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Due to the related studies above, this study is proposed to expand the study about suffixes. It can enrich the study in the field of morphology. This
present study analyzes the suffix {-ure} in order to develop the morphology field as the suffix {-ure} has never been analyzed before.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Morphology
Bauer mentions that morphology is “the study of words and their structure” 2003: 3. This statement is strengthened by O’Grady and Archibald
2010: 116 who state that morphology is one of the grammar elements concerning words and word arrangement. In short, morphology is the study
which concerns with linguistics dealing with word structure. Since morphology discusses word structure, it is absolute that word is an
important component in it. A word is, according to O’Grady and Archibald, the smallest free form in language 2010: 116. The characteristic of a word is that
the relation of its sound and meaning is arbitrary. For example, the words brake and break have the same sound, but different meanings. Another example is the
words sofa and couch which have different sounds, but the same meaning. Beside words, there is another important component in morphology. It is called as
morpheme.
a. Morpheme
A morpheme is a minimal shape to build a word in language Akmajian et al., 2001: 17. O’Grady and Archibald define a morpheme as the smallest
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language element that contains information about meaning or function 2010: 117. For example, the word unbelievable consists of three morphemes; un +
believe + able. Each morpheme has a meaning; un means “not”, believe means “trust on something”, and able means “competent”. Thus, the meaning of
unbelievable is “does not competent to trust on something”. Hence, morpheme cannot be separated from morphology because every word consists of at least one
morpheme. There are two categories of morpheme. Akmajian et al. state that the
first category is termed as free morphemes. A free morpheme is a morpheme which can stand alone without having to attach to any other forms. Any words
such as book, house, a, in, and so on are included as free morphemes. The second category is termed as bound morphemes. A bound morpheme is a morpheme
which cannot stand alone 2001: 18. It means that this category must be attached to another morpheme which in linguistic is called as a base or root. One of the
bound morphemes is affixes.
b. Affixation
According to Szymanek 1989: 62, affixation is the process of adding a base word with a bound morpheme which is affixes. Furthermore, he maintains
that an affix means a morpheme which is attached to a base. O’Grady and Archibald 2010: 120 state that affixes can be divided into some types,
depending on the position of an affix attached to its base word. There are three types of affixes which are prefix, infix, and suffix.
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i. Prefix
A prefix is a type of affixes besides suffix and infix. According to O’Grady and Archibald 2010: 120, a prefix means an affix which is attached
before a base word. The examples are affixes {re-}, {un-}, {dis-}, {mis-}, and {im-}. Those are placed in the beginning of the root word. Thus, they are called
as prefixes. In other words, a prefix is an additional morpheme in a word which is
put in front of the base word. The words reread, unimportant, and impossible are
the examples of prefixes.
ii. Infix
In their statement, O’Grady and Archibald 2010: 120 mention that an infix is one type of affixes which is placed in the middle of a base. An infix is
very hard to find in English words. The word speedometer is an example of infix in English word. The word speedometer which comes from the word speed and
meter is inserted by an infix {-o-}.
iii. Suffix
An affix which is placed in the end of the base word or its base is called as a suffix O’Grady and Archibald, 2010: 120. The similar statement is also
mentioned by Akmajian et al. They state that an affix is called as a suffix when it is attached to the end of another morpheme 2001: 18. There are many examples
of suffixes such as suffix {-er} in the word worker, {-able} in the word understandable, {-ing} in the word playing, {-ment} in the word advertisement,
and so on.
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Since affixes are integrated as bound morphemes, they can be categorized into two classifications which are inflectional affixes and derivational
affixes. Akmajian et al. state that inflectional affixes never change the part of speech of the base through any attachment of affixes. They add that, in English
inflectional affixes, there is no prefix but suffixes 2001: 43. The example is that both of the parts of speech of the words write and writes are verbs, and it also
happens to the words bottle and bottles which both are nouns. What occurs in inflectional affixes is in contrast to derivational affixes. Derivational affixes
include both prefixes and suffixes. However, derivational prefixes never change the part of speech of the words like in the words read and reread which both are
verbs or legal and illegal which are adjectives.
c. Derivational Suffix