inflection. For example:

Teach   >          teacher             >          teachers

Lively   >          livelihood          >          Livelihood's 

Works Cited

Lyons, John. Language and Linguistics An Introduction. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Yule, George. The Study of Language. 4th ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.