Productivity

Distinction is usually made between dead and living affixes. Dead affixes are described as those which are no longer felt in Modem English as component parts Of words: e.g. -d in dead; -le in bundle, -t in flight. Living affixes may be easily singled out from a word, e.g. the noun-forming suffixes -ness, -dom, -hood, -ance (darkness, freedom, childhood, assistance) or the adjective-forming suffixes -en, -ous, -ive, -ful, -y as in wooden, poisonous, active, hopeful, stony, etc. However, not all living derivational affixes of Modern English possess the ability to coin new words. Living affixes fall into two basic classes — productive and non­productive word-building affixes. Linguists disagree as to what is meant by the productivity of derivational affixes. Following the first approach all living affixes should be considered productive in varying degrees from highly-productive (-er -ish, -less, re-, etc.), to non-productive (-ard, -cy, ive, etc.). The degree of productivity of affixational patterns very much depends on the structural, lexico-grammatical and semantic nature of bases and the meaning of the affix. For instance, the analysis of the bases from which the suffix –ize can derive verbs reveals that it is most productive with noun — bases and adjective — bases, whereas verb-bases and adverb-bases do not favour its productivity: criticise; (critic), organise (organ), mobilise (mobile). Non-productive affixes may .be defined as: 1) those unlikely to be used for the formation of new-words (-ous, -th, fore-) (e.g. famous, depth, to foresee).

2) those that cannot be used for the formation of occasional words and, consequently, such affixes as -dom, -ship, -ify, -ate and many others are to be regarded as non­productive.

There are cases when a derivational affix being non-productive in the non-specialized section of the vocabulary is used to coin scientific or technical terms. This is the case, for instance, with the suffix, -ance (assistance) which has been 'used to form some terms in Electrical Engineering (capacitance, reactance).

Origin of Derivational Affixes

From the point of view of their origin derivational affixes in Modern English fall into native and foreign affixes. E.g., the suffixes -ness, -ish, -dom, and the prefixes be-, mis-, un- are of native origin, whereas such suffixes as -ation, -ment, -able and prefixes dis-, ex-, re- are of foreign origin. Many of the suffixes and prefixes of native origin were originally independent words. In the course of time they have gradually lost their independence and turned into derivational affixes. For instance, the noun-suffixes -dom, -hood may be traced back to dom n ("judgement") and had

("state"); the adjective suffix -ly (friendly) is traced back to the noun lie .

("body"). The same is true of prefixes: some have developed from independent words (out-, under-, over-) (OE ut - adverb, OE under - adverb, of er - adverb). In the course of its historical development the English language has adopted a great many suffixes and prefixes from foreign languages. This process does not consist in borrowing derivational affixes as such. It is words that the language borrows from a foreign language and the borrowed words bring with them their derivatives containing affixes. Among borrowed derivational affixes we find suffixes and prefixes: (-able, -al, -age, -ist, -ism). dis-, en-/em-, non-, re-). The adoption of countless foreign words also resulted in the appearance of many hybrid words in the English vocabulary. Hybrid words are those which consist of a foreign base and a native affix, (colourless, uncertain) or those words which consist of a native 'base and a' foreign affix (e.g. drinkable, joyous).