Affix: Encyclopedia - Affix

Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a base morpheme such as a root or to a stem, to form a word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed.

Affixes are divided into several types, depending on their position with reference to the root:

• Prefixes (attached before another morpheme)
• Suffixes (attached after another morpheme)
• Infixes (inserted within another morpheme)
• Circumfixes (attached before and after another morpheme or set of morphemes)
• Interfixes
• Suprafixes (also superfix) (attached suprasegmentally to another morpheme)
• Disfixes (also subtractive morpheme)
• Simulfixes (also transfix or root-and-pattern morphology)
• Duplifix (also reduplication)

Affixes are bound morphemes by definition. Prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes.

There also has been a proposal of a somewhat different type of affix, a disfix, which subtracts phonological segments from bases.

Affixes are central to the process of concatenation.

¹ English infixes only exist in exclamatory constructions like the given example.
² There are only two words in the english language said to use circumfixes. Embolden and Enlighten.

Affix - Lexical affixes

Lexical affixes are affixes which carry so much, and such unpredictable meaning that they are more like typical roots than like typical affixes. An example would be the lexical suffixes found in the Wakashan, Salishan, and Chimakuan languages of the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

See also

• Derivation
• List of English prefixes
• List of English suffixes
• Family name affixes
• Combining form

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Affix", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki