4. Etymology of derivational affixes
From the point of view of their etymology affixes are subdivided into two main classes: native affixes and borrowed affixes.
Native affixes are those existed in the Old English period or were formed from Old English words. The latter category is of special importance. The changes a morpheme undergoes in the course of time may be of different kinds. A bound morpheme, for example, may be developed from a free one. Such are the suffixes -dom (< dom 'fate, power'); -hood (< had 'state'); -lock (< lac 'actions or proceedings, practice'), -ship (< scipe 'state, condition'), and the prefixes over(< ofer 'in excess, extra, upper'), out- (< ut 'foreign, external'), etc. Some native English affixes are given below:
Noun-forming suffixes
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-er -ness -ing -dom -hood -ship -th -let |
teacher, driver, painter loveliness, ugliness, coldness meaning, singing, understanding wisdom, freedom, kingdom manhood, motherhood, neighbourhood mastership, workmanship, leadership health, length, truth booklet, coverlet, islet |
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Adjective-forming suffixes |
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-ful -less -y -ish -ly -en -some -like |
joyful, sinful, skilful sleepless, senseless, harmless tidy, merry, cozy childish, stylish, snobbish ugly, likely, lovely silken, golden, wooden handsome, tiresome, burdensome dreamlike, ladylike, cowlike |
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Verb-forming suffixes |
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-en |
redden, sadden, widen |
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Adverb-forming suffixes |
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-ly -wise |
hardly, rarely, simply clockwise, otherwise, likewise |
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Prefixes be- mis- un- over- |
befool, befriend, befog mismanage, misname, misuse unselfish, unacademic overdo, overact, overanalyze |
Borrowed affixes are those that have come to the English language from different foreign languages. The affixes of foreign origin are classified according to their source into:
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Latin |
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-able/-ible -ant/-ent extra- pre- ultra- |
advisable, profitable, divisible attendant, servant, student extraterritorial, extracurricular pre-school, pre-race, pre-election ultra-high, ultra-intelligent |
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Greek |
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-ist -ism -ite anti- sym-/syn- |
artist, realist, leftist materialism, Darwinism, Marxism thatcherite, Israelite, vulcanite anti-pollution, anti-democratic symmetrical, synthesis |
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French |
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-age -ance/-ence -ard -ate -ее -ess en-/em- |
wreckage, peerage, percentage perseverance, extravagance, coherence wizard, drunkard doctorate, electorate, filtrate employee, addressee, absentee princess, captainess, authoress enlist, enclose, embed |
The adoption of countless foreign words caused the appearance of many hybrid words in the English vocabulary. Hybrids are words that are made up of elements derived from two or more different languages. There are two basic types of forming hybrid words: 1) a foreign base is combined with a native affix, e.g. colourless, uncertain; 2) a native base is combined with a foreign affix, e.g. drinkable, ex-wife. There are also many hybrid compounds, such as blackguard (English + French); schoolboy (Greek + English).