Affix

In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes. Affixation is the linguistic process that speakers use to form different words by adding morphemes at the beginning (prefixation), the middle (infixation) or the end (suffixation) of words.

Affixes
See also:

Positional categories of affixes

Affixes are divided into many 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
AffixExampleSchemaDescription
Prefixun-doprefix-stemAppears before the stem
Prefixoid/semi-prefix/pseudo-prefix[1]flexi-coverprefixoid-stemAppears before the stem, but is only partially bound to it
Suffix/postfixlook-ingstem-suffixAppears after the stem
Suffixoid[2]/semi-suffix[3]/pseudo-suffixcat-likestem-suffixoidAppears after the stem, but is only partially bound to it
InfixAbso⟨bloody⟩lutely (tmesis)st⟨infix⟩emAppears within a stem — common e.g. in Austronesian languages
Circumfixen⟩light⟨encircumfix⟩stem⟨circumfixOne portion appears before the stem, the other after
Interfixspeed-o-meterstema-interfix-stembLinks two stems together in a compound
Duplifixmoney~shmoney (shm-reduplication)stem~duplifixIncorporates a reduplicated portion of a stem
(may occur before, after, or within the stem)
TransfixMaltese: k⟨i⟩t⟨e⟩b "he wrote"
(compare root ktb "write")		s⟨transfix⟩te⟨transfix⟩mA discontinuous affix that interleaves within a discontinuous stem
Simulfixmouse → micestem\simulfixChanges a segment of a stem
Suprafixproduce (noun)
produce (verb)		stem\suprafixChanges a suprasegmental feature of a stem
DisfixAlabama: tipli "break up"
(compare root tipasli "break")		st⟩disfix⟨emThe elision of a portion of a stem

Prefix and suffix may be subsumed under the term adfix, in contrast to infix.[4]

When marking text for interlinear glossing, as in the third column in the chart above, simple affixes such as prefixes and suffixes are separated from 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. Affixes which cannot be segmented are marked with a back slash.

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 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, Salishan, and Chimakuan languages all have lexical suffixes — the presence of these is an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest of North America.

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:

Lexical Suffix Noun
-o, -aʔ "person" , ełtálṉew̱ ʔəɬtelŋəxʷ "person"
-nát -net "day" sȼićel skʷičəl "day"
-sen -sən "foot, lower leg" sxene, sx̣ənəʔ "foot, lower leg"
-áwtw̱ -ew̕txʷ "building, house, campsite" , á,leṉ ʔeʔləŋ "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 just as free nouns are and, thus, equating lexical suffixes with incorporated nouns. Gerdts (2003) gives examples of lexical suffixes in the Halkomelem language (the word order here is verb–subject–object):

VERB SUBJ OBJ
(1) niʔ šak’ʷ-ət-əs łə słeniʔ łə qeq
"the woman washed the baby"
 
VERB+LEX.SUFF SUBJ
(2) niʔ šk’ʷ-əyəł łə słeniʔ
"the woman baby-washed"

In sentence (1), the verb "wash" is šak’ʷətəs where šak’ʷ- is the root and -ət and -əs are inflectional suffixes. The subject "the woman" is łə słeniʔ and the object "the baby" is łə qeq. In this sentence, "the baby" is a free noun. (The niʔ here is an auxiliary, 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 -əyəł which is affixed to the verb root šk’ʷ- (which has changed slightly in pronunciation, but this can also be ignored here). Note how the lexical suffix is neither "the baby" (definite) nor "a baby" (indefinite); such referential changes are routine with incorporated nouns.

Orthographic affixes

In orthography, 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.[5] 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.[6]

gollark: You utter and complete apioform.
gollark: Ethereum is proof of work.
gollark: Wrong.
gollark: GTech™ GCryptocurrency™ moves beyond the environmentally unfriendly proof of work and oligarchic proof of stake to "proof of gollark likes your transaction".
gollark: They could do that without NFTs.

See also

References
  1. Fischer, Roswitha (1998). Lexical Change in Present-day English: A Corpus-based Study of the Motivation, Institutionalization, and Productivity of Creative Neologisms. ISBN 9783823349402.
  2. Kremer, Marion. 1997. Person reference and gender in translation: a contrastive investigation of English and German. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, p. 69, note 11.
  3. Marchand, Hans. 1969. The categories and types of present-day English word-formation: A synchronic-diachronic approach. Munich: Beck, pp. 356 ff.
  4. Powell, Barry (2012). "Glossary". Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 255. doi:10.1002/9781118293515.gloss. ISBN 9781118293515.
  5. Robert Sharer & Loa Traxler, 2006, The Ancient Maya, Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4817-9
  6. Andrew West, "Precomposed Tibetan Part 1 : BrdaRten" Archived 2010-10-17 at the Wayback Machine BabelStone, September 14, 2006

Bibliography
  • Gerdts, Donna B. (2003). "The morphosyntax of Halkomelem lexical suffixes". International Journal of American Linguistics. 69 (4): 345–356. doi:10.1086/382736.
  • Montler, Timothy. (1986). An outline of the morphology and phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish. 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 0-660-12908-6
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