Affixation is one of the most productive waysof word-building throughout the history of English. It consists in adding anaffix to the stem of a definite part of speech. Affixation is divided intosuffixation and prefixation.

 Suffixationis the formation of words with the help of suffixes.

 Themain function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech fromanother one, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of thesame part of speech (e.g. educate isa verb, education is a noun and music is a noun, musician is also a noun,musical is an adjective).

 There are different classifications of suffixes:

1. Part-of-speech classification.Suffixes which can form different parts of speech fall into several groups:

a)             noun-forming suffixes, such as:-er (criticizer), -dom

(officialdom),-ism (ageism),

b)            adjective-forming suffixes,such as: -able (breathable), -less

(symptomless),-ous (prestigious);

c)             verb-forming suffixes, such as-ize (computerize), -fy (satisfy);

d)            adverb-forming suffixes, suchas: -ly (singly), -ward (eastward);

e)             numeral-forming suffixes, suchas -teen (sixteen), -ty (seventy).

2. Semantic classification. Suffixes changing the lexical meaningof the stem can be subdivided into groups, e.g. noun-forming suffixes candenote:

a)             the agent of the action, e.g.-er (experimenter), -ist (taxist), -ent

(student);

b)             nationality, e.g. -ian (Russian), -ese (Japanese), -ish (English);

c)             collectivity, e.g. -dom (moviedom, kingdom), -ry (peasantry),

-ship (readership,membership), -ati (literati);

d)             diminutiveness, e.g. -ette (kitchenette), -ie (horsie), -let

(booklet),-ling (goseling);

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

f)feminine suffixes, e.g. -ess,-in, -ine (actress, heroin, feminine).

3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem. Suffixes which can be added to certaingroups of stems are subdivided into:

a)        suffixes added to verbal stems,such as: -or (communicator), -ing (suffering), – able (fl yable), -ment (involvement),-ation

(computerization);

b)       suffixes added to noun stems,such as: -less (smogless), ful (roomful), -ism (adventurism), -ster (pollster),-nik (fi lmnik), -ish

(childish);

c)        suffixes added to adjectivestems, such as: -en (weaken), -ly (pinkly), -ish (longish), -ness (clannishness).

4. Origin of suffixes. From the pointof view of their etymology suffixes can be subdivided into two main classes:native and borrowed suffixes:

a)  native (Germanic), such as -er,-ful, -less, -ly (worker, careful,

sleepless,lonely).

b)Romanic, such as: -tion, -ent, -able, -eer (relation, absent,

comfortable,career).

c)  Greek, such as: -ist, -ism, -ize. (specialist, socialism, criticize).

d)French, such as: -ance, -ence, -ment, -ess, -ous (arrogance,

experiment,actress, curious).

5. Productivity of derivational suffixes. Itmeans the ability of being used to form new, occasional or potential words.They can be the following groups:

a) productive, such as : -er, -ize, -ly,-ness (teacher, realize, ugly, coldness).

b) non-productive , such as : -ard (drunkard), -th (length), -hood (childhood).

Prefixation is theformation of words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. In English prefixes are more independent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according tothe nature of words in which they are used: prefi xes used in notional wordsand prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words areproper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy). Prefixes used in functional words are semi-boundmorphemes because they are met in the language as morphemes: over- (overhead, overcome) and as separate words: over (over the table, over the door).

The main function of prefixes in English isto change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. Prefixes can beclassified according to different principles:

Semantic classifi cation. Semantically prefixes can be divided into monosemantic i.e. theprefi x has only one meaning, e.g. ex-boxer,exboyfriend and polysemantic i.e. the prefix -dis has several meanings: (not) in (disadvantage); reversal or absence of an action or state in words (diseconomy, disaffirm); removal in theword (to disbranch).

According to their denotational meaningprefixes fall into:

a)        prefixes of negative meaning,such as: in- (invaluable), non- (nonformals), un- (unfree), dis- (disconnect),mis- (misname), il-

(illegal);

b)       prefixes denoting repetition orreversal actions, such as: de-

(decolonize),re- (revegetation, rewrite) etc.;

c)        prefixes denoting time, space,degree relations, such as: inter- (interplanetary),hyper- (hypertension), ex- (ex-student), pre- (preelection), over- (overdrugging).

Origin of prefixes:

a)  native (Germanic), such as: un-, over-, under- (undressed,

overcome,underwear);

b)Romanic, such as: in-, de-, ex-, re- (inhumane, decentralize,

exchange,reappear);

c)  Greek, such as: hyper- (hyperactive,hypertension) etc.

As you see from tables: 1 and 2 all affixesfrom the point of view of their etymology are subdivided into two main classes:native and borrowed affixes.

Native affixes came from Old English periodand have the special category of morphemes which can be of different kinds.

Table1 NativeEnglish Affi xes

                             

Noun-forming suffi xes	-er   -ness   -ing   -dom   -hood   -ship   -th   -let	teacher, driver, painter, worker  loveliness, ugliness, coldness meaning, singing, understanding wisdom,  freedom, kingdom manhood, motherhood, neighbourhood mastership, workmanship,  leadership   health, length, truth booklet, coverlet,  islet
Adjective-forming suffixes	-ful   -less   -y   -ish   -en   -some   -like	joyful, sinful, skilful, wonderful  sleepless, senseless, harmless tidy, merry, cozy childish, stylish, snobbish  silken, golden, wooden handsome, tiresome, burdensome dreamlike, ladylike,  cowlike
Verb-forming suffi xes	-en	redden, sadden, widen, darken
Adverb- forming suffixes	-ly  -wise	hardly, rarely, simply clockwise,  otherwise, likewise
Prefixes	bemisunover-	befool, befog misuse, misname unselfi sh,  uncomfortable overdo, overact, overcome

Borrowed affixes came to the Englishlanguage from different foreign languages and can be classified according totheir source.

Table2

BorrowedAffixes

                 

Latin	Suffi xes   -able/-ible   -ant/-ent   -ate/-ute  Prefi xes extrapreultradis-	advisable, divisible, curable attendant,  student, assistant doctorate, appreciate, contribute   extraterritorial, extracurricular   pre-school, pre-race ultra-high,  ultra-intelligent disable, disagree, dismiss
Greek	Suffi xes   -ist   -ism   Prefi xes antisym-/syn-	artist, realist   materialism, darwinism   anti-pollution symmetrical, synthesis
French	Suffi xes   -age   -ance/-ence   -ard   -ee   -ess   -ous   -ment   Prefi xes en-/em-	wreckage, peerage, marriage perseverance,  coherence wizard, drunkard employee, absentee princess, authoress curious,  serious, dangerous development, appointment enlist, enable, embed

The word-forming activity of affixes maychange in the course of time. This process raises the question of productivityof derivational affixes it means the ability of being used to form new,occasional or potential words. Productive affixes are used to form new words inthe period in question.

Table3 ProductiveAffixes

                   

Noun-forming suffi xes	-er,  -ing, -ness, -ism, -ist, -ance (manager, fighting,  sweetness, materialism, impressionist, acquaintance)
Adjective- forming suffi xes	-able,  -ic, -ish, -ed, -less, -y ( tolerable,  electronic, girlish, learned, jobless, tweedy)
Verb- forming suffi xes	-ize/ise,  -ate, -ify (realize, congratulate, falsify)
Adverb- forming suffi xes	-ly  (equally)
Prefi xes	un-,  re-, dis- (unhappy, rewrite, dislike)

 Non-ProductiveAffixes are not able to form new words in the period in question.Non-Productive Affixes are recognized as separate morphemes and possess clearsemantic characteristics. In some cases, the lexical meaning of anon-productive affix fades off so that only its part of speech meaning remains,e.g. the adjective-forming suffix –some(lonesome, loathsome).

Table4 Non-ProductiveAffixes

               

Noun-forming suffi xes	-th,  – hood, -ship (length, childhood, scholarship)
Adjective- forming suffixes	-ful,  -ly, -some, -en, -ous (peaceful, sickly,  tiresome, golden, courageous)
Verb- forming suffi xes	-en  (strengthen)
Prefixes	ab-  (abnormal), bi-  (biannual)

When we analyze such words as: adverb, accompany where we can find theroot of the word (verb, company) we may treat ad-, ac- as prefixes though they were never used as prefixes toform new words in English and were borrowed from Romanic languages togetherwith words. In such cases we can treat them as derived words. But somescientists treat them as simple words.

Another group of words with a disputablestructure are such as: contain, retain,detain and conceive, receive, deceivewhere we can see that re-, de-, con-act as prefixes and -tain, -ceive canbe understood as roots. But in English these combinations of sounds have nolexical meaning and are called pseudo-morphemes. Some scientists treat suchwords as simple words, others as derived ones.

There are some prefixes which can betreated as root morphemes by some scientists, e.g. after- in the word afternoon.American lexicographers working on Webster dictionaries treat such words as compoundwords. British lexicographers treat such words as derived ones.