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

smallest piece of lexical material that a stem can be reduced to. So, in ‘personality’, we could say Notes
that the suffix ‘-ity’ is attached to the stem ‘personal’ which contains the root ‘person’ and the suffix
‘al.’ We will not spend more time here on looking at these problems, but go on to look at some
generalisations about suffixes and stress, using only the term ‘stem’ for the sake of simplicity. The
suffixes are referred to in their spelling form.
Suffixes Carrying Primary Stress Themselves
In the examples given, which seem to be the most common, the primary stress is on the first
syllable of the suffix. If the stem consists of more than one syllable there will be a secondary stress
on one of the syllables of the stem. This cannot fall on the last syllable of the stem and is, if
necessary, moved to an earlier syllable. For example, in ‘japan’ d¥ 'pæn the primary stress is on
the last syllable, but when we add the stress-carrying suffix ‘-ese’ the primary stress is on the
e
suffix and the secondary stress is placed not on the second syllable but on the first: ‘japanese’
,d¥æ'pæn.
1. ‘-ee’: ‘refugee’ ,refj 'd¥i+; ‘evacuee’ w,vækju'i+
2. ‘-ee’: ‘mountaineer’ ,ma ntwnw¥; ‘volunteer’ ,val n'tw e
e
3. ‘-ese’ ‘Portuguese’ ,p +•cgi+z; ‘journalese’ 1d¥f+nl'i+z
Otherwise the syllable before the last one receives the stress: inheritance in heritcns, ‘military’
'mwlwtri.

26.4 Prefixes
We will look only briefly at prefixes. Their effect on stress does not have the comparative regularity,
independence and predictability of suffixes, and there is no prefix of one or two syllables that
always carries primary stress. Consequently, the best treatment seems to be to say that stress in
words with prefixes is governed by the same rules as those for polysyllabic words without prefixes.
Circumfix
It is an affix, a morpheme that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes contrast with
prefixes attached to the beginning of the words; suffixes, that are attached at the end and in fixes,
inserted in the middle.

26.5 Compound Words

The words discussed so far in this unit have all consisted of a stem plus an affix. We now pass on
to another type of word. This is called compound, and its main characteristics is that it can be
analysed into two words, both of which can exist independently as English words. Some compounds
are made of more than two words, but we will not consider these. As with many of the distinctions
being made in connection with stress, there are areas of uncertainty. For example, it could be
argued that ‘photograph’ may be divided into two independent words, ‘photo’ and ‘graph’; yet
we usually do not regard it as a compound, but as a simple word. If, however, someone drew a
graph displaying numerical information about photos, this would perhaps be called a ‘photo-
graph’ and the word would then be regarded as a compound. Compunds are written in different
ways: sometimes they are written as one word (e.g. ‘armchair’, ‘sunflower’); sometimes with the
words separated by a hypen (e.g. ‘open-minded’, ‘cost-effective’); and sometimes with two words
separated by a space (e.g. ‘desk lamp’, ‘battery charger’). In this last case there would be no
indication to the foreign learner that the pair of words was to be treated as a compound. There is
no clear dividing line between two-word compounds and pair of words that simply happen to
occur together quite frequently.
As far as stress is concerned, the question is quite simple. When is primary stress placed on the first
constituent word of the compound and when on the second? Both patterns are found. A few rules
can be given, although these are not completely reliable. Perhaps the most familiar type of compound
is the one which combines two nouns and which normally has the stress on the first element, as in:

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