French Affixes

Latin Affixes

Some Especially Frequent Borrowed Affixes

Some Especially Frequent Native Suffixes

Noun-forming	-er	worker, miner, teacher, painter, etc.
-ness	coldness, loneliness, loveliness, etc.
-ing	feeling, meaning, singing, reading, etc.
-dom	freedom, wisdom, kingdom, etc.
-hood	childhood, manhood, motherhood, etc.
-ship	friendship, companionship, mastership, etc.
-th	length, breadth, health, truth, etc. etc.
Adjective-forming	-ful	careful, joyful, wonderful, sinful, skilful, etc.
-less	careless, helpless, cloudless, etc.
-y	cozy, tidy, merry, snowy, etc.
-ish	English, Spanish, reddish, childish, etc.
-ly	lonely, lovely, ugly, likely, etc.
-en	woolen, silken, golden, etc.
-some	handsome, quarrelsome, tiresome, etc.
Verb	-en	redden, darken, sadden, etc.
Adverbforming	-ly	warmly, hardly, simply, etc.

The prefix –dis	disable, disagree, disown, etc.
The suffix -able	curable, capable, adorable, etc.
The suffix -ate	congratulate, create, appreciate, etc
The suffix –ute	contribute, constitute, attribute, etc.
The remnant suffix -ct	conduct, collect, act, etc.
The remnant suffix –d(e)	applaud, include, divide, etc.
The suffix -ant	constant, important, arrogant, etc.
The suffix -ion	opinion, legion, union, etc.
The suffix –tion	temptation, relation, revolution, etc.
The suffix -ent	absent, evident, decent, etc.
The suffix -or	junior, major, senior, etc.
The suffix -al	fraternal, maternal, cordial, etc.
The suffix -ar	familiar, solar, lunar, etc.

The prefix –en	enable, ensure, enfoldment, etc.
The suffix -ous	joyous, courageous, serious, etc.
The suffix -ess	hostess, tigress, adventuress, etc
The suffix -age	village, passage, marriage, etc.
The suffix -ment	establishment, settlement, etc.
The suffix -ence	patience, intelligence, reference, etc.
The suffix -ance	Entrance, hindrance, endurance, etc.

To enter the morphological system of the English language a borrowed affix has to meet certain criteria. The borrowing of affixes is possible only if the number of words containing this affix is considerable, if its meaning and function are definite and clear enough, and also if its structural pattern corresponds to the structural pattern already existing in the language.

6. Productivity POV: affixes can also be classified into productive and non-productive types. Productivity is the ability to form new words after existing patterns which are readily understood by the speakers of a language. By productive affixes we mean those which take part in deriving new words in this particular period of language development. The best way to identify productive affixes is to look for them among neologisms and the so-called nonce-words, i. e. words coined and used only for this particular occasion. The latter are usually formed on the level of living speech and reflect the most progressive patterns in word-formation. When a literary critic writes about a certain book that it is an unputdownable thriller, we will seek in vain this impressive adjective in dictionaries, for it is a nonce-word coined on the current pattern of Modern English and is evidence of the high productivity of the adjective-forming borrowed suffix -able and the native prefix un-.

In this connection, consider, for example, the following: Professor Pringle was a

thinnish, baldish, dispep-tic-lookingish cove with an eye like a haddock. (From Right-Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse) The adjectives thinnish, baldish bring to mind other adjectives made with the same suffix: mannish, girlish, fattish, longish, yellowish, etc. But dispeptic-lookingish is the author's creation aimed at a humorous effect, and, at the same time, proving beyond doubt that the suffix -ish is a live and active one.

The same is well illustrated by the following popular statement: "I don't like Sunday evenings: I feel so Mondayish". {Mondayish is certainly a nonce-word.)

One should not confuse the productivity of affixes withtheir frequency of occurrence. There are quite a number of high-frequency affixes which, nevertheless, are no longer used in word-derivation (e. g. the adjective-forming native suffixes -ful, -ly; the adjective-forming suffixes of Latin origin -ant, -ent, -al).

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07