UNIT 10

LEXIS.
CHARACTERISTICS OF WORD FORMATION IN
ENGLISH.
PREFIXATION, SUFFIXATION AND
COMPOUNDING

0. INTRODUCTION
1. LEXICOGRAPHY AND MORPHOLOGY
1.1. Evolution of Dictionaries
2. WORD-FORMATION: PROCESSES
3. AFFIXATION OR DERIVATION
3.1 Prefixation
3.2 Suffixation
3.3 Compounding
4. CONCLUSION
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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0. INTRODUCTION

The English language is, as any other language, a living entity which keeps on changing. One
significant aspect is the overwhelming growth of vocabulary, mainly due to the wide range
of possibilities that word-formation offers. English has, therefore, an impressive flexibility in
constructing new words following a set of rules.
The most significant development in linguistic theory and research in recent years was the
rise of generative grammar, and, more especially, of transformational-generative grammar,
or transformational grammar, as it came to be known in the mid-1950s. As first presented
by Chomsky in Syntactic Structures (1957), transformational grammar can be seen partly as
a reaction against post-Bloomfieldian structuralism and partly as a continuation of it. This
was a book that, in fact, revolutionized the development of theoretical linguistics.
Of course, Chomsky's theories soon influenced word-formation, but this did not take place
until the publication of The Sound Pattern of English, which applied the Transformational-
Generative paradigm to word-formation. This was based on an American tradition of
Morphophonemics concerned with specifying rules which generate all the surface shapes of
a morpheme from a single underlying representation. For example, /naif/ and /naiv/ are
both surface forms of the morpheme "knife", the second form occurring in the plural.
Thus, over the course of this study we shall attempt to provide a detailed account of the
English lexis, paying special attention to word-formation, prefixation, suffixation and
compounding respectively.
All of this has been foregrounded on a set of the most influential authors in the field,
namely, Quirk and Greenbaum, A University Grammar of English (1979) and Leech and
Svartvik, A Communicative Grammar of English (1975).

1. LEXICOGRAPHY AND MORPHOLOGY

Lexicon is, according to linguistics, the vocabulary of a language. Therefore, lexicology is the
study of the lexicon of a language (relations among words, formation of words...). Apart
from this, every language is said to be trimodal, i.e., structured in three modes, namely,
phonology, grammar and lexis.
Lexicography is the art and science of compiling works such as dictionaries, glossaries,
thesaurus, synonym guides, where items of vocabulary are described. Traditionally,
lexicography has been of two kinds: alphabetic lexicography, whose best-known product is
the dictionary properly so called, and thematic lexicography, which arranges words by
themes and topics, usually accompanied by an index, Roget's Thesaurus being a leading
example.
Moreover, lexicography is best understood if Saussure structuralist theories are taken into
account: the linguistic sign can be divided into signified and signifier. These two can be in
turn subdivided into form and content, being the sphere of content the one concerned with
the lexis:

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Morphemes and lexemes are the units studied within this sphere; and these give rise to two
major branches in Linguistics, namely MORPHOLOGY and LEXICOGRAPHY.
Morphology is concerned with a closed and systematic system of units which can be used
1
recurrently following a number of rules. This sub-branch of Linguistics has as its minimal
unit the morpheme; if this is segmentable, it is, then, known as morph. An allomorph is, in
turn, a phonetically, lexically or grammatically conditioned member of a set of morphs
representing a particular morpheme.
Morphology can either be inflectional or derivational:
• Inflectional morphemes: they convey grammatical meaning: tense, number, voice,
mood, aspect…
• Derivational morphemes: they convey lexical meanings. They change the word
category.
Lexicography, on the contrary, is concerned with an open system of units. The combination
of these two systems (open and closed) gives rise to the formation of words.

1.1 Evolution of Dictionaries

th
Dictionaries were originally long lists of words, but this started to change in the 17 century
when the first list of words was published, A Table Alphabetical (1603), by Robert Cawdrey.
th
In the second half of the 17 century an important contribution was made with the
th
emergence of the so-called etymologies. In the 18 century, Samuel Johnson published A
Dictionary of the English Language, which was the standard English dictionary until Noah
Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Johnson attempted to
regulate the English language for the first time and it included a history of the language, a
grammar, and an extensive list of words representing basic general vocabulary, based on the
best conversation of contemporary London and the normal usage of respected writers.
Apart from this, the Oxford English Dictionary has been the greatest contribution.

2. WORD-FORMATION: PROCESSES

The word in English may be simple, formed by one constituent only, such as "apple", "bat",
"hammer"; or it may be complex, containing more than one constituent, such as "blackbird",
"fourth". The elements of a complex word may be free forms, i.e., elements which are
independent in other contexts, as those in "blackbird" and "devil-may-care"; or they may be
bound forms: prefixes and suffixes, which never appear independently, like the first and the
last constituents of 'uneatable' or the 'th' of 'fourth'. Simple and complex words alike are
distinguished from other constructions, it is generally agreed, by the fixed order of their

1
Economical nature of languages.

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constituents and by the impossibility of interrupting them by a pause, or of inserting other
elements.
A word becomes complex by means of processes that transform the base of that word. The
chief processes of English word-formation by which the base may be modified are: affixation
or derivation, conversion, compounding.
According to Quirk and Greenbaum, a form to which a rule of word-formation is applied is
2
called a BASE (as distinct from STEM) , and the chief processes of English word-formation by
which the base may be modified are:
- AFFIXATION: adding a prefix to the base, with or without a change of word-class (author ->
co-author); or adding a suffix to the base, with or without a change of word-class (drive ->
driver);
- CONVERSION: assigning the base to a different word-class without changing its form (zero
affixation, drive (verb) drive (noun));
- COMPOUNDING: adding one base to another (tea + pot -> teapot);
Apart from these major word-formation devices, English calls upon a number of minor
devices as means of forming new words:
- REDUPLICATION: some compounds have two or more elements which are either identical
or only slightly different: goody-goody. The difference between the two elements may be in
the initial consonants, as in walkie-talkie, or in the medial vowels as in criss-cross. Most of
the reduplicatives are highly informal or familiar, and many derive from the nursery as in
din-din (dinner). The most common uses of reduplicatives are:
■ To imitate sounds: tick-tock
■ To suggest alternating movements: seesaw
■ To disparage by suggesting instability, nonsense, insincerity, vacillation: wishy-
washy
■ To intensify: tip-top
- CLIPPING: it denotes the subtraction of one or more syllables from a word. The shortening
may occur at:
■ The beginning of the word: phone for telephone;
■ The end of the word: photo for photograph;
■ At both ends of the word: flu for influenza.
- BLENDING: in a blend at least one of the elements is fragmentary when compared with its
corresponding uncompounded word form. For example, brunch is derived from breakfast +
lunch. Many blends have only a short life and are very informal, but some have become
more or less fully accepted in the language: motel for motor + hotel, smog for smoke + fog. -
ACRONYMY: these are words formed from the initial letters (or larger parts) of words. New
acronyms are freely produced, particularly for names of organizations: UN for United
Nations; TV for television; GHQ for General Head Quarters. Many acronyms are pronounced
as words: radar for radio detecting and ranging.
- BACKFORMATION: It has to do with the reinterpretation of the word. Take the
case of the verb to burgle, which apparently comes from the noun burglar. -ar is not a suffix,
but it has been interpreted as such.

2
We distinguish the base of a derived word from the stem, which is the part of the word remaining after every affix has
been removed; friend in the word unfriendliness. in a word which has only one affix, such as friendly, the stem (friend) is
also the base; friendly is the base, but not the stem, of unfriendly .

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3. AFFIXATION OR DERIVATION

Derivation or affixation is the process that results in the formation of new lexemes, either
using prefixes which are added to the front of a base; or using a suffix which is added to the
end of a base, with or without a change of the word class. For example, director - co-
director; drive - driver.

3.1. Prefixation
Prefixes do not generally alter the word-class of the base. Productive prefixes normally have
a light stress on their first syllable. This stress pattern will be assumed in the examples in the
following tables:

NEGATIVE PREFIXES

PREFIXES MEANING ADDED TO EXAMPLE

UN- The opposite of Adjectives Unfair
'Not' Participles Unexpected
NON- 'not' Various classes Non-smoker
Non-stick
IN- (as for un-) Adjectives Insane
DIS- (as for un-) Adjectives Verbs Disloyal
Abstract nouns Dislike
Disrespect

A- 'Lacking in' Adjectives Apolitical

Nouns Asymmetry

REVERSATIVE PREFIXES
PREFIXES MEANING ADDED TO: EXAMPLES
UN- 'To reverse action' Verbs Untie Unhorse
'To deprive of'
DE- 'To reverse action' Verbs Defrost
Abstract nouns Deforestation
DIS- (as for un-) Verbs Disconnect
Participles Discoloured
Nouns Discontent

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PEJORATIVE PREFIXES

PREFIXES MEANING ADDED TO: EXAMPLES

MIS- 'Wrongly' 'Astray' Verbs Misbehave
Abstract nouns Misfortune
Participles Misleading
MAL- 'Bad(ly)' Verbs Maltreat
Abstract nouns Malfunction
Participles Malformed
Adjectives Malodorous

PSEUDO- 'false, imitation' Nouns Adjectives Pseudo-intellectual

PREFIXES OF DEGREE OR SIZE

PREFIXES MEANING ADDED TO: EXAMPLES

ARCH- 'Highest, worst' Nouns (mainly Archbishop,
human) archduke
SUPER- 'Above, more than, Nouns Adjectives Superstar, superman
better' Supernatural
OUT- 'To do something Verbs(mainly Outrun, outlive,
faster, longer, etc intransitive) outwit...
than'
SUR- 'Over and above' Nouns Surrealism
SUB- 'lower than, less Adjectives Substandard
than'
OVER- 'Too much' Verbs Overflow
Participles Overgrown
Adjectives Overconfident

UNDER- 'Too little' Verbs Participles Undervalue

Underpaid
HYPER- 'Extremely' Adjectives Hyperactive
ULTRA- 'Extremely beyond' Adjectives Ultrasonic,
ultraviolet
MINI- 'Little' Nouns Minibus, miniskirt
PREFIXES OF ATTITUDE

PREFIXES MEANING ADDED TO: EXAMPLES

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CO- 'With, joint' Verbs Nouns Co-operate Co-pilot

COUNTER- 'In opposition to' Verbs Counteract Counter-

Abstract nouns revolution
ANTI- 'against' Nouns Anti-missile
Denominal Anti-social
adjectives Adverbs Anti-clockwise
PRO- 'On the side of' Nouns Pro-abortion Pro-
Denominal republican
adjectives
LOCATIVE PREFIXES

PREFIXES MEANING ADDED TO: EXAMPLES

SUPER- 'over' Nouns Super-structure
SUB- 'beneath, lesser in Nouns Subway
rank' Adjectives Subconscious
Verbs Sublet

INTER- 'between, among' Denominal International

adjectives Intermarry
Verbs Interaction
Nouns
TRANS- 'across, from one Denominal Transatlantic
place to another' adjectives Verbs Transplant
PREFIXES OF TIME AND ORDER

PREFIXES MEANING ADDED TO: EXAMPLES

FORE- 'Before' Mainly verbs Foretell
Abstract nouns Foreknowledge
PRE- 'Before' Nouns Adjectives Preconception Pre-
marital
POST- 'After' Nouns Adjectives Post-mortem Post-
classical
EX- 'Former' Human nouns Ex-husband
RE- 'Again, back' Verbs Rebuild, re-evaluate
Abstract nouns Resolution

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CONVERSION PREFIXES
PREFIXES ADDED TO i=> EXAMPLES
FORM
BE- A) Nouns — Bewigged
participial Bespectacled,
adjectives bemused
B) Verbs Befall
Adj --- transitive Bedazzle
verbs Befriend
Nouns

EN- Nouns ---- Verbs Endanger Endear

Entitle enslave
A- Verbs ---- Aflame, afloat
Predicative
adjectives
NUMBER PREFIXES

PREFIXES MEANING EXAMPLES

UNI-, MONO- 'one' Unilateral,
monotheism
BI-, DI-, 'two' Bilingual, dipole
TRI- 'three' Tripartite
MULTI-, POLY- 'many' Multi-racial,
polysyllabic

OTHER PREFIXES
PREFIXES MEANING EXAMPLES
AUTO- 'Self' Autobiography
NEO- 'New, revived' Neo-gothic
PAN- 'All, world-wide' Pan-African
PROTO- 'First, original' Prototype
SEMI- 'Half' Semicircle
VICE- 'Deputy' Vice-president

3.2 SUFFIXATION
Unlike prefixes, suffixes frequently alter the word-class of the base; for example, the
adjective happy is changed into an abstract noun by adding the suffix -ness:
happy -> happiness.

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We shall group suffixes not only by the class of word they form (as noun suffixes, verb
suffixes, etc) but also by the class of base they are typically added to (DENOMINAL, ie. from
noun, DEADJECTIVAL, DEVERBAL suffixes, etc). More usefully, we may extend this latter
terminology, where convenient, to the derived words themselves, and talk of worker as a
DEVERBAL noun, hopeful as DENOMINAL adjective, etc. Suffixes will be grouped by the class
of the word they form (as noun suffixes, verb suffixes, etc.) and by the class of base they are
typically added to:

1. Noun suffixes

CATEGORY ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES

OCCUPATIONAL
-STER -EER Nouns 'person engaged in Gangster engineer
an occupation or
activity'
-ER Nouns 'varied meanings, eg. Teenager Londoner
inhabitant of X.
CATEGORY ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES
DIMINUTIVE OR
FEMENINE

-LET Count nouns 'small, unimportant' Booklet Piglet

-ETTE Nouns a. 'small, compact' Kitchenette

b. imitation Statuette Flannelette
c. female Usherette

-ESS Animate nouns 'female' waitress

-Y, -IE Nouns Daddy, auntie
CATEGORY STATUS, ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES
DOMAIN
-HOOD Nouns 'status' Boyhood
-SHIP (as for -hood) 'status, condition' Friendship,
dictatorship
-DOM (as for -hood) 'domain, condition' Kingdom, stardom
-OCRACY (as for -hood) 'system of Democracy
government'
-(E)RY Chiefly nouns a. 'behaviour' a. Slavery
a. abstract nouns b. 'place of activity
b. concrete count

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 nouns c. non-count or abode' c. b. Refinery, nunnery
nouns 'collectivity' c. Machinery

CATEGORY OTHER ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES

-ING Count nouns 'the substance of Panelling

which N is composed'
-FUL Count nouns 'the amount which N Mouthful
contains'

2. Noun / Adjective Suffixes

CATEGORY ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES

-ITE Nouns 'member of Israelite, socialite
community faction
/type'
-(I)AN Nouns 'pertaining to Indonesian,
republican
-ESE (as for -(i)an) 'nationality' Chinese
-IST Nouns / adjectives 'member of a party, Socialist, violinist
occupation'
-ISM Nouns / adjectives 'attitude, political Idealism,
movement' communism

3. Deverbal Suffixes (verb-^noun suffixes)

CATEGORY ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES

-ER, -OR Verbs 'agentive and Driver, receiver,
instrumental' actor
-ANT Verbs 'agentive and Inhabitant,
instrumental' disinfectant
-EE Verbs Passive Employee
-ATION Verbs a. 'state, action' a. exploration
b. 'institution' b. organization
-MENT Verbs 'state, action' Amazement
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-AL Verbs 'action' Refusal, dismissal
-ING Verbs a. 'activity' a. driving
b. 'result of activity' b. building
-AGE Verbs 'activity, result of Drainage
activity'
4. De-Adjectival Suffixes (adjective-^ noun suffixes)

CATEGORY ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES

-NESS Adjectives -> 'state, quality' Happiness
abstract nouns
-ITY (as for -ness) 'state, quality' Sanity
5. Verb Suffixes

CATEGORY ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES

-IFY Nouns, adjectives 'causative' Simplify
-IZE / -ISE (as for -ify) 'causative' Popularize
-EN Adjectives -> verbs a. 'causative' a. deafen
b. 'become X' b. sadden
6. Adjective Suffixes

CATEGORY ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES

-FUL Nouns 'having..., giving...' Useful, helpful
-LESS Nouns 'without' Childless
-LY Nouns 'having the qualities Cowardly
of
-LIKE (as for -ly) 'having the qualities Childlike
of'
-Y Nouns 'like..., covered Creamy, hairy
with...'
-ISH Nouns a. 'belonging to...' a. Turkish
a. non-gradable b. 'having the b. foolish
b. gradable character of'

-IAN Nouns 'in the tradition of ... ' Darwinisn

-AL adjectives Criminal, editorial,
(also, -ial, -ical) musical
-IC Heroic
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-IVE Attractive,
(also -ative, -itive) affirmative,
sensitive,
-OUS Virtuous, courteous,
(also -eous, -ious) vivacious
7. Adverb Suffixes

CATEGORY ADDED TO MEANING EXAMPLES

-LY Adjectives 'in a ... manner' Happily, strangely
-WARD(S) Adverbs, nouns 'manner / direction' Backwards
-WISE Nouns a. 'in the manner a. crabwise
a. adverbs of of . ' b. weather-wise
manner b. 'as far as ... is
b. viewpoint concerned'
adverbs

3.3 Compounding
As Quirk states, a compound is a unit consisting of two or more bases. There is no one
formal criterion that can be used for a general definition of compounds in English. Most
authors used to talk about three different criteria when dealing with compounds:
• Orthographic criteria: according to this criteria compounds may be:
a) Solid: bedroom
b) Hyphenated: tax-free
c) Open: Reading material
• Phonological criteria: Compounds can often be identified as having a main stress on the
first element and a secondary stress on the second element. Hence, "blackbird" and "black
bird" have a different stress pattern.
• Semantic criteria: Compounds can be seen to be isolated from ordinary syntactic
constructions by having a meaning which may be related to, but cannot simply be inferred
from the meaning of its elements. For example, "darkroom" or "greenhouse": "a darkroom"
(a room used for photographic processing) is not just "a dark room" since most dark rooms
are not darkrooms.
The normal way of classifying compounds is by the function they play in the sentence as
nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. Thus the following taxonomy:

A. Compound Nouns
a) Noun + Noun:
The compound nouns consisting of two nouns is the largest subgrouping of
compounds. Examples: tea table, teapot, card-room.
b) Adjective + Noun: Examples: Fast-food, good-bye.
c) Particle + Noun Examples: over-kill
d) Verb + Particle:

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The majority of words of this form are nominalizations of phrasal verbs, and it is arguable
that these are not strictly compounds at all. Examples: fallout, drawback.
e) Noun + Verb:
Examples: Sunshine, nosebleed.
f) Verb + Noun; Two cases.
• When the noun is the direct object of the verb > exocentric compounds. Examples;
pickpocket, cut-throat.
• Where the noun is not the direct object of the verb > endocentric compounds. Examples:
goggle-box.
g) Verb + Verb; It is not very productive. Examples: make-believe.
h) Phrase compounds; Examples: son-in-law, lady-in-waiting.

Compound nouns may be countable, uncountable, singular or plural; according to this, they
can be grouped as follows:
a) Common countable compound nouns: bank account, high school, post office, car park,
letter box, pen-friend.
b) Common uncountable compound nouns: birth control, make up, income tax, fast-food,
remote control, social security.
c) Common singular compound nouns: Cost of living, human race, mother-tongue.
d) Common plural compound nouns: Armed forces, human rights, yellow pages, winter
sports.

B. Compound Adjectives
Compound adjectives are made up of two or more words, usually written with hyphens
between them.
The forming of compound adjectives is a productive feature in English. Compound
adjectives are formed according to a large number of different patterns; the most common
and least restricted patterns for forming compound adjectives are:
a) Adjective or number + noun + "-ed": e.g. "red-haired".
b) Adjective or adverb + past participle: e.g. "low-paid".
c) Adjective, adverb or noun + present participle: e.g. "good-looking".

Some less common and more restricted patterns for forming compound adjectives are:
a) Noun + past participle: e.g. "wind-blown".
b) Noun + adjective: e.g. "duty free".
c) Adjective + noun: e.g. "deep-sea".
d) Past participle + adverb: e.g. "run-down".
e) Number + singular count noun: e.g. "five-page".

A few compound adjectives are made up of more than two words and they are often written
with hyphens when they are used in front of nouns and without hyphens when they are
used as the complement of a link verb: e.g. "It was a free-and-easy relationship", "That book
is out of date".
Some compound adjectives are borrowed from foreign languages, especially from French
and Latin. For example: "He was left hors de combat".
Next, we shall outline some groups of compound adjectives:

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a) Compound qualitative adjectives: absent-minded, easy-going, second-class, old-
fashioned, open-minded, well-known, well-dressed.
b) Compound classifying adjectives: audio-visual, brand-new, long-distance, duty-free, part-
time, top-secret, tax-free, first-class.
c) Compound colour adjectives: blood-red, sky-blue, snow-white, royal-blue, nut-brown.

C. Compound Verbs
Most compounds verbs are written with a hyphen, but some compounds verbs can be
written with a space between the words, and some as single words. The patterns for forming
compounds verbs are:
- Noun + Verb: e.g. "sky-dive".
- Verb + Noun: e.g. "shun-pike".
- Verb + Verb: e.g. "free-dry".
- Adjective + Verb: e.g. "double-book".
- Participle + Verb: e.g. "overbook".
These are the groups of compound verbs:
a) Intrasitive compound verbs: baby-sit, ice-skate, water-sky, hitch-hike, roller-skate.
b) Transitive compound verbs: dry-clean, tape record, ill-treat, spoon-feed.
c) Compound verbs used in transitive or intransitive clauses: bottle feed, short-circuit, tie-
dye, sight-read, mass-produce.

4. CONCLUSION
Word-formation has proved to be a useful device to enrich the English language, whether it
be by prefixation, suffixation or compounding. Yet, the productiveness of word-formation is
rather limited in that not all words that result from the application of the rule are
acceptable, as opposed to what happens with syntax.
Apart from the most recurrent devices (prefixation and suffixation), we have also pointed
out others which also result efficient, such as conversion, back-formation, clipping, blends...
All in all, it could be stated that word-formation is a useful device that enables students to
overcome communication problems, for they will be able to infer the meaning of most
words by the affixes attached to the base.

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bauer, L. English Word-Formation. CUP, 1989.
Leech, G. and Jan Svartvik. A Communicative Grammar of English. London: Longman, 1975.
Quirk, R. and S. Greenbaum. A University Grammar of English. London: Longman,
1979.

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