4.Productive and поп - productive affixes.

The word - forming activity of the affixes may change in the course of time: some affixes remain productive while others become non - productive.

The process may continue so that in the long run some affixes become "dead", i.e. they cannot be segregated by analysis and the words containing them are morphologically indivisible. We call productive those affixes and types of word - formation which are used to form new words in the period in question. The proof of productivity is the existence of new words coined by these means. Therefore when we see that a notion that could not possibly have existed at some previous stage has a name formed with the help of some affix,the affix is considered productive.

The most productive prefixes in English are: de-, re-, pre-, non-,un- anti-. The most productive noun suffixes: -ing,-ness,-er,-ation,-ee, -ism,-ist,-ry,-or,-ance,-ence/-ancy,-ics. The verb - forming suffixes are only three:-ate,-rfy,-ise/-ize. The productive adjective - forming suffixes are: -able,-ed,-ic,-ish,-less,-y.

The productivity of an affix should not be confused with its frequency which is a synchronic characteristics and means the existence in the vocabulary of a great number of words containing the morpheme in question.

Thus,an affix may occur in great number of words,but if it is not, used to form new ones,it is not productive. It is interesting to note that such non - productive suffixes as -al/-ial/-nal,-ve,-ancy/-ency, -ant/-ent are among the 32 most frequently used suffixes of the English language. No matter how long a list of examples containing the suffix -ful one might compile(beautiful,grateful,helpful,peaceful, useful, etc.) there is no denying the fact that no new words have been coined of late on this pattern,and so the suffix is noft- productive. "The same is true about -"ly" as an adjective - forming suffix,as contrasted to its highly productive homonym,the adverb - forming -ly. The lexical meaning of non - productive suffix often fades off so that only its lexico- grammatical meaning remains. Alongside with "-ly" the non - productive adjective - forming suffix "-some" may be mentioned: handsome,tiresome,lonesome,troublesome. As seen from the above list the suffix "-some" is characteristic of a definite class of adjectives,namelyqualitative adjectives.

It is worthy of note that an affix may loose its productivity and then be revived for a new spell of active word - formation. This happened,for example,to the suffix "-dom".

New words appeared in the last hundreds years(more than 200 abstract nouns were coined with its help): freedom,slavedom etc. The same fate befell the suffix -ship.

5. The Etymology of affixes.

From the point of view of etymology affixes are subdivided into two main classes: the native affixes and the borrowed affixes.

By native affixes we’ll mean those that existed in English in the Old English period or were formed from Old English words. The most important native suffixes are: -d,-dom,-ed,-en,-fold,-ful,-hood,-ing,-ish,-less,-let,-like,-lock,-ly,-ness,-oc,-red,-ship,-some, -teen,-th,-ward,-wise,-y.

The suffxes of foreign origin are classifiedaccordingto their source into Latin(able/ -ible-ant/-ent) , French (-age, -ance/ -ence,-ancy/- ency,-ard,-ate,-sy), Greek (-ist,-ism,-ite)