An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a stem to form a word. In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. In Linguistics, a stem (sometimes also theme) is the part of a word that is common to all its inflected variants Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. In Linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes. In Etymology, a bound morpheme is a Root morpheme that cannot stand alone as an independent word A separable verb is a Verb that is composed of a verb stem and a Separable affix.
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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 | undo | prefix-stem | Appears at the front of a stem |
| Suffix/Postfix | looking | stem-suffix | Appears at the back of a stem |
| Infix | saxomaphone | st<infix>em | Appears within a stem — common in Borneo-Philippines languages |
| Circumfix | ascattered | circumfix>stem<circumfix | One portion appears at the front of a stem, and the other at the rear |
| Interfix | speedometer | stema-interfix-stemb | Links two stems together in a compound |
| Duplifix | teeny-weeny | stem~duplifix | Incorporates a reduplicated portion of a stem (may occur in front, at the rear, or within the stem) |
| Transfix | Maltese: kiteb "he wrote" (compare root ktb "write") |
s<transfix>te<transfix>m | A discontinuous affix that interleaves within a discontinuous stem |
| Simulfix | mouse → mice | Changes a segment of a stem | |
| Suprafix | produce (noun) produce (verb) |
Changes a suprasegmental phoneme of a stem | |
| Disfix | Alabama: tipli "break up" (compare root tipasli "break") |
stm | The elision of a portion of a stem |
Prefix and suffix may be combined as adfix, a term that is rarely used except in contrast with infix. A prefix is a type of Affix attached to a stem which modifies the meaning of that stem In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word An infix is an Affix inserted inside a stem (an existing word A circumfix is an Affix, a Morpheme that is placed around another morpheme Interfix is a term in Linguistics and more specifically morphology (the study of Morphemes the most basic meaningful entities in word formation In Linguistics, a compound is a Lexeme (less precisely a Word) that consists of more than one stem. Reduplication, in Linguistics, is a morphological Process by which the root or stem of a Word, or part of it is repeated Reduplication, in Linguistics, is a morphological Process by which the root or stem of a Word, or part of it is repeated In linguistic morphology, a transfix is a discontinuous Affix, which occurs at more than one position in a word Maltese (Maltese Malti is the National language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English, 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. In Linguistics, a suprafix is a type of Affix where a Suprasegmental change (such as tone or stress) modifies an existing Morpheme In Linguistics, prosody (from Greek προσωδία) is the Rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech A disfix is a subtractive morpheme that is a Morpheme which manifests itself through Elision (the removal of segments from a root Alabama is a Native American language, spoken by the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas. Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a Vowel, a Consonant, or a whole Syllable) in a word or phrase producing a result that is easier
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. Incorporation is a phenomenon by which a word usually a Verb, forms a kind of compound with for instance its Direct object or Adverbial modifier In Linguistics, a compound is a Lexeme (less precisely a Word) that consists of more than one stem. 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, Salishan, and Chimakuan languages all have lexical suffixes — the presence of these is an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest of the North America. 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 This article is about the Salish/Salishan language For the Tacoma Washington neighborhood see Salishan Tacoma Washington. The Chimakuan language family consists of two languages spoken in northwestern Washington, USA on the Olympic Peninsula. In Linguistics, an areal feature is any typological feature shared by languages within the same geographical area
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 Suffix | Noun | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -O, | -aʔ | "person" | ,EL̶TÁLṈEW̱ | ʔəɬtelŋəxʷ | "person" |
| -NÁT | -net | "day" | SC̸IĆEL | 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. Americanist phonetic notation (variously called American Phonetic Alphabet or APA is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and Euro-American 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. In Historical linguistics, grammaticalisation (also known as grammaticisation or grammatisation) is a process of linguistic change by which a Content
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. A syntactic verb argument, in Linguistics, is a Phrase that appears in a relationship with the Verb in a Clause. Gerdts (2003) gives examples of lexical suffixes in the Halkomelem language (the word order 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. Halkomelem (also Halq'eméylem, Hul'qumi'num', and Hǝn'q'ǝmin'ǝm') is a Coast Salishan language of the First Nations In Linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the different ways in which languages arrange the constituents of their sentences relative to each other and the systematic Verb Subject Object ( VSO) is a term in Linguistic typology. It represents one type of languages when classifying languages according to the sequence of these 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 Linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a Verb functioning )
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). Note how the lexical suffix is neither "the baby" (definite) nor "a baby" (indefinite); such referential changes are routine with incorporated nouns. In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of Noun phrases distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context (definite noun
See also
- Agglutination
- Augmentative
- Binary prefix
- Clitic
- Concatenation
- Derivation
- Diminutive
- English prefixes
- Family name affixes
- Internet-related prefixes
- Marker (linguistics)
- Separable affix
- SI prefix
- Stemming - affix removal using computer software
- Unpaired word
- Word formation
Bibliography
- Gerdts, Donna B. In Linguistics, agglutination is the morphological process ofadding Affixes to the base of a Word. An augmentative is a suffix or prefix added to a Noun in order to convey the sense of greater intensity often though not primarily indicating a larger In computing binary prefixes are names or associated symbols that can precede a unit of measure (such as a Byte) to indicate multiplication by a power of two In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word. For concatenation of general lists see Append. In Computer programming, string concatenation is the operation of joining two character In Linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from A diminutive 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 prefixes are Affixes (ie bound Morphemes that provide the primary meaning that are added before either simple roots or complex bases Family name Affixes are a clue for Family name etymology and determining Ethnic origin of a person Internet-related prefixes include e-, i-, cyber-, info-, techno-, For other meanings see the disambiguation page Marker In Linguistics, a marker is a free or bound Morpheme that indicates A separable verb is a Verb that is composed of a verb stem and a Separable affix. An SI prefix (also known as a metric prefix) is a name or associated symbol that precedes a unit of measure (or its symbol to form a Decimal multiple or Stemming is the process for reducing inflected (or sometimes derived words to their stem, base or root form &ndash generally a written word form An unpaired word is one that according to the usual rules of the language would appear to have a related word but does not In Linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new Word. (2003). The morphosyntax of Halkomelem lexical suffixes. International Journal of American Linguistics, 69 (4), 345-356.
- 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.
External links
Dictionary
affix
-noun
- That which is affixed; an appendage.
- (linguistics) A bound morpheme added to a word’s stem; formerly applied only to suffixes (also called postfixes), the term as now used comprises prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes, and suprafixes.
- (mathematics) The complex number <math>a+bi</math> associated to the point in the Gauss Plane with coordinates <math>(a,b)</math>.
-verb
- To attach.
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