Page 332 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 26: Affixes: Prefixes, Suffixes, Infixes and Circumfixes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
26.1 Positional Categories of Affixes
26.2 Complex Words
26.3 Suffixes
26.4 Prefixes
26.5 Compound Words
26.6 Variable Stress
26.7 Word-Class Pairs
26.8 Summary
26.9 Key-Words
26.10 Review Questions
26.11 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit students will be able to:
• Discuss affixes
• Understand prefixes, suffixes and infixes.

Introduction
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 inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed.
They are bound morphemes 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.

26.1 Positional Categories of Affixes

Affixes are divided into plenty of cateagories, 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.
Categories of Affixes
Affix Example Schema Description
Prefix un-do prefix-stem Appears at the front of a stem
Suffix/Postfix 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 Minne〈flippin'〉 st〈infix〉em Appears within a stem - common in
sota Borneo-Philippines languages
Circumfix a〉scatter〈ed circumfix〉 One portion appears at the front of
stem〈circumfix a stem, and the other at the rear

326 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY