Affixation

The process of affixatio n consists of coming a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme. Affixes are classified into productive and non-productive types. By productive affixes we mean the one, which take part in deriving new words in this particular period of language development. For example, the suffix -ish produces a great number of adjectives such as baldish, oldish, youngish, mannish, fattish, longish, etc. By non-productive affixes we mean the one, which don't take part in the process of derivation.

According to their position, affixes are subdivided into suffixes and prefixes. Suffixes are derivative final elements placed at the end of words to form enTirety- new words. A suffix has semantic value, but it does not occur as an independent speech unit. Suffixation is the formation of words with the help of suffixes. The most productive suffixes are: -able, -ability, -ее, -er, -ly, -ing, -ism, -ist, -ish, -less, -ful, -ic, -ize, ~al, etc. —ship, -hood, -dom, -ses, -eer, -let, -age, -ary, - ment are less productive. Examples of non-productive suffixes are as follows -en, -em, -some, -ly, -long.

According to the part of speech suffixes are divided into:

noun-forrnming suffixes -age (breakage, bondage), -once/-ence (assistance, reference), -hntf-ent (disinfectant, student), -,dom (kingdom, freedom),, -ее (employee), -eer (profiteer), -er (writer, producer), -ess (actress, lioness), -hood (manhood, childhood), -ing (building, meaning), -ion/-sion/-tion/-ation (creation, tension), -ism/-icism (heroism, criticism),, -ist (novelist), -ment_ (government),,-ness (tenderness), -ship (friendship), -(i)ty (sonority);

adjective-forming suffixes „-able/-ible/~uble ^audible, soluble), -al (formal), -ic (poetic),-teal (ethical), -antf-ent (repentant, dependent), -ary (revolutionary), -ale/-ele (accurate, complete), -ed/-d (wooded), -ful (delightful), -ian (American), -ish (childish, Irish),-ive (active), -less(useless), -like (lifelike), etc.;

numeral-forming suffixes -fold (twofold), -teen (fourteen), -th (seventh), -ty (sixty):

verb-formi ng suffixes- ate. (facilitate), -en (shorten), -ize (equalize), -ish (establish); adverb-forming suffixes— ly (coldy), -wise (likewise).

From the etymological point of view suffixes are classified into the same large groups as words: native and borrowed. The last are subdivided into: Germanic {-dom, -th, -hood, -ly, -ness, -ship, -ward, -ful, -ing, -less, etc.), Romanic {-able, -ible, -age, -ation, -ary, -ment, -es, -ant, -ive, -al, etc.), Greek {-ism, -ist -ite, etc)...

Prefixation is the formation of the words with the help of prefixes. They nipdify the lexical meaning of the stem. Therefore both the simple word and its prefixed derivative mostly belong to the same part of speech. For example, the prefix mis- has the meaning "wrongly", "badly", e.g. to understand - misunderstand, to behave - misbehave, inform -misinform. The semantic effect of a prefix may be termed adverbial because it modifies the idea suggested by the stem for manner, time, place, degree and so on, e.g. pronounce - mispronounce (the prefix mis- corresponds verbs for manner); historic - prehistoric, graduate - postgraduate (prefixes pre-, post- create the words refer to time); outlive, overfeed, undernourish (prefixes out-, over-, under- serve to modify the meaning of the stem for degree). There is a group of negative prefixes {de-, dis-. in-/im-/il-/ir-, un-,a-), e.g. decentralize, disappear, disagree, incorrect, impolite, illegal, irregular, unreal, amoral. The prefix re- denotes repetition of the action expressed by the stem (e.g. rewrite, revisit, remarriage). In some cases prefixes serve to form words belonging to different parts of speech, e.g. bed (n) - embed (v), gulf (») - engulf (v).

According to their origin there are native prefixes (a- be-, un-, for-, mid- and partly mis-), Romanic prefixes {ad-, Ы-, bis-, cog-, col-, cor-, de-, dis-, in-, un-, поп- etc.), Latin {ante-, extra-, intra-, meta-, para-) and Greek ones {anti-, proio-, syn-, poly).

. Conversion

Conversion is a special type of affixless derivation where a newly-formed word acquires a paradigm and. syntactic functions different from those of the original word. Conversion consists in making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, the morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged. The new word has a meaning which differs from the original one, but it can more or less be easily associated with it. e.g. nurse {n.) > to nurse (v.) ear («.) > to ear (v.)

clean (n.) > to clean (v.)

There are several types of converted words:

1. Verbs made from nouns (denominal verbs) [N>V]

e.g. finger - to finger, hand - to hand, lip - to lip, skin■- to skin, father - to father

2. Nouns made from verbs (deverbal nouns) [V>N]

e.g. to go- ago, to hunt - a hunt, to stick —a stick, to help - a help

3. Verbs made from adjectives (deadjectival verbs) [Adj>V]

e.g. busy - to busy, cool - to cool, dry — to dry, green - to green, slow - to slow

4. Other cases of conversion

e.g. up - to up, back - to back, out - to out