LEXICOLOGY AND LEXICOGRAPHY

” AFFIXES”

Group
Zelia Vitalina P. Sarmento (1601542029)
Andi Yashinta (1601542032)
Gita Maharani (1601542036)
Juita Heretrenggi (1601542041)

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
NON-REGULAR
FACULTY OF ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF UDAYANA
2018 – 2019
I. INTRODUCTION
Morpheme is the smallest unit of a language that have meaning or grammatical function
and form a word or part of words. Morpheme can be divided into two categories; free and
bound morphemes. Free morpheme is a morpheme that occur alone as a word and have a
meaning or fulfill grammatical function, for example: man, run, cut, down. On the other hand,
bound morpheme is a morpheme that never occur alone as a word but as part of words. They
must be attached in order to have distinct meaning. For example: -er in worker, teacher, dryer,
etc. free and bound morpheme then can be divided again; free morpheme is divided into lexical
and function; while bound morpheme can be divided into bound roots and affixes. From this
introduction, our group will explain in detail about bound morpheme, especially the affixes.

II. CONTENT
An affix is a morpheme which only occurs when attached to some other morpheme or
morpheme such as a root or stem or base. It can also be said that affix is a bound morpheme
which are usually marginally attached to words and which change the meaning or functions of
those words. Affixes can be divided based on the position of the affix and on the function.
According to the position affix can be classified into prefixes, infixes, and suffix; while
according to the function, it can be classified into derivational and inflectional.
1. Affix Based on Position
A. Prefixes
Prefix is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme is attached to the front of a root
or stem. There are ten types prefixes that we will discuss on this paper:
a) Negative prefixes

Prefixes Meaning Added to: Examples

Un- ‘the opposite of’ Adjectives Unfair

‘not’ Participles Unassuming
Unexpected

Non- ‘not’ Various classes Non-smoker

Non-drip (paint)

In- (as for un-) Adjectives Insane

Dis- (as for un-) Adjectives Disloyal

Verbs Dislike
Abstract nouns Disfavor
 A- ‘lacking in’ Adjectives Amoral
Nouns Asymmetry

b) Reversative or private prefixes

Prefixes Meaning Added to: Examples

Un- ‘to reverse action’ verbs Untie

‘to deprive of’ Unhorse

De- ‘to reverse action’ Verbs Defrost

Abstract nouns Deforestation

Dis- (as for un-) Verbs Disconnect

Participle Discolourea
Nouns Discontent

c) Pejorative prefixes

Prefixes Meaning Added to: Examples

Mis- ‘wrongly’ Verbs Misinform

‘astray’ Abstract nouns Misconduct
Participles Misleading

Mal- ‘bad(ly)’ Verbs Maltreat

Abstract nouns Malfunction
Participles Malformed
Adjectives Malodorous

Pseudo- ‘False, Imitation’ Nouns Pseudo-intellectual

Adjectives (n or adj)
d) Prefixes of degree or size

Prefixes Meaning Added to: Examples

Arch- ‘highest, worst’ Nouns Archduke, arch-enemy

(mainly
human)

Super- ‘above, more than, better’ Nouns Superman

Supermarket
Adjectives Supernatural

Out- ‘to do something faster, Verbs Outrun, outlive

longer, etc than …’ (mainly
intrans)

Sur- ‘over and above’ Nouns Surtax

Sub- ‘lower than, less than’ Adjectives Subhuman, substandard

Over ‘too much’ Verbs Overeat

Participles Overdressed
Adjectives Overconfident

Under- ‘too little’ Verbs Undercook

Participles Underprivileged

Hyper- ‘extremely’ Adjectives Hypercritical

Ultra- ‘extremely, beyond’ Adjectives Ultraviolet, ultramodern

Mini- ‘little’ Nouns Miniskirt

e) Prefixes of attitude

Prefixes Meaning Added to: Examples

Co- ‘with, joint’ Verbs Cooperate

 Nouns Co-pilot

Counter- ‘in opposition to’ Verbs Counteract

Abstract nouns Counteract
Counter-revolution

Anti- ‘against’ Nouns denominal Anti-missile (attributive)

Adjectives Anti-social
Adverbs Anti-clockwise

Pro- ‘on the side of’ Nouns denominal Pro-Common Market

(attributive)
Adjectives Pro-communist

f) Locative prefixes

Prefixes Meaning Added to: Examples

Super- ‘over’ Nouns Super-structure

Sub- ‘beneath, lesser in rank’ Nouns Subway

Adjectives Subconscious
Verbs Sublet

Inter- ‘between, among’ Denominal Adjectives International

Verbs Intermarry
Nouns Interaction

Trans- ‘across, from one place Denominal adjectives Transatlantic

to another’ Verbs Transplant

g) Prefixes of time and order

Prefixes Meaning Added to: Examples

 Fore- ‘before’ Mainly verbs Foretell
Abstract nouns Foreknowledge

Pre-- ‘before’ Nouns Pre-war (attrib)

Adjectives Pre-marital

Post- ‘after’ Nouns Post-war (attrib)

Adjectives Post-classical

Ex- ‘former’ Human nouns Ex-husband

Re- ‘again, back’ Verbs Rebuilt, re-evaluate

Abstract nouns Resettlement

h) Number prefixes

Prefixes Meaning Examples

Uni-, Mono- ‘one’ Unilateral, Monotheism

Bi-, Di- ‘two’ Bilingual, Dipole

Tri- ‘’three’ Tripartite

Multi-, Poly- ‘many’ Multi-racial, Polysyllabic

i) Other prefixes

Prefixes Meaning Examples

Auto- ‘self’ Autobiography

Neo- ‘new, revived’ neo-Gothic

Pan- ‘all, world-wide’ pan-African

 Proto- ‘first, original’ Proto-type

Semi- ‘half’ Semi-circle

Vice- ‘deputy’ Vice-president

j) Conversion Prefixes

Prefixes Added to to form Examples

Be- (a) Nouns participial adjs (a) Bewigged

Bespectacled

Verbs
Transitive (b) Bedazzle
(b) Adjs
verbs Becaim
Noun Bewitch
s

En- Nouns Verbs Enslave

A- Verbs Predicative adjectives Afloat

B. Infix
One of the characteristics of English words is that any modifications to them occur at
the beginning or the end. Mix can have something added at the beginning re-mix or at the end,
mixes, mixer, but never in the middle, it’s called infixes. This distinguishes English from many
other languages. However, there is one group of exceptions to this rule seen in ‘fan-blooming-
tastic’ where the word blooming has apparently been put in the middle of fantastic. The only
words that can be inserted in this way are those which show extra emotion, hence often they
are swearwords used within exclamations. They are not grammatical ‘morphemes’ as would
be found in other languages. An infix is a word element (a type of affix) that can be inserted
within the base form of a word—rather than at its beginning or end—to create a new word or
intensify meaning. The process of inserting an infix is called infixation. The most common
type of infix in English grammar is the expletive, as in "fan-blooming-tastic.”
What is expletive in English grammar?
"Rather than providing a grammatical or structural meaning as the other structure-word classes
do, the expletives—sometimes defined as 'empty words'—generally act simply as operators
that allow us to manipulate sentences in a variety of ways." (Martha Kolln, Understanding
English Grammar, 1998). Another general definition is that Expletives are words or phrases
that do not add any structural or grammatical meaning to the sentence. These words and phrases
are often referred to as empty words, meaningless phrases, or redundant pairs because they do
not add any information to the sentence.
"As the term suggests, [an infix] is an affix which is incorporated inside another word.
It is possible to see the general principle at work in certain expressions, occasionally
used in fortuitous or aggravating circumstances by emotionally aroused English speakers:
Hallebloodylujah! In the movie Wish You Were Here, the main character expresses her
aggravation (at another character's trying to contact her) by screaming Tell him I've gone to
Singabloodypore!" (George Yule, "The Study of Language," 3rd ed. Cambridge University
Press, 2006)
How and When Infixes Are Used
Rarely used in formal writing, expletive infixation can sometimes be heard in colloquial
language and slang though probably not in polite company. Infixation can make it into more
casually themed press coverage (more likely in pop culture, as opposed to hard news), such as
in "Prince William's former nanny [Tiggy Pettifer] has spoken of her joy at the engagement
between the Prince and Kate Middleton, describing their union as 'fan-flaming-tastic.'" (Roya
Nikkhah, "Prince William's Nanny Says Engagement Is 'Fan-Flaming-Tastic.'" The Telegraph
[UK], Nov. 21, 2010)
And author Ruth Wajnryb has further examples—from literature, no less. "This
linguistic phenomenon is also known as the integrated adjective. In fact, a poem of that name
by John O'Grady (aka Nino Culotta) was published in the eponymously titled A Book About
Australia, in which numerous examples of the integrated adjective appear: me-bloody-self,
kanga-bloody-roos, forty-bloody-seven, good e-bloody-nough." ("Expletive Deleted: A Good
Look at Bad Language." Free Press, 2005)
In English, additions normally attach to the end or start of a word, with prefixes and
suffixes, such as pre- or -ed. There are even circumfixes, which attach to the front and the back,
as in enlighten. In Austroasiatic languages in Southeast Asia and eastern India, the use of the
infix is more common and not used just to create expletives, as in English. In fact, "English has
no true infixes, but the plural suffix -s behaves something like an infix in unusual plurals like
passers-by and mothers-in-law" (R.L. Trask, "The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar,"
2000).
Creating an Infix
Authors Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck give a detailed explanation of where the infixes are
inserted into a word:
"Native speakers of English have intuitions about where in a word the infix is inserted.
Consider where your favorite expletive infix goes in these words: fantastic, education,
Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Stillaguamish, emancipation, absolutely, hydrangea. Most
speakers agree on these patterns, though there are some dialectal variations. You likely found
that the infix is inserted at the following points:
fan-***-tastic, edu-***-cation, Massa-***-chusetts, Phila-***-delphia, Stilla-***-guamish,
emanci-***-pation, abso-***-lutely, hy-***-drangea
The infix gets inserted before the syllable that receives the most stress. And it cannot be inserted
anywhere else in the word." ("Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction." Wadsworth, 2010)
More examples:
Here is a list of some of the words that were found by James McMillan.
 awfully: beawfullyware
 bally: absoballylutely
 bleeding: absobleedinglutely
 bleep: fivebleepmile
 blessed: absoblessedlutely
 bloody: absobloodylutely, railbloodyway, whatsobloodyever, kangabloodyroo
 blooming: absobloominglutely
 damn: abdamnsurd, Piccadamnlilly
 fucking: somefuckingplace, selfdefuckingfence
 goddamn: ingoddamconsistent, fanbloodytastic, guarangoddamntee
In Indonesian Language, there are some examples of Infixes that we can take a look at:

Root words Meaning Root+infix Example

Tubuh ibu gemetar dan akhirnya pingsan
mendengar kabar mengejutkan ini.
Getar (n) Shake Gemetar
My mother is shaking and eventually fainted
hearing this news.
Kemilau berlian itu telah membuat semua
orang lupa diri.
Kilau (n) Shiny Kemilau
The diamond shines and makes people forget
who they are.
Jemari perempuan itu lentik sekali.
Jari (n) Finger Jemari
The fingers of the woman is very beautiful.

Based on the examples above, it’s clear that English barely has infixes within its words,
unlike any other languages, such as Indonesian. The infixes in English are not grammatical
‘morphemes’ as would be found in other languages.

C. Suffix
2. Affix Based on Function
As what we already explained above, affix morphemes can be classified into two major
functional categories, namely derivational morphemes and inflectional morphemes. This
reflects a recognition of two principal word building processes: inflection and derivation
Inflectional and Derivational morphemes form words in different ways. Derivational
morphemes form new words either (i) by changing the meaning of the base to which they are
attached, e.g. kind vs un-kin (both are adjective with opposite meanings); obey vs dis-obey
(both are verbs but with opposite meanings). Or (ii) by changing the word-class that a base
belongs to, e.g. the addition of -ly. As a rule, it is possible to derive an adverb by adding the
suffix -ly to and adjectival base.
On the other hand, inflectional morphemes do not change referential or cognitive
meaning. We have seen that that a derivational affix like un- can change kind into un-kind. In
this case the derived word has a meaning which is opposite to the input. The addition of an
inflectional affix will not do such thing. Moreover, while a derivational affix may move a base
into a new word class (e.g. kind (adjective) to kind-ly (adverb), an inflectional morpheme does
not alter the word class of the base which it is attached. Inflectional morphemes are only able
to modify the form of a word so that it can fit into a particular syntactic slot. Thus, book and
books are both nouns referring to the same kind of entity.
A. Derivational Morpheme
As what already been explained above, derivational morpheme is a morpheme that can
change the meaning of a base which is it attached to, also may change the word class where it
belongs to. Below are the examples of derivational morpheme:
Prefix Word-class of Meaning Word-class Example
input base output word
In- Adj ‘not’ Adj In-accurate
Un- Adj ‘not’ Adj Un-kind
Un- V ‘reversive’ V Un-tie
Dis- V ‘reversive’ V Dis-continue
Dis- N (abs) ‘not’ N (abs) Dis-order
Dis- Adj ‘not’ Adj Dis-honest
Dis- V ‘not’ V Dis-approve
Re- V ‘again’ V Re-write
Ex- N ‘former’ N Ex-mayor
En- N ‘put in’ V En-cage

Suffix Word-class Meaning Word-class Example

of input base of output
word
-hood N ‘status’ N (abs) Child-hood
-ship N ‘state or condition’ N (abs) Kin-ship
-ness Adj ‘quality, state, or N (abs) Kind-ness
condition
-ity Adj ‘state or condition’ N (abs) Sincere-ity
-ly Adj ‘manner’ Adv Kind-ly
 -less N ‘without’ Adj Power-less
-al V ‘pertaining to or act N (abs) Refus-al
of’
-er V ‘agent who does N Read-er
whatever the verb
indicates’

B. Inflectional Morpheme
As what have been stated before, inflectional morpheme is a morpheme that modify a word to
indicate its grammatical components and function, it doesn’t change the meaning nor the word
class of the base. English has only eight inflectional affixes:
Suffix Meaning Added to Examples
-s Plural Nouns Yashinta has two
pens
-s Third person singular Verbs She likes to eat
present tense mango
-‘s Possession Nouns Juita’s hair is curly
-ed Past tense Verbs Gita played mobile
legend yesterday
-en Past participle Verbs She has taken the
guitar to the party
-ing Progressive Verbs Zelia is playing
(incomplete action) mobile legend
-er Comparative Adjectives Her hair is longer
than you
-est Superlative Adjectives She has the longest
hair
References
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Marchand, H. (1969). The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation.

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<https://www.thoughtco.com/infix-words-and-grammar-1691167> [Accessed on 18 October
2018]

Nordquist, R. (2018). Making New Words with Affixation [Internet] Available from:
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