Affixation in modern english

Abstract nouns are signaled by the following suffixes:

– age, – ance/ – ence, – ancy/ – ensy, – dom, – hood, – ing, – ion/ – tion/ – ation, – ism, – ment, – ness, – ship, – th, – ty.

See examples above.

Personal nouns that are emotionally neutral occur with the following suffixes: – an (grammarian), – ant/ – ent (servant, student), – arian (vegetarian), – ee (examinee), – er (porter

), – ician (musician), – ist (linguist), – ite (sybarite), – or (inspector), and a few others.

Feminine suffixes may be classed as a subgroup of personal noun suffixes. These are few and not frequent: – ess (actress), – ine (heroine), – rix (testatrix), – ette (suffragette).

The above classification should be accepted with caution. It is true that in a polysemantic word at least one of the variants witl show the class meaning signaled by the affix. There may be other variants, however, whose different meaning will be signaled by a difference in distribution, and these will belong to some other lexico-grammatical class. C.f. settlement, translation denoting a process and its result, or beauty which, when denoting qualities that give pleasure to the eye or to the mind, is an abstract noun, but occurs also as a personal noun denoting a beautiful woman. The word witness is more often used in its several personal meanings that (in accordance with its suffix) as an abstract noun meaning evidence or «testimony». The coincidence of two classes in the semantic structure of some words may be almost regular. Collectivity, for instance may be signaled by such suffixes as – dom, – ery, – hood, – ship. It must be borne in mind, however, that words with these suffixes are poly semantic and show a regular correlation of the abstract noun denoting state and a collective noun denoting a group of persons of whom this state is characteristic. CF. knighthood.

Alongside with adding some lexico-grammatical meaning to the stem, certain suffixes charge it with emotional force. They may be derogatory: – ard (drunkard); – ling (underling); – ster (gangster); – ton (simpleton). These seem to be more numerous in English that the suffixes of endearment.

Emotionally coloured diminutive suffixes rendering also endearment differ from the derogatory suffixes in that they are used to name not only persons but things as well. This point may be illustrated by the suffix – y/ – ie/ – ey: auntie, cabbie (cabman), daddie, but also: hanky (handkerchief), nightie (nightgown). Other suffixes that express smallness are – en (chicken): – kin/ kins (mannikin); – let (booklet); – ock (hillcack); et (cornet).

The connotation of same diminutive suffixes is not one or endearment but of some outlandish elegance and novelty, particularly in the case of the borrowed suffix – ette (kitchenette, launderette, lecturette, maisonette, etc). The diminutive suffixes being not very productive, there is a tendency to express the same meaning by the semiaffix mini– : mini-bus, mini-car, mini-crisis, mini-skirt, etc. Which may be added to words denoting both objects situations.

A suffix is a derivative final element which as or formely was productive in forming words. A suffix has semantic value, but it does not occur as an independent speech unit.

2.4.2 Suffixes and endings

It is necessary to point out the similarity and difference between derivative and functional morphemes. Morphologically, two words such as citizen and citizenry are formed after the same principle of root plus affix. At first sight, the conceptual structure also looks very much alike: the-s of citizens and the – ry of citizenry both express the idea of plurality, collectivity. But the difference in valued is one between grammatical function and lexical meaning. The – s of citizens is the inflectional formative of the grammatical category «plural» where – ry forms a class of words with the semantic basis «group», collectivity of…».

A suffixal derivative is primarily a lexical form. It is a two-morpheme word which behaves like a one-morpheme word in that it is «grammatically equivalent to any simple word in all the constructions where it occurs» (Bloch-Trager, OLA 54). An inflected word is primarily a grammatical form which does not meet the requirements just stated. While in a sentence such as this citizenry feels insulted we could substitute the simple, one-morpheme words crowd, multitude, nation for bi-morphemic citizenry without any change in the behavior of the other members of the sentence, replacement by the two-morpheme word citizens would involve a change of this to these and of feels to feel. The formatives – er, – est as expressing degree of comparison are endings, not suffixes. In a sentence such as Paul is older than Peter we could not substitute any one-morpheme word for bi-morphemic old-er whereas in he is rather o l dish the adj old can take the place of old-ish. It will also be interesting to note the different phonetic make-up of comparatives and super lateness compared with derived adjectives. Youngish, longish betray the morpheme boundary before – ish in that the final consonant does not change before the initial vowel of the derivative suffix whereas in younger, longer the consonants are treated as standing in medial position in unit words, just like finger or clangor, [jg] being the ante vocalic (and ante sonantic) allophone of [j].

2.4.3 The origin of suffixes

As to the origin of suffixes, there are two ways in which a suffix may come into existence: 1) the suffix was once an independent word but is no longer one; 2) the suffix has originated as such, usually as a result of secretion. Case 1) applies to a few native suffixes only. The suffixes – dem and hood are independent words still in OE, so the process where by a second-word becomes a suffix can be observed historically. An instance of case 2) is the suffix – ling which is simply the extended form of suffix – ing in words whose stem ended in – l.

Hall-way between second-words and suffixes are certain second elements which are still felt to be words though they are no longer used in isolation: – monger, wright and-wise exist only as second parts of suffixs. I have treated them as semi suffixes. The fact that a word is frequently used as the second element of a suffix gives us no right to call it a suffix. Thus the following are not suffixes: – caster (as in broadcaster, gamecaster, newscaster), fiend (as in the AE words cigarette fiend, opium-fiend, absinthe-fiend, cocaine – fiend etc…), craft (as in witchcraft, leechcrajt, prestaraft, statecraft, smith raft, mother craft), or – proof (as in bomb-, fire-, rain-, sound-, water-, hole kiss-, humor-etc. proof) which Jazzperson wrongly terms one.

The contact of English with various foreign languages has led to the adoption of countless foreign words. In the process, many derivative morphemes have also been introduced, suffixes as well as prefixes. As a consequence, we have many hybrid types of composites. We have to distinguish between two basing groups. A foreign word is combined with a native affix, as in dear-ness, un-button. Just as the in production of a foreign word is an essentially uncomplicated matter, so is its combination with a native derivative element. As no structural problem is involved in the use of a foreign lexical unit, it can be treated like native words. This is the reason why native prefixes and suffixes were added to French words almost immediately after the words had been introduced. Suffixes such as – ful, – less, ness were early used with French words so we find faithful, faithless, clearness and others recorded by 1300. The case is different with foreign affixes added to native words. Here, the assimilation of a structural pattern is involved, not merely the adoption of a lexical unit. Before the foreign affix can be used, a foreign syntagma must have come to be familiar with speakers so that the pattern of analysis may be imitated and the dependent morpheme be used with native words. This is much more complicated. When it does happen, such formations are found much later than those of the first type. This is to be regarded as a general linguistic phenomenon. It explains why combinations of the types break-age, hindr-ance, yeoman-ry crop up much later and the less numerous. The early assimilation of – able is exceptional. Some foreign affixes, as – ance, – al (type arrival), ity have never become productive with native words.

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