A course In Modern English Lexicology

§ 9. Derivational Affixes
rivatives in all parts of speech. Derivational
affixes differ from affixational morphemes in their function within the word, in their distribution and in their meaning. Derivational affixes possess two basic functions: 1) that of s t e m - b u i l d i n g which is common to all affixational morphemes: derivational and non-derivational.
It is the function of shaping a morphemic sequence, or a word-form or a phrase into the part of the word capable of taking a set of grammatical inflections and is conditioned by the part-of-speech meaning these morphemes possess; 1 2) that of w o r d - b u i l d i n g which is the function of repatterning a derivational base and building a lexical unit of a structural and semantic type different from the one represented by the source unit. The repatterning results in either transferring it into the stem of another part of speech or transferring it into another subset within the same part of speech. For example, the d e r i v a t i o n a l s u f f i x -ness applied to bases of different classes shapes d e r i v e d stems thus making new words. In kindliness, girlishness, etc. it repatterns the adjectival stems kindly-, girlish-, in second-rate-ness, allatonceness it turns the phrases second rate, all at once into stems and consequently forms new nouns. In most cases derivational affixes perform b o t h functions simultaneously shaping derived stems and marking the relationship between different classes of lexical items. However, certain derivational affixes may in individual sets of words perform only one function that of stem-building. The derivational suffix -ic for example performs both functions in words like historic, economic, classic as it is applied to bases history-, economy-, class- and forms stems of words of a different part of speech.
But the same suffix -ic in public, comic, music performs only its stem-building function shaping in this case a s i m p l e
1 See ‘Semasiology’, § 17, p. 25, 100
stem.1 The same is true of the suffix -ous in such words as joyous, courageous, famous as compared with anxious, conscious, curious. Stem-building is the common function shared by both derivational and non-derivational morphemes, but with the non-derivational morphemes it is the only structural function. Besides, the non-derivational affixes shape o n l y simple stems, for example, the morpheme -id in stupid, rapid, acid, humid; the morpheme -ish in publish, distinguish, languish. It follows that non-derivational morphemes are not applied to stems, but only to root-morphemes or morpheme sequences.
Semantically derivational affixes are characterised by a unity of part-of-speech meaning, lexical meaning and other types of morphemic meanings2
unlike non-derivational morphemes which, as a rule, lack the lexical type of meaning. It is true that the part-of-speech meaning is proper in different degrees to the derivational suffixes and prefixes. It stands out clearly in derivational suffixes but it is less evident in prefixes; some prefixes lack it altogether, in others it is very vague and in this case it finds expression in the fact that these prefixes tend to function in either nominal or verbal parts of speech. Prefixes like en-, un-, de-, out-, be-, unmistakably possess the part-of-speech meaning and function as verb classifiers when they make an independent IC of the derivative, e.g. deice, unhook, enslave; derivational prefixes a-, un-possess the adjectival part-of-speech meaning, e.g. unhesitating, unknown, unkind, etc., amoral, asynthetic, asym-metric, etc. In prefixes со-, under-, mis- this type of meaning is vague but they tend to be active in one part of speech only:’ со- in nominal parts of speech (i.e. nouns and adjectives), e.g. copilot, co-star, co-president; mis- and under- are largely verbal prefixes, e.g. underwork, underdo, underfeed, etc. The prefix over-evidently lacks the part-of-speech meaning and is freely used both for verbs and adjectives, the same may be said about non-, pre-, post-. The lexical meaning in derivational affixes also has its peculiarities and may be viewed at different levels.3
1) T h e l e x i c a l (denotational) m e a n i n g of a g e n e r ic t y p e proper mostly not to an individual affix but to a set of affixes, forming a semantic subset such as, for example, the meaning of resemblance found in suffixes -ish, -like, -y, -ly (spiderish, spiderlike, spidery); the causative meaning proper to the prefix en- (enslave, enrich), the suffixes –ise (-ize), -(i)fy (brutalise, formalise, beautify, simplify, etc.); the meaning of absence conveyed by the prefix un- and the suffix -
less; the meaning of abstract quality conveyed by the suffixes -ness, -ity, etc.
2) On the other hand derivational affixes possess another type of lexical meaning — an i n d i v i d u a l m e a n i n g shared by no other affix and thus distinguishing this particular affix from all other members, of the same semantic group. For example, suffixes -ish, -like, -y all have the meaning of resemblance, but -like conveys an overall resemblance, 1 See ‘Word-Structure’, § 8, p. 97.
2 See ‘Semasiology’, §§ 13-16, pp. 23-25.
3 See also ‘Methods . . . , § § 3, 4, p. 245, 246.
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-ish conveys likeness to the inner, most typical qualities of the object, -y in most cases conveys likeness to outer shape, form, size of the object. Suffixes -er, -ist both possess the meaning of the agent, but the distinguishing feature of the suffix -er is that it conveys the meaning of the active doer (animate or inanimate), whereas -ist conveys the meaning of profession (flutist, biologist) and followers of principles and beliefs (socialist, left-ist) and thus has the meaning only of human beings. Derivational affixes semantically may be both mono- and p o l y s e m a n t i c .
Derivational affixes are highly selective and each is applied to a specific set of bases which is due to the distributional type of meaning found in all affixes. All affixes are selective as to the structural peculiarities of bases (their morphemic, derivational, phonological and etymological features), some in addition are highly responsive to the lexical-semantic properties of the bases they are collocated with. For example, the adjectival suffix -able is collocated with verbal bases with practically no semantic constraints imposed on them. On the other hand the adjective-forming suffix -ful1 is restricted in its collocability to nominal bases of abstract meaning (useful, beautiful), while its homonym the noun-forming -ful2
also collocating with nominal bases chooses bases of concrete meaning and within this class only nouns which have in their semantic structure a semantic component ‘container’ (chestful, lungful, bagful).
There is a specific group of morphemes