Affixes

 Affixes

Affixes are morphemes, which are the smallest units of meaning in a language, added to the beginning (prefixes), middle (infixes), or end (suffixes) of words to create new words or modify the meaning of existing words. Here's a breakdown of these types of affixes:

1. Prefixes:

• Definition: Prefixes are affixes added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning or create a new word.
• Example: Un- (meaning "not" or "opposite"): happy → unhappy

2. Suffixes:

• Definition: Suffixes are affixes added to the end of a word to change its meaning or create a new word.
• Example: -er (forming a person associated with or engaged in a specified activity): teach → teacher

3. Infixes:

• Definition: Infixes are affixes inserted into a word to create a new word or change its meaning. In English, infixes are rare and often used in informal speech or in specific dialects.
• Example: There are few infixes in English, but one rare example is in words like fan-freaking-tastic.

4. Circumfixes:

• Definition: Circumfixes are affixes that surround the base word, adding meaning to the word.
• Example: In English, pure circumfixes are not common, but a circumfix-like construction can be seen in certain verbs like enlighten, where the prefix en- and the suffix -en together form the verb.

5. Derivation vs. Inflection:

• Derivation: Affixes used to create new words or to make words of a different grammatical category are called derivational affixes. They can change the meaning or part of speech of the base word.
  • Example: Happy (adjective) → Happiness (noun) using the suffix -ness.
• Inflection: Inflectional affixes, on the other hand, do not change the basic meaning or part of speech of a word but indicate grammatical features such as tense, aspect, number, case, etc.
  • Example: Dog (singular) → Dogs (plural) using the suffix -s for pluralization.

Affixes are fundamental elements in morphological processes, and understanding them is crucial for vocabulary expansion and grammatical analysis in linguistics.