Major types of word formation:
Four types: affixation or derivation, composition or compounding,
conversion or zero - derivation, shortening or contraction.
Affixation
Affixation: is the formation of new words by adding affixes to other
words or morphemes.
Ex: able -> unable – ability – inability
unreasonable – un+(reason-+-able)
iscouragement – (dis-+courage) +-ment
CLASSIFICATION OF AFFIXES:
Affixes play an important role in this way of word-formation
Affixes are classified on the basis of four main criteria:
+ Etymological
+ Productive
+ Semantic
+ Functional
ETYMOLOGICAL
Native Affixes:
- Prefixes: asleep, aboard, beside, forgive, misunderstand, overwork,
unhappy, uninteresting
- Suffixes: translator, fighter, youngster, livelihood, relationship,
boredom, happiness, strength, gifted, beautiful, womanish, worrisome,
awfully
Borrowed Affixes:
- Latin Affixes:
+ Prefixes: Ambition, Avert, Anticipate, Collect, Counter-attack,
Extra-time, Illegal, Interchange, Transplant, Trespass
+ Suffixes: Citizen, Employee, Scholar, Revolutionary, marriage,
assistance, development, national, necessary, pleasant, present,
responsible, eatable, enormous, tentative, activate, terrify.
- Greek Affixes:
+ Prefixes: anti-fascism, Autobiography, Diameter, Ex-president,
Homophone, Hypertension, Microscope, Monoculture
+ Suffixes: unique, communist, tourism, industrialize, crisis
PRODUCTIVE AND NON-PRODUCTIVE AFFIXES
Productive Affixes: are often used to form new words
+ Noun-forming suffixes: manager, fighting, sweetness, evacuee,
materialism, redundancy, reactor, cybernetics, automation
+ Adjective-forming suffixes: tolerable, electronic, smartish, learned,
jobless, tweedy.
+ Adverbs-forming suffixes: equally, carefully, badly, beautifully
+ Verb-forming suffixes: vitaminize, oxidate, falsify, advertise, comprise,
decorate, eliminate, identify, electrify
+ Prefixes: unhappy, rewrite, disappoint, unworried, rebuild, replay,
disagree, disappear
Non-Productive Affixes: are no longer used to in the word-formation
+ Noun-forming suffixes: truth, sisterhood, scholarship, hardship,
childhood, neighbourhood, motherhood, livelihood, growth, drawth
+ Adjective-forming suffixes: peaceful, sickly, tiresome, golden,
courageous, powerful, colorful
+ Verb-forming suffix: -en (strengthen).
SEMANTIC
Negative prefixes: nonsense, inability, illegal, miniform, decrease,
incorrect, improper, misspell, never, untie, underfoot
Prefixes of time and order: postpone, preliminary, rediscover, ex-
husband, primary, retrograde, anter-meridiem
Prefixes of location: interchange, surface, transplant, export, extramural,
infrastructure, perimeter, return, subnormal, surface
Prefixes of size: maximum, minibus, microchip, semi-final, equi-distant,
macrophone, megaproject, pandemic
Prefixes of number: multiform, monoculture, semicircle, bilingual,
tricolor, pentagon, decade, septulet, November
Prefixes of attitude: antisocial, cohabit, counter-attack, contra-band,
contrary, pro-democracy
Pejorative affixes: misconduct, malfunction, misunderstand, misspell
FUNCTIONAL AFFIXES:
Noun-forming: independence, writer, production, learning, artist,
satisfaction, movement, quietness, clarity, stupidity, toursism, freedom
Verb-forming: automate, enlarge, befriend, electrify, widen, computerize
Adjective-forming: logical, passive, rainy, helpful, interesting,
dangerous, worried, yellowish, interactive, automatic, electrical, visible
Adverb-forming: logically, clockwise, homeward, rapidly, backward,
weatherwise, outward, crosswise
Quiz:
1. What is the difference between productive and non - productive
affixes?
- Productive affixes are those ones which take part in new words
derivation in this particular period of language development
- Non-productive affixes are not active in the process of word building
2. John likes to preview a movie before it comes out. “ PRE” means ?
A. middle
B. between
C. not
D. before.
3. Triangle has _____ sides or points. What does the “ TRI “ mean ?
What group does it belong to ?
A. above
B. Three
C. Middle
D. Many
