The Affixes in English

Pindus Journal of Culture, Literature, and ELT
ISSN: 2792 – 1883 | Volume 2 No. 11

https://literature.academicjournal.io
The Affixes in English
Kamoliddin Khudjayev
Namangan Engineering Construction Institute
Abstract: There are several types of word formation in linguistics. They can be divided into
morphological and syntactic-morphological types. The morphological type includes affixation;
phrase or combination; shortening or truncating words; abbreviation; mixing; root formation and
others. Sound and stress sharing, sound imitation, and repetition can be included in this class or
classified as phonetic or morphophonemic types of individual word formation.
Keywords: abbreviations, truncating words, anti-missile, , semi-productive, non-productive,
lexico-grammatical, local affixes, synonymous affixes, semi-productive, non-productive, semi-
affixes, homonymous.
Conversion is usually classified as a method of syntactic or syntactic-morphological word

formation. Finally, the migration and expansion of meaning, especially when an existing word is
divided into two or more homonyms, is sometimes called a divergence of meaning, sometimes seen
as a separate semantic type of word formation, but this the point is open to doubt, because in
English there are no regular patterns in which new meanings can appear in existing words, and one
word with two common meanings and two or more it is very difficult to distinguish words that are
more homonymous. Sometimes both affixation and conversion are classified by derivative to
differentiate them from word structure, and changes in sound and stress, abbreviations, etc., are
considered separately as minor methods of word formation.
It turns out that the idea that prefixes do not change the meaning of the speech part of modified
stems is less accurate if applied to modern English. There are about 25 prefixes which, although
rarely used, can modify the part-of-speech meaning of stems – usually changing nouns to verbs or
nouns to adjectives: gulf (n) – engulf (v), bug (n) – debug (v), war (n) – prewar, postwar, antiwar
(adj), tank (n) – anti-tank (adj), wit (n) – outwit (v). The trend, however, is not universal: missile
(n) – anti-missile (n), Impressionism (n) – Post-Impressionism (n). If this really is a regular
phenomenon, and not just a few isolated examples, it can reasonably be argued that English
prefixes are not different from suffixes in their ability to modify the lexico-grammatical meaning of
words, i.e. like suffixes, they can also be convertive or non-convertive.
Prefixes are mainly classified according to semantic principle, productivity, and etymology.
Additives can be productive, semi-productive and non-productive. Semantically, they are classified
according to the meaning they convey to the modified word. It should be noted that prefixes have a
more specific and less generalized meaning than suffixes, and if the same form (e.g., dis-, un-) is
attached to different parts of speech, different meanings may occur, can mean and therefore should
be considered as two homonyms:
1. Prefixes with a negative meaning: un-, in-, dis- (if used with nouns or adjectives);
2. Prefixes with a meaning of reversal or opposition: un-, dis-, re- (if used with verbs), de-;
3. Prefixes denoting a wrong or uncompleted action: mis-,
4. Prefixes denoting time and space relations: pre-, post-, over-, under-, super-, ultra-, extra-;
ISSN 2792-1883 (online), Published in Vol: 2 No: 11 for the month of Nov-2022
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ISSN: 2792 – 1883 | Volume 2 No. 11
5. Oppositional prefixes: anti-, counter-;

6. Prefixes with the meaning of devoiding: de-.
According to their origin, prefixes, like suffixes, are classified into native prefixes (mis-, under-)
and borrowed ones. These may be of Latin (pre-, post-, re-), French (dis-) and Greek (anti-) origin.
During the development of the English language, he adopted many foreign words. As a result, both
their stems and foreign affixes are spoken; some of those affixes were later used as a productive
morpheme, even with native English stems: -ist, -ism, -ee, -or, -able, dis-, de-, re-, and so on.
Eventually, the meanings of some foreign affixes overlapped with the meanings of existing local
affixes, resulting in synonymous affixes. For example, the suffix -er, which denotes the mediator or
executor of an action, is now synonymous with the mastered affixes -ist, -eer, -or. As usual, in such
cases the synonymous units had certain differences in meaning and usage. The suffix -ist, in
contrast to -er, is mostly associated with non-Germanic (violinist, but fiddler) horse stems and
usually expresses adherence to a principle or political doctrine (chartist, Darwinist). Agent names
with -ist usually correspond to the name of the theory, formed with -ism (Chartism, Darwinism).
Meanwhile, the -eer suffix has discriminatory power (profiteer, racketeer). However, the meaning
of affixes has also undergone a number of semantic changes, including the expansion, migration,
and differentiation of meaning. As a result, a number of commonly used affixes are polysemantic.
In modern English, the suffix -er, which is probably the only suffix most commonly used, can
mean: 1) a person who follows a profession (writer, driver, miner, baker); 2) a person who is so
busy during a speech (packer, taker, jumper); 3) a person living in a certain place (Londoner); 4) a
person who is addicted to something (sleeper, eater); 5) device or instrument (transmitter,
computer, trailer). This can lead to the homonymy of words formed as follows: e.g. A fighter is any
attack aircraft that is fighting, as well as the pilot of that aircraft. In other cases, two different
affixes correspond during the development of English; that is, we added -ly to adjective stems and
made adjectives (quickly, slowly) and added -ly to adjective stems to make adjectives (lovely,
friendly); -en is used in the construction of verbs (stiffen, strengthen) and -en adjectives (wooden,
golden), etc. The suffix -ish is often regarded as one suffix with two homonymous meanings;
however, no semantic connection can be traced between the two, so -ish meaning „something like
X‟, „a weaker kind of X‟ modifying adjectival stems (bluish) is something entirely different from -
ish meaning resembling added to noun-stems to produce an adjective (girlish). The problem is
much the same with the prefix un-, which seems to have two homonymous variants – one with a
negative meaning (unhappy), the other denoting a reverse or opposite action (unbind, uncover).
We use in English language semi-affixes. A number of commonly used words in modern English,
particularly -proof, -man, -worthy and -like, have an ambiguous status: on the one hand, they
correspond to meaningful words; on the other hand, they are routinely used to form new words and
have a more generalized meaning than the corresponding word itself. For example: -man seems to
have acquired an agentive meaning in chairman, and lost its meaning of „maleness‟ (cf. chairman –
the person who is in charge of a meeting, committee, company, or organization; chairperson);
moreover, a Sony Walkman is not a man at all, but a tape-playing machine. Linguists seem to agree
these are root-morphemes in the process of developing into suffixes, and so call them semi-affixes.
More semi-affixes seem to enter English now as part of brand names like Sense-0-matic (= a kind
of automatic switch with a sensory device), Blend-a-med (= a much-advertised toothpaste),
Suntronic (= a solar-powered wristwatch) and the like, deriving from automatic, electronic, etc., by
the process of clipping. From the point of view of origin affixes are subdivided into 2 main classes:
the native affixes and the borrowed affixes. Native affixes are those that existed in English in the
Old English period or were formed from Old English words.
ISSN: 2792 – 1883 | Volume 2 No. 11
The term borrowed affixes is not very exact as affixes are never borrowed as such, but only as parts
of loan words. To enter the morphological system of the English language a borrowed affix has to
satisfy certain conditions. The borrowing of the affixes is possible only a)if there a great number of
words containing this affix b) if its meaning and function are definite, and if its structural pattern
corresponds to the structural patterns already exis-ting in the language.
If these conditions are fulfilled the foreign affix may even become productive and combine with
native stems or borrowed stems within the system of English vocabulary like –“able”- Lat “-abilis”
in such words as laugh-able or unforgettable.
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Pindus Journal of Culture, Literature, and ELT

ISSN: 2792 – 1883 | Volume 2 No. 11

The Affixes in English

Conversion is usually classified as a method of syntactic or syntactic-morphological word

5. Oppositional prefixes: anti-, counter-;

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