D. V. Demidov

structure of the word is based on two criteria: the positional 
criterion – the location of the morphemes with regard to each 
other, and the semantic (or functional) criterion – the contribution 
of the morphemes to the general meaning of the word.
According to these criteria morphemes are divided into 
root-morphemes (roots) and affixal morphemes (affixes). Roots 
express the concrete, ―material‖ part of the meaning of the word 
and constitute its central part. Affixes express the specificational 
part of the meaning of the word: they specify, or transform the 
meaning of the root. Affixal specification may be of two kinds: of 
lexical or grammatical character. So, according to the semantic 
criterion affixes are further subdivided into lexical, or word-
building (derivational) affixes, which together with the root 
constitute the stem of the word, and grammatical, or word-
changing affixes, expressing different morphological categories, 
such as number, case, tense and others. With the help of lexical 
affixes new words are derived, or built; with the help of 
grammatical affixes the form of the word is changed. 
According to the positional criterion affixes are divided 
into prefixes, situated before the root in the word, e.g.: under-
estimate, and suffixes, situated after the root, e.g.: underestim-ate. 
Prefixes in English are only lexical: the word underestimate 
is derived from the word estimate with the help of the prefix under-. 
Suffixes in English may be either lexical or grammatical; e.g. in the 

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word underestimates -ate is a lexical suffix, because it is used to 
derive the verb estimate (v) from the noun esteem (n), and –s is a 
grammatical suffix making the 3rd person, singular form of the 
verb to underestimate. Grammatical suffixes are also called 
inflexions (inflections, inflectional endings).
Grammatical suffixes in English have certain peculiarities, 
which make them different from inflections in other languages: 
since they are the remnants of the old inflectional system, there 
are few (only six) remaining word-changing suffixes in English:
-(e)s, -ed, -ing, -er, -est, -en; most of them are homonymous, e.g.: 
-(e)s is used to form the plural of the noun (dogs), the genitive of 
the noun (my friend‘s), and the 3rd person singular of the verb 
(works); some of them have lost their inflectional properties and 
can be attached to units larger than the word, e.g.: his daughter 
Mary‟s arrival. That is why the term ―inflection‖ is seldom used 
to denote the grammatical components of words in English.
Grammatical 
suffixes 
form 
word-changing, 
or 
morphological paradigms of words, which can be observed to 
their full extent in inflectional langua ges, such as Russian, e.g.: 
стол – стола – столу – столом - о столе; morphological 
paradigms exist, though not on the same scale, in English too, e.g., 
the number paradigm of the noun: boy – boys. 
Lexical affixes are primarily studied by lexicology with 
regard to the meaning which they contribute to the general 
meaning of the whole word. In grammar word-building suffixes 
are studied as the formal marks of the words belonging to 
different parts of speech; they form lexical (word-building, 
derivational) paradigms of words united by a common root, e.g.: 
to decide – decision – decisive – decisively 
to incise – incision – incisive – incisively 
Being the formal marks of words of different parts of 
speech, word-building suffixes are also grammatically relevant. 

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But grammar study is primarily concerned with grammatical, 
word-changing, or functional affixes, because they change the 
word according to its grammatical categories.
Summing up what has been said above, we may point out 
some of the properties of the morpheme and the word which are 
fundamental from the point of view of their systemic status and 
therefore require detailed investigations and descriptions.
The morpheme is a meaningful segmental component of 
the word; the morpheme is formed by phonemes; as a meaningful 
component of the word it is elementary (i.e. indivisible into 
smaller segments as regards its significative function).
The word is a nominative unit of language; it is formed by 
morphemes; it enters the lexicon of language as its elementary 
component (i.e. a component indivisible into smaller segments as 
regards its nominative function); together with other nominative 
units the word is used for the formation of the sentence – a unit of 
information in the communication process.