WORD FORMATION

In linguistics, word formation refers to the process of creating new words based on existing
words or morphemes. It is a key area within the field of Morphology.

What is Morphology?
Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words. It focuses on
how words are formed, how they can be modified, and how they function within sentences.
 It examines the smallest units of meaning in a language, called morphemes.

Morpheme
 Morpheme is the smallest unit of the structure of words which cannot be divided further
to bring about a sensible grammatical or lexical meaning.
E.g.: In a word: go, re-,de-,pre-, desks, pen, school, of, and etc.
as in the word previews there are morpheme pre-, view and -s.

That is to say Morpheme is the smallest unit of a word, which has a meaning, lexical or
grammatical, and cannot be divided into smaller units. For instance, the word "unpresentable"
consists of 3 morphemes cannot divided more: un- + present + -able

Types of Morphemes

Morphemes can be divided into:-

i) Free morphemes.
ii) Bound morphemes.

Free Morphemes.
Free morphemes are those morphemes which can stand on their own and bring a sensible
meaning.
 All free morphemes can stand on their own and give a complete meaning. Example; Jump, Go,
Take, Small, on, to, for, above, calm

Free morphemes include: a) lexical morphemes

b) Grammatical/functional morphemes
For example, in the sentence ‘the book is on the table’

Here the word ‘book’ and ‘table’ are lexical morphemes

‘the, on and is’ are grammatical morphemes.

Lexical morphemes (Major group of words /open set /extended morphemes)

Lexical morphemes is also known as content morphemes is the set of free morphemes that represent
the actual meaning or content of the messages of the object or thing.

 Lexical morpheme can stand on its own and carry the main part of the meaning. Also known as
Major group of words includes: Nouns, Main verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs e.g. Father, Write,
Happy, Slow, Stone etc.

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 They called Open set because
i) they can stand on their own and bring a meaning.
ii) New particles (parts) can be added to the open set.
E.g.: Book – Books, Child – Children
iii) Allow formation of new word(s)
iv) They have independent function(s) and meaning. Go – (verb)

Grammatical morphemes (minor group of words/ Functional /closed/non-extended morphemes)

Functional/grammatical morphemes refer to the set of free morphemes that have grammatical
function(s) or grammatical meaning includes pronouns, Articles, possessions, prepositions,
conjunctions and tenses markers.

E.g.: on, the, an, but, about, though, is, was, were

They are called closed set, because:

i) They are in definite (specific) number
ii) No new particles (parts) can be added to them.
iii) They cannot stand on their own.
iv) Functions of closed set depend on lexical morphemes.

Bound Morphemes
Bound Morphemes are these morphemes which cannot stand by themselves and give the sensible
meaning. They always depend to the other morphemes in order to give a sensible meaning.
- They must be attached to another morpheme in order to bring a meaning.
- They normally bound to the free morphemes.
- They cannot convey a meaningful sense when they are alone. E.g.: In a word pen s, so, - s is a
bound morpheme

Types of bound morphemes:

There are two types of bound morphemes, these are:-
a) Inflectional morphemes.
b) Derivational morphemes.

Inflectional Morphemes
These are bound morphemes which are in most cases attached at the end of the word without changing
the original meaning of the word and word class.
Inflectional morphemes characterize word grammatically, but do not change the word class or the
original meaning of the word. Example, book and books are all nouns, but in books “-s” is inflectional
morpheme as it shows number (plural)
Function of inflectional morphemes.
a) To show plurality
Box – Boxes
Bag – Bags
Key – Keys
Baby – Babies.
b) To show possession. E.g.: John’s, School’s, and Sister’s.
c) To show gender
E.g.: Master – Mistress

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 Waiter – Waitress
Poet - poetess.
d) To show tenses {present, past}
Cry – Cries, Cried.
Play – Plays, Played
Read – Reads
e) To show participles.
i) -ed participle – Cooked, danced
ii) - en participle – Written, broken.
iii) - ing participle – Cooking, reading, playing
f) To mark adjectives for superlative and comparative forms.
E.g.: Word Comparative Superlative
Small Smaller Smallest
Big Bigger Biggest
Types of inflections
a. Noun inflections are the inflections which added to nouns that show gender, possession and
plurality
b. Verb inflections are the inflections which added to verb show tenses and participles (continuous
and past)
c. Adjectives inflections are the inflections which added to adjectives to show superlative and
comparative

Derivational morphemes
These are the bound morphemes which can be attached either at the beginning or at the end. Of the
words normally they change word class and / or the original meaning of the word.
E.g.: Do – Undo
Write – Rewrite
Side – Aside
Hope – Hopeless
Boy – Boyish
Kind – Kindly
Pack – Package
Glory – Glorify
Functions of derivational morphemes
- To change the meaning of the word and
- To change the word class.
- To determine (act as an indicator) the word grammar (i.e. word class) Eg: - fy, ize are verb purify,
minimize, simplify

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The concept of Root or Base and stem

Root refers to the primary part of a word that carries the most significant part of meaning and which
cannot be divided into smaller units of meaning.
 It is the core part of a word that carries the lexical meaning of the word.
 Irreducible core part of word with nothing else (elements) attached to since root of
the word cannot divide further more without distorting its meaning.

Root is also known as the base of the word as it allows an affix to be attached to it; Base carries the
conceptual meaning of the word. This to say base are roots in any word as they cannot divided further
more without distort its meaning.

A base is any part of a word that you can add prefixes or suffixes that change the meaning/part of
speech. So "walk" is a base, because it can have inflections (walking) and can be turned into different
words (walker is a noun).

E.g.: In the following underlined and bolded word root / base of words are:-
Improperly = Im – Proper – ly
Mismanagement =Mis – manage-met
Super natural = super – nature – al.
Nationalization = Nation – al-iz-ation.

Stem is part of the word to which an affix is attached and it allows other morpheme to be added.

example: act ↝ action ↝actions, or teach ↝ teacher↝ teachers

 The stem occurs after affix has been added to the root and more affixes can be added, for

 The Stem of the word can be divided further more without distorting the meaning of the
root.
 Word may have more than one stem.

E.g.: Harmfulness = Harm – Harmful –ness

Careful = care – careful –ly
Colonialism = colony – colonial – ism
Workers=worker-s

Note: the most roots are also stems whenever they serve as bases for forming new words

Morph is a physical (structural) form representing some morphemes in a language. Morphs are the real
forms utilized to form a morpheme. For instance, "students" consists of two morphs, student + suffix -s
that constitute the single word students

Allomorphs are the different morphs that represent a given morpheme. It refers to the variation of the
morph (morpheme) in the same morpheme. E.g.: Plural morphemes /-s/ /-es/ /-ies/ in the word Dog =
dogs, Class = Classes and in Spy=spies, or Past -ed for past tense can be /ɪd/, /t/, and /d/ in painted,
cleaned and parked.
NOTE allomorphs in English are conditioned by the last segment of the form depending on the phonetic
properties (phonological conditioning).

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Different realizations of plural and tense/aspect morphemes

Allomorphs of the plural nouns /s/

book ------books /s/
map -------maps /s/
Tablet----- tablets /s/
/z/
Blackboard-------- blackboards /z/
Chair------- chairs /z/
Table------- tables /z/
Cabbage------- cabbages /z/
/iz/
Bush---------- bushes /iz/
glass ----------glasses /iz/
Key----------- keys /iz/
Fly-----------flies /iz/

Allomorphs of the past tense and/or aspect /ed/

/id/
Marry----------- married /id/
Carry----------- carried /id/
/t/
Pick--------- picked /t/
Stop--------- stopped /t/
Kick--------- kicked /t/
Miss---------- missed /t/
/d/
Dance---------- danced /d/
Close----------- closed /d/
Solve------------ solved /d/
Love----------- loved /d/

Allomorphs include the allomorphs of the negative morpheme, such as:

 /in/ incorrect, inadequate, inability
 /un/ unable, untouchable, unkind, unhappy
 /im/ impossible, impolite, immovable, immoral
 /il/ illogical, illegal
 /ir/ irregular, irrelevant, irresponsible

Allomorphs of the indefinite article “an” and “a” in singular forms, such as:
 a cup, a student, a cupboard
 an elephant, an hour, an ankle

Below are the three main factors for allomorphs:

(i) Phonological Factor
This occurs when the form of a morpheme changes depending on the sounds that come before or
after it. In other words, sound rules influence which allomorph is used.

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 Example:
The plural morpheme {-s} in English has different pronunciations depending on the final sound
of the word:
 /s/ after voiceless consonants: cats → /kæts/
 /z/ after voiced consonants and vowels: dogs → /dɔgz/
 /ɪz/ after sibilant sounds (s, z, sh, ch, j): buses → /bʌsɪz/
Here, the same morpheme {-s} is realized differently because of phonological environment.
(ii) Dialectal Factor
This occurs when speakers of different dialects of the same language use different allomorphs of
a morpheme.
Example:
 In British English, the past tense of learn is often learnt, while in American English it is
learned.
 Similarly, dreamed (AmE) vs. dreamt (BrE).
Both are allomorphs of the same past tense morpheme, but dialectal variation determines which is
used.
(iii) Grammatical Factor
This occurs when different grammatical environments (such as tense, case, or aspect) trigger
different allomorphs of a morpheme.
Example:
The English verb be has several forms depending on grammatical context:
 am (1st person singular present) → “I am happy.”
 is (3rd person singular present) → “She is happy.”
 are (plural/2nd person present) → “They are happy.”
 was/were (past tense) → “I was happy,” “They were happy.”
Here, the verb be has multiple allomorphs that occur in specific grammatical contexts.

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Word formation Processes
In the word formation we are discussing on the ways, methods, processes by which a new word is formed
and created in a language. The following are the methods/ ways, and processes of creating or forming a
new word in the English language;
1. Conversion
2. Blending
3. Reduplication
4. Clipping
5. Compounding
6. Back formation
7. Coinage
8. Neologism
9. Acronyms
10. Borrowing
11. Symbolism
12. Affixation

Blending
This is the way of creating a new word in English language whereby a new word is formed by
combining two parts elements from two different words to form a new word which have lexical meaning
Example:
Transfer and resistor to form transistor
Motor and hotel to form motel
International and police to form Interpol
Parachute and troops to form paratroops
Helicopter and airport to form heliport
Binary and digit to form bit

Clipping
It is the way of forming a new word (s) which involves omitting of some elements/ parts of the word to
form a new word which have a lexical meaning (the same meaning with the original words).
This is the division/ removal of one or more syllables from a word resulting into a new word having
lexical meaning.
The removal of syllables (elements) may take:
 At the beginning
 At the end
 Both at the beginning and at end of the word
Example:
Bus from omnibus
Phone from telephone
Photo from photograph
Memo from memorandum
Exam from examination
Lab from laboratory
Math from mathematics
Flu from influenza

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Reduplication
It refers to the process of forming a new word (s) in English language whereby a new word is formed by
repeating (through repetition) of almost the same sounds with a slight difference.
Thus, Reduplication consists in the repetition of all or of part of a root or stem to form new words.
Example:
Tick – tock
Sing – song (song -like)
Walkie – talkie (a walk and talk/ a portable radio)
Zig – zag
Willy – nilly (with desire or not)
Tip – top (excellent)

Conversion
This is the way of forming a new in English language whereby a new word is formed from an existing
word without any change in the form of the word i.e. without addition or reduction of any affix.

Thus, in a conversion a new word is formed by changing its uses (function) in the sentence without
change the spelling or pronunciation of the word.

Conversion is also known as zero derivation whereby a word changes its uses (function) without any
change in the word itself in terms of spelling or pronunciation
Zero derivation - Is the type of derivation in which a base of the word is assigned a new category
(class) without addition or reduction of any affix hence it changes the word class, meaning without
changing a word itself.
Example:
i) My mother is a judge. (the word judge as noun)

ii) I will judge you tomorrow. (the word judge as verb)

iii) Please may you send my mail to John? (the word mail as noun)

iv) Please mail me when you are there. (the word mail as verb)

Forms of conversion
a) Verb to noun
b) Noun to verb
c) Adjective to verbs

Coinage (coining)
This is the process of word formation in which a new word invited as a result of new scientific or
technological discovery or trade names inventions. So in most cases coinage has come with new word as
the result of new technological advancement and new trade names.
Example; google, ebaying, panadol, techno, Iphone, aspirin, nokia, hitachi, sumsung and other like
nylon, vaseline, zipper, granola, kleenex, teflon, quark, and xerox
In this way a totally new word is introduced when new scientific discoveries are made.

Back formation

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Sometimes the process of word formation is reversed to form a new word hence in back formation, a
new word is formed by bringing back or reserving the original form of the word before adding affixes
E.g.: Editor – Edit
Projection – project
Insertion – Insert
Demotion – Demote.
Hence Back formation as a process of creating a new word there is removing actual affixes from the
existing words in order to create a new word.

Compounding
It refers to the forming of new words which involves the combination (joining) of two or more words to
form a single word having lexical meaning.
In compound two different words taken together to form a new single word
Example:
Sick room = sick and room
Shop keeper = shop and keeper
Cooking oil = cooking and oil

Compound may be more than two words

Example: Chief executive officer
Dining room tables
Types of compounding
 Structural
 Orthography ( the way they are written)
 Semantic
1. Structural
Structure Example
N+ N Chairman, chalk board, fisherman, boyfriend
Adj + N Black board, blue band, wildlife, better lemon, wild cat.
Prep + N Undercoat, overdose, overcoat, superman, supermarket underskirt,
Verb + N Hang man, play boy, watch dog, pick stick, store keeper
Watchman, fishing boat, managing director
Adj + Adj red hot, bitter sweet, slippery soft, black beauty
N + Adj Sea blue sky blue, sunshine, moonlight
Prep + V overwrite, underfeed, and overcome

2. Orthography
Here there are three types of compound words, according to how they are written:-

a) Solid Compound Are those compound words which are written without any space between.
Example: In the word: - headmaster, classroom, superman, football, wildlife, classmate,

b) Open compound - Are those compound words written Witten with a space between the words
that form them Example: In the word; Bush Baby, top life, Raw Material, Bush knives, Team
work
c) Hyphenated Compound – Are those compound words written with a hyphen (dash) separating
the word by which are formed. Example in a word; Ape – man , Brother – in –law,
long-term, Moto-car

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 3. Semantically
Here compound words formed according to meaning.
a. Transparent compound.
These are the compound words whose meaning are related to the meaning of the words which
they are formed
E.g.: Dress room, class room, dining table.
b. Opaque compound.
These are the compound words whose meaning completely differs from the meaning of the
words by which they are formed.
E.g.: Honeymoon, sweet bread, play boy, red-handed, sugar mummy etc.

Neologism
It is the way of forming a new word by supplying different meaning to a word which had a certain fixed
meaning lexically in order to get a different word. It is the process whereby a new meaning is assigned
to the existing word(s)
E.g.: The word ‘lion’ – Which means a large wild animal of the cat family with yellowish brown fur
which lives in Africa and southern Asia.
But the word lion can be assigned new meaning as it is in the following examples.
 I meet a lion in the forest
 Bolt is a lion among the athletics in the Olympic Games.
 He is a lion when it comes to kill a snake.
 USA was a lion among socialism county

Acronyms
This is the way of forming a word by initial letters of the phrases/ words to form a single word.
Example: NATO, UNO, CPU, TBC, ID. Most of the acronyms are abbreviation formed from the
initials in a phrase/ word.
BBC – British Broadcasting Company
CEO – Chief Executive Officer.
USA – United State of America
ATM – Automatic Machine
HIV – Human Immune Deficiency Virus
USMC – United State Marine Corps.
FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Borrowing
In this process new words are introduced as words are taken from different languages. In borrowing
process one language takes words from other languages and makes them as part of its vocabularies.
The borrowed words also known as loan words may be modified in order to be in agreement with
pronunciation and spelling structure of the new language.
There is direct borrowing with no modification and indirect borrowing with modification.
Example: borrowed words in English language, Such as
Safari, ugali, mwalimu, matatu, daladala from Kiswahili
Bangle, bungalow, shampoo, yoga from Hindi
Boss, cookie, lottery, from Dutch

NOTE. Please search for more examples of borrowed words on your own time.

Other word formation processes

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 a) Echoism/ Onomatopoeia
Echoism means the formation of words by imitating sounds.
Examples: splash, meow, roar, quack, cuckoo

b) Symbolism
Symbolism (or morpheme internal change) consists of changing the internal phonemic
structure of a morpheme to indicate grammatical functions. For example, in order to form
the plurals of
goose \gu…s\ to be geese
tooth \tu…\ to be teeth
The phoneme \u…\ is replaced by the phoneme\i…\
Other words that form their plurals in a similar way are:
man → men
woman → women
mouse → mice
In verbs indicate their past tense and past participle forms as in
sing → sang →sung
swim→ swam →swum
NOTE:
Types of Acronyms
There are two main types of acronyms, namely:
Acronyms which are pronounced as a word; e.g., NASA (= National Aeronautics and Space
Administration), radar =(radio detecting and ranging), laser (= light amplification by stimulated emission
of radiation), UNESCO (= United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization),

Acronyms which are pronounced as sequences of letters (also called 'alphabetisms');

e.g., C.O.D. ( = cash on delivery), VIP (= very important person), BBC, UK etc.

AFFIXATION

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Affixation is the process of forming a new word in which bound morphemes are attached either at the
beginning or at the end of the word/ Root/ stem to form a new word.
Affixation also allows adding of bound morphemes either at the beginning or at the end of the word to
form a new word. Affixation led changes to the meaning of the word or changes to word class of the
root / stem word.

Affix- is a bound morpheme which is attached to another morpheme/word in the formation of a new word
which may change the meaning, grammatical category or grammatical form of the stem E.g. -ful, -s, en-,
-y, de- etc.

Affixation involves:-
 Prefixes (prefixation)
Prefixes are bound morphemes that are added to the beginning of the word;
e.g, un- in unnoticed, a- in amoral, sub- in subway, etc.
 Infixes (Infixation)
Infixes are bound morphemes that are inserted within the words
E.g.: -o- in barometer, -o- in thermometer, -o- in speedometer
 Suffixes (suffixation)
Suffixes are bound morphemes which are attached to the end of the word;
e.g., - able in noticeable, -less in careless,-s in seeks,-en in shorten, etc.
 Co-fixes (co- fixation)
Co-fixes are bound morphemes that are added both to the beginning of the word and to
the end of the word. E.g.: Unchangeable, Unreadable, Impossibility.

Multiple Affixations
It is also possible in English to form complex words by the addition of several affixes to roots and bases.
For example if we take the root ‘friend’ we can create a word by adding {- ly} to form ‘friendly’. To the
base ‘friendly’ can be added the derivational prefix – un and the suffix – ness to form the complex word
unfriendliness

Prefixes
These are bound morphemes which added or attached at the beginning of the word (root/ stem) to form a
new word. Example un- in a word unclear, uncover or dis- in dislike, mis- in misspell, misuses

Prefixation
This is the process of adding bound morphemes at the beginning of the word (root / stem) to form a new
word, Example: Overtake, transport, prolife, dislike, untie
Categories of prefixes
i) Negative prefixes
ii) Reversative prefixes (restorative prefixes)
iii) Pejorative prefixes
iv) Prefixes of degrees or size
v) Locative prefixes
vi) Number prefixes
vii) Prefixes of time and order
viii) Verb prefixes
ix) Attitude (supportive/ opposing) prefixes
Negative prefixes (negation)

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- Is used to change the meaning of the word negatively
- It includes all prefixes which show negation i.e. not, against, bad or / and wrong
Example:
Prefix Meaning Example
un- Not/without Unable, unkind, unreal, unfair, unequal

Im- Not/without Impossible, impolite, imperfect

il- Wrong/bad Illegal, illegitimate, illiterate, illogical

ir- Not Irregular, irrelevant, irresponsible

In- Not Inactive, incomplete, inaccurate, incorrect, indefinite

a- Lacking in amoral, asymmetry, apolitical, atheist, asocial

ab- not abnormal

Non- not nonhuman, nontoxic, nonlinear

Dis- not dislike, disloyal, disqualification, disadvantages

Ant (i)- not antisocial, antacid, antitoxic

De- not derange, demerit, decline, decrease

Pejorative prefixes
These are highly evaluated in the negative sense as used to mean bad / wrong or false

Prefix Meaning Example

Mis- Wrong(ly) mismanage, mishandle
Astray (long) Misinform, Misconduct,
Mistaken
Mal- bad (ly) Malpractice, malformed
Improper (ly) malfunction, Malnutritio

Pseudo false pseudo name, pseudo history

Not genuine pseudo-science
Imitate pseudo-intellectual
Reversative prefixes
These are used to show reverse of the action / process
Eg: Prefix Meaning Example
Un- to reverse untie, undo, unlock, undress,uncover

Re- to reverse rewrite, redraw, re-read, reunion, reopen

De- to reverse deforestation, decolonization, deform

Dis- to reverse disconnect, dismount, discolour

Prefixes of time and order

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These are prefixes which indicate time and order arrangement

Prefix Meaning Example

ante- before antenatal, antecedent, ante date, ante chamber

ex- formed ex-wife, ax slave

(Of the past time) ex-husband, exsoilders

Fore- before foresee, foretell

In front foregone, fore count
In advance fore father, fore brain
Situated in front of foreknow

Mid- middle mid-day, mid noon, midnight, midway, midpoint

Post- after post war, postpaid, post natal, post-colonial,

Pre- before prenatal, preschool, prepay, preview, predate, preview

Neo- new NeoDarwinian, Neophobia, Neocolonialism, Neonatal

Attitude prefixes (supportive)

These are prefixes which are used to indicate attitude/ supportively of the action / situation

Example
Prefixes Meaning Example
Co- together with cooperate, coexist, coworker
(Joined) coeditor, coauthor

Anti- against anti-clock wise, anti-war

(Opposite) anti-social, anti-virus

Counter- against counter take, counter party, counter attract

Pro- a side of pro-choice, prolife,

(Favoring) pro socialism, pro capitalism

Number prefixes
A prefixes which used to indicate the number, also used to show amount, quantity and scope
Example:
Prefixes Meaning Example
Mono- single monotheism, monologue, monogamy
(One) monoplane, monocotyledon, monoculture

uni- one unilateral, unidirection, unicycle

poly- many polytechnic, polysemy, polygamy. polytheism,

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 mult- many multpartism, multinational, multiracial,

semi- half semicyde, semifinal,

(Party) semiautomatic, semiconscious, semi annual

demi- half demigod, demipension, demimining

bi- two bifocal

Double bilingual, bilateral, dipedalism

duo- two duotone

double duodecimo, duopoly

tri- three triangle

Triple trinity, tri partite

tetra- four tetra gram,

Having four tetragonal, tetra code

Locative prefixes
Are that prefix which shows places or relative place. Are also used to show position or location

Examples:
Prefixes Meaning Example
Circum- around Circumlocution, Circumnavigate

in- inside indoor, inclusive, into,

inter- between/among international, interaction, interest, Interrace

trans- across transplant, trans Saharan, trans antlantic.

Intra- inside Intrapersonal, intraschool, Intranational

(In between)

a- At a particular Along
Side (position). Alone, ashore.

Sub- lower subway, submarine, subtitle

Under subdivide

im- inside of import, Imprison,

tele- at distance telescope, telephone, Telecommunication.

Conversion (verb) prefixes

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They have primary effects in changing the word class to the verb form.
Example:
Prefix Meaning Example
en- Make to be enlist, enlarge
Cause to be enroll, enclosed
Put into encode, ensure, endanger, enable.
Make into enrich, enslave

em- Make to be embitter

Put into empower, embark.

be- make to be be wife, be free

Becalm, be with, Be wriggle.

Prefixes of degree and size

Prefixes Meaning Example

macro- large macro economic

On large scale macro evolution

micro- Small microchip, micro computer

On small scale micro organism, micro economics

sub- less than subhuman, substandard,

substation

over- too much overheat, over warm

arch- highest Archbishop, Archrival
Chief / supreme Archenemy, Archduke

mega- very large megastar, mega store

Huge mega mix

mini- small minibus, mini skirt,

(Little) minicab, mini break
over- above overtime, overweight,
Too much overload, overreact, and overfeed

under- low underage, under heat

(Too little) under debt, undershirt, underestimate

super- above superpower, superman

More than better supernatural, super speed, super sonic

hyper- Extremely hypocritical, hyperactive

out- beyond/ exceeding outperform, outshout,

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 Longer than outdated

extra- above/ beyond extra power, extra money, Extra bonanza, Extra uses

ultra- Extremely beyond ultrasound, ultraviolet, ultra modem

sur- above/ beyond surface, surcharges

More than surplus, surtax

NOTE:
Add in your prefixes of order and time

Prefixes Meaning Example

Under- Below Underground, Undercarriage, underclothes

Supra- Above Supra score

Retro- Back retrospective,

SUFFIXES
 Suffixes are those bound morphemes which are added at the end of the word/root of the word to form
or to make a new word.
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 Suffixes (also sometimes termed postfixes) are the bound morphemes which are placed after the root
or base of a word.
 Suffixes can carry grammatical information (inflectional suffixes) or lexical information (derivational
suffixes).

Inflectional suffixes do not change the word class or word meaning but show the grammatical
information. Example of the inflectional suffixes;
Girls, where the suffix -s marks the plural.
He makes, where suffix -s marks the third person singular present tense.
It closed, where the suffix -ed marks the past tense.

While Derivational suffixes changes word class and word meaning. Hence can be divided into two
categories, namely class-changing derivation and class-maintaining derivation;

Class-changing derivational suffixes, when added to the root or base , immediately change the class of
the words, making them alternatively as a verb, a noun, an adverb, or an adjective. Example in the word
Emergency, dependency, suffix –ency means state of being (change Verb to be Noun)
Soften, widen, suffix -en means make into or make it to be (change adjective to be Verb)

Class-maintaining derivational suffixes do not change the word class but change only the status of the
word i.e. from one status to another of the same group; for example, the noun adult and the suffix –hood
create another noun adulthood, but now it is an abstract noun rather than a concrete noun. Or in the
following words;
Socialism, materialism, suffix –ism means in supporting of (class-maintaining derivation)
Greenish, foolish, suffix -ish means state of being (class-maintaining derivation)

NOTE
The suffix causes a spelling change (morphological changes) to the original word. Examples of spelling
changes include:
1. beauty, duty + -ful → beautiful, dutiful (-y changes to i)

2. heavy, ready + -ness → heaviness, readiness (-y changes to i)

3. able, possible + -ity → ability, possibility (-le changes to il)
4. permit, omit + -ion → permission, omission (-t changes to ss)
5. complicate, create +-ion → complication, creation (-e ending disappears when the -ion added)

Suffixation - Is the process of adding/attaching bound morphemes at end of the word / root of the word to
form another word. In English language suffixes are classified according to the word class they form.
Kind of suffixes
a) Noun suffixes
b) Verb suffixes
c) Adjective suffixes
d) Adverb suffixes
e) Diminutive and feminine suffixes.

NOUN SUFFIXES
These are the suffixes which denote noun either by changing other word groups to be noun or by
changing one type of noun to another.
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Suffix Meaning Examples
-ster Person engaged in gangster, tapster
An occupation/doer trickster, songster

-eer person who operates auctioneer, engineer, volunteer

And produce

-er in a group of teenager, old timer

Associated/belong Londoner, New Yorker

-er agentive/doer driver, player

Taker, keeper

-or agentive/doer creditor, sailor, grantor

-ant. Agentive and inhabitant, accountant

Instrumental pollutant, defendant

-ee passive/receiver employee, Addressee

Payee, interviewee

-tion state of being action exploration

-ion mobilization

-ment state of being amazement

Punishment, development

-al a state of being refusal, survival, Dismissal, arrival

-ing an activity driving, playing

Result of activity eating, building

-ness state of being happiness, laziness, Madness

A quality of kindness, fitness

-ity state of being sanity

A quality of ability, duality
Ambiguity, possibility
-ite a member of Socialite, favourite
-ese nationality Japanese, Chinese
To be being in a Togolese, Senegalese
Particular nation Congolese

-ist member of socialist, artist, matenalist

Capitalist, idealist
Journalist

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 -ism attitude of idealism, colonist, colonialism
In supporting socialism, journalism

-hood state of being boy hood

In states of brotherhood, man hood

-ship in status of friendship

State of being kind sip, dictatorship

-dom in state of kingdom, stardom

-ocracy system of democracy

Aristocracy
-(e)ry behaviour slavery, machinery
Refinery, citizenry

-ful in a state of spoonful, joyful

In amount of plateful helpful
Handful

-age in amount of package, drainage

In state of leakage, manage
Other Noun Suffixes
 -ance means the activity of
Resist- resistance and in the word Ally- alliance
 -ancy means the of doing something
Occupy- occupancy
Expect-expectancy
Accept- acceptance

 -ency means state of being

Emerge - emergency
Depend- dependency

Nominalization is process of changing other words categories (classes) verb or adjectives to be noun.
Example:
(Before nominalization) (After nominalization)
Verb noun
-or credit, sail, grant creditor, sailor, grantor

-ee employ, address, pay, employee, Addressee, Payee

ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES
These are the suffixes which denote adjectives by changing other word groups to be adjectives

For instance:

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Suffix Meaning Example
-al having a state of Musical
State of being Social, editorial
Educational, criminal

-ic belong to Horrific, angelic

Apostolic, heroic

-ive state of being Attractive, affirmative

Sensitive, active

-ish Having a particular Boyish

Behaviour Youngish, womanish

-able in the state of applicable, readable

-ible in the state of forcible, possible

-ian belong to Tanzanian, Indian

(or -an) (Nationality) African, kenyan

-ese belong to Japanese, Chinese

(Nationally) Sudanese

-ent in state of different, dependent

Recurrent

-istic having a particular Socialistic

Behaviour Capitalistic
Nationalistic, characteristic

-ist belong to Nationalist, feudalist

Socialist

-ary belong to customary

Budgetary, secondary

-less without Hopeless, Careless

Useless, homeless.

-y Having a quality of Skinny, wordy

Covered with Creamy,windy
Homey, sunny

-like Having a quality of Childlike

Warlike, cowlick

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 -ful Having quality of Useful
Thankful
Harmful, hopeful

-ly Having quality of Friendly, Cowardly

-ed(d) Having of talented, printed, cooked

-ing Having of drawing, dancing

ADVERB SUFFIXES
These are the suffixes which denote adverb by changing other word groups to adverbs

Suffix Meaning Example

-ly in a particular way slowly, suddenly
Angrily, badly

-wise in direction of clockwise, otherwise

Educational wise

-ward to the direction of downward

Home ward, eastward

Suffix Meaning Example

-wide covering a particular place village wide, world wide
Completely country wide, national wide

VERB SUFFIXES
These are the suffixes which denote verb by changing other word groups to be verb
In English language there are the following verb suffixes: -ize, -ify, -en, -ate

-ize means make to be

Equalize
Civilize
Nationalize
Organize
Industrialize

economise, realise, (-ise is most common in British English; -ize is most common in American English)

-ify means make to be (to do something)

Justify
Qualify
Classify

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Simplify

-en means make to be

Widen
Tighten
Soften
Lighten

-ate means make to be (to do something)

Complicate
Dominate
Irritate
Urinate
Activate

NB: -s, -ies, -es, -ed, -ing are not the verb suffixes because they show tenses directly and does not
change the word class.

DIMINUTIVE SUFFIXES

These are the suffixes which create meaning of ‘small’ or ‘little’.

-ette Small Kitchenette, statuette, novelette

-let Small/little Booklet, Piglet, and Droplet, eyelet

-ling Little/small Seedling, Duckling, darling

-ie a small (informal) birdie, doggie, sweetie, cutie

FAMININE SUFFIXES
The most common suffix used to mark feminine nouns is “-ess.”

-ess Female Actress, Waitress, Mistress, poetess, lioness, princess

There is one word that can take the suffix “-er” to become masculine feminine word widow (meaning a
woman whose spouse had died) masculine by adding “-er”—widower (a man whose spouse has died).

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