Chapter: lexicology and its object subject matter of Lexicology

Answer the following questions.
1. What do you understand by affixation? 2. What is affixation subdivided 'nto? 3- What is a prefix and a suffix? 4. What is the difference between a prefix and a suffix? 5. What can you say about the different treatment of a prefix by different linguists? 6. What is the origin of affixes? 7, What do we call homonymic affixes? 8. What do we call synonymous affixes? 9. What do we call polysemantic 'affixes? 10. What meanings do the suffixes «-er» and other suffixes and prefixes have?.


3. The Classification of Affixes
There are different classifications of affixes in linguistic literature. Affixes may be divided into dead and living. Dead affixes are those which are no longer felt in Modern English as component parts of words. They can be singled out only by an etymological analysis. For example, admit (from L ad -(-mit-tere); deed, seed (-d) flight, bright (-t).
Living affixes are easily singled out from a word. For example, freedom, childhood, marriage. Living affixes are traditionally in their turn divided into productive and non-productive. The term "productivity" is a subject of discussion among the linguists
K.E. Zimmer 1 argues that «The term «productive» is often used rather ndiscriminately to refer both to certain aspects of the behavior of the speakers of a language and to certain diachronic trends while there is presumably in many cases a connection between these two aspects of productivity. It is necessary to keep the distinction in mind. Morover, and more importantly the concept of what we might term «synchronic productivity)) is itself often used in a rather illdefined way in the area of word formation, and it is in many cases difficult to decide just what is being implied when a morphological process is said to be synchronically productive. (K. E. Zimmer)
However, «It follows that productivity of word -building ways, individual derivational patterns and derivational affixes is understood as their ability of making new words which all, we speak English, find no difficulty in understanding, in particular their ability to create what are called occasional words». (GinzburgR, S. and others)
«A derivational pattern or a derivational affix are qualified as productive provided there are in word-stock dozens and hundreds of derived words built on the pattern or with the help of the suffix in questions. Derivational productivity distinguisned from wordformation activity by which is meant the ability of an affix to produce new words. (E. C. Ky6p якова )
«We call productive those affixes and types of word-formation which used to form new words in the period in question. The proof of productivity is existence of new words coined by these means. Therefore when we see that notion that couid not possibly have existed at some previous stage has a narn formed with the help of some affix the affix is considered productive)). ( Arnold V.)
Another point of view is given by Ch. Hockett «The productivity of an pattern-derivational, inflectional or syntactical — is the relative freedom wil which speakers coin new grammatical forms by it. Thus the formation of Englis noun-plurals with z, s, iz is highly productive. The addition of -ly to produce a adverbial is fairly productive. (Ch. Hockett.) We think that productive affixes are those which are characterized by their ability to make new words. For example. -< (baker, lander ) -ist (leftist) -ism, -ish (baldish) -ing, -ness, -ation, -ee. -ry, -or ance, ic are productive suffixes re-, un-non-, anti- etc are productive prefixes. Non-productive affixes are those which are not used to form new words in Moderr English. For example, -ard, -cy, -ive, -en, -dom, -ship, -en, -ify etc are no productive suffixes; in (il) ir- (im-), are non-productive prefixes. These affixes ma occur in a great number of words but if they are not used to form new words Modern English they are not productive.
But recent investigations prove that there are no productive and non productive affixes because each affix plays a certain role in wordformation. Thei are only affixes with different degrees of productivity, besides that productivity o affixes should not be mixed up with their frequency of occurence in speed Frequency of affixes is characterised by the occurence of an affix in a j number of words. But productivity is the ability of a given suffix or prefix to mak new words. An affix may be frequent but not productive, For example, the suf- fix«-ive» is very frequent but non-productive.
The native noun-forming suffixes ~dom and -ship ceased to> be productiv centuries ago. Yet, Professor I. V. Arnold in The English Word gives som examples of comparatively new formations with the suffix -dom: boredom serfdom, slavedom. The same is true about -ship (e. g. salesmanship). Th adjective-forming -ish, which leaves no doubt as to its productivity nowadays, ha comparatively recently regained it, after having been non-productive for man centuries.
Some linguists' distinguish between two types of prefixes:
1) those which are like functional words (such as prepositions or adverbs) (Fa- example, out-, over-, up--)
2) those which are not correlated with any independent words, (For example, un-, dis-, re-, mis-, etc).
Prefixes out-, over-, up-, under-, etc are considered as semibound morphemes. However, this view is doubtful because these prefixes are quite frequent in speech and like other derivational affixes have a generalized meaning. They have no grammatical meaning like the independent words. We think they are bound morphemes and should be regarded as homonyms of the corresponding independent words, For example, the prefix «out-» in outdoor, outcome, outbreak etc is homonymous to the preposition «out» in «out o/door» and the adverb «out» in «He went out».
Prefixes and suffixes may be classified according to their meaning. I) prefixes of negative meaning such as: de- non-, un- in-, ir-, //-, im-, dis- (For example, defeat, decentralize, disappear, impossible, discomfort etc); 2) prefixes, denoting space and time relations: after-, under-, for-, pre-, post-, over-, super- (For example, prehistory, postposition, superstructure, overspread, afternoon, forefather); 3) prefixes denoting repetition of an action such as: re- (For example. reread, remake).
Like prefixes the suffixes are also classified according to their meaning: 1) the agent suffixes: -er, -or, -ist, -ee etc. (baker, sailor, typist, employee); 2) appurtenance: -an, -ian, -ese (Arabian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese); 3) collectivity: -age, -dom, -hood, -ery (peasantry, marriage, kingdom, childhood); 4) diminutiveness: -let, -ock, -ie etc (birdie, cloudlet, hillock); 5) quantitativeness: - ful, -ous, -y, -ive, -ly, -some.
Suffixes may be divided into different groups according to what part of speech they form: 1) noun-forming, i. e. those which form nouns: -er, -dom, -ness, -ation, -ity, -age, -ance/. -ence, -ist, -hood,-ship, -ment etc; 2) adjective-forming: -able/, -ible/. -uble, -al, -ian, -ese, -ate, -ed, -ful, -ive, -ous, -y etc; 3) numeral-forming: -teen, -th, -ty etc; 4) verb-forming: -ate, -en, -ify,-ize etc.; 5) adverb-forming: -ly, -ward,-wise etc.
Suffixes may be added to the stem of different parts of speech. According to this point of view they may be:
1) those added to verbs; -er, -ing, -ment, -able; 2) those added to nouns: - less, -ish, -ful, -ist, some etc; 3) those added to adjectives: -en, -ly. -ish, -ness etc. Suffixes are also classified according to their stylistic reference: 1) suffixes, which characterize neutral stylistic reference: -able, -er, -ing (For example, dancer, understandable «helping»; 2) suffixes which characterize a certain stylistic reference, -aid, -form, -iron etc (astroid, rhomboid, cruciform, cyclotron etc)