Affix
Encyclopedia
An affix is a morpheme
that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational
, like English -ness and pre-, or inflection
al, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morpheme
s by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes. Affixation is, thus, the linguistic process speakers use to form different words by adding morphemes (affixes) at the beginning (prefixation), the middle (infixation) or the end (suffixation) of words.
Prefix and suffix may be subsumed under the term adfix in contrast to infix.
In transcription, for example in the third column in the chart above, simple affixes such as prefixes and suffixes are shown connected to the stem with hyphens. Affixes which disrupt the stem, or which themselves are discontinuous, are often marked off with angle brackets. Reduplication is often shown with a tilde.
Lexical affixes are relatively rare. The Wakashan
, Salishan
, and Chimakuan languages
all have lexical suffixes — the presence of these is an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest of the North America
.
The lexical suffixes of these languages often show little to no resemblance to free nouns with similar meanings. Compare the lexical suffixes and free nouns of Northern Straits Saanich written in the Saanich orthography and in Americanist notation
:
Lexical suffixes when compared with free nouns often have a more generic or general meaning. For instance, one of these languages may have a lexical suffix that means water in a general sense, but it may not have any noun equivalent referring to water in general and instead have several nouns with a more specific meaning (such "saltwater", "whitewater", etc.). In other cases, the lexical suffixes have become grammaticalized to various degrees.
Some linguists have claimed that these lexical suffixes provide only adverbial or adjectival notions to verbs. Other linguists disagree arguing that they may additionally be syntactic arguments
just as free nouns are and thus equating lexical suffixes with incorporated nouns. Gerdts (2003) gives examples of lexical suffixes in the Halkomelem language
(the word order
here is verb–subject–object):
In sentence (1), the verb "wash" is where is the root and and are inflectional suffixes. The subject "the woman" is and the object "the baby" is . In this sentence, "the baby" is a free noun. (The here is an auxiliary
, which can be ignored for explanatory purposes.)
In sentence (2), "baby" does not appear as a free noun. Instead it appears as the lexical suffix which is affixed to the verb root (which has changed slightly in pronunciation, but this can also be ignored here). Note how the lexical suffix is neither "the baby" (definite
) nor "a baby" (indefinite); such referential changes are routine with incorporated nouns.
, the terms for affixes may be used for the smaller elements of conjunct characters. For example, Maya glyphs
are generally compounds of a main sign and smaller affixes joined at its margins. These are called prefixes, superfixes, postfixes, and subfixes according to their position to the left, on top, to the right, or at the bottom of the main glyph. A small glyph placed inside another is called an infix. Similar terminology is found with the conjunct consonants of the Indic alphabets. For example, the Tibetan alphabet utilizes prefix, suffix, superfix, and subfix consonant letters.
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational
Derivation (linguistics)
In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
, like English -ness and pre-, or inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
al, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morpheme
Bound morpheme
In morphology, a bound morpheme is a morpheme that only appears as part of a larger word; a free morpheme is one that can stand alone.Affixes are always bound. English language affixes are either prefixes or suffixes. E.g., -ment in "shipment" and pre- in "prefix"...
s by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes. Affixation is, thus, the linguistic process speakers use to form different words by adding morphemes (affixes) at the beginning (prefixation), the middle (infixation) or the end (suffixation) of words.
Positional categories of affixes
Affixes are divided into several categories, depending on their position with reference to the stem. Prefix and suffix are extremely common terms. Infix and circumfix are less so, as they are not important in European languages. The other terms are uncommon.| Affix | Example | Schema | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prefix Prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:... |
un-do | prefix-stem | Appears at the front of a stem |
| Suffix Suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs... /Postfix Postfix Postfix may refer to:* Suffix * Postfix notation, a way of writing algebraic and other expressions. Also known as reverse Polish notation* Postfix , a mail transfer agent program... |
look-ing | stem-suffix | Appears at the back of a stem |
| Suffixoid'/Semi-suffix | cat-like | stem-suffixoid | Appears at the back of a stem but is somewhere between a free and bound morpheme |
| Infix Infix An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the end of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.-Indonesian:... |
Minne⟨flippin'⟩sota | st⟨infix⟩em | Appears within a stem — common in Borneo-Philippines languages Borneo-Philippines languages The Borneo–Philippines languages are a paraphyletic group of the Austronesian languages which includes the languages of the Philippines, Borneo, the northern peninsula of Sulawesi and Madagascar.... |
| Circumfix Circumfix A circumfix is an affix, a morpheme that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, that are attached at the end; and infixes, inserted in the middle. See also epenthesis... |
a⟩scatter⟨ed | circumfix⟩stem⟨circumfix | One portion appears at the front of a stem, and the other at the rear |
| Interfix Interfix Interfix is a term in linguistics and more specifically, morphology . It describes an affix which is placed in between two other morphemes and does not have a semantic meaning... |
speed-o-meter | stema-interfix-stemb | Links two stems together in a compound |
| Duplifix | teeny~weeny | stem~duplifix | Incorporates a reduplicated Reduplication Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.... portion of a stem (may occur in front, at the rear, or within the stem) |
| Transfix Transfix In linguistic morphology, a transfix is a discontinuous affix, which occurs at more than one position in a word. The prototypical example comes from the Semitic languages, where nearly all word derivation and inflection involves the interdigitation of a discontinuous root with a discontinuous affix... |
Maltese Maltese language Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic... : k⟨i⟩t⟨e⟩b "he wrote" (compare root ktb "write") |
s⟨transfix⟩te⟨transfix⟩m | A discontinuous affix that interleaves within a discontinuous stem |
| Simulfix Simulfix In linguistics, a simulfix is a type of affix that changes one or more existing phonemes in order to modify the meaning of a morpheme.Examples of simulfixes in English are generally considered irregularities, all of which left over from pluralization rules that existed before the Great Vowel Shift... |
mouse → mice | Changes a segment of a stem | |
| Suprafix Suprafix In linguistics, a suprafix is a type of affix where a suprasegmental change modifies an existing morpheme's meaning. In many languages, they are used to differentiate between otherwise identical lexemes, but in some they are used derivationally or inflectionally.An example in English is the... |
produce (noun) produce (verb) |
Changes a suprasegmental phoneme of a stem | |
| Disfix Disfix A disfix is a subtractive morpheme, that is, a morpheme which manifests itself through elision . Thus it can be seen as a kind of "anti-affix"... |
Alabama Alabama language Alabama is a Native American language, spoken by the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas. It was once spoken by the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town of Oklahoma, but there are no more Alabama speakers in Oklahoma. It is a Muskogean language, and is believed to have been related to the Muklasa and... : tipli "break up" (compare root tipasli "break") |
stm | The elision Elision Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce... of a portion of a stem |
Prefix and suffix may be subsumed under the term adfix in contrast to infix.
In transcription, for example in the third column in the chart above, simple affixes such as prefixes and suffixes are shown connected to the stem with hyphens. Affixes which disrupt the stem, or which themselves are discontinuous, are often marked off with angle brackets. Reduplication is often shown with a tilde.
Lexical affixes
Lexical affixes (or semantic affixes) are bound elements that appear as affixes, but function as incorporated nouns within verbs and as elements of compound nouns. In other words, they are similar to word roots/stems in function but similar to affixes in form. Although similar to incorporated nouns, lexical affixes differ in that they never occur as freestanding nouns, i.e. they always appear as affixes.Lexical affixes are relatively rare. The Wakashan
Wakashan languages
Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca....
, Salishan
Salishan languages
The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest...
, and Chimakuan languages
Chimakuan languages
The Chimakuan language family consists of two languages spoken in northwestern Washington, USA on the Olympic Peninsula. It is part of the Mosan sprachbund, and one of its languages is famous for having no nasal consonants...
all have lexical suffixes — the presence of these is an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest of the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
The lexical suffixes of these languages often show little to no resemblance to free nouns with similar meanings. Compare the lexical suffixes and free nouns of Northern Straits Saanich written in the Saanich orthography and in Americanist notation
Americanist phonetic notation
Americanist phonetic notation is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American anthropologists and language scientists for the phonetic and phonemic transcription of Native American and European languages...
:
| Lexical Suffix | Noun | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -o, | -aʔ | "person" | ,ełtálṉew̱ | ʔəɬtelŋəxʷ | "person" |
| -nát | -net | "day" | sȼićel | skʷičəl | "day" |
| -sen | -sən | "foot, lower leg" | sxene, | sx̣ənəʔ | "foot, lower leg" |
| -áwtw̱ | -ew̕txʷ | "building, house, campsite" | ,á,leṉ | ʔeʔləŋ | "house" |
Lexical suffixes when compared with free nouns often have a more generic or general meaning. For instance, one of these languages may have a lexical suffix that means water in a general sense, but it may not have any noun equivalent referring to water in general and instead have several nouns with a more specific meaning (such "saltwater", "whitewater", etc.). In other cases, the lexical suffixes have become grammaticalized to various degrees.
Some linguists have claimed that these lexical suffixes provide only adverbial or adjectival notions to verbs. Other linguists disagree arguing that they may additionally be syntactic arguments
Verb argument
In linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntactic relationship with the verb in a clause. In English, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object....
just as free nouns are and thus equating lexical suffixes with incorporated nouns. Gerdts (2003) gives examples of lexical suffixes in the Halkomelem language
Halkomelem language
Halkomelem is a language of the First Nations peoples of southeastern Vancouver Island from the west shore of Saanich Inlet northward beyond Nanoose Bay, and of the mainland around the Fraser River Delta upriver to Harrison Lake and the lower...
(the word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
here is verb–subject–object):
| VERB | SUBJ | OBJ | ||
| (1) | niʔ | šak’ʷ-ət-əs | łə słeniʔ | łə qeq |
| "the woman washed the baby" | ||||
| VERB+LEX.SUFF | SUBJ | |||
| (2) | niʔ | šk’ʷ-əyəł | łə słeniʔ | |
| "the woman baby-washed" | ||||
In sentence (1), the verb "wash" is where is the root and and are inflectional suffixes. The subject "the woman" is and the object "the baby" is . In this sentence, "the baby" is a free noun. (The here is an auxiliary
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
, which can be ignored for explanatory purposes.)
In sentence (2), "baby" does not appear as a free noun. Instead it appears as the lexical suffix which is affixed to the verb root (which has changed slightly in pronunciation, but this can also be ignored here). Note how the lexical suffix is neither "the baby" (definite
Definiteness
In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....
) nor "a baby" (indefinite); such referential changes are routine with incorporated nouns.
Orthographic affixes
In orthographyOrthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
, the terms for affixes may be used for the smaller elements of conjunct characters. For example, Maya glyphs
Maya script
The Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs or Maya hieroglyphs, is the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered...
are generally compounds of a main sign and smaller affixes joined at its margins. These are called prefixes, superfixes, postfixes, and subfixes according to their position to the left, on top, to the right, or at the bottom of the main glyph. A small glyph placed inside another is called an infix. Similar terminology is found with the conjunct consonants of the Indic alphabets. For example, the Tibetan alphabet utilizes prefix, suffix, superfix, and subfix consonant letters.
See also
- AgglutinationAgglutinationIn contemporary linguistics, agglutination usually refers to the kind of morphological derivation in which there is a one-to-one correspondence between affixes and syntactical categories. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative languages...
- AugmentativeAugmentativeAn augmentative is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size, but also in other attributes...
- Binary prefixBinary prefixIn computing, a binary prefix is a specifier or mnemonic that is prepended to the units of digital information, the bit and the byte, to indicate multiplication by a power of 2...
- CliticCliticIn morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
- ConcatenationConcatenationIn computer programming, string concatenation is the operation of joining two character strings end-to-end. For example, the strings "snow" and "ball" may be concatenated to give "snowball"...
- DerivationDerivation (linguistics)In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
- DiminutiveDiminutiveIn language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
- English prefixesEnglish prefixesEnglish prefixes are affixes that are added before either simple roots or complex bases consisting of a root and other affixes, multiple roots, or multiple roots and other affixes...
- Family name affixesFamily name affixesFamily name affixes are a clue for family name etymology and can sometimes determine the ethnic origin of a person. This is a partial list of affixes.-Prefixes:* A- "son of"* Ab - "son of"...
- Internet-related prefixes
- Marker (linguistics)Marker (linguistics)In linguistics, a marker is a free or bound morpheme that indicates the grammatical function of the marked word, phrase, or sentence. In analytic languages and agglutinative languages, markers are generally easily distinguished. In fusional languages and polysynthetic languages, this is often not...
- Separable affix
- SI prefixSI prefixThe International System of Units specifies a set of unit prefixes known as SI prefixes or metric prefixes. An SI prefix is a name that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a decadic multiple or fraction of the unit. Each prefix has a unique symbol that is prepended to the unit symbol...
- StemmingStemmingIn linguistic morphology and information retrieval, stemming is the process for reducing inflected words to their stem, base or root form—generally a written word form. The stem need not be identical to the morphological root of the word; it is usually sufficient that related words map to the same...
- affix removal using computer software - Unpaired wordUnpaired wordAn unpaired word is one that, according to the usual rules of the language, would appear to have a related word but does not. Such words usually have a prefix or suffix that would imply that there is an antonym, with the prefix or suffix being absent or opposite.Unpaired words can be the result of...
- Word formationWord formationIn linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning...