Affix

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Affix

An affix is a morpheme

Morpheme

In morpheme-based morphology, a is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantics Meaning .In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes , and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes ....
that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational

Derivation (linguistics)

In linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words, as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine....
, like English -ness and pre-, or inflection

Inflection

In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as grammatical tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, grammatical person, grammatical number, grammatical gender, grammatical case....
al, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morpheme

Bound morpheme

In morphology , a bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand alone as an independent word while carrying the lexical meaning related to the one in the word it is taken from....
s by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes. Affixation is, thus, the linguistic process speakers use to form new words (neologisms) by adding sounds (affixes) at the beginning (prefixation), the middle (infixation) or the end (suffixation) of words.

xes are divided into several categories, depending on their position with reference to the stem.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Affix'

Start a new discussion about 'Affix'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

An affix is a morpheme

Morpheme

Derivation (linguistics)

In linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words, as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine....
, like English -ness and pre-, or inflection

Inflection

Bound morpheme

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.

Categories of affixes
Affix	Example	Schema	Description
Prefix Prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. The word "prefix" is itself made up of the stem fix , and the prefix pre- , both of which are derived from Latin root s....	un-do	prefix-stem	Appears at the front of a stem
Suffix Suffix In grammar, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the grammatical conjugation of verbs.... /Postfix	look-ing	stem-suffix	Appears at the back of a stem
Infix Infix An infix is an affix inserted inside a stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix....	saxo‹ma›phone	st‹infix›em	Appears within a stem — common in Borneo-Philippines languages Borneo-Philippines languages The Borneo-Philippines languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages which includes the languages of the Philippines, much of Borneo, the northern peninsula of Sulawesi, and Madagascar....
Circumfix Circumfix A circumfix is an affix, a morpheme that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes contrast with Prefix es, attached to the beginnings of words; Affix, that are attached at the end; and infixes, inserted in the middle....	a›scatter‹ed	circumfix›stem‹circumfix	One portion appears at the front of a stem, and the other at the rear
Interfix Interfix Interfix is a term in linguistics and more specifically, morphology . It describes an affix which is placed in between two other morphemes and does not have a semantics meaning....	speed-o-meter	stem_a-interfix-stem_b	Links two stems together in a compound
Duplifix	teeny~weeny	stem~duplifix	Incorporates a reduplicated Reduplication Reduplication, in linguistics, is a morphology process by which the root or Stem of a word, or part of it, is repeated.Reduplication is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality, intensification, etc., and in lexical Derivation to create new words.... portion of a stem (may occur in front, at the rear, or within the stem)
Transfix Transfix In linguistics morphology , a transfix is a discontinuous affix, which occurs at more than one position in a word. The prototypical example comes from the Semitic languages, where nearly all word derivation and inflection involves the interdigitation of a Nonconcatenative morphology with a discontinuous affix....	Maltese Maltese language Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official Languages of Malta alongside English language,while also serving as an Languages of the European Union European Union, the only Semitic languages so distinguished.... : k‹i›t‹e›b "he wrote" (compare root ktb "write")	s‹transfix›te‹transfix›m	A discontinuous affix that interleaves within a discontinuous stem
Simulfix Simulfix 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.Examples of simulfixes in English are generally considered irregularities, all of which left over from pluralization rules that existed before the Great Vowel Shift....	mouse ? mice		Changes a segment of a stem
Suprafix Suprafix In linguistics, a suprafix is a type of affix where a suprasegmental change modifies an existing morpheme's meaning. In many languages, they are used to differentiate between otherwise identical lexemes, but in some they are used derivation_ally or inflectionally....	produce (noun) produce (verb)		Changes a suprasegmental phoneme of a stem
Disfix Disfix A disfix is a subtractive morpheme, that is, a morpheme which manifests itself through elision . Thus it can be seen as a kind of "anti-affix"....	Alabama Alabama language Alabama is a Native American languages, spoken by the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas. It was once spoken by the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town of Oklahoma, but there are no more Alabama speakers in Oklahoma.... : tipli "break up" (compare root tipasli "break")	stm	The elision Elision Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphony effect.... of a portion of a stem

Prefix and suffix may be subsumed under the term adfix in contrast to infix.

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. 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

Wakashan languages

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 Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca....
, Salishan

Salishan languages

The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest . They are characterised by agglutinative and astonishing consonant clusters—for instance the Nux?lk language word meaning "he had had a bunchberry plant" has 13 consonants in a row with no vowels....
, and Chimakuan languages

Chimakuan languages

The Chimakuan language family consists of two languages spoken in northwestern Washington, USA on the Olympic Peninsula. It is part of the Mosan languages sprachbund, and one of its languages is famous for having no nasal consonants....
all have lexical suffixes — the presence of these is an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest of the North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
.

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

Americanist phonetic notation

Americanist phonetic notation is a system of phonetic transcription originally developed by European and American anthropologists and language scientists for the Phonetics and Phoneme transcription of Native American languages and European languages....
:

Lexical Suffix			Noun
-o,	-a?	"person"	,eltál?ew_	???tel??x?	"person"
-nát	-net	"day"	s?icel	sk?ic?l	"day"
-sen	-s?n	"foot, lower leg"	sxene,	sx??n??	"foot, lower leg"
-áwtw_	-ew?tx?	"building, house, campsite"	,á,le?	?e?l??	"house"

Lexical suffixes when compared with free nouns often have a more generic or general meaning. 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.

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

Verb argument

In linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntax relationship with the verb in a clause. In English language, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object ....
just as free nouns are and thus equating lexical suffixes with incorporated nouns. Gerdts (2003) gives examples of lexical suffixes in the Halkomelem language

Halkomelem language

Halkomelem is a Coast Salishan language of the First Nations around the Fraser River and the southern end of Vancouver Island in British Columbia....
(the word order

Word order

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 correspondences of between these arrangements....
here is Verb Subject Object

Verb Subject Object

Verb Subject Object is a term in linguistic typology. It represents one type of languages when classifying languages according to the sequence of these constituents in neutral expressions: Ate Sam oranges....
):

		VERB	SUBJ	OBJ
(1)	ni?	šak’?-?t-?s	l? sleni?	l? qeq
	"the woman washed the baby"

		VERB+LEX.SUFF	SUBJ
(2)	ni?	šk’?-?y?l	l? sleni?
	"the woman baby-washed"

In sentence (1), the verb "wash" is where is the root and and are inflectional suffixes. The subject "the woman" is and the object "the baby" is . In this sentence, "the baby" is a free noun. (The here is an auxiliary

Auxiliary verb

In linguistics, an auxiliary is a verb functioning to give further semantics or syntax information about the main or full verb following it....
, which can be ignored for explanatory purposes.)

In sentence (2), "baby" does not appear as a free noun. Instead it appears as the lexical suffix which is affixed to the verb root (which has changed slightly in pronunciation, but this can also be ignored here). Note how the lexical suffix is neither "the baby" (definite

Definiteness

In grammar, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....
) nor "a baby" (indefinite); such referential changes are routine with incorporated nouns.

Orthographic affixes

In orthography

Orthography

The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Orthography is derived from Greek language ????? orth?s and ???fe?? gr?phein ....
, the terms for affixes may be used for the smaller elements of conjunct characters. For example, Maya glyphs are generally compounds of a main sign and smaller affixes joined at its margins. These are called prefixes, superfixes, postfixes, and subfixes according to their position to the left, on top, to the right, or at the bottom of the main glyph. A small glyph placed inside another is called an infix. Similar terminology is found with the conjunct consonants of the Indic alphabets. For example, the Tibetan alphabet utilizes prefix, suffix, superfix, and subfix consonant letters.

Bibliography

Montler, Timothy. (1986). 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. ISBN 0660129086

Affix

Positional categories of affixes

Lexical affixes

Orthographic affixes

See also

Bibliography

External links