Editing Affix

{{Short description|Morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word}}
{{Affixes}}

In [[linguistics]], an '''affix''' is a [[morpheme]] that is attached to a [[word stem]] to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are [[Morphological derivation|derivational]] and [[inflection]]al affixes. Derivational affixes,  such as ''un-'', ''-ation'', ''anti-'', ''pre-'' etc., introduce a semantic change to the word they are attached to. Inflectional affixes introduce a syntactic change, such as singular into plural (e.g. ''-(e)s''), or present simple [[grammatical tense|tense]] into present continuous or past tense by  adding ''-ing'', ''-ed'' to an English word. All of them are [[bound morpheme]]s by definition; [[prefix]]es and [[suffix]]es may be [[separable affix]]es.

==Affixes, infixes and their variations==
Changing a word by adding a morpheme at its beginning is called ''prefixation'', in the middle is called ''infixation'', and at the end is called ''suffixation''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Matthews |first=Peter Hugoe |title=Morphology |date=October 17, 1991 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521422567 |edition=2nd |pages=131 |language=en}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Categories of affixes
! Affix !! Example !! Schema !! Description
|-
| '''[[Prefix]]''' || <span style="color:#009900;">un</span>-do || <span style="color:#009900;">prefix</span>-stem || Appears before the stem
|-
| '''Prefixoid'''/'''semi-prefix'''/'''pseudo-prefix'''<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H93nAVbwZwwC&q=%22semi-prefix”+“english”&pg=PA55 | title=Lexical Change in Present-day English: A Corpus-based Study of the Motivation, Institutionalization, and Productivity of Creative Neologisms| isbn=9783823349402| last1=Fischer| first1=Roswitha| year=1998| publisher=Gunter Narr Verlag}}</ref> || <span style="color:#009900;">flexi</span>-cover || <span style="color:#009900;">prefixoid</span>-stem || Appears before the stem, but is only partially bound to it
|-
| '''[[Suffix]]'''/'''postfix''' || look-<span style="color:#009900;">ing</span> || stem-<span style="color:#009900;">suffix</span> || Appears after the stem
|-
| '''Suffixoid'''<ref>Kremer, Marion. 1997. ''Person reference and gender in translation: a contrastive investigation of English and German''. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, p. 69, note 11.</ref>/'''semi-suffix'''<ref>Marchand, Hans. 1969. ''The categories and types of present-day English word-formation: A synchronic-diachronic approach''. Munich: Beck, pp. 356 ff.</ref>/'''pseudo-suffix''' || cat-<span style="color:#009900;">like</span> || stem-<span style="color:#009900;">suffixoid</span> || Appears after the stem, but is only partially bound to it
|-
| '''[[Infix]]'''<br>(see also [[tmesis]]) || edu<span style="color:#009900;">{{infix|ma}}</span>cated || st<span style="color:#009900;">{{angle bracket|infix}}</span>em || Appears within a stem — common e.g. in [[Austronesian languages]]
|-
| '''[[Circumfix]]''' || <span style="color:#009900;">en</span>{{circumfix|light}}<span style="color:#009900;">en</span> || <span style="color:#009900;">circumfix</span>{{circumfix|stem}}<span style="color:#009900;">circumfix</span> || One portion appears before the stem, the other after
|-
| '''[[Interfix]]''' || speed-<span style="color:#009900;">o</span>-meter || stem<sub>a</sub>-<span style="color:#009900;">interfix</span>-stem<sub>b</sub> || Links two stems together in a [[compound word|compound]]
|-
| '''[[Duplifix]]''' || money~<span style="color:#009900;">shmoney</span> ([[shm-reduplication]]) || stem~<span style="color:#009900;">duplifix</span> || Incorporates a [[reduplication|reduplicated]] portion of a stem<br />(may occur before, after, or within the stem)
|-
| '''[[Transfix]]''' || [[Maltese language|Maltese]]: k<span style="color:#009900;">{{angle bracket|i}}</span>t<span style="color:#009900;">{{angle bracket|e}}</span>b "he wrote"<br />(compare root ''ktb'' "write") || s<span style="color:#009900;">{{angle bracket|transfix}}</span>te<span style="color:#009900;">{{angle bracket|transfix}}</span>m || A discontinuous affix that interleaves within a discontinuous stem
|-
| '''[[Simulfix]]''' || m<span style="color:#009900;">ou</span>se → m<span style="color:#009900;">i</span>ce ||stem\<span style="color:#009900;">simulfix</span> || Changes a segment of a stem
|-
| '''[[Suprafix]]''' || ''pro''duce (noun)<br/>pro''duce'' (verb) ||stem\<span style="color:#009900;">suprafix</span> || Changes a [[suprasegmental]] feature of a stem
|-
| '''[[Disfix]]''' || [[Alabama language|Alabama]]: tipli "break up"<br />(compare root ''tip<span style="color:#009900;">as</span>li'' "break") || st<span style="color:#009900;">{{circumfix|disfix}}</span>em || The [[elision]] of a portion of a stem
|}

''Prefix'' and ''suffix'' may be subsumed under the term ''adfix'', in contrast to ''infix.''<ref>{{cite book |last=Powell |first=Barry |date=2012 |title=Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |page=255 |isbn=9781118293515|doi=10.1002/9781118293515.gloss |chapter=Glossary }}</ref>

When marking text for [[interlinear gloss]]ing, as shown 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==
Semantically speaking, ''lexical affixes'' or ''semantic affixes'', when compared with free nouns, often have a more generic or general meaning. For example, one denoting "water in a general sense" may not have a noun equivalent because all the nouns denote more specific meanings such as "saltwater", "whitewater", etc. (while in other cases the lexical suffixes have become [[grammaticalization|grammaticalized]] to various degrees.) Although they behave as [[incorporated noun]] roots/stems within verbs and as elements of [[noun]]s, they never occur as freestanding nouns. Lexical affixes are relatively rare and are used in [[Wakashan languages|Wakashan]], [[Salishan languages|Salishan]], and [[Chimakuan languages]] — the presence of these is an [[areal feature]] of the Pacific Northwest of [[North America]] - where they show little to no resemblance to free nouns with similar meanings. Compare the lexical suffixes and free nouns of [[Saanich language|Northern Straits Saanich]] written in the Saanich orthography and in [[Americanist phonetic notation|Americanist notation]]:

{| class="wikitable"
|- style="font-size: 85%; background: #efefef;"
! colspan="3" | Lexical Suffix
! colspan="3" | 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"
|}

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 [[Verb argument|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]]):

:{| class="wikitable"
|- style="line-height: 1.0em; font-size: 75%"
|
|
| style="background: #bbbbff" | VERB
| style="background: #ffebad" | SUBJ
| style="background: #ffbbbb" | OBJ
|-
| (1)
| niʔ
| šak’ʷ-ət-əs
| łə słeniʔ
| <span style="color:#008000"><u>łə qeq</u></span>
|-
|
| colspan="4" | "the woman washed <span style="color:#008000"><u>the baby</u></span>"
|- style="line-height: 1.0em; font-size: 75%"
| bgcolor=white colspan=5|&nbsp;
|- style="line-height: 1.0em; font-size: 75%"
|
|
| style="background: #bbbbff" | VERB<span style="color:#009900">+LEX.SUFF</span>
| style="background: #ffebad" | SUBJ
|
|-
| (2)
| niʔ
| šk’ʷ<span style="color:#009900"><u>-əyəł</u></span>
| łə słeniʔ
|
|-
|
| colspan="4" | "the woman <span style="color:#009900"><u>baby</u></span>-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 <span style="color:#008000">"the baby"</span> is <span style="color:#008000">'''łə qeq'''</span>. In this sentence, "the baby" is a free noun. (The '''niʔ''' here is an [[auxiliary verb|auxiliary]], which can be ignored for explanatory purposes.)

In sentence (2), <span style="color:#009900">"baby"</span> does not appear as a free noun. Instead it appears as the lexical suffix <span style="color:#009900">'''-əyəł'''</span> which is affixed to the verb root '''šk’ʷ-''' (which has changed slightly in pronunciation, but this can also be ignored here). The lexical suffix is neither "the baby" ([[definiteness|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 script|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.''<ref>Robert Sharer & Loa Traxler, 2006, ''The Ancient Maya,'' Stanford University Press. {{ISBN|0-8047-4817-9}}</ref> 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.<ref>[[Andrew West (linguist)|Andrew West]], [http://babelstone.blogspot.com/2006/09/precomposed-tibetan-part-1-brdarten.html "Precomposed Tibetan Part 1 : BrdaRten"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101017112015/http://babelstone.blogspot.com/2006/09/precomposed-tibetan-part-1-brdarten.html |date=2010-10-17 }} ''BabelStone,'' September 14, 2006</ref>

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=22em}}
* {{annotated link|Agglutination}}
* {{annotated link|Augmentative}}
* {{annotated link|Binary prefix}}
* {{annotated link|Clitic}}
* {{annotated link|Combining form}}
* {{annotated link|Concatenation}}
* {{annotated link|Diminutive}}
* {{annotated link|English prefixes}}
* {{annotated link|Family name affixes}}
* {{annotated link|Internet-related prefixes}}
* {{annotated link|Marker (linguistics)}}
* {{annotated link|Morphological derivation}}
* {{annotated link|Separable affix}}
* {{annotated link|SI prefix}}
* {{annotated link|Stemming}}
* {{annotated link|Unpaired word}}
* {{annotated link|Word formation}}
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite journal|last=Gerdts|first=Donna B.|year=2003|title=The morphosyntax of Halkomelem lexical suffixes|journal=International Journal of American Linguistics|volume=69|issue=4|pages=345–356|doi=10.1086/382736|s2cid=143721330}}
* [[Timothy Montler|Montler, Timothy]]. (1986). [http://www.cas.unt.edu/~montler/Saanich/Outline/index.htm ''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}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|Appendix:English_prefixes|Appendix:English_suffixes}}
{{Wiktionary|affix}}
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*[http://www.prefixsuffix.com/ Comprehensive and searchable affix dictionary reference]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Affixes| ]]
[[Category:Lexical units]]
[[Category:Linguistics terminology]]