Word Formation Processes "Affixation"

Affixation

           Affixation is the adding of bound morphemes to the base to base to form a word. The adding of the bound morphemes initially to a base is called prefixes, the adding of the bound morphemes inside the base is called infixes, while the combination of prefix and suffix which constructs a unity is named confixes and the adding of the bound morphemes to the end of base is called suffixes.

           Affixation is the morphological process of attaching or adding an affix to the root, stem or base form. According Bauer (1983: 20) root, stem and base are all terms used in the literature to designate that part of a word that remains when all affixes have been removed. A root is a form which is not further analyzable, either in terms of derivation or inflection morphology. A stem is of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology. And base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added.

           Affixes can be defined as a closed class of grammatical elements within the word. They are bound morphemes and cannot occur on their own. A fair number of affixes change the word class of the root to which they are affixed. Formally, the following categories can be distinguished: prefixes, suffixes, confixes and infixes.

           There are two types of affixation is derivational and inflectional. Derivational suffixes, however, are used to change both meaning and use of existing lexical items.  In other words, when a derivational morpheme is added to a word, it “results in either a different part of speech or the same part of speech with a different lexical meaning” (Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999: 31).  For example, –ment, as in the word achievement (achieve + ment), makes a noun from a verb, changing both the part of speech and the meaning.

1.         Prefixes

       Prefix may be classified into two categories depending on whether they change or maintain the word-class categories of the derived words. The word prefix is composed of a root and a prefix. A prefix is a meaningful unit of one or more syllables added to the beginning of a root to form a new word.

The following are some prefixes that are commonly used in English.

1.  Negative Prefixes
a) in-     
     e.g. : in-       +       operable      = inoperable

     b)  dis-

           e.g. :  dis-      +       order            = disorder

     c) un-

           e.g. :  un-      +       rest              = unrest   

     d) non-

     e.g. :  non-    +       stop            = nonstop 

e)     a-

           e.g. :  a-         +       sleep           = asleep

                         

2.  Pejorative Prefixes

         This prefix is attached to give the meaning of “wrongly”.

a)     mis-

                 e.g. :   mis-     +       lead             = mislead

          mis-     +       fortune       = misfortune

b)    mal-

                 e.g. :   mal-    +       nutrition     = malnutrition

          mal-    +       adjusted      = maladjusted

3.  Prefix of Degree or Size

a)     over-

                 e.g. :   over-   +       charge         = overcharge

          over-   +       growth        = overgrowth

b)    out-       

                 e.g. :   out-     +       grow            = outgrow

                             out-     +       number      = outnumber

4.  Prefix of Position in Time or Space

a)     under-

                 e.g. :   under- +       ground        = underground

                             under- +       world           = underworld

b)    fore-

                 e.g. :   fore-    +       tell                = foretell

                             fore-    +       warn            = forewarn

c)     mid-

                 e.g. :   mid-    +       night             = midnight

    mid-    +       semester      = mid-semester

d)    inter-

                 e.g. :   inter-   +       dependence = interdependence

                             inter-   +       mix                = intermix

5.  Prefix of number

a)     bi-

                 e.g. :   bi-       +       lingual           = bilingual

    bi-       +       labial             = bilabial

b)    multi-

                 e.g. :   multi-  +       media           = multimedia

    multi-  +       talented       = multitalented

2.         Suffixes

Suffix is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme is process whereby a bound morpheme is attached to the end of a stem. There are two kinds of suffixes; they are inflectional and derivational suffixes. Inflectional suffixes do not change the word class of the word it is attached to. In contrast, derivational suffixes usually but not always change the word class of the word it is attached to.

a.       Inflection Suffixes

-   added to nouns to form plurals and possessives

e.g.  : book      =>       books

               Boy        =>       boys

               John      =>       John’s

-       added to verbs to indicate tense

e.g.  : change  =>       changed

           Kick      =>       kicked

           Drink    =>       drinking

-       added to adjective to indicate tense

e.g.  : fast        =>       faster        =>     fastest

          Bright    =>       brighter   =>     brightest

b.   Derivational Suffixes

Derivational suffixes usually change the word class from one part of
speech to another one.

-         From a verb to a noun

e.g.  : achieve           =>     achievement

          Survive          =>     survival

          Press              =>     pressure

          Bank              =>     banker

-         From a noun to a verb

e.g.  : victim             =>     victimize

          Class               =>     classify

          Beauty            =>     beautify

-         From a noun to an adjective

e.g.  : care                 =>     careful

           Legend           =>     legendary      

           Week              =>     weekly

           President       =>     presidential

                                        Humor            =>     humorous

-         From an adjective to a noun

e.g.  : eager              =>     eagerness

              Ready             =>     readiness

   Intelligent     =>     intelligence

-         From a verb to an adjective

e.g.  : communicate  =>     communicative

              Differ                =>     different

              Read                 =>     readable

              Please               =>     pleasant

-         From an adjective to a verb

e.g.  : black                =>     blacken

              Sharp               =>     sharpen

Based on the class of the words, English suffixes can be divided into four types, they are:

1.       English suffixes of noun

a.        Denoting agent or doer

    -er

       e.g.  : Bake   +    -er       = baker

    -ster

       e.g.  : Gang   +    -ster    = gangster

b.       Denoting state, action, condition, being

    - dom

       e.g.  : king     +    -dom   = kingdom

                   -hood (-head)

        e.g.  : Child   +    -hood  = childhood

    -lock (-ledge)

        e.g.  : Know  +    -ledge  = knowledge

c.   Forming diminutives (smallness)

    -let    

        e.g.  : stream +    -let      = streamlet

    -ling   

        e.g.  : duck    +    -ling    = duckling

2.            English suffixes of adjective

a.        –ed means having

                       e.g.  : gift       =>   gifted                

b.       –en means made of

                 e.g.  : wood  =>   wooden            

3.       English suffixes of verbs

a.        –en means causative, forming transitive verbs

                 e.g.  : week   =>   weaken

b.       –se means to make

                 e.g.  : clean   =>   cleanse

4.       English suffixes of adverbs

a.        –ly means like

    e.g.  : bold    =>   boldly

b.       –long

   e.g.  : head    =>   headlong  

3.        Infixes

         An infix is an affix inserted inside a stem (an existing word). It contrasts with affix, a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix. An infix is a word element (a type of affix) that can be inserted within the base form of a word (rather than at its beginning or end) to create a new word or intensify meaning. Also called an integrated adjective.

4.        Confixes

A confix is an affix which consists of at least a prefix and a suffix that is placed before and after a root word. It needs to be considered that the prefix and suffix must be appeared together. Take the example in Indonesian language, the word “berdatangan” and “berhalangan”. For instance, the word “berdatangan” is derived from “datang” and confix “ber-an” which is attached together. The word “berdatangan” is a unity because there is no word “datangan” in Indonesia. While, the word berhalangan is not a confix. It is firstly formed from word “halang” and suffix “an” and then prefix “ber” is added. The word “halangan” can be found in Indonesian language. That is why the word “berhalangan” is not a confix. The word "confix" is itself made up of the suffix -fix (meaning "attach", in this case), and the prefix con- (meaning "with"), both of which are derived from Latin roots.

Examples of confixes in Indonesian :

1.  One prefix and one suffix on a non-reduplicative word: kebaikan (ke+baik+an) - "goodness"

2.  One prefix and one suffix on a compound word: dijungkirbalikkan (di+jungkir balik+kan) - "being overthrown", jungkir balik lit. "upside down"

References :

http://uhn.ac.id/uploads/fbs/episteme4

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/infixterm.htm

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/wordtypes.html