Productive and Non-Productive affixes
Productive affixes
By productive affixes we mean the ability of being used to form new, occasional or potential words, which take part in deriving new words in this particular period of language development.
The most productive prefixes in Modern English are:
de- /decontaminate/
re- /rethink/
pre- /prefabricate/
non- /non-operational/
un- /unfunny/
anti- /antibiotic/
dis- /disappoint/
The most productive English suffixes are:
Noun-forming suffixes -er, -ing, -ness, -ation, -ee, -ism, -ist, -ance/-ancy, -ry, -or, -ics
Adjective-forming suffixes -able, -ic, -ish, -ed, - less, -y
Verb-forming suffixes -ize/-ise, -ate, -ify
Adverb-forming suffixes -ly
Non-productive affixes
By non-productive affixes we mean affixes which are not able to form new words in the period in question. Non-productive affixes are recognized as separate morphemes and possess clear-cut semantic characteristics.
Some non-productive English suffixes are:
Noun-forming suffixes -th, -hood, -ship
Adjective-forming suffixes -ful, -ly, -some, -en, -ous
Verb-forming suffixes -en
It is worthy of note that an affix may lose its productivity and then become productive again in the process of word-formation. The native noun-forming suffixes –dom and – ship ceased to be productive centuries ago. Yet, Professor I.V.Arnold in The English Word gives some examples of comparatively new formations with the suffis –dom: boredom, slavedom, serfdom and –ship, salesmanship. The adjective-forming –ish, which leaves no doubt as to its productivity nowadays, has comparatively recently regained it, after having been non-productive for many centuries.
The productivity of an affix should not be confused with its frequency of occurrence. The frequency of occurrence is understood as the existence in the vocabulary of a great number of words containing the affix in question. An affix may occur in hundreds of words, but if it is not used to form new words, it is not productive. For example, the adjective suffix – ful is met in hundreds of adjectives beautiful, hopeful, trustful, useful , but no new words seem to be built with its help, and so it is
non-productive.
Classification of Suffixes and Prefixes
Suffixes usually modify the lexical meaning of the base and transfer words to a different part of speech. There are suffixes, however, which do not shift words from one part of speech into another. They can transfer a word into a different semantic group, e.g. a concrete noun becomes an abstract one : friend – friendship.
Suffixes and Prefixes can be classified into different types in accordance with different principles.
1. According to the lexico-grammatical character of the base suffixes and prefixes are usually added to, they may be: deverbal, denominal, deadjectival.
2. According to the class of words they form suffixes and prefixes fall into several groups: noun-forming, adjective-forming, verb-forming, adverb-forming. According to the part of speech formed suffixes may be numeral-forming. It should be mentioned that the majority of prefixes function in more that one part of speech.
3. Semantically suffixes and prefixes fall into: monosemantic, polysemantic.
4. According to their stylistic reference suffixes may be classified into: those characterized by neutral stylistic reference, those having a certain stylistic value ( these suffixes occur in terms and are bookish).
5. According to their generalizing denotational meaning:
suffixes may fall into several groups: e.g. the agent of the action, collectivity...
prefixes fall into: negative (un-, non-, in-, dis-, a-), reversative (un-, de-, dis-), pejorative (mis-, mal-, pseudo-), prefixes of time and order (fore-, pre-, past-, ex-), prefixes of repetition (re-), locative (super-, sub-, inter-, trans-).