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bound, but must be bound in a particular position”. Further, Parker 1986: 69 states that an affix is “the more familiar term for the class of bound grammatical
morphemes”. In short, affix is a bound morpheme, meaning that it must be attached to a free form so it can stand as a word. There are two types of affix, namely prefix
and suffix. The classification of affix is based on its occurrences in the base. Prefix is an affix that is attached in front of the base, for example, prefix de- in the word de-
activate. Suffix is an affix attached to the end of the base, such as suffix –er in the worker O’Grady de Guzman, 2011: 120. Affix is involved in the creation of
word, as seen in the affix –er in worker. It is therefore used as a component to identify and analyze the creation of word in the word formation.
5. Root, Stem and Base
A root, according to Katamba 1993: 41, is “the irreducible core of a word, with absolutely nothing else attached to it”. In other words, a root is the core of the
word in which it is not yet attached and added to other elements. For example, the word worker has work as the root and –er as the suffix. Further, the root typically
belongs to a lexical category, such as noun, verb, adjective, or preposition O’Grady de Guzman, 2011: 119. Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams 2010: 80 share the same
opinion with Katamba to define a root that a root is “a lexical content morpheme that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts.” On the other hand, according to O’Grady and
de Guzman, a root is also a base in many cases to which the affix is added O’Grady de Guzman, 2011: 119. Summarizing all the definition from Katamba 1993,
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Fromkin et al. 2010 and O’Grady and de Guzman 2011, the researcher concludes that a root can be the core element in which it has not attached yet to other elements
and it cannot be analyzed into smaller parts. Moreover, it is the element to which the affix is added.
A base, according to Katamba 1993: 45, is any unit to which either inflectional affixes or derivational affixes can be added. However, there is a specific
term in dealing with inflectional affixes. A stem is used to deal with inflectional morphology, including inflectional affixes Bauer, 1983: 20. Bauer 1983 provides
the example in the word untouchables. The stem is untouchable and the inflectional suffix –s is added to the stem. She 1983 concludes that “stem is the part of word-
form which remains when all inflectional affixes have been removed” p. 20. Katamba also proposes that all roots are bases. The definition of a base is
similar to O’Grady and de Guzman’s study 2011:119 that a base is also a root. However, O’Grady and de Guzman enhance Katamba’s theory that a base can be
larger than a root since a root is always a single morpheme. In order to illustrate O’Grady and de Guzman’s study, a tree diagram is used. The tree diagram is used to
“represent the hierarchical organization of words and sentences” Fromkin, Rodman Hyams, 2010: 84. The tree diagram depicted in Figure 2.1 is to illustrate O’Grady
and de Guzman’s study.
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Figure 2.1 The illustration of the difference between a root and a base based on
O’Grady and de Guzman 2011: 120
Based on Figure 2.1, black is a root since it has nothing to attach yet and it cannot be divided and analyzed into smaller parts. When the suffix –en is added to
black, it becomes blacken which is a base for -ed. Blacken is not a root since it can be divided into smaller parts black and suffix –en. Black is therefore a root for the
entire word and it becomes the base for -en. On the other hand, blacken is simply the base for –ed O’Grady de Guzman, 2011: 120. The root, base and stem therefore
are used as the terminologies to identify the creation of word in word formation whether the word contains a root, a base, or a stem.
6. Word Formation
