Classification of suffixes

Suffixes are classified according to:

I. part-of-speech they form:

1. Noun-forming suffixes: -age (bondage, breakage, mileage, vicarage); -ance/ -ence (assistance, ref-erence); -ant/-ent (disinfectant, student); -dom (kingdom, freedom, official-dom); -ее (employee); -eer (profiteer); -er (writer, type-writer); -ess (actress, lioness); -hood (manhood); -ing (building, meaning, washing); -ion/-sion/ -tion/-ation (rebellion, tension, creation, explanation); -ism/-icism (heroism, criticism); -ist (novelist, communist); -ment (government, nour-ishment); -ness (tenderness); -ship (friendship); - (i) ty (sonority); -y (smarty); -ian (vulgarian).

2. Adjective-forming suffixes: -able/-ible/-uble (unbearable, audible, soluble); -al (formal); -ic (poetic); -ical (ethical); -ant/-ent (repentant, dependent); -ary (revolutionary); -ate/-ete (accurate, complete); -ed/-d (wooded); -ful (delightful); -an/-ian (African, Australian); -ish (Irish, reddish, childish); -ive (active); -less (useless); -like (lifelike); -ly (manly); -ous/-ious (tremendous, curious); -some (tiresome, lovesome); -y (cloudy, dressy).

3. Numeral-forming suffixes: -fold (twofold); -teen (fourteen); -th (seventh); -ty (sixty).

4. Verb-forming suffixes: - ate (facilitate); -er (glimmer); -en (shorten); -fy/-ify (terrify, speechify, solidify); -ise/-ize (equalise); -ish (establish).

5. Adverb-forming suffixes: -ly (coldly); -ward/-wards (upward, northwards); -wise (likewise).

II. lexico-grammatical character of the base they are added:

1. deverbal suffixes (are added to a verbal base) -er, -ing,- ment, -able;

2. denominal suffixes (are added to a noun base) -less, -ful, -ist, -some (awesome);

3. deadjectival suffixes (are added to an adjective base) -en, -ly, -ish, -ness;

III. number of meanings:

1. monosemantic -ess [female] tigress, tailoress;

2. polysemantic -hood 1) ‘condition or quality’ falsehood, womanhood; 2) ‘collection or group’ brotherhood;

IV. denotational meaning:

- denoting the agent of an action - er (sinner);

- denoting nationality -ian, -ese (Italian, Vietnamese);

- denoting collectivity - edge (knowledge), -dom (kingdom), -ry (peasantry);

- denoting gender -ess, -ine (empress, feline);

- quality, e.g. -ness (copelessness), -ity (answerability);

- with the meaning of diminutiveness -y (birdy), -let (cloudlet, goblet), -ling (squirreling);

V. connotational meaning:

- stylistically neutral -able, -er, -ing;

- stylistically marked, for example, terminological: -oid (hominoid, android), -tron (cyclotron), -i/form (cruciform), -id (adverbid, arachnid); with derogatory meaning: -ard (dullard), -ster (oldster);

VI. productivity:

1. productive, such as: -er, -ize, -ly, -ness;

2. semi-productive, such as: -eer (profiteer), -ette (bachelorette), -ward (seaward), -dom (computerdom);

3. non-productive -ard (drunkard), -th (length), -man (ice-man);

VII. origin:

- the native affixes -dom, -ed, -en, -fold, -ful, -hood, -ing, -ish, -less, -let, -like, -lock, -ly, -ness, -oc, -red, -ship, -some, -teen, -th, -ward, -wise, -y;

- the borrowed affixes (-able/-ible, -ant/-ent),French (-age, -ance/-ence, -ancy/ -ency, -ard, -ate, -sy),Greek (-ist, -ism, -ite),etc.