A Brief Study of Affixes Used In The Jakarta Post Newspaper
2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Morphology
Morphology is a branch of linguistics which studies about the internal
structure of words. Bloomfield (1933:207) states “By the morphology of a
language, we mean the constructions in which bound forms appear among the
constituents, by definition, the resultants forms are either bound forms or words,
but never phrases”. While Hocket (1958:177) says “Morphology includes the
stock of segmental morpheme and the ways in which words are built out of them”.
According to the description above, we can say that morphology
concerned with the construction of word which is words are built from morpheme
or morphemes.
2.2 Morpheme
The term morpheme is used to refer to the smallest units of semantic
content or grammatical function which words are made up of. By definition, a
morpheme cannot be decomposed into smaller units which are either meaningful
by themselves or mark a grammatical function like singular or plural number in
the noun. Hockett (1958:123) says “Morphemes are the smallest individually
meaningful elements in the utterances of a language”.
Morphemes are established and delimited in a language by comparing
word forms with one another and noting the recurrent pieces that compose them,
and every word is wholly analysable into one or more morphemes. Morphemes
may be represented by, or correspond to, any phonological feature or shape, and
may be monosyllabic or polysyllabic.
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2.3 Bound and Free Morphemes
Morphemes may be classified in more than one dimension. Firstly,
morphemes are bound and free. A free morpheme is one that may constitute a
word (free form) by itself. A bound morpheme is one that must appear with at
least one other morpheme, bound or free, in a word. In English cats, cat is free,
since cat is a word in its own right, and –s is bound, as it is not a word in its own
right. Secondly, morpheme may be divided into roots and affixes, the root being
that part of a word structure which is left when all the affixes have been removed.
Affixes are bound morphemes, they are limited in number, though their
numbers vary from language to language, and they may be exhaustively listed. In
the English paradigm try, tries, trying, tried, the form try is the root and –s, -ing,
and –ed are affixes. In loveliness, manliness, react, recover, and remove, love,
man, act, cover and move are roots, and –li-, -ness and re- are affixes. Roots and
affixes may be of any structure and length, though affixes generally tend to be
shorter than roots.
Affix is useful general term for the recurrent formative morphemes of
words other than roots, but affixes may be divided formally into three major
positional classes according to the position they occupy in relation to the root
morpheme : prefix, infix and suffix. Prefixes and suffixes may be readily
illustrated from English example : re-, de-, con-, per-, and pre-, as in receive,
remove, deceive, deranged, conceive, contain, perceive, perform, preconceive,
preempt are all prefixes and they always precede the root or other prefix in
6
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English words; the plural formative –s, -en, etc. are suffixes and so are the verb
paradigm affixes –ing, -ed, etc.
Infixes are affixes that appear within the consonant and vowel sequence of
root forms; they occupy fixed positions that are statable by reference to
consonants and vowels. Infixes are less commonly met with, and are not found in
English apart from one mode of analysis of plurals like feet, men.
2.4 Prefixes
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to
the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the
prefix un- is added to the word happy, it creates the word unhappy. Particularly, in
the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the
form of the words to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can be either inflectional, creating a new form
of the word with the same basic meaning and same lexical category (but playing a
different role in the sentence), or derivational, creating a new word with a
new semantic meaning and sometimes also a different lexical category. Prefixes,
like all other affixes, are usually bound morphemes.
Example :
Inflectional prefixes :
in- + accurate →
Adj
un- + tie
V
→
V
dis- + connect →
V
inaccurate
Adj
untie
disconnect
V
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re- + write
V
→
ex- + boyfriend
N
→
rewrite
V
ex-boyfriend
N
Derivational prefixes :
en- + large
Adj
→
enlarge
V
en- + cage
N
→
encage
V
2.5 Suffixes
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word.
Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of
nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs.
Suffixes can carry grammatical information (inflectional suffixes) or
lexical information (derivational/lexical suffixes).
2.5.1
Inflectional Suffixes
An inflectional suffix is sometimes called a grammatical suffix. Inflection
changes the grammatical properties of a word within its syntactic category.
Examples :
Girls, where the suffix -s marks the plural.
He makes, where suffix -s marks the third person singular present tense.
It closed, where the suffix -ed marks the past tense.
Inflectional suffixes do not change the word class of the word after
inflection. Inflectional suffixes in modern English include:
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-s third person singular present
-ed past tense
-t past tense
-ing progressive/continuous
-en past participle
-s plural
-en plural (irregular)
-er comparative
-est superlative
-n't negative
2.5.2
Derivational Suffixes
Derivectional suffixes can be divided into two categories: class-changing
derivation and class-maintaining derivation. In English, they include :
-ise/-ize (usually changes nouns into verbs)
-fy (usually changes nouns into verbs)
-ly (usually changes adjectives into adverbs)
-ful (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-able/-ible (usually changes verbs into adjectives)
-hood (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-ess (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-ness (usually changes adjectives into nouns)
-less (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
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-ism (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-ment (usually changes verbs into nouns)
-ist (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-al (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-ish (usually changes nouns into adjectives/ class-maintaining, with the word
class remaining an adjective)
-tion (usually changes verbs into noun)
-logy/-ology (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a
noun)
10
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2.1 Morphology
Morphology is a branch of linguistics which studies about the internal
structure of words. Bloomfield (1933:207) states “By the morphology of a
language, we mean the constructions in which bound forms appear among the
constituents, by definition, the resultants forms are either bound forms or words,
but never phrases”. While Hocket (1958:177) says “Morphology includes the
stock of segmental morpheme and the ways in which words are built out of them”.
According to the description above, we can say that morphology
concerned with the construction of word which is words are built from morpheme
or morphemes.
2.2 Morpheme
The term morpheme is used to refer to the smallest units of semantic
content or grammatical function which words are made up of. By definition, a
morpheme cannot be decomposed into smaller units which are either meaningful
by themselves or mark a grammatical function like singular or plural number in
the noun. Hockett (1958:123) says “Morphemes are the smallest individually
meaningful elements in the utterances of a language”.
Morphemes are established and delimited in a language by comparing
word forms with one another and noting the recurrent pieces that compose them,
and every word is wholly analysable into one or more morphemes. Morphemes
may be represented by, or correspond to, any phonological feature or shape, and
may be monosyllabic or polysyllabic.
5
Universitas Sumatera Utara
2.3 Bound and Free Morphemes
Morphemes may be classified in more than one dimension. Firstly,
morphemes are bound and free. A free morpheme is one that may constitute a
word (free form) by itself. A bound morpheme is one that must appear with at
least one other morpheme, bound or free, in a word. In English cats, cat is free,
since cat is a word in its own right, and –s is bound, as it is not a word in its own
right. Secondly, morpheme may be divided into roots and affixes, the root being
that part of a word structure which is left when all the affixes have been removed.
Affixes are bound morphemes, they are limited in number, though their
numbers vary from language to language, and they may be exhaustively listed. In
the English paradigm try, tries, trying, tried, the form try is the root and –s, -ing,
and –ed are affixes. In loveliness, manliness, react, recover, and remove, love,
man, act, cover and move are roots, and –li-, -ness and re- are affixes. Roots and
affixes may be of any structure and length, though affixes generally tend to be
shorter than roots.
Affix is useful general term for the recurrent formative morphemes of
words other than roots, but affixes may be divided formally into three major
positional classes according to the position they occupy in relation to the root
morpheme : prefix, infix and suffix. Prefixes and suffixes may be readily
illustrated from English example : re-, de-, con-, per-, and pre-, as in receive,
remove, deceive, deranged, conceive, contain, perceive, perform, preconceive,
preempt are all prefixes and they always precede the root or other prefix in
6
Universitas Sumatera Utara
English words; the plural formative –s, -en, etc. are suffixes and so are the verb
paradigm affixes –ing, -ed, etc.
Infixes are affixes that appear within the consonant and vowel sequence of
root forms; they occupy fixed positions that are statable by reference to
consonants and vowels. Infixes are less commonly met with, and are not found in
English apart from one mode of analysis of plurals like feet, men.
2.4 Prefixes
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to
the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the
prefix un- is added to the word happy, it creates the word unhappy. Particularly, in
the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the
form of the words to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can be either inflectional, creating a new form
of the word with the same basic meaning and same lexical category (but playing a
different role in the sentence), or derivational, creating a new word with a
new semantic meaning and sometimes also a different lexical category. Prefixes,
like all other affixes, are usually bound morphemes.
Example :
Inflectional prefixes :
in- + accurate →
Adj
un- + tie
V
→
V
dis- + connect →
V
inaccurate
Adj
untie
disconnect
V
7
Universitas Sumatera Utara
re- + write
V
→
ex- + boyfriend
N
→
rewrite
V
ex-boyfriend
N
Derivational prefixes :
en- + large
Adj
→
enlarge
V
en- + cage
N
→
encage
V
2.5 Suffixes
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word.
Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of
nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs.
Suffixes can carry grammatical information (inflectional suffixes) or
lexical information (derivational/lexical suffixes).
2.5.1
Inflectional Suffixes
An inflectional suffix is sometimes called a grammatical suffix. Inflection
changes the grammatical properties of a word within its syntactic category.
Examples :
Girls, where the suffix -s marks the plural.
He makes, where suffix -s marks the third person singular present tense.
It closed, where the suffix -ed marks the past tense.
Inflectional suffixes do not change the word class of the word after
inflection. Inflectional suffixes in modern English include:
8
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-s third person singular present
-ed past tense
-t past tense
-ing progressive/continuous
-en past participle
-s plural
-en plural (irregular)
-er comparative
-est superlative
-n't negative
2.5.2
Derivational Suffixes
Derivectional suffixes can be divided into two categories: class-changing
derivation and class-maintaining derivation. In English, they include :
-ise/-ize (usually changes nouns into verbs)
-fy (usually changes nouns into verbs)
-ly (usually changes adjectives into adverbs)
-ful (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-able/-ible (usually changes verbs into adjectives)
-hood (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-ess (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-ness (usually changes adjectives into nouns)
-less (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
9
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-ism (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-ment (usually changes verbs into nouns)
-ist (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-al (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-ish (usually changes nouns into adjectives/ class-maintaining, with the word
class remaining an adjective)
-tion (usually changes verbs into noun)
-logy/-ology (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a
noun)
10
Universitas Sumatera Utara