The Kind of Affixes

Affixes

One of the main keys of becoming proficient of English spellings is mastering the method of word formation. Morphologically intricate words create a large quantity of words in the English language. The majority of the words is composed of more than one morpheme and is formed by joining a stem morpheme. Let’s consider the example ‘dark’ with an affix (–ness) it becomes darkness. 

The study of purposeful parts of a word is known as morphology. The study looks towards affixation as a way of word formation; in order to see the meanings of letters added at the beginning or end of words, and to look within the changes words meet with when affixes are joined to them. Affixes play an indispensable role in linguistic efficiency in most of the languages, as most affixes occur in various situations (e.g. darkness, kindness, brightness, oneness) and combines with original stems to express new views and ideas (e.g. aerobicize which means ‘to perform aerobics’). Affixes modify the meaning and linguistic class of their stems in multiple ways.

What is an Affix?

An affix is a morpheme that is attached before, after or within to a word stem to form a new word. Affix is a grammatical part that is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to create copied and modified forms. Most English words are made up of the base word known as root which contains the heart of the meaning of the word. The affix added at the beginning of the root is known as prefix while that at the end of a word is suffix. The process of attaching these affixes is referred to as affixation.

The root is the key to building new words. For example, advantage, forgive, measure are the core words or roots in disadvantageous, unforgivable and immeasurable.

Prefix	Root Word	Suffix	New Word
Im- Dis- Un- Un-	measure advantage forgive help	able ous able ful	immeasurable   disadvantageous unforgivable unhelpful

Affixes are divided into several categories prefixes, infixes, circumfix and suffixes. Prefix and suffix are extremely common terms which occur at the beginning and at the end of a word stem. Infix and circumfix are less so, an infix occurs in the middle, they are not important in European languages.

Most Common Prefixes. The four most common prefixes are: dis-, in-, re-, and un-.
Examples of Prefix:

• Substandard
• pre-cooked
• sub-mit
• pre-determine
• un-willing

Most Common Suffixes. The four most common suffixes are: -ed, -ing, -ly, and -es.
Examples of Suffix:

• Hopefully
• happiness
• wonder-ful
• depend-ent
• act-ion

Kinds of Affixes

Affixes are divided into many categories, depending on the position, while Prefix and suffix are extremely common terms. The other terms are uncommon. Such as:

1.  Prefix - occurs at the beginning of a root. Ex: Unhappy
2. Suffix - occurs at the end of a root. Ex: Happiness
3. Infix - occurs inside a root 
4. Circumfix - occurs in two parts on both outer edges of a root.
5. Simulfix - replaces one or more phonemes in the root. Ex: Man + plural = Men, Tooth becomes Teeth, Eat becomes Ate.
6. Suprafix - Overlap on one or more syllables in the root  as a supra-segmental. Ex: stress in the words produce, noun and pro'duce, verb.

 

 Prefixes

Prefixs are added to the beginning of a word to make a new word, eg mis+take. Some common prefixes are 'mis', 'dis', 're', 'for', 'anti', 'ante', 'sub', 'un' and 'in'. New words are made by placing a prefix in front of a word. It is helpful to know the meanings of prefixes. Prefix 're' means again, therefore reappear means to appear again.

Common prefix meanings

pre - before

mis - bad(ly)

sub - under

inter - between

semi - half

The following prefixes of 'im', 'ir', 'il', 'in' and 'un' can be added to the beginning of words to make them into a negative.

Examples

im + possible = impossible

ir + responsible = irresponsible

il + legal = illegal

in + active = inactive

un + happy = unhappy

Suffixes

Letters added to the end of a main word are called suffixes. Common suffixes are: 'ed', 'ful', 'ly', 'ing', 'able', 'ance', 'ence', 'ness'.

Example

harm + less = harmless

When 'full' is added to a word you drop the final 'l'. If you add 'ly' to any word ending with 'ful' you keep the existing 'l'.

Example

hand + full = handful

rest + full = restful

restful + ly = restfully