1.

Suffixation in English

1.1 Concepts

The linguistic branch called morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. Its two
major branches are word-formation and inflection. The process of word-formation represents creating
new lexemes and falls into two broad categories: derivation and compounding. Derivational morphology
is realized through affixation, which is of two types: prefixation and suffixation. Prefixation is defined as
the process of adding an affix in front of a word base and suffixation, as adding an affix at the end of a
word base.

The study of word-formation can be defined as the study of the ways in which new complex
words are built on the basis of other words or morphemes (Plag:2002:27). Thus, a derivational word is
made of several morphological units, called morphemes. Morphemes are of two types: bound morphemes
and free morphemes. Bound morphemes occur only if attached to some other morphemes, while free
morphemes occur on their own. Suffixes are considered to be always bound morphemes because they can
not occur on their own and are attached to a part of a word called base. A morpheme that realizes the core
of a word and carries the basic meaning from which the rest of the sense of the word can be derived is
called a root. Also there are units that have already an affix attached and are involved in the formation of
new words. Such units are called stems. Therefore, the stem is a root or a root plus an affix to which more
affixes can be attached. (Stockwell and Minkova: 2001:61, 62)

1.1.2 Suffixation vs. Inflection

Derivation can be sometimes classified as class-maintaining and class-changing. Prefixes are

more independent semantically than suffixes, thus they do not change the morpho-syntactical status of the
word they precede. Generally suffixes determine the morpho-syntactic class to which a word belongs, but
there are also a number of suffixes which added to the stem only change the word base in order to respect
grammatical rules. This are called inflectional affixes. (Tătaru: 200 : 51)

Inflections express paradigmatic relations and they show syntactic relations. Thus, they are
considered relational markers, showing tense, case, number and person. Usually, they are inserted after
the stem and suffix and when a word is analysed inflectional affixes are removed first. Therefore, they are
considered outer formatives. (Hulban: 2001: 65). So, we have the following pattern and according to it the
next example:

1) STEM+SUFFIX+INFLECTIONAL SUFFIX

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 humanity‟s : human+ity+‟s

In example 1) the word humanity’s is derived from the adjective stem “human” plus the
derivational suffix “-ity” which has changed the morphological class, thus becoming a noun, and the
inflectional suffix” ’s” which only shows the relation of possession in Genitive case, as in: Nelson
Mandela fought for the humanity’s welfare.

Derivational affixes are added to the root or stem to build new words. They are always nearer to
the stem, that‟s way they are considered inner formatives. And the pattern is:

2) STEM+SUFFIX

a. employer>employ+er

b. employee> employ+ee

In example 2) a. and b. the derivative words “employer” and “employee” came from the addition
of the derivational suffixes”-er” and “-ee” to the word base “employ”. They are class-changing because
they derive nouns from the verb “to employ”. From a semantic point of view, the first suffix indicates a
person who does whatever the verb means: employer, and, in 2) b. the suffix indicates a person who
undergoes action indicated by the verb: employee.

Katamba (1994:47) shows that the main distinction between the two types of suffixes is that
inflectional affixes are used only to create new word forms, i.e. grammatical words, while derivational
affixes are used to create new lexemes. He concludes that English has not got much inflection, being
essentially an insolating language, as shown in the table 1.

Table 1

Type Function Example

Verbal suffixes
-s -3rd person, singular, present He studies
-ing -progressive aspect He is studying
-ed -past tense He studied
Nominal suffixes
-s -noun plural marker Books
Adjectival suffixes
-er -comparative adjective/adverb Richer, later
-est -superlative adjective/adverb Richest, latest

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 1.1.3 Word-formation rule

Plag (Plag: 2002:47, 48) states that there is not a strictly word formation rule that can be used to
form new words, but with a rule that simply generalizes over the structure of a set of existing complex
words. Such rules are sometimes referred to as redundancy rules or word-structure rules. And he
suggested the next example:
example 1) broad+th>bredth ; deep+th>depth; long+th>length; strong+th>strength

This is a collection of nouns featuring the suffix”-th”, which derives from and adjectival base on
abstract noun denoting a state. And Plag (2001: 48) proposes the following word-formation rule:

base: [broad, deep, long, strong]

semantics:”state or property of being X”

While this pattern is rather clear, the number of forms derived by the rule is very limited. Thus,
the attachment of nominal “-th” can be said to be lexically governed.

Sometimes new complex words are derived without an existing word-formation rule, but formed
on the basis of a single (or vey few) model words. This process by which these words came into being is
called analogy which can be defined as proportional relation between words.

example 2) thankful> grateful; reading> writing

In example 2) the complex words “grateful” and “reading” weren‟t formed according to a specific
word-formation rule by adding a specific suffix to the base, but coined on the basis of the model words”
thankful” and “writing”.

Quite often, words are analogically derived by deleting a suffix (or supposed suffix), a process
called back-formation. Example: noun “editor”>verb “edit”. By deleting the suffix”-or” from the noun
”editor” we have obtained the verb” to edit”.

1.1.4 Productivity

Productivity is given by frequency with which an affix is used in a language, and with which
speakers who try to create new words use it (Hulban: 2001:75). Plag (2002:55) also argues that
productivity refers to the property of an affix to be used to coin new complex words. But not all the

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affixes poses this property to the same degree, some being productive(“living”), semi-productive and
unproductive(“dead”).

According to Huban (2001:75) the most productive affix can be added to almost any stem in
order to form a new word, while other affixes are used rather restrictively, as otherwise they would
violate the morphemic and semantic rules of word-building. To illustrate this, suffixes forming abstract
words cannot be added to concret nouns:

Example 1) table+-hood>* tablehood; window+-ism>*windowism; book+-ous>*bookous

The same restriction concern suffixes forming feminine nouns, which cannot be used with
nonanimate nouns:

Example 2) pencil+-ess>*penciless; book+-trix>*booktrix; idea+-ine>*ideaine

Bauer (2004:204) states that productivity can differ for different uses of the same morphological
process and some affixes have different meanings, like suffix “-er”, in the following example:

example 3) a. diner=a person who is dining

b. diner=railway carriage or small restaurant in which one may dine.

In the first example 3) a. diner denotes an agent or human nouns, while in 3) b. it refers to an instrument
or non-human nouns.

The productivity of an affix can be discerned by counting the number of attested different words
with that affix at a given point in time. This has also been called the type-frequency of an affix. An
example of such an suffix is “-ment”, which in earlier centuries led to the coinage of hundreds of new
words. Many of these are still in use, but today‟s speakers hardly employ”-ment” to create new word and
the suffix should therefore be considered as rather unproductive (Plag: 2002: 64, cf. Bauer, 2001:196)

Hulban (2001:75-76) makes the following classification of suffixes according to their productivity:

a) productive suffixes are: -able, -an, -ed, -(e)ry, -ic, -ist, -ism, -ing, -ish, -(i)ty, -ize, -ly, -less, -ness,
-tion;
b) semi-productive suffixes are: -are, -dom, -fold, -hood, -ee, -eer, -(i)al, - ese, -ette, -ite, -ie, ling, -
let, -or, -ship, -ster, -ward(s);
c) unproductive suffixes are: -ance, -ence, -ard, -age, -ant, -ent, -(s)ion, -cy, -en, -ern, -(i)fy, -ive, -
ory, -ary, -some, -th

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 1.2. Classification

When dealing with suffixes they can be analyzed from two perspectives: syntactic and semantic.
From the syntactic point of view they are classified according to the part of speech they from. Thus, they
fall into the following subclasses: nominal suffixes, verbal suffixes, adjectival suffixes and adverbial
suffixes or nominalizers, verbalizers, adjectivizers and adverbializers. The semantic classification of
suffixes regards the meaning of derivatives and their particular aspects.

1.2.1. Nominal suffixes

Nominal suffixes are often used to derive abstract nouns from verbs, adjectives and other nouns.
They are called nominalizers and are formed from verb and adjective stems. The syntactic classification
regards the general aspect of the formation of a word and it analyzes from this aspect. According to
Hulban (2001:73) the general formula for the syntactic classification with several examples is:

1) Verb stem+Nominalizer>Noun 3) Adjective stem+ Nominalizer>Noun

marry+ -age>marriage drunk+ -ard>drunkard

arrive + -al>arrival free+ -dom> freedom

2) Noun stem+ Nominalizer >Noun

brother+ -hood>brotherhood

taxi+ -man>taximan

According to the derivative class they form, Katamba (1994 :44, 45, 46) makes the following
classifications of nominal suffixes:

a. Suffixes which derive nouns from verbs:

 -ation: „derives nouns of action> don-ation, reconcil-ation, regul-ation, confisc-ation, stimul-

ation
 -ant/-ent: agentive nouns or „person that does whatever the verb means‟> inhabit-ant, celebr-ant,
particip-ant, protest-ant, occup-ant, ag-ent
 -ant : ‘instrument that is used to do whatever the verb means‟: > stimul-ant, intoxic-ant
 -er: „person who does whatever the verb means‟: teach-er, runn-er, writ-er, build-er, paint-er
 -er: instrument> cook-er, strain-er, drain-er, pok-er
 -ing „act of doing whatever the verb indicates‟: learn-ing, read-ing, writ-ing, sav-ing, rid-ing,
wait-ing
 -ist „derives agent nouns from verbs—one who does X‟:cycl-ist, typ-ist, copy-ist

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 -ion „derives nouns of condition or action from verbs‟:eros-ion (from erode), corros-ion (from
corrode), persuas-ion (from persuade), radiat-ion, promot-ion
 -ment „the result or product of the action of the verb; the instrument used to perform the action of
the verb‟:pave-ment, appoint-ment, accomplish-ment, govern-ment, pay-ment
 -ery „derives nouns indicating a place where animals are kept or plants grown‟: catt-ery, pigg-ery,
orang-ery, shrubb-ery
 ery „derives nouns indicating place where the action specified by the verb takes place‟: bak-ery,
cann-ery, brew-ery, fish-cry, refin-ery, tann-ery
 -ee „(passive) person who undergoes action indicated by the verb‟: employ-ee, detain-ee, pay-ee,
intern-ee

b. Suffixes which derive nouns from adjectives:

 -ness „forms a noun expressing state or condition‟: good-ness, fair-ness, bitter-ness, dark-ness
 -ity „forms a noun expressing state or condition‟: timid-ity, banal-ity, pur-ity, antiqu-ity
 -ship „state or condition of being X‟: hard~hardship
 -ery „having the property indicated by the adjective‟: brav-ery, effront-ery, trick-ery, chican-ery

c. Suffixes which derive nouns from other nouns:

 -aire „to be possessed of X‟: million-aire, doctrin-aire, solit-aire
 -acy „derives a noun of quality, state or condition from another noun or adjective (normally the
base to which it is added also takes the nominal suffix -ate)‟: advoc-acy, episcop-acy, intim-acy,
accur-acy, obdur-acy
 -er „a person who practises a trade or profession connected to the noun‟: marin-er, geograph-er,
football-er, haberdash-er, hatt-er
 -ery „derives nouns indicating general collective sense “-ware, stuff”‟: machin-ery, crock-ery,
jewell-ery, pott-ery
 -ling „derives a diminutive noun from another noun‟: duck-ling, prince-ling, found-ling
 -hood „quality, state, rank of being X‟: boy-hood, sister-hood, priest-hood
 -ship „state or condition of being X‟: king-ship, craftsman-ship, director-ship, steward-ship
 -ism „forms nouns which are the name of a theory, doctrine or practice‟: femin-ism, capital-ism,
Marx-ism, structural-ism
 -ist „adherent to some -ism, a protagonist for X, an expert on X‟ (usually a base that takes -ist also
takes -ism): femin-ist, capital-ist, Marx-ist, structural-ist

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 Being the largest group of suffixes, nominal suffixes are be also classified according to their
meaning, while the other derivative suffixes aren‟t. The semantic classification of the nominal suffixes
regards the meaning of the derivatives and their particular aspects. Abstract nouns usually may denote
actions, results of action, concepts, but also properties, qualities and the like. Thus, from a semantic point
a view, Tătaru (200 :43) classifies nominal suffixes into the following subclasses:

a. suffixes denoting “doer of an action”:

 -er/-or/-ar: is the most productive in the series and it forms names of occupation from the
corresponding verb: teacher, diver, singer, advisor, and registrar. Some of the nouns formed
with”-er” have counterparts formed with the suffix “-ee” which denote suffer of the action:
tutor-tutee, employer-employee, adopter-adoptee. But it also generates words as: absentee,
refugee, escapee;
 -ent/-ant: is less productive: student, attendant;
 -eer/-ier: is even less productive: musketeer, gondolier, collier
 -ist: can also denote” doer of action”: typist, dramatist, artist; but it is rather consecrated as
denoting “adherent to a trend of thought, doctrine, literally trend, etc” :Impressionist, Realist,
classicist, capitalist.
b. feminine suffixes
 -ness: as in: lioness, duchess, marchioness, actress etc;
 -ine: heroine;
 -ette: usherette;
 -ix: aviatrix;
 -euse: chauffeuse.
c. suffixes denoting nationality:
The most frequent among them are:
 -an/-ian: Korean, Hungarian, Estonian;
 -ese: Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese; the suffix has extended its applicability also to other nouns
than those denoting nationality; nowadays such derivations as journalese or legalese have been
coined by means of it;
 -ard: Spaniard;
d. diminutives,

They which usually express fellings with which the person or thing described is regarded

 -y/-ey/-ie: as in: daddy, hanky, Charley, auntie, nightie;

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  -et/-ette: coronet, leaflet, kitchenette;
 -kin/-kins: manikin, Munchkins, catkin;
 -ock: hillock, bullock

1. 2.2. Verbal suffixes

Verbal suffixes are used to derive verbs from other categories, mostly nouns and adjectives, but
there are also a number of verbs that derive other verbs, but they are considered to be unproductive (Plag
2002:116). Hulban (2001: 74) discusses that from a syntactic point of view, verbalizers, as verbal suffixes
are called fall into the following patterns:

1) Noun stem+ Verbalizer> Verb 2) Adjective stem+ Verbalizer>Verb

length+ -en> lengthen black+ -en> blacken

idol+ -ise> idolize American+ -ize> Americanize

Katamba‟s (1994:44, 45) classification of verbal suffixes according to the fallowing patterns is:

a. Suffixes which derive verbs from nouns:

 -ate „derives verbs from nouns‟: regul-ate, capacit-ate, don-ate
 -ise/-ize „to bring about whatever the noun signals‟: colon-ise, American-ise, computer-ise
 -ise/-ize „put in the place or state indicated by the noun‟: hospital-ise, terror-ise, jeopard-ise

b. Suffixes which derive verbs from adjectives:

 -ate „cause to become, do etc. whatever the adjective indicates‟: activ-ate (<active) equ-ate (<
equal)
 -ise „cause to become whatever the adjective indicates‟: tranquill-ise, modern-ise, steril-ise,
stabil-ise, civil-ise, familiar-ise
c. Suffixes which derive verbs from other verbs,:
 -er „adds frequent or iterative meaning to verbs‟: chatt-er, patt-er, flutt-er; but this is rather an
unproductive pattern.

1.2.3. Adjectival suffixes

In English, the adjectival suffixes can be subdivided into two other major groups: relational
adjectives and qualitative adjectives. The relational adjectives, as their name implies, are used to relate the
noun that the adjectival suffix derives to the base word of the derived adjective. A very large number of

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adjectival suffixes are included into this category, while another large proportion enters into the
qualitative group. This group expresses more specific concept (Plag 2002:118).
The syntactic classification includes the following groups (Hulban: 2001: 74):

1) Noun stem+ -Adjectivizer>Adjective 2) Verb stem+ Adjectivizer> Adjective

beauty+ -ful> beautiful eat+ -able>eatable

friend+ -less> friendless excit+ -ing>exciting

day+ -ly> daily defens+ -ive>defensive

a. Suffixes which derive adjectives from nouns (Katamba: 1994: 45)

 -al „pertaining to X‟: autumn-al, dent-al, division-al, reacreation-al, tradition-al, medicin-al

 -ate „derives adjectives denoting state‟: intim-ate, accur-ate, obdur-ate (There is normally a
corresponding noun ending in -acy, e.g. intim-acy, accur-acy, obdur-acy.)
 -ish „having the (objectionable) nature, qualities or character of X‟: lout-ish, fiend-ish, freak-ish,
child-ish, mother henn-ish
 -less „without X‟: joy-less, care-less, fear-less, child-less
 -ly „having the quality of X, in the manner of X, manner of X, line an X‟ : coward-ly, man-ly,
scholar-ly, heaven-ly, live-ly, love-ly, brother-ly
 -ful „filled with X‟: joy-ful, care-ful, fear-ful, cheer-ful
 -(i)an „associated with whatever the noun indicates‟: Chomsky-an, Dominic-an, suburb-an,
Trinidad-(i) an, Canad-(i) an, Ghana-(i) an, reptil-(i) an, mammal-(i) an
 -(e)/(u)/(i)ous : curi-ous, barbar-ous, fam-ous, tremend-ous, synonym-ous, consci-ous, dubi-ous,
graci-ous; homogeny-eous; ambig-uous, contin-uous; grac-ious, prestig-ious
 -some „having quality X or productive of‟: quarrel-some, trouble-some, tire-some.

b. Suffixes which derive adjectives from verb:

 -able „able to be X-ed‟: read-able, govern-able; manage-able, do-able
 -ing „in the process or state of doing whatever the verb indicates‟: wait-ing (as in waiting car)
stand-ing (as in standing passengers)
 -ise/-ize „to bring about whatever the adjective signals‟: real-ise, neutral-ise, fertil-ise, immun-ise
 -ive „having the tendency to X; having the quality character of X; given to the action of Xing‟:
act-ive, pens-ive, indicat-ive, evas-ive, product-ive, representat-ive

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  -ing „the act of doing whatever the verb signifies‟: sail-ing, sing-ing, fight-ing, writ-ing
c. Suffixes which derive adjectives from other adjectives:
 -ish „having the property of being somewhat X‟: narrow-ish, blu-ish, pink-ish; but this is a rather
unproductive pattern.

1.2.4 Adverbial suffixes

The number of suffixes that form adverbs is very restricted. Mostly they attach to adjectives, but
there are also situations in which they are added to nouns, participles and numerals, but yet this number of
situations is even more limited.
From a syntactic point of view adverbial suffixes can be classified in the following way (Hulban:
2001:74):
1) Adjective stem+ -Adverbalizer> Adverb 2) Noun stem+ -Adverbalizer> Adverb
slow+ -ly> slowly sky+ -ward> skyward
Tătaru (200 :50) shows that adverbial suffixes are of three types:
 -ly: it is the commonest adverbial suffixes in English and it is added in most cases to adjectives in
order to form corresponding adverbs: gloriously, scientifically, beautifully, sadly, wisely etc;
semantically, it is a vehicles of modality ,i.e. it expresses the attitude of the speaker towards his
own utterance);
 -wise: it expresses specific meaning, more precisely, directional meaning, generating adverbs
like: clockwise;
 -ward/-wards: as in: northward(s), westward(s), onwar(s), inward(s), towards; such adverbs, in
which the variant with final –s expresses an even more marked directional meaning.

1.3 Etymology
1.3.1 Concepts

English has usually borrowed words from other languages to get new words to cover new
concepts or new material or abstract phenomena. Words referring to notions and objects specific to other
cultures are often borrowed wholesale. We may borrow a word as a whole, or just its central parts (the
roots). We have borrowed mainly from Latin, Greek, and French (Stockwell and Minkova: 2001: 3).
Thus, the vast majority of the English words are made up by roots and affixes that come from loans from
other languages.

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 Hulban shows (2001: 69) that many affixes of Germanic origin were independent words in Old
English and their original meaning is preserved. As for example, the suffix “-ly” comes from the Old
English word lìc, meaning “body” as in: mainly; the suffix “-hood” comes from the Old English word
hād meaning “state” as in: childhood, statehood, wifehood. These suffixes were free morphemes in Old
English, but they entered into compounds with other free morphemes and later, after fusion they turned
into suffixes, that is, bound morphemes.
Other affixes have survived from Old English, i.e., they have preserved the status of affixes and
their actual form resembles with the original form, as for example: “-ing” (forming verbal nouns: skiing),
“-ful (forming adjectives, from full), “less” (from less), -ship (forming abstract nouns), -er (forming
agentive nouns). a large number of these suffixes can be also used with borrowings, as in pocketful,
forming thus the hybrids. One pattern of the combinatory hybrids is:
Romance/ Greek Stem +/- Native Suffix
As another example, the word beautiful had been derived from the French word “beauté”suffering
several transformations and the native suffix”-ful”.
The sing +/- indicate that in this pattern either the use of the prefix or that of suffix is optional.
Affixes of foreign origin were borrowed as parts of certain loans, and not as free morphemes. The
meaning of each suffix became more evident for large groups of speakers, and, by, analogy, they began to
be used as bound morphemes in other words than those with which they had been imported.
Another basic combinatory pattern of hybrids is:
Germanic Stem +/- Foreign Suffix.
As for example, the word grammar borrowed from Greek, first the native suffix “-ish” was added to it,
but later it was replaced by the Latin suffix:”-cal” to form grammatical.
Words of foreign origin were also turned into suffixes, as for example the Greek word phone
meaning “sound”, “voice” is used as a suffix in: allophone, earphone, gramophone, microphone,
radiophone, telephone, etc. Also, the Greek word kentron comes the suffix “-centric” as in:
anthropocentric, ethnocentric, heliocentric, theocentric.
Some affixes can be attached to more stems than others, being thus more productive. Hulban
(2001:70) states that the most productive ones are: -cast (broadcast, telecast), -gate (Watergate,
Monicagate), -genic (photogenic, telegenic), -scope (microscope), -(s)ville (dullsvile, squaresville).
The process of borrowing foreign words and affixes has been very important for the development
of the lexicon by creating new words, but it has had also several effects on language system. Katamba
(1994: 142) argues that adopting foreign nouns with their inflectional morphemes has resulted in the
acquisition of a considerable number of allomorphs of the plural morpheme. In addition to the regular,
native -s plural, English has other plural suffixes. Many Latin loans ending in -um (e.g. datum) take -a as

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their plural suffix (data); those ending in -us in the singular (fungus) take -i in the plural (fungi); those
ending in -a in the singular (larva) take -ae in the plural (larvae).
Some Greek loans also bring with them their plural endings. Nouns ending in -is in the singular take es in
the plural: thesis ~ theses. Those ending in -on in the singular take -a as their plural suffix as in ganglion~
ganglia. Nouns borrowed from French which end in –e (a) u take -x in the plural: bureau ~ bureaux and
adieu ~adieux.
Hulban (2001: 71) talks about the spelling problems of affixes of foreign origin, and there can be
different situations: when a stem ends in the same letter as the first letter of the suffix, both letters are
preserved, as in: keenness, harmfully. If a suffix begins with a vowel and it is added to a monosyllabic
root ending in a consonant precede by a vowel, the final consonant is doubled, as in: swimmer, braggart,
reddish; the same phenomenon takes place if the word ends in a consonant preceded by a short vowel, as
in : occurrence.. Final –y turns into –i- when it is preceded by a consonant and certain affixes, as in:
beautiful, happiness and final –e is dropped when noun forming affixes are added to the stem, as in:
drive-driver, continue-continuer, continuance, or the suffix –y is added, example: shine- shiny, ice-icy,
but is preserved in special cases when –y is affixes, as in: glue-gluey. Some adjectives may have double
forms, as in: nosey-nosy.
Katamba (1994:154) concludes that over the centuries, English has expanded its vocabulary by
extensively borrowing lexical items from other languages. Of all sources of loanwords French is by far
the most important. But there is a significant number of words borrowed from other languages, which
reflects the contacts English-speaking people have had with other peoples and their cultures. Thus,
borrowing has enriched the English lexicon, but at the core English remains a Germanic language.

1.3.2. Classification
Hulban (2001: 67-69) classifies suffixes according to the two major language families that
provide these loans: Germanic and Romance. English belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-
European family of languages, while in the Romance family are included Latin, French and Italian. Greek
belongs also to the Hellenic branch and it is a source of important borrowings.
I. Germanic origin:
-ard, -art: braggart, dullard, drunkard;
-dom: Christendom, earldom, freedom, kingdom;
-ed: red-blooded, salaried, tired;
-en: ashen, darken, earthen, wooden;
-er: actioner, hacker, Londoner, networker, poker, worker;
-ful: beautiful, painful, restful, spiteful;

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 -hood: brotherhood, childhood, knighthood, manhood;
-ing: growing, learning, meeting, sinking, wedding;
-ish: bookish, boyish, English, prudish, selfish, womanish;
-le: sparkle, wrestle, wriggle;
-ling: darling, hackling, lordling, sibling, youngling;
-ly: beastly, brotherly, chiefly, daily, godly, quickly, recently;
-man: barman, cameraman, gentleman, salesman, taximan, townsman;
-ness: cleverness, greatness, kindness, meaningless, possessiveness, selfishness;
-ship: authorship, fellowship, scholarship;
-some: awesome, gladsome, tiresome, twosome;
-ster: prankster, songster, teamster, youngster;
-th: growth, health, tenth, thousandth, width;
-ward, -wards: backward, heavenward, skywards;
-wise: businesswise, clockwise, likewise;
-y: booky, bunny, classy,dirty, doggy, granny, sandy, smoky, sunny, vasty.

II. Romance –Latin, French, Italian –origin:

-able: acceptable, bankable, comparable, survivable;
-age: baggage, bondage, marriage, orphanage, passage;
-al: arrival, autumnal, basal, recital, renewal;
-an, -ian: American, Christian, Corsican, Elizabethan, Shakespearean;
-ance, -ancy: acquaintance, hindrance, tenancy, resemblance;
-ant, -ent: astringent, claimant, correspondent, deodorant, dependent, pleasant, protestant;
-ary: abortuary, cautionary, rudimentary;
-ate: carbonate, condensate, felicitate, fortunate, Latinate;
-ation: Albanisation, arbitration, collection, formation, publication;
-cy: accuracy, chieftaincy, infancy, intimacy;
-ee: absentee, assignee, bootee, employee, grantee, lessee, vendee;
-eer: auctioneer, cannoneer, electioneer, engineer, profiteer, racketeer;
-ence: assistance, benelovence, dependence, patience, residence;
-ery, -ry: bakery, flattery, dentistry;
-ese: Cantonese, Chinese, Japanese, journalese;
-ess: actress, countess, lioness, tigress, stewardess, waitress;
-et: baronet, islet, sonnet;

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 -ette: cigarette, kitchenette, majorette, novelette;
-eur: entrepreneur;
-fy, -ify: beautify, exemplify, intensify, signify, simplify;
-ible: bearable, terrible;
-ic: allergic, critic, Germanic, heroic, music;
-ical: botanical, economical;
-ion, -on: creation, objection;
-ism: colloquialism, criticism, individualism, spiritualism;
-ite: herite, unite;
-ity, -ty: faculty, technicality, university;
-ive: defensive, derivative, detective, festive, massive;
-ize, -ise: anonimize, anonimise, moralize, moralise;
-ment: acknowledgement, development, judgement, movement, ornament;
-or: actor, conductor, doctor, error, sailor, terror;
-ous: ferrous, envious;
-sion, -ion: inversion, oppression;
-tion, -ation, -sion, -ion: consideration, creation, derivation, option, prohibition.

III.Greek origin:
-cy: infancy, lunacy, plutocracy;
-graphy: lexicography, photography;
-iad: Olympiad, presidential;
-ic: allergic, Germanic, magnetic, periodic;
-ism: patriotism, organism, realism, womanism;
-ist: feminist, philologist;
-ite: ammonite, dynamite;
-logy: biology, musicology, trilogy;
-phobia: arachnophobia, claustrophobia, homophobia;
-rama: Futurama, panorama.

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