Morphology (Suffix, Prefix, Affix)

Morphology Class – Changing Prefixes 1. a- /ₔ/ this is prefixing forms adjectives, but not exclusively from forms which are ambiguous between nouns and verbs. For examples : “Wash” becomes “awash” means “terapung-apung” “Sleep” becomes “asleep” means “tertidur” 2. be- this is prefixing forms transitive verbs from adjectives, verbs, or nouns. For examples : “Calm” becomes “becalm” means “menenangkan or tenang lah” “Friend” becomes “befriend” means “berteman, menolong” 3. en- this is prefixing forms transitive verbs from nouns. For examples : “Tomb” becomes “entomb” means “memakamkan” “Slave” becomes “enslave” means “memperbudak” 4. Other prefixes are: “un” for “unlimited” means “tak terbatas” “dis” for “disable” means “melumpuhkan” “de” for “deactivate” means “menonaktifkan” “non” for “nonalcoholic” means “tanpa alcohol”

Class-maintaining prefixes 1. Used exclusively with a noun base 

Arch- This is prefix is added to human nouns to denote an extreme or pre-eminent person. For example: “Bishop” becomes “Archbishop” means “Uskup besar”



Mini- here, this prefix can be distinguished, but they all appear to be limited to noun bases. For example: “Computer” becomes “minicomputer” means “komputer kecil”



Step- for example: “Mother” becomes “stepmother” means “Ibu tiri”

Prefix is a word or letter placed at the beginning of another words or a base word to adjust or qualify its usage or meaning.



Used exclusively with a verb base The use of this kind of prefix is infrequently and this kind of prefix in a class which change the prefix it self. For example –de has distinguishable meanings and is often in competition with dis- and un-. Example: dethrone means displace, declaw means unreachable, dealcoholized means remove alcohol from drink, etc.



Used exclusively with an adjective "a-" is a Greek prefix meaning "not" or "without". It is found almost exclusively with words formed from Greek roots. You can usually spot these by the spellings: "ph", "th", "y", "rh", "chr", "pn", "mn", final "sis" or "ic".

theist / atheist chromatic / achomatic rhythmic / arhythmic symmetry / asymmetry This prefix is found mostly in scientific terminology, especially in the medical sciences. "agranulocytosis", "apnea", "amenorrhea", "anemia", "apraxia", "amitosis".

However, these are not cases where the prefix was applied to an already existing word. Most people know these words as a single unit. They are unaware that the initial "a" has a separate meaning of its own. These should be learned separately, as there are very few pairs like those cited above.

This prefix is also confusable with the native English prefix "a-", as in "ago", "asleep", "aside", which does not have anything to do with negation. 

Prefix added to nouns and verbs Fore- is a prefix, which is means before. This prefix is commonly come before noun. For example, forehead, forearm, and forerunner. Re- is kind of prefix means again. This prefix is commonly used before verbs. For example, rerun, recycle, etc.



Prefixes added to nouns and adjective "in-" is a prefix from Latin, so it is usually seen when the root is from Latin. While native English roots tend to be monosyllabic, Latin roots tend to be polysyllabic. "in-"changes to "im-" before "m", "p", and "b". It changes to "il-" before "l" and to "ir-" before "r". This pattern is quite common with adjectives (derived from Latin).

articulate / inarticulate polite / impolite possible / impossible modest / immodest legal / illegal reverent / irreverent regular / irregular sanity / insanity

Latin also uses the prefix "in-" in other ways, not necessarily for negation, so caution is advised! For example, "improve" is not the negation of "prove"! Probably the most maddening of these is the word "inflammable", which means the same thing as "flammable", not the opposite! You will sometimes see the word "nonflammable", which is more clearly the opposite of "flammable “mid” means in a middle of. This prefix is extremely limited productivity. Originally used exclusively with nouns. For example mid test, mid morning, mid November, etc. other prefix in this group is ex- which is mean former. For example, ex wife, ex president, ex lecturer, and etc. 

Prefixes Added to Verbs and Adjectives

This category is rare, even with the prefix given here, nominalization of the verbs are common.

a. CircumThis prefix found in Latin words only, but later it is used with English bases. The examples of verbs are: circumnavigate and circumscribe. And the example of adjectives are circumjacent and circumpolar, with a recent example circumstellar. 

Prefixes added to Nouns, verbs, and Adjectives. b. counter-

Marchand (1969) notes this prefix as being used with nouns and verbs with the occasional deverbal adjective. Recent examples, however, also include adjectives. Recent examples on a nominal base are counterculture, countereffect, counterstrike. On verbal base: counterdemonstrate. On an adjective base: counterattractive, counterintuitive, and counterproductive. c. disIn the formation of verbs, this prefix is also added to nouns and adjectives. Example: disbenefit, disinformation, disambiguate, disemplane, and disbound d. Another example of this category are: co- (co-author, co-articulate, and coequal), inter- (interdependence, intermix, interdigital), and sub- (subwarden, sublet, subconscious). Suffixation In this section, suffixes are classified according to the form class of the derivatives they produce. No attempt at exhaustiveness has been made in the lists of illustrations provided in each section. 

Suffixes Forming nouns a. Nouns from nouns -dom This suffix forms abstract, uncountable nouns from concrete, uncountable ones. For a long time it was thought that the suffix was moribund or totally non productive, but Wentworth (1941) showed that it had never completely died out, and it is still productive in contemporary English, though not very much so. Recent examples include Dollardom, fagdom, gangsterdom, girldom (all OEDS) -ess This suffix forms female human nouns from unmarked or male human nouns, showing either professional status or the status of the woman's husband. Of recent years, this suffix has met with a certain amount of

disapproval from feminists, but it is still productive at the moment, though the productivity is limited because of competition from other pattern, notably compounds with a first element woman and the (especially US) suffix –ette. The only word in -ess listed by Barnhart et al. (I973) is astronautess, but I have also attested seeress (woman clairvoyant). -iana This suffix is added almost exclusively to human proper, nouns to form uncountable nouns meaning 'things, especially literary facts, connected with the person in the base. Recent examples listed in the OEDS include Butterfieldiana, Etoniana, flunkeyiana, railroadiana. Other suffixes which produce nouns from nouns are -er (Birch > Bircher), ette (kitchen> kitchenette), -hood (man > manhood), -ism (absentee> absenteeism), -let (stream > streamlet), -ling (duck > duckling), -scape (sea > seascape), -ship (kin > kinship). This list is not exhaustive.