Introduction English has a large, rich vocabulary, with a large number of English lexical items having been assimilated from other languages during the complex history of the language. Vocabulary is one of the most essential parts of language acquisition and can be broadly defined as knowledge of words and word meaning.

Most English words are made up of the base word known as root which contains the heart of the meaning of the word. To expand such words, appendages (affixes) are added at either the beginning or at the end of the word. It is the process of attaching these affixes that is referred to as affixation.

One of the keys to mastering English spellings is mastering the processes of word formation. The mode of word formation can influence the spelling. The study of the meaningful parts of a word is known as morphology. Linguists have identified many ways in which English form its words which include borrowing from Latin and Greeks, clipping, affixation, conversion, acronym, blends, compounding and so on. The scope of this paper is to look into affixation, particularly suffixation, as a process of word formation.

1. Types of MorphemesThe Morpheme The smallest units of language that have a meaning or a grammatical function and form words or parts of words are called morphemes. In writing, individual morphemes are usually represented by their graphic form, or spelling; e.g., -es, -er, un-, re- or by their their graphic form between bracers, { }; e.g., {-es}, {-er}, {un-}, {re-}. The branch of linguistics in charge of studying the smallest meaningful units of language (i.e., morphemes), their different forms, the internal structure of words, and the processes and rules by which words are formed is called morphology. [1]

Types of Morphemes Depending on the way morphemes occur in an utterance, they are grouped into twolarge groups: free morphemes and bound morphemes.

1. Free or independent morphemes are those morphemes which can occur alone as words and have a meaning or fulfill a grammatical function; e.g., man, run, and. There are two types of free morphemes. [2]

a. Lexical (content or referential) morphemes are free morphemes that have semantic content (or meaning) and usually refer to a thing, quality, state or action.

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For instance, in a language, these morphemes generally take the forms of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs; e.g., dog, Peter, house, build, stay, happy, intelligent, quickly, always. Actually, lexical morphemes constitute the larger class of morphemes. They form the open class of words (or content words) in a language, i.e., a class of words likely to grow due to the incorporation of new members into it. [3]

b. Function(al) or grammatical morphemes are free morphemes which have little or no meaning on their own, but which show grammatical relationships in and between sentences. For instance, in a language, these morphemes are represented by prepositions, conjunctions, articles, demonstratives, auxiliary verbs, pronouns; e.g., with, but, the, this, can, who, me. It should be said that function words are almost always used in their unstressed form. [4]

2. Bound (or dependent) morphemes are those morphemes which never occur alone as words but as parts of words; they must be attached to another morpheme (usually a free morpheme) in order to have a distinct meaning; e.g., -er in worker, -er in taller, -s in walks, -ed in passed, re- as in reappear, un- in unhappy, undo, -ness in readiness, -able in adjustable; -ceive in conceive, receive, -tain in contain, obtain, etc. There are two types of bound morphemes: bound roots and affixes. [5]

a. Bound roots are those bound morphemes which have lexical meaning when they are attached to other bound morphemes to form content words; e.g., -ceive in receive, conceive; -tain in retain, contain; plac- in implacable, placate; cran- in cranberry, etc. Notice that bound roots can be prefixed or suffixed to other affixes. [6]

b. Affixes are bound morphemes which are usually marginally attached to wordsand which change the meaning or function of those words; e.g., -ment in development, en- in enlarge; ’s in John’s; -s in claps, -ing in studying, etc. [7]

Types of Affixes Affixes can be classified into two different ways: according to their position in the word and according to their function in a phrase or sentence.

1. According to their position in the word (or side of the word they are attached to), affixes are classified into prefixes, infixes and suffixes. [8]

a. Prefixes are bound morphemes that are added to the beginning of the word; e.g.,un- in unnoticed, a- in amoral, sub- in subway, etc. [9]

b. Infixes are bound morphemes that are inserted within the words. There are no infixes in the English language, but in the languages such as Tagalog and Bontoc

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(in the Philippines), Infixes are represented by the morphemes preceded and followed by a hyphen; e.g., -um-. [10]

c. Suffixes are bound morphemes which are attached to the end of the word; e.g., - able in noticeable, -less in careless, -s in seeks, -en in shorten, etc. [11]

2. According to the function affixes fulfill in the language, affixes are classified into derivational affixes (derivational morphemes or derivations) and inflectional affixes (inflectional morphemes or inflections). [12]

a. Derivational affixes are morphemes that create (or derive) new words, usually by either changing the meaning and/or the part of speech (i.e., the syntactic category), or both, of the words they are attached to. In English, derivational morphemes can be either prefixes or suffixes. For example, un-+ happy (adj.) = unhappy (adj.); re-+ classify (v) = reclassify (v.); by-+ product (n.) = by-product. [13]

b. Inflectional affixes, for their part, are morphemes which serve a purely grammatical function, such as referring to and giving extra linguistic information about the already existing meaning of a word (e.g., number, person, gender, case, etc.), expressing syntactic relations between words (e.g. possession, comparison), among others. For instance, the different forms of the verb speak are all considered to be verbs too, namely, speak, spoken, speaking. In a like manner, the comparative and superlative forms of the adjective strong are also adjectives, namely, stronger, strongest. In English, there are only eight inflections. They are -(e)s (third person singular marker of verbs in present tense), as in speaks, teaches; -(e)s (regular plural marker) as in books, oranges; ’s (possessive marker) as in John’s house; -(e)d (regular past tense marker) as in helped, repeated; -en (past participle marker) as in spoken, eaten; -ing (present participle marker) as in eating, studying; -er (comparative marker) as in faster, happier; and -est (superlative marker) as in fastest, happiest. [14]

Derivation Inflection

- encodes lexical meaning - encodes grammatical categories

- is not syntactically relevant - is syntactically relevant

- can occur inside derivation - occurs outside all derivation

- often changes the part of speech - does not change part of speech

- is often semantically opaque - is rarely semantically opaque

- is often restricted in its productivity - is fully productive

- is not restricted to suffixation - always suffixational (in English) [15]

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Roots and Stems Roots (or bases) are the morphemes (free or bound) that carry the principal or basic concept, idea or meaning in a word. They generally constitute the nuclei or cores of words. When roots are free morphemes, they constitute content (and function) words by themselves, such as book, dog, house, carry, quick, early, etc. When roots are bound morphemes,4 they form parts of words, such as -ceive in perceive, -tain in attain, -sume in presume, etc. [16]

For their part, stems are free roots to which derivational affixes have been added or are likely to be added. In this sense, a stem = a root, as in fish, place; a stem = a root + one or more derivations, as in comfortable, uncomfortable, uncountableness. Notice that stems are words without inflectional morphemes. For example, in the word disestablishment, disestablish, establishment, and establish (which is a root at the same time) are stems. [17]

2. Word – Formation. Suffixation Word-Formation is the system of derivative types of words and the process of creating new words from the material available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulas and patterns. [18]

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Morphemes

Free Morphemes

Lexical Morphemes

Grammatical Morphemes

Bound Morphemes

Bound Roots

Affixes

Prefixes

Infixes

Suffixes

Word-formation is that branch of Lexicology which studies the derivative structure of existing words and the patterns on which a language, ‘in this case the English language, builds new words. [19]

Types of Word – Formation 1.Compounds 7.Abbreviations: acronyms, clipping

2.Derivation (Prefixation, Suffixation) 8.Loan words, Nonce words, Calques and

3.Back-Formation Coinages

4.Conversion

5.Eponyms

6.Blending

Derivation

Derivation (etymology, from the Latin “to draw off”) is the word formation process in which a derivational affix attaches to the base form of a word to create a new word (affix usually applies to words of one lexical category (part of speech) and changes them into words of another category). [20]

Affixation

Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to different types of bases. Derived words formed by affixation may be the result of one or several applications of word-formation rule and thus the stems of words making up a word-cluster enter into derivational relations of different degrees. The zero degree of derivation is ascribed to simple words, i.e. words whose stem is homonymous with a word-form and often with a root-morpheme, e.g. atom, haste, devote, anxious, horror, etc. Derived words whose bases are built on simple stems and thus are formed by the application of one derivational affix are described as having the first degree of derivation, e.g. atomic, hasty, devotion, etc. Derived words formed by two consecutive stages of coining possess the second degree of derivation, etc., e.g. atomical, hastily, devotional, etc. [21]

A careful study of a great many suffixal and prefixal derivatives has revealed an essential difference between them. In Modern English suffixation is mostly characteristic of noun and adjective formation, while prefixation is mostly typical of verb formation. The distinction also rests on the role different types of meaning play in the semantic structure of the suffix and the prefix.1 The part-of-speech meaning has a much greater significance in suffixes as compared to prefixes which possess it in a lesser degree. Due to it a prefix may be confined to one part of speech as, e.g., enslave, encage, unbutton or may function in more than one part of speech as, e.g., over- in overkind a, to overfeed v, overestimation n; unlike

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prefixes, suffixes as a rule function in any o n e part of speech often forming a derived stem of a different part of speech as compared with that of the base, e.g. careless a — cf. care n; suitable a — cf. suit v, etc. Furthermore, it is necessary to point out that a suffix closely knit together with a base forms a fusion retaining less of its independence than a prefix which is as a general rule more independent semantically, cf. reading — ‘the act of one who reads’; ‘ability to read’; and to re-read — ‘to read again.' [22]

Multiple Affixation

"Words may have multiple affixes either with different suffixes . . . or with the same prefix recurring as below:

1. a. the latest re-re-re-make of Beau Geste.

b. the great-great-great-great grandson of the last Tsar of Russia.

What [1] shows is that, with a limited number of morphemes, morphological prefixation rules can apply recursively in English… However, performance difficulties in working out what exactly great-great-great-great grandson or re-re-re-make means do severely restrict the chances of such words being used. But the point is that the grammar cannot exclude them as ill-formed. Recursive rules are one of the devices that make morphology open-ended…

"Reattaching the same morpheme again and again is permitted, but unusual. What is common is multiple affixation of different affixes…

nation

nation-al

national-ise

denationalis-at-ion

anti-denationalisation

pre-antidenationalisation

Observe that where several prefixes or suffixes occur in a word, their place in the sequence is normally rigidly fixed." [23]

Suffixation

Suffixation is the formation of words with the help of suffixes. Suffixes usually modify the lexical meaning of the base and transfer words to a, different part of speech. There are suffixes however, which do not shift words from one part of speech into another; a suffix of this kind usually transfers a word into a different

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semantic group, e.g. a concrete noun becomes an abstract one, as is the case with child — childhood, friend — friendship, etc. [24]

Chains of suffixes occurring in derived words having two and more suffixal morphemes are sometimes referred to in lexicography as compound suffixes: -ably = -able + -ly (e.g. profitably, unreasonably); - ically = -ic + -al + -ly (e.g. musically, critically); -ation = -ate + -ion (e.g. fascination, isolation) and some others. [25]

Productive and Non-productive Affixes

The word-forming activity of affixes may change in the course of time. This raises the question of productivity of derivational affixes, i.e. the ability of being used to form new, occasional or potential words, which can be readily understood by the language-speakers. Thus, productive affixes are those used to form new words in the period question. [26]

The most productive English suffixes are:

Noun-forming suffixes

-er (manager), -ing (fighting), -ness (sweatness),-ism (materialism), -ist (impressionist), -ance/-ancy (redundancy), -or (reactor)-ness (happiness)

Adjective-forming suffixes

-able (tolerable), -ic (electronic), -ish (smartish)-less (jobless), -y (tweedy)

Verb-forming suffixes

-ize/-ise (vitaminize), -ate (oxidate), -ify (falsify)

Adverb-forming suffixes

-ly (equally)

[27]

Non-productive affixes (suffixes) are the affixes which are not able to form new in the period in question. Non-productive affixes are recognized as separate morphemes and possess clear-cut semantic characteristics. In some cases, however, lexical meaning of a non-productive fades off so that only its part of speech meaning remains, e.g. the adjective-forming suffix -some (lonesome, loathsome). [28]

Some non-productive English suffixes are:

Noun-forming suffixes

-th (truth), -hood (sisterhood), -ship (scholarship)

Adjective-forming suffixes

-ful (peaceful), -some (tiresome), -en (golden), -ous (courageous)

Verb-forming suffixes

-en (strengthen)

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[29]

An affix may lose its productivity and then become productive again in the process of word-formation. This happened to the suffix -dom. For a long period of time it was non-productive but in the last hundred years –dom got a new lease of life so that a great amount of words was coined with its help, e.g. serfdom, slavedom. [30]

The productivity of an affix should not be confused with its frequency of occurrence. The frequency of occurrence is understood as the existence in the vocabulary of a great number of words containing the affix in question. An affix may occur in hundreds of words, but if it is not used to form new words, it is not productive. For example, the adjective-forming suffix –ful is met in hundreds of adjectives (beautiful, hopeful, trustful, useful), but no new words seem to be built with its help, and so it is non-productive. [31]

3. Suffixes. Types (classification) of SuffixesDefinition of the word “suffix” given in Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

- an affix occurring at the end of a word, base, or phrase

- a letter or a group of letters that is added to the end of a word to change its meaning or to form a different word

Nominal suffixes (Noun forming suffixes)

Nominal suffixes are often employed to derive abstract nouns from verbs, adjectives and nouns. Such abstract nouns can denote actions, results of actions, or other related concepts, but also properties, qualities and the like. Another large group of nominal suffixes derives person nouns of various sorts. Very often, these meanings are extended to other, related senses so that practically each suffix can be shown to be able to express more than one meaning, with the semantic domains of different suffixes often overlapping.

-age

This suffix derives nouns that express an activity (or its result) as in coverage, leakage, spillage, and nouns denoting a collective entity or quantity, as in acreage, voltage, yardage. Due to inherent ambiguities of certain coinages, the meaning can be extended to include locations, as in orphanage. Base words may be verbal or nominal and are often monosyllabic.

-al

A number of verbs take -al to form abstract nouns denoting an action or the result of an action, such as arrival, overthrowal, recital, referral, renewal. Base words for nominal - al all have their main stress on the last syllable.

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-ance (with its variants -ence/-ancy/-ency)

Attaching mostly to verbs, -ance creates action nouns such as absorbance, riddance,retardance. The suffix is closely related to -cy/-ce, which attaches productively to adjectives ending in the suffix -ant/-ent. Thus, a derivative like dependency could be analyzed as having two suffixes (depend-ent-cy) or only one (depend-ency). The question then is to determine whether -ance (and its variants) always contain two suffixes, to the effect that all action nominals would in fact be derived from adjectives that in turn would be derived from verbs. Such an analysis would predict that we would find -ance nominals only if there are corresponding -ant adjectives. This is surely not the case, as evidenced by riddance (*riddant), furtherance (*furtherant), and we can therefore assume the existence of an independent suffix -ance, in addition to a suffix combination -ant-ce.

The distribution of the different variants is not entirely clear, several doublets are attested, such as dependence, dependency, or expectance, expectancy. Sometimes the doublets seem to have identical meanings, sometimes slightly different ones. It appears, however, that forms in -ance/-ence have all been in existence (sic!) for a very long time, and that -ance/-ence formations are rather interpreted as deverbal, -ancy/ -ency formations rather as de-adjectival (Marchand 1969:248f).

-ant

This suffix forms count nouns referring to persons (often in technical or legal discourse, cf. applicant, defendant, disclaimant) or to substances involved in biological, chemical, or physical processes (attractant, dispersant, etchant, suppressant). Most bases are verbs of Latinate origin.

-cy/-ce

As already mentioned in connection with the suffix -ancy, this suffix attaches productively to adjectives in -ant/-ent (e.g. convergence, efficiency, emergence), but also to nouns ending in this string, as is the case with agency, presidency, regency. Furthermore, adjectives in -ate are eligible bases (adequacy, animacy, intimacy). The resulting derivatives can denote states, properties, qualities or facts (convergence can, for example, be paraphrased as ‘the fact that something converges’), or, by way of metaphorical extension, can refer to an office or institution (e.g. presidency). Again the distribution of the two variants is not

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entirely clear, although there is a tendency for nominal bases to take the syllabic variant -cy.

-dom

The native suffix -dom is semantically closely related to -hood, and -ship, which express similar concepts. -dom attaches to nouns to form nominals which can be paraphrased as ‘state of being X’ as in apedom, clerkdom, slumdom, yuppiedom, or which refer to collective entities, such as professordom, studentdom, or denote domains, realms or territories as in kingdom, cameldom, maoridom.

-ee

The meaning of this suffix can be rather clearly discerned. It derives nouns denoting sentient entities that are involved in an event as non-volitional participants (so-called ‘episodic -ee,’ see Barker (1998) for a detailed analysis). Thus, employee denotes someone who is employed, a biographee is someone who is the subject of a biography, and a standee is someone who is forced to stand (on a bus, for example). Due to the constraint that the referents of -ee derivatives must be sentient, an amputee can only be someone who has lost a limb and not the limb that is amputated. As a consequence of the event-related, episodic semantics, verbal bases are most frequent, but nominal bases are not uncommon (e.g. festschriftee, pickpocketee). Phonologically, - ee can be described as an auto-stressed suffix, i.e. it belongs to the small class of suffixes that attract the main stress of the derivative. If base words end in the verbal suffix -ate the base words are frequently truncated and lose their final rime. This happens systematically in those cases where -ee attachment would create identical onsets in the final syllables, as in, for example, *ampu.ta.tee (cf. truncated amputee), *rehabili.ta.tee (cf. rehabilitee).

-eer

This is another person noun forming suffix, whose meaning can be paraphrased as ‘person who deals in, is concerned with, or has to do with X’, as evidenced in forms such as auctioneer, budgeteer, cameleer, mountaineer, pamphleteer. Many words have a depreciative tinge. The suffix -eer is autostressed and attaches almost exclusively to bases ending in a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

-er (and its orthographic variant -or)

The suffix -er can be seen as closely related to -ee, as its derivatives frequently signify entities that are active or volitional participants in an event (e.g. teacher, singer, writer etc.). This is, however, only a sub-class of -er derivatives, and there is a wide range of forms with quite heterogeneous meanings. Apart from performers of actions we find instrument nouns such as blender, mixer, steamer,

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toaster, nouns denoting entities associated with an activity such as diner, lounger, trainer, winner (in the sense ‘winning shot’). Furthermore, -er is used to create person nouns indicating place of origin or residence (e.g. Londoner, New Yorker, Highlander, New Englander). This heterogeneity suggests that the semantics of -er should be described as rather underspecified, simply meaning something like ‘person or thing having to do with X’. The more specific interpretations of individual formations would then follow from an interaction of the meanings of base and suffix and further inferences on the basis of world knowledge.

-er is often described as a deverbal suffix, but there are numerous forms (not only inhabitant names) that are derived on the basis of nouns (e.g. sealer, whaler,noser, souther), numerals (e.g. fiver, tenner), or even phrases (four-wheeler, fourthgrader).

The orthographic variant -or occurs mainly with Latinate bases ending in /s/ or /t/, such as conductor, oscillator, compressor.

-(e)ry

Formations in -(e)ry refer to locations which stand in some kind of connection to what is denoted by the base. More specific meanings such as ‘place where a specific activity is carried out’ or ‘place where a specific article or service is available’ could be postulated (cf., for example, bakery, brewery, fishery, pottery or cakery, carwashery, eatery), but examples such as mousery, cannery, rabbitry speak for an underspecified meaning, which is then fleshed out for each derivative on the basis of the meaning of the base.

In addition to the locations, -(e)ry derivatives can also denote collectivities (as in confectionery, cutlery, machinery, pottery), or activities (as in summitry ‘having many political summits’, crookery ‘foul deeds’).

-ess

This suffix derives a comparatively small number of mostly established nouns referring exclusively to female humans and animals (princess, stewardess, lioness,tigress, waitress). The Oxford English Dictionary lists only three 20th century coinages (hostess, burgheress, clerkess).

-ful

The nominal suffix -ful derives measure partitive nouns (similar to expressions such as a lot of, a bunch of) from nominal base words that can be construed as containers:bootful, cupful, handful, tumblerful, stickful. (There is also an adjectival suffix -ful.)

-hood11

Similar in meaning to -dom, -hood derivatives express concepts such as ‘state’ (as in adulthood, childhood, farmerhood), and ‘collectivity’ (as in beggarhood, Christianhood, companionhood). As with other suffixes, metaphorical extensions can create new meanings, for example the sense ‘area’ in the highly frequent neighborhood, which originates in the collectivity sense of the suffix.

-an (and its variants -ian, -ean)

Nouns denoting persons and places can take the suffix -an. Derivatives seem to have the general meaning ‘person having to do with X’ (as in technician, historian, Utopian), which, where appropriate, can be more specifically interpreted as ‘being from X’ or ‘being of X origin’ (e.g. Bostonian, Lancastrian, Mongolian, Scandinavian), or ‘being the follower or supporter of X’: Anglican, Chomskyan, Smithsonian. Many -(i)an derivatives are also used as adjectives.

All words belonging to this category are stressed on the syllable immediately preceding the suffix, causing stress shifts where necessary (e.g. Húngary - Hungárian, Égypt - Egýptian).

-ing

Derivatives with this deverbal suffix denote processes (begging, running, sleeping) or results (building, wrapping, stuffing). The suffix is somewhat peculiar among derivational suffixes in that it is primarily used as a verbal inflectional suffix forming present participles. Examples of pertinent derivatives are abundant since -ing can attach to practically any verb. (There is also adjectival suffix –ing.)

-ion

This Latinate suffix has three allomorphs: when attached to a verb in -ify, the verbal suffix and -ion surface together as -ification (personification). When attached to a verb ending in -ate, we find -ion (accompanied by a change of the base-final consonant from [t] to [S], hyphenation), and we find the allomorph -ation in all other cases (starvation, colonization). Phonologically, all -ion derivatives are characterized by having their primary stress on the penultimate syllable, which means that -ion belongs to the class of suffixes that can cause a stress shift.

Derivatives in -ion denote events or results of processes. As such, verbal bases are by far the most frequent, but there is also a comparatively large number of forms where -ation is directly attached to nouns without any intervening verb in -ate . These forms are found primarily in scientific discourse with words denoting chemical or other substances as bases (e.g. expoxide - epoxidation, sediment - sedimentation).

-ism

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Forming abstract nouns from other nouns and adjectives, derivatives belonging to this category denote the related concepts state, condition, attitude, system of beliefs or theory, as in blondism, Parkinsonism, conservatism, revisionism, Marxism, respectively.

-ist

This suffix derives nouns denoting persons, mostly from nominal and adjectival bases (ballonist, careerist, fantasist, minimalist). All nouns in -ism which denote attitudes, beliefs or theories have potential counterparts in -ist. The semantics of -ist can be considered underspecified ‘person having to do with X’, with the exact meaning of the derivative being a function of the meaning of the base and further inferencing. Thus, a balloonist is someone who ascends in a balloon, a careerist is someone who is chiefly interested in her/his career, while a fundamentalist is a supporter or follower of fundamentalism.

-ity

Words belonging to this morphological category are nouns denoting qualities, states or properties usually derived from Latinate adjectives (e.g. curiosity, productivity,profundity, solidity). Apart from the compositional meaning just described, many -ity derivatives are lexicalized, i.e. they have become permanently incorporated into the mental lexicons of speakers, thereby often adopting idiosyncratic meanings, such as antiquity ‘state of being antique’ or ‘ancient time’, curiosity ‘quality of being curious‘ and ‘curious thing’. All adjectives ending in the suffixes -able, -al and -ic or in the phonetic string [Id] can take -ity as a nominalizing suffix (readability, formality, erraticity, solidity).

-ment

This suffix derives action nouns denoting processes or results from (mainly) verbs, with a strong preference for monosyllables or disyllabic base words with stress on the last syllable (e.g. assessment, endorsement, involvement, treatment).

-ness

Quality noun forming -ness is perhaps the most productive suffix of English. With regard to potential base words, -ness is much less restrictive than its close semantic relative -ity. The suffix can attach to practically any adjective, and apart from adjectival base words we find nouns as in thingness, pronouns as in us-ness and frequently phrases as in over-the-top-ness, all-or-nothing-ness.

-ship

The suffix -ship forms nouns denoting ‘state’ or ‘condition’, similar in meaning to derivatives in -age, -hood and -dom. Base words are mostly person nouns as in

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apprenticeship, clerkship, friendship, membership, statesmanship, vicarship. Extensions of the basic senses occur, for example ‘office’, as in postmastership, or ‘activity’, as in courtship ‘courting’ or censorship ‘censoring’.

Verbal Suffixes (Verb forming Suffixes)

-ate

Forms ending in this suffix represent a rather heterogeneous group. There is a class of derivatives with chemical substances as bases, which systematically exhibit socalled ornative and resultative meanings. These can be paraphrased as ‘provide with X’ (ornative), as in fluorinate, or ‘make into X’ (resultative), as in methanate. However, a large proportion of forms in -ate do not conform to this pattern, but show various kinds of idiosyncrasies, with -ate being apparently no more than an indicator of verbal status. Examples of such non-canonical formations are back-fomations (formate < formation), local analogies (stereoregular : stereoregulate :: regular : regulate), conversion (citrate), and completely idiosyncratic formations such as dissonate or fidate.

-en

The Germanic suffix -en attaches to monosyllables that end in a plosive, fricative or affricate. Most bases are adjectives (e.g. blacken, broaden, quicken, ripen), but a few nouns can also be found (e.g. strengthen, lengthen). The meaning of -en formations can be described as causative ‘make (more) X’.

-ify

This suffix attaches to base words that are either monosyllabic, stressed on the final syllable or end in unstressed /I/. Neologisms usually do not show stress shift, but some older forms do (húmid - humídify, sólid - solídify). These restrictions have the effect that -ify is in (almost) complementary distribution with the suffix -ize (see below). The only, but systematic, exception to the complementarity of -ize/-ify can be observed with trochaic base words ending in /I/, which take -ify under loss of that segment (as in nazify), or take -ize (with no accompanying segmental changes apart from optional glide insertion, as in toddyize). Semantically, -ify shows the same range of related meanings as -ize (see below), and the two suffixes could therefore be considered phonologically conditioned allomorphs.

-ize

Both -ize and -ify are polysemous suffixes, which can express a whole range of related concepts such as locative, ornative, causative/factitive, resultative, inchoative, performative, similative. Locatives can be paraphrased as ‘put into X’, as in computerize, hospitalize, tubify. Patinatize, fluoridize, youthify are ornative

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examples (‘provide with X’), randomize, functionalize, humidify are causative (‘make (more) X’), carbonize, itemize, trustify and nazify are resultative (‘make into X’), aerosolize and mucify are inchoative (‘become X’), anthropologize and speechify are performative (‘perform X’), cannibalize, vampirize can be analyzed as similative (‘act like X’).

Adjectival Suffixes (Adjective forming suffixes)

The adjectival suffixes of English can be subdivided into two major groups. A large proportion of derived adjectives are relational adjectives, whose role is simply to relate the noun the adjective qualifies to the base word of the derived adjective. For example, algebraic mind means ‘a mind having to do with algebra, referring to algebra, characterized by algebra’, colonial officer means ‘officer having to do with the colonies’, and so on. On the other hand, there is a large group of derived adjectives that express more specific concepts, and which are often called qualitative adjectives. Sometimes, relational adjectives can adopt qualitative meanings, as can be seen with the derivative grammatical, which has a relational meaning ‘having to do with grammar’ in the sentence she is a grammatical genius, but which also has a qualitative sense ‘conforming to the rules of grammar’, as in This is a grammatical sentence. Note that relational adjectives usually occur only in attributive position, i.e. as prenominal modifiers (as in a lexical problem). If we find them in predicative position in a clause (as in This sentence is grammatical), they usually have adopted a qualitative sense.

-able

The suffix chiefly combines with transitive and intransitive verbal bases, as indeterrable and perishable, respectively, as well as with nouns, as in serviceable,fashionable. The semantics of deverbal -able forms seem to involve two different cases, which have been described as ‘capable of being Xed’ (cf. breakable, deterrable, readable), and ‘liable or disposed to X’ (cf. agreeable, perishable, variable; changeable can have both meanings). What unites the two patterns is that in both cases the referent of the noun modified by the -able adjective is described as a potential non-volitional participant in an event. In this respect, -able closely resembles episodic -ee. Denominal forms can convey the same meaning, as e.g. marriageable, jeepable, kitchenable, roadable. There are also some lexicalized denominal forms with the meaning ‘characterized by X’, as infashionable (but cf. the concurrent compositional meaning ‘that can be fashioned’),knowledgeable, reasonable.

Phonologically, -able exhibits diverse properties. Only some lexicalized derivatives exhibit stress shift (e.g. cómparable), and base verbs in -ate are often,

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but not systematically, truncated, as in allocable, irritable, navigable, permeable, operable vs. cultivatable, emancipatable, operatable.

In established loan words we also find the orthographic variant -ible:comprehensible, discernible, flexible, reversible.

-al

This relational suffix attaches almost exclusively to Latinate bases (accidental, colonial, cultural, federal, institutional, modal). All derivatives have stress either on their penultimate or antepenultimate syllable. If the base does not have its stress on one of the two syllables preceding the suffix, stress is shifted to the antepenult of the derivative (e.g. cólony - colónial).

-ary

Again a relational adjective-forming suffix, -ary usually attaches to nouns, as incomplementary, evolutionary, fragmentary, legendary, precautionary. We find stress-shifts only with polysyllabic base nouns ending in -ment (cf. compliméntary vs. mómentary).

-ed

This suffix derives adjectives with the general meaning ‘having X, being provided with X’, as in broad-minded, pig-headed, wooded. The majority of derivatives are based on compounds or phrases (empty-headed, pig-headed, air-minded, fair-minded).

-esque

The suffix -esque is attached to both common and proper nouns to convey the notion of ‘in the manner or style of X’: Chaplinesque, Hemingwayesque, picturesque, Kafkaesque.

-ful

Adjectival -ful has the general meaning ‘having X, being characterized by X’ and is typically attached to abstract nouns, as in beautiful, insightful, purposeful, tactful, but verbal bases are not uncommon (e.g. forgetful, mournful, resentful).

-ic

Being another relational suffix, -ic also attaches to foreign bases (nouns and bound roots). Quite a number of -ic derivatives have variant forms in -ical (electric - electrical, economic - economomical, historic - historical, magic - magical etc.). Sometimes these forms are clearly distinguished in meaning (e.g. economic ‘profitable’ vs. economical ‘money-saving’), in other cases it remains to be determined what governs the choice of one form over the other.

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-ing

This verbal inflectional suffix primarily forms present participles, which can in general also be used as adjectives in attributive positions (and as nouns, see above). The grammatical status of a verb suffixed by -ing in predicative position is not always clear. In the changing weather the -ing form can be analyzed as an adjective, but in the weather is changing we should classify it as a verb (in particular as a progressive form). In the film was boring, however, we would probably want to argue that boring is an adjective, because the relation to the event denoted by the verb is much less prominent than in the case of changing.

-ish

This suffix can attach to adjectives (e.g. clearish, freeish, sharpish), numerals (fourteenish, threehundredfourtyish), adverbs (soonish, uppish), and syntactic phrases (e.g. stick-in-the-muddish, out-of-the-wayish, silly-little-me-late-again-ish) to convey the concept of ‘somewhat X, vaguely X’. When attached to nouns referring to human beings the derivatives can be paraphrased as ‘of the character of X, like X’, which is obviously closely related to the meaning of the non-denominal derivatives. Examples of the latter kind are James-Deanish, monsterish, summerish, townish, vampirish. Some forms have a pejorative meaning, e.g. childish.

-ive

This suffix forms adjectives mostly from Latinate verbs and bound roots that end in [t] or [s]: connective, explosive, fricative, offensive, passive, preventive, primitive, receptive, speculative. Some nominal bases are also attested, as in instinctive, massive.

-less

Semantically, -less can be seen as antonymic to -ful, with the meaning being paraphrasable as ‘without X’: expressionless, hopeless, speechless, thankless.

-ly

This suffix is appended to nouns and adjectives. With base nouns denoting persons, - ly usually conveys the notion of ‘in the manner of X’ or ‘like an X’, as in brotherly,daughterly, fatherly, womanly. Other common types of derivative have bases denoting temporal concepts (e.g. half-hourly, daily, monthly) or directions (easterly,southwesterly).

-ous

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This suffix derives adjectives from nouns and bound roots, the vast majority being of Latinate origin (curious, barbarous, famous, synonymous, tremendous). Like derivatives in -al, -ous formations are stressed either on the last but one syllable or last but two syllable (the so-called penult or antepenult), with stress being shifted there, if necessary (e.g. plátitude - platitúdinous). There are further variants of the suffix, -eous (e.g. erroneous, homogeneous), -ious (e.g. gracious, prestigious), and -uous (e.g. ambiguous, continuous).

Adverbial Suffixes (Adverb forming suffixes)

-ly

The presence of this exclusively de-adjectival suffix is for the most part syntactically triggered and obligatory, and it can therefore be considered inflectional. However, in some formations there is a difference in meaning between the adjective and the adverb derived by -ly attachment: shortly, hardly and dryly are semantically distinct from their base words and hotly, coldly and darkly can only have metaphorical senses. Such changes of meaning are unexpected for inflectional suffix, which speaks against the classification of adverbial -ly as inflectional.

-wise

This suffix derives adverbs from nouns, with two distinguishable sub-groups: manner/dimension adverbs, and so-called view-point adverbs. The former adverb type has the meaning ‘in the manner of X, like X’ as in the towel wound sarongwiseabout his middle, or indicates a spatial arrangement or movement, as in The cone can be sliced lengthwise. It is, however, not always possible to distinguish clearly between the ‘manner’ and ‘dimension’ readings (e.g. is ‘cut X crosswise’ an instance of one or the other?). The smaller and much more recent group of viewpoint adverbs is made up of adverbs whose meaning can be rendered as ‘with respect to, in regard to, concerning X’. The scope of the viewpoint adverbs is not the verb phrase, but the whole clause or sentence, a fact which is visible in the surface word-order in Theymake no special demands food-wise and Statuswise, you are at a disadvantage. [32]

List of Suffixes

Nominal Suffixes18

-acy, state or quality privacy: the state of being alone-cy infancy: the state of being a baby or young child

-ageactivity, or result of action courage: having the spirit to overcome fear

-al action, result of action referral: the action of directing a person to another place

-an person artisan: a craftsperson

-ance, action, state, quality or resistance: the action of opposing something

-ence processindependence: the state of not being under the control of others

-ancy,state, quality or capacity vacancy: an empty room or position

-encyagency: the capacity to exert power or influence, a position or person thatperforms a function

-ant,an agent, something that disinfectant: something that cleans

-ent performs the action dependent: a thing supported or determined by another

-ate state, office, fuction candidate: a person nominated for an office or position

-ation action, resulting statespecialization: the result of being distinguished by one quality or ability

-dom place, state of being wisdom: possessing knowledge

-er,person or thing that does baker: a person who bakes

-or something collector: a person who collects or gathers things

-fulan amount or quanity that mouthful: an amount that fills the mouthfills

-ian, related to, one that is politician: a person works in politics-an-ia names, diseases phobia: an illogical fear of something

-iatry art of healingpsychiatry: branch of medicine dealing with the mind and emotions

-ic, related to the arts andarithmetic: a branch of math dealing with non-negative numbers

-ics sciences economics: the social science related to studying business

-ice act malice: the desire to do evil

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-ingmaterial made for, activity, swimming: the activity of swimming through waterresult of an activity building: the result of making a structure

-ion condition or action abduction: the action of carrying someone away by force

-ismdoctrine, belief, action or formalism: a belief in sticking to prescribed formsconduct

-ist person or member podiatrist: a foot doctor

-ite product or part graphite: a black material used in making pencils

-ity, state or quality novelty: something new or unusual-ty

-ive condition native: a person born in a specific place

-ment condition or resultdocument: official paper showing proof or evidence of something

-ness state, condition, quality kindness: the quality of being kind or nice

-ology the study of biology: the study of life

-or condition or activity valor: bravery, courage

-ory place for, serves for territory: an area around a place

-ship status, condition friendship: the state of being a friend

-ure act, condition, process, exposure: the condition of being exposed or unprotectedfunction

-ystate, condition, result of society: companionshipan activity victory: the result of winning something

Verbal Suffixes

-ate cause to begraduate: to give a degree to, to pass from one stage to the next

-ed past tense attained: something that has been reached or grasped

-en to cause to become moisten: to cause to become moist or damp

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-er, -or action ponder: to think aboutclamor: to make noise, to call for loudly

-ify cause specify: to name or indicate in detail

-ing present participle depicting: showing, describing with images or pictures

-ize cause fantasize: to create images in the mind

-ure actconjecture: to come to a conclusion by supposition or guesswork

Adjectival Suffixes-able, worth, ability solvable: able to be solved or explained-ible incredible: not able to be believed, amazing

-al, quality, relation structural: related to the physical make up of a thing-ial, territorial: related to nearby or local areas-ical categorical: related to a category, absolute

-ant, indicating, being important: indicating value or worth-ent, dependent: relying upon something else-ient-ar, resembling, related to

spectacular: related to something that is eye-catching or amazing

-aryunitary: related to units or single groups representing quantities

-ate kind of state inviolate: not disturbed, pure

-ed having the quality of terraced: having terraces or steps

-en material silken: made from silk, a fiber produced by worms

-er comparative brighter: more light

-est superlative strongest: having the most strength

-fulhaving, giving, marked by fanciful: marked by imagination

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-ic quality, relation generic: related to a whole group

-ile having the qualities of projectile: something thrown with an outside force

-ing activity cohering: the act of sticking together

-ish having the character of, newish: modern, recent

about, almost

-ive, having the quality of festive: having the quality of a festival or party

-ative, cooperative: being able or willing to work together

-itive sensitive: easily felt, responsive to the senses

-less without, missing penniless: a person without any money

-ous, having the quality of, adventurous: characterized by the desire to seek adventures

-eous, relating to courageous: characterized by courage, brave

-ose, verbose: having more words than needed

-ious

-y marked by, having hungry: having hunger, marked by a desire

Adverbial Suffixes

-foldin a manner of, marked by fourfold: being four times as great

-ly in the manner of fluently: marked by ease of movement, effortlessly smooth

-ward in a direction or manner homeward: toward home

-wise in the manner of, with timewise: with regard to time

[33]

List of Greek Suffixes Greek refers to the language of ancient Greece from around the 9th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. Most Greek words and word parts entered English during

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the Renaissance, as scholars discovered, studied, and translated ancient Greek works. Many specialized terms in law, science, and other academic disciplines come from Greek, and new scientific and technological terms are still often formed from ancient Greek roots. [34]

Many Greek-based words are recognizable from their spelling. The spelling and pronunciation of Greek roots and affixes have certain characteristics: use of "ph" as an "f" sound (in in telephone and photograph) and "ch" as a hard "c" (as in chorus and architect), the starting of a word with "ps," "pn," "mn," and "gn" (all pronounced with a silent first consonant), and the use of "y" between consonants (mystery, rhythm) are some of the most common features of English words of Greek origin. [35]

Suffixes Origin Meaning Example

-biosis Greek mode of living, way of life symbiosis

-blast Greek formative, embryonic mesoblast

-chaeta-, -chete Greek a bristle Polychaeta

-chrome Greek colormercurochrome

-cocci, -coccus Greek round, seed, kernel Streptococcus

-cyst Greek pouch, sac trichocyst

-dactyl Greek finger pentadactyl

-derm, -dermis Greek skin, layer epidermis

-emia Greek blood disease anemia

-gamous, -gamy Greek marriage, sexual fusion polygamy

-hedral, -hedron Greek side polyhedral

-ism Greek act, practice or result of terrorism

-itis Greek inflammation or infection appendicitis-mer, -merous G. meros a part, piece polymer-meter G. metron a measurement diameter-morph Greek form endomorph-mycin Greek derived from a fungus aureomycin-nomy Greek systematized knowledge of astronomy-oma Greek tumorous carcinoma-osis, -otic Greek abnormal condition, disease neurosis-phage Greek eater bacteriophage-phase Greek a stage or condition metaphase

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-phil, -phile Greek fear, fearing hydrophobia-phor, -phore Greek bearing, carrying, supporting sporangiophore-phyll Greek leaf chorophyll-phyta, -phyte Greek plant epiphyte-plasm Greek formative substance cytoplasm-plast Greek organized particle, granule choroplast-pod, -poda Greek foot arthropod-some Greek body chromosome-stasis Greek a stationary position homeostasis-stat, -static Greek stationary, still hemostat-stomy Greek opening into colostomy-therm Greek heat homeotherm-thes, -thesis Greek arrangement, in order hypothesis-tom, -tomy Greek dividing, surgery lobotomy-trope, -tropic Greek turning phototropic-zoa,-zoan,-zoic Greek animal, life protozoa[36]

Conclusion Prefixation and suffixation are generally known as affixation. Affixation creates new English words by modifying or changing the meaning of a root word. One thing that students, teachers, materials writers, and researchers can all agree upon is that learning vocabulary is an essential part of mastering a (second) language.

According to last researches, well over 80 percent of the total vocabulary of English is borrowed and most of its words can be used with affixation. Therefore, studying vocabulary with affix systems or patterns would seem to be much more effective language learners than just memorizing words. Furthermore, using affixation strategies has another benefit, which is that it helps learners naturally expand their knowledge of meaning or grammatical categories. Thus, teachers and learners of English should seriously consider using affixation-based instruction and learning of vocabulary.

I hope this paper has shown the important role of affixation, particularly suffixation, in word-formation process in the English language.

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References

[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,16,17] Argenis A. Zapata (2007) Escuela de Idiomas Modernos, Los Andes University p.1-3

[15] Word Formation in English by Ingo Plag, Cambridge University Press, 2002

[18,19,21,22,24,25] Лексикология английского языка: Учебник для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз./Р. 3. Гинзбург, С. С. Хидекель, Г. Ю. Князева и А. А. Санкин. — 2-е изд., испр. и доп. — М.: Высш. школа, 1979. p.114-120

[20]http :// www . brighthubeducation . com / esl - lesson - plans /59338- word - back - formation - list /

[23] Francis Katamba, Morphology. St. Martin's Press, 1993

[26,27,28,29,30,31] Практический курс английской лексикологии = A Practical Course in English Lexicology: учеб. Пособие для студ. линг. вузов и фак. ин. языков/ И.В. Зыкова – 3-е изд. – М.: Издательский центр «Академия», 2008 p. 74

[32] Suffixes. Types (classification) of suffixes. Adapted from: Word-Formation in English by Ingo Plag, Cambridge University Press, 2002 p.109-123

[33] Caglioti, C. "Preparation for an American University Program: Vocabulary Workshop" Southampton College of Long Island University. http://www.southampton.liu.edu/academic/pau/course/webesl.htm

[34,35] Greek Suffixes. Adapted from: www.wordsmyth.net

[36] http://users.uoa.gr/~nektar/history/language/greek_latin_derivatives.htm

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