Meaning in affixes.
The meaning of an affix is related to some notion of a very general character. The affix doesn’t evoke any image. For this the affix depends on the base. However certain meanings can be defined and can be included in the meaning of the derivative.
e. g. –er – denotes the idea of an agent
Consequently the meaning of the derivative consists of two items: a person who performs the action and the action denoted by the base: speak-er.
The meaning of a derivative is patterned on the basis of the derivational pattern.
e. g. sleep-er
Affixes are meaningful units. They can be classified according to their meanings.
e. g. –eer, -er, -ent = agents (student, engineer)
e. g. un-, im-, dis-, il- = prefixes denoting negation (illegal)
Some affixes are polisemantic.
e. g. er – an agent
an instrument (eraser)
The derivatives can also be polisemantic.
e. g. a reader – a person who reads
a book for reading (хрестоматия)
e. g. cutter – one who cuts (огранщик)
an instrument used for cutting (резец)
e. g. driver – agent (водитель, погонщик)
an instrument (драйвер)
So the polysemy of the affixes influences the polysemy of the derivatives.
e. g. –ish
characteristic of a nation (British)
derogatory (уничижительный), having the nature of (childish, bookish, sheepish)
having a smaller degree of a quality (greenish)
e. g. –able
can be + V(3) (breakable – can be broken, readable – can be read)
it can be combined with a negative prefix (unacceptable)
Suffixes point to the part of speech they form. In some suffixes the lexical meaning is vague and the grammatical meaning is definite.
e. g. –ment (government, punishment)
Some affixes can be identified only by means of etymological analysis. Very often such affixes are combined with bound bases.
e. g. –lock (wedlock – женитьба)
-red (hatred)
There are also affixes which have developed from verbs and free bases.
e. g. –like
ship (friendship)
ful (beautiful)
dom (freedom)
hood (childhood)
From the etymological point of view affixes are classified into two large groups:
native;
borrowed. [Antruschina, p. 80-81]
Affixes can also be classified into:
productive and
non-productive types.
Productive affixes take part in coining new words in this particular period of language development. The best way to identify productive affixes is to look for them among neologisms and so-called nonce-words, i. e. words coined and used for this particular occasion.
e. g. I don’t like Sunday evenings: I feel so Mondayish.
The productivity of affixes shouldn’t be confused with their frequency of usage.
e. g. –ful, -ly are quite common, but they are not used in derivation.
Valency in the affixes
Valency is ability to combine.
Not all combinations of existing morphemes are actually used. Thus unhappy, untrue, unattractive are quite regular combinations, while seemingly analogous unsad, unpretty seem unusual. The possibility of a particular stem taking a particular affix depends on phonomorphological, morphological and semantic factors.
Affixes are selective in regards of the basis they are combined with. In modern English the valency of some productive affixes is limited only by the part-of-speech reference of the base.
e. g. –ness – forms abstract nouns from adjectives: kindness, darkness, changelessness (монотонность)
Bases are also selective as to the affixes they take and make a cluster of words (семья слов) built on the same base.
e. g. child – hood, +ish, +less
e. g. fool - +ish, +ery (дурачество)
e. g. –ify + cation: modify – modification, classify – classification
e. g. –ize +ation: organize – organization
In modern terminological system some productive patterns are identified
anti + N-er = N
e. g. antiager (препятствующий старению), antiicer (противообледенитель)
de + N + ation = N
e. g. (удаление вещества) dechloridation (удаление хлора)
de + N + ase = N (фермент)
dehydroginase (фермент, контролирующий выделение водорода)