Affix
Affixes |
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See also: |
In
Adfixes, infixes and their variations
Changing a word by adding a morpheme at its beginning is called prefixation, in the middle is called infixation, and at the end is called suffixation.
Affix | Example | Schema | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Prefix | un-do | prefix-stem | Appears before the stem |
Prefixoid/semi-prefix/pseudo-prefix[1] | flexi-cover | prefixoid-stem | Appears before the stem, but is only partially bound to it |
Suffix/postfix | look-ing | stem-suffix | Appears after the stem |
Suffixoid[2]/semi-suffix[3]/pseudo-suffix | cat-like | stem-suffixoid | Appears after the stem, but is only partially bound to it |
Infix (see also tmesis) |
edu⟨ma⟩cated | st⟨infix⟩em | Appears within a stem — common e.g. in Austronesian languages |
Circumfix | en⟩light⟨en | circumfix⟩stem⟨circumfix | One portion appears before the stem, the other after |
Interfix | speed-o-meter | stema-interfix-stemb | Links two stems together in a compound
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Duplifix |
money~shmoney (shm-reduplication) | stem~duplifix | Incorporates a reduplicated portion of a stem (may occur before, after, or within the stem) |
Transfix | Maltese: 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 | mouse → mice | stem\simulfix | Changes a segment of a stem |
Suprafix | produce (noun) produce (verb) |
stem\suprafix | Changes a suprasegmental feature of a stem
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Disfix | Alabama: tipli "break up" (compare root tipasli "break") |
st⟩disfix⟨em | The elision of a portion of a stem |
Prefix and suffix may be subsumed under the term adfix, in contrast to infix.[4]
When marking text for interlinear glossing, as in the third column in the chart above, simple affixes such as prefixes and suffixes are separated from 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. Affixes which cannot be segmented are marked with a back slash.
Lexical affixes
Semantically speaking, lexical affixes or semantic affixes, when compared with free nouns, often have a more generic or general meaning, for example, one denoting "water in a general sense" may not have a noun equivalent because all the nouns denote more specific meanings such as "saltwater", "whitewater", etc (while in other cases the lexical suffixes have become
Lexical Suffix | Noun | ||||
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-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" |
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
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 šak’ʷətəs where šak’ʷ- is the root and -ət and -əs are inflectional suffixes. The subject "the woman" is łə słeniʔ and the object "the baby" is łə qeq. In this sentence, "the baby" is a free noun. (The niʔ 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 -əyəł which is affixed to the verb root šk’ʷ- (which has changed slightly in pronunciation, but this can also be ignored here). The lexical suffix is neither "the baby" (definite) nor "a baby" (indefinite); such referential changes are routine with incorporated nouns.
Orthographic affixes
In
See also
- Agglutination
- Augmentative
- Binary prefix
- Clitic
- Combining form
- Concatenation
- Diminutive
- English prefixes
- Family name affixes
- Internet-related prefixes
- Marker (linguistics)
- Morphological derivation
- Separable affix
- SI prefix
- Stemming - affix removal using computer software
- Unpaired word
- Word formation
References
- ISBN 9783823349402.
- ^ Kremer, Marion. 1997. Person reference and gender in translation: a contrastive investigation of English and German. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, p. 69, note 11.
- ^ Marchand, Hans. 1969. The categories and types of present-day English word-formation: A synchronic-diachronic approach. Munich: Beck, pp. 356 ff.
- ISBN 9781118293515.
- ISBN 0-8047-4817-9
- ^ Andrew West, "Precomposed Tibetan Part 1 : BrdaRten" Archived 2010-10-17 at the Wayback Machine BabelStone, September 14, 2006
Bibliography
- Gerdts, Donna B. (2003). "The morphosyntax of Halkomelem lexical suffixes". International Journal of American Linguistics. 69 (4): 345–356. S2CID 143721330.
- Montler, Timothy. (1986). An outline of the morphology and phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish. Occasional Papers in Linguistics (No. 4). Missoula, MT: University of Montana Linguistics Laboratory.
- Montler, Timothy. (1991). Saanich, North Straits Salish classified word list. Canadian Ethnology service paper (No. 119); Mercury series. Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization. ISBN 0-660-12908-6
External links
- Media related to Affixes at Wikimedia Commons
- Comprehensive and searchable affix dictionary reference