Affixation in English

Affixation is the morphological process in by which bound morphemes are

attached to a root or stem to mark changes in meaning, part of speech, or
grammatical relationships. Affixes take on several forms and serve different
functions. In this tutorial, we will be looking specifically at affixation in Standard
English.

Affixes
An affix is a bound morpheme that attaches to a root or stem to form a new word,
or a variant form of the same word. In English we primarily see 2
types. Prefixes precede the root or stem, e.g., re-cover, while suffixes follow,
e.g., hope-ful. A third type of affix known as a circumfix occurs in the two
words en-ligh-en and em-bold-en, where the prefix en/m– and the suffix –
en/m are attached simultaneously to the root.
There are those who claim that infixation is also used as an emphasis marker in
colloquial English. This occurs when an expletive is inserted into the internal
structure of a word, e.g., un-fricking-believable.
Derivational affixes derive new words by altering the definitional meaning or the
grammatical category of a word, whereas inflectional affixes show grammatical
relationships between words or grammatical contrast. In English, both prefixes and
suffixes can be derivational, but only suffixes can be inflectional.
Prefixes
Prefixes are abundant in English. Some are more commonly used (productive)
than others. As mentioned above, prefixes are only used to derive new meaning or
part of speech. Below is a list of those that are more common.

Table 1 Commonly used prefixes in English

 Suffixes
Suffixes can either be derivational or inflectional. Below is a list of common
derivational suffixes.

Table 2 Commonly used derivational suffixes in English

In English there are 8 inflectional suffixes. As you will see, these are limited to
showing some type of grammatical function.

Table 3 Inflectional suffixes in English

You may have noticed that -er appears as both a derivational and inflectional
morpheme. Although they share phonological form, they are two separate
morphemes, having 2 separate functions and must not be confused. -er attached
to a verb causes the derivation: verb noun, e.g., write writer. -er attached to an
adjective shows inflection, i.e., the comparative form of an
adjective: nice nicer. This is also true for –ing and –en. A verb + -ing can derive
a noun or inflect a verb for past or present progressive.
(1)
set + ing = noun
The setting of the sun was covered by clouds.
set + ing + progressive verb
I was setting the table when the phone rang.
verb + -en = past participle (freeze + en)
The low temperatures had frozen all the crops.
noun + -en = verb (light + en)
Mary decided to lighten her hair.

Infixes
There is question as to whether the limited usage of infixation in English actually a
morphological process since the word being inserted is not itself an infix, as it is
free-standing and not a bound morpheme. Furthermore, there is no resulting
derivation or inflection.
Only expletives are used as infixes and in only a limited number of words. For
example, infixes are only permitted when the expletive is flanked by stress. This
means that only words with initial stress (trochees and not iambs) will be
candidates for infixation.
(2)
un-expletive-believable but *unbe-expletive-lievable

Clitics
Clitics are unstressed reduced units of meaning that attached to a limited number
of host words. They generally are not considered a type of affix since they do not
meet specific minimal phonological requirements (which will not be discussed
here). Proclitics attach to the beginning of a root, e.g., ‘tis for ‘it is’, ‘dyou for ‘do
you’. Enclitics are attached word finally, e.g., what’s for ‘what is’.

Rules of Formation
Although a speaker may generally count on intuition in forming complex words in
terms of which affixes may be attached to which roots, underlying rules of word-
formation actually account for the process. Our intuition allows us to attach ‘un-‘ to
‘productive’ but not to ‘fish’. We can attach the suffix ‘-ly’ to ‘kind’ but not to ‘sky’.
(3)
un + ‘productive’ but not *un + ‘fish’
‘kind’ + ly *’sky’ + ly
This distribution of affixes leads us to believe that there are rules of word-formation
to which we intuitively adhere. So let’s break this down.
Productivity
Certain affixes are more productive than others, meaning that they can be added to
a large number of words without obstructing meaning. An example of a productive
suffix in English would be –ness which we regularly use to derive nouns from
adjectives.
(4)
adjective + ness = noun
happy + ness = ‘happiness’
In fact, some affixes are so productive that they can be attached to almost any
stem creating nonce words in which meaning is transparent. Take –ish for
example in English. This suffix can be attached to almost any noun or adjective to
communicate like –ness. If a soup broth is not thick, it could be described as ‘thin’-
ish and there would be no ambiguity as to this non-word’s meaning. All listeners
would agree on the interpretation of ‘thin’-ish.
Unproductive morphemes, on the other hand, are not frequently used. An
example would be the suffix –th as in ‘warmth’.
(5)
adjective + –th = noun
‘warm’ + –th = ‘warmth’
-th can only be attached to a small number of words. No English speaker would
consider using the word ‘thinth’ to describe soup broth that is not thick.
So back to rules.
As we have seen, there are rules that govern the process of affixation
(3). Furthermore, we know that when specific suffixes are attached to one part of
speech, they derive another.
–ly will derive an adverb from an adjective.
(6)
adjective + –ly = adverb
‘calm’ + –ly = ‘calmly’
We can also use –ly with a limited number of nouns to derive adjectives.
(7)
noun + –ly = adjective
‘matron’ +-ly = ‘matronly’
‘friend’ + –ly = ‘friendly’
‘love’ + –ly = ‘lovely’
However this is not possible with verbs.
(8)
*verb +-ly = adverb/adjective
*’walk’ + –ly = adverb
Thus we can claim:
1. adjective + –ly = adverb
2. noun + –ly = adjective
Let’s look again at ‘-ness‘. This suffix can be attached to adjectives but not to
nouns or verbs.
Let’s look again at –ness. This suffix can be attached to adjectives but not to
nouns or verbs.
(9)
adjective + –ness = noun
‘sweet’ + –ness = ‘sweetness’
‘tender’ + —ness = ‘tenderness’
*noun + —ness = noun (or anything)
*‘house’ + —ness = ‘houseness’
*verb + –ness = noun (or anything)
*’study’ + –ness = ‘studiness’
Prefixes in English do not generally change the grammatical category of a word,
but rather meaning. Even so, there are still rules as to how they are distributed.
Un- may combine with adjectives and certain verbs, but not with nouns or
adverbs.
(10)
u–n + ‘friendly’ = ‘unfriendly’
un– + ‘do’ = ‘undo’
but not
* un– + ‘computer’ = ‘uncomputer’
* un– + ‘very’ = ‘unvery’
In addition, to these distributional constraints, we will see that there is an order in
which affixes must be combined with roots and stems. For instance, the word
‘unbelievable’ must be built by attaching –able to ‘believe’, deriving ‘believable’,
and then add un– to derive ‘unbelievable’. We cannot add un– to ‘believe’ and
then –able to ‘unbelieve.’ Even though the outcome seems to be the same, the
meaning derived from the different rule orderings is not. This is due to the fact
that un- generally attaches to an adjective and not a verb. That’s why
‘unbelieve’ is not a word to which an affix may be added.
This requirement for an ordered application of affixes is referred to as the
hierarchal structure of derived words, which is shown by tree diagrams. These tree
structures demonstrate the steps to adding multiple affixes to a root and how each
addition may create a new word form. Below is an example of a diagram.
(11)

We see in (11) that the result of attaching un– to a noun root yields an
ungrammatical structure. Furthermore, we cannot add –y to a noun. This
derivation fails. However we see in (12) that when -y is attached to a noun, it yields
an adjective. Now un– can be attached to an adjective. This derivation results in a
grammatical structure.

(12)
Constructions such as (11 and 12) demonstrate an unambiguous word-
formation. This means that the ordering of affixes is clear. There are, however,
morphologically complex words in which two orders are possible with meaning
being dependent upon the ordering. In (13), the first construction shows –
able attaching to the verb root, resulting in the adjective ‘lockable’ to which un– is
added, deriving an adjective with the opposite meaning: ‘not capable of being
locked’. In the second diagram un– is first added to the verb root resulting in the
verb ‘unlock’ to which –able can be attached resulting in an adjective meaning
‘capable of being unlocked’. The formation of the morphologically complex word
‘unlockable’ is ambiguous since both orderings of affixes result in a grammatical
structure.
(13)