International University of Nature, Society and Man “Dubna”
Course paper
«Classification and comparative analysis of Englishnegative affixes»
Made by: A.A. Yakovleva, 3042
Supervised by: S.V. Verbitskaya
Dubna 2009
Content
The introduction
1. Word-formation.Affixation
2. Thesemantics of the negative affixes and their comparative analysis
3. Theplace of affixes in the classification of morphemes and classifications of negativeaffixes
4. Thefunctions of negative affixes
The conclusion
The introduction
The aim of our work is to single out, describe, compare and find thepossible ways of classification of English negative affixes.
The scientific interest of this work can be the following: we willfamiliarize ourselves with English negative affixes, learn how they differsemantically from each other, which affixes are used with stems of differentparts of speech and what parts of speech they form (there we can also see ifthese affixes are able to transform words of one part of speech into another),what their functions and peculiarities of usage are, and which affixes are moreproductive and widely used nowadays. It is very important to know as moreaffixes, as possible, because many English words are formed by combiningprefixes and suffixes to base words. The more prefixes and suffixes we know,the easier it will be for us to figure out the meanings of these words [1,287].
According to this the tasks of the work will be the following:
1) to findout which affixes may be considered as negative;
2) tolook for their meanings in different dictionaries and add them with examples;
3) tofind out how affixes can be divided into classes and the place of negativeaffixes in these classifications;
4) to seehow these affixes are realized in different contexts, what functions theyperform;
5) tofind out which affixes are used with stems of different parts of speech andwhat parts of speech they form together.
1. Word-formation. Affixation
The system of English language is an open system. That means that it isconstantly added by new words. According to the Oxford Dictionary, only 7,5% words in the vocabulary of Englishare borrowings [7]. The vast majority of words appear through changings in thelexical units preserved in the language system, trough the word-formation.Word-formation is the process of building up new words from words of the sameroot, and as a result of this there is a formal-semantic correspondence betweenderivative and derived words [4, 56].
It should be mentioned, that there are certain patterns of word-formationin English. It is the circuit, sample, analogue, model, all that fix a rule ofconstruction of derivative words, rule, which takes into account a type ofderivative bases and word-building means and general semantics, formed as aresult of their interaction, of the same words. One model can also correspondto different changes of meaning and be a source of confusion and misunderstandingfor foreign learners. These patterns may be productive or not in differentlanguages. It was noticed by many scholars long ago, that one derivativepattern can give almost infinite or, at least, significant number of derivatives,others are characterized by inability to free word-building.
There are several kinds of word-formation and different kinds of them areproductive in different languages. The major ways of word-formation arecompounding, affixation and conversion (also called zero-affixation). Affixationremains a very productive type of word-formation in English language.Affixation is the derivation of new words by adding affixes to them, which aresuffixes and prefixes.
We can study a particular word from the point of morphological andderivational analyses. Dealing with morphological analysis we simplydivide the word into constitute parts. When the word is divided into itsultimate constituencies the morphological analysis is completed. While doing derivationalanalysis we find how the word was constructed, which is its derivative and whatmeans have been used to build up the word [4, 59]. So, the process ofaffixation should be explored within derivational analysis, not morphological.But speaking of affixes in general we are interested in both morphological andderivational analyses.
There is a certain division of morphemes within the morphemic analysis.English grammarians usually point out two criteria, which are the bases of themorphemic structure. They are the positional criterion — the location of themorphemes with regard to each other, and the semantic (or functional)criterion— the contribution of the morphemes to the general meaningof the word. So according to the first there are root-morphemes and affixalmorphemes, roots and affixes. The semantic difference between them is obvious:root morphemes have the concrete, “material” meaning, while affixes justspecify the main meaning, or transform the meaning of the root [4, 59].
Finally, we can see that there are several types of word-building inEnglish pointed out by many scholars and affixation is one of the mostproductive. There are certain patterns of word-formation and several types ofmorphemes. The latter can be studied from the point of view of twocomplementary analyses.
2. The semantics of the affixes and their comparativeanalysis
affixnegative morpheme semantic
The first step in our studying English negative affixes is to give adefinition of the affix itself. Here is a definition given in Oxford AdvancedLerner’s Dictionary of Current English. Affix is a letter or group ofletters added to the beginning or end of a word to change its meaning [8]. Thisdefinition takes into account only prefixes and suffixes. But it does not coverall the kinds of affixes. It is important to keep in mind that there are also differenttypes of affixes present in the English language as well:
-circumfix (one portion appears at the front of a stem, and the other atthe rear, like in ascattered),
-simulfix (changes a segment of a stem, like in mouse-mice),
-suprafix (changes a suprasegmental phoneme of a stem, for example,the change of an like in produce (noun)-produce (verb));
-duflifix (incorporates a reduplicated portion of a stem (may occur in front, at therear, or within the stem), like in teeny-weeny) [9].
So we see that the definition should be wider. So, if we also take intoaccount that the morphemes are generally divided into root- and affixalmorphemes, the definition will be the following: affifx is a morphemethat is attached to the stem to form a new word with another meaning.
It was written much about semantics of an affix. There are heated debatesin the linguistic literature, whether the affix has meaning in general, and ifyes, what type of meaning. There are different points of view, frequentlyopposite, which, however, can be reduced to several basic directions:
1) The affix has no independent meaning; it only forms the external sideof a word;
2) The affix carries out basically only transporting function,translating a basis from one lexical and grammatical class in another, andlexically «is empty»;
3) The affix can be characterized by presence of a various sort ofmeanings: one affixes express a wide and various circle of lexical meanings,others — only grammatic meanings [3, 138].
It is alsoimportant to notice that “affixes specify, or transform the meaning of the root.Affixal specification may be of two kinds: of lexical or grammatical character.So, according to the semantic criterion affixes are further subdivided intolexical,orword-building (derivational) affixes, whichtogether with the root constitute the stem of the word, and grammatical,or word-changing affixes, expressing different morphologicalcategories, such as number, case, tense and others. With the help of lexicalaffixes new words are derived, or built; with the help of grammatical affixesthe form of the word is changed” [2, 57]. One of our further aims will be to studywhether English negative affixes are lexical or grammatical or they can be ofboth types.
On this stageof the analyses rises the question of the criterion for referring affixes tonegative and what affixes can be called negative. For the answer it is betterto look up the word ”negative” in the dictionary first. So, the Longmandictionary gives the following definition:
negative: 1) arefusing, doubting, or disapproving; saying or meaning ‘no’,
b containingone of the words ‘no’, ‘not’, ‘nothing, ‘never’ etc.
2) without anyactive, useful or helping qualities; not constructive
3) showing thelack of what was hoped for or expected [6].
From thepresent definition we see that the first meaning of these words is better applicableto affixes, and this meaning should be the criteria for figuring out negativeaffixes.
Our next taskis to see, which affixes are considered to be negative. According to theprevious statement they are the following: a-, ant(i)-, dis-, dys-, in-, mal-,mis-, nega-, non-, un- [9]. From this list we can see, that they are all prefixes.So arises the question, is the negative function in English world-buildingperformed only by prefixes. If we consult other sources we see that there isone suffix changing the meaning of the word to the opposite: -less (motion-motionless)[3, 137]. And we also add it to this list. As for the prefixes, de- can also carrythe idea of oppositeness, and il-, im- and ir- must be added too, as they arethe allomorphs of in-. So let us see what their meanings are.
So if we consult Longman Dictionary of English Language and culture, theresult will be the following.
a-: (showing an opposite or absence of something) not; without:amoral (=not moral)
anti-: 1 apposed to; against: antinuclear (apposing the use ofatomic weapons and power) 2 opposite of: an anticlimax (=an unexciting endingof the expected climax)
contra-: opposite (plants is contradiction to animals)
de-: (in verbs and nouns) (showing an opposite): a depopulatedarea (which all or most of the population has left)
dis-: (showing an opposite or negative): I disapprove (=do notapprove)
il-: illogical (=not logical)
im-: immobilize
in-: (especially in adjectives and nouns) (showing a negative, anapposite, or a lack) not: insensible
ir-: not: irregular (=not regular)
mal-: bad or badly: a malformed (=wrongly shaped) limb
mis-: 1 bad or badly: misfortune;
2 wrong or wrongly: a miscalculation
3 (showing an opposite or the lack of something): I mistrust (=do nottrust) him
non-: (especially in adjectives and nouns) (showing a negative)not: a non-smoker (=someone who does not smokes)
un-: 1 (especially in adjectives and adverbs) showing a negative,a lack, or an opposite) not: unfair; 2 (especially in verbs) (showing anopposite): undress (take one’s clothes off)
less (in adjectives): 1 without a ---: a childless couple (= whohave no children); 2 that never ---s or can not be ---ed: helpless (= can notbe helped) [6]
For the prefixes il-, im-, ir- there are no definitions in thedictionary, as they all refer to the suffix in-. The aspect of their differenceis explained by allo-morphemic theory.
When studyingmorphemes, we should distinguish morphemes as generalized lingual units fromtheir concrete manifestations, or variants in specific textual environments;variants of morphemes are called “allo-morphs”. The allo-morphemic theorydistinguishes morphemes according to their concrete realization. In the studyof morphemes it was developed in Descriptive Linguistic by means ofdistributional analysis. There are three types of distribution then:contrastive distribution, non-contrastive distribution and complementarydistribution. Contrastive distribution means that morphs express differentmeanings in identical environments, e.g.: He started laughing – He startslaughing. The morphs are said to be in non-contrastive distribution if theyexpress identical meaning in identical environments; such morphs constitute‘free variants’ of the same morpheme, e.g.: learned – learnt. The morphs are incomplementary distribution when they express identical meanings in differentenvironments, e.g.: He started laughing – He stopped laughing; such morphsconstitute variants, or allo-morphs of the same morpheme [4, 60-61].
Allo-morphemictheory plays an important role in the descriptive analysis of negative affixes.One of the most active negative affixes is in-. Its allomorphs are il-, im-, ir-. That means that they carry on the same meaning, but they are attached todifferent stems. It can be a great problem for English learners, therefore itis important to clarify the rules of allo-morphemic affixes. The in- changes oris assimilated to il- if the stem begins with l, as in illuminate;to im- before b, as in imbibe, before m, as in immediate,before p, as with implant; and to ir- before r, as in irrigate.So the distribution of the allo-morphs concerned is complementary.
It is quite reasonable to give the examples to these affixes and thedefinitions of these words given in the dictionary.
atypical: not typical; different from what is usual: Her reaction tothe drug was atypical.
antiaircraft: directed against enemy aircraft: antiaircraftmissiles
contraindication: a physical sign or condition that makes it inadvisableto take or continue taking a medicine: High blood pressure is acontraindication for this drug.
destabilize: to make less firm or steady, especially politically: adeliberate attempt to destabilize the economy of a rival country
disclaim: to state that one does not have or accept; to deny: Hedisclaimed all responsibility for the accident.
illiterate: who has nor learnt to read or write: (fig.) an illiteratenote.
immodest: showing or tending to express a high opinion of oneself andoneself’s abilities, perhaps higher than is really deserved; not modest:immodest behaviour.
inaction: lack of action or activity; quality or state of doingnothing
irrational: not using reason; against reasonable behaviour: Aftertaking the drug she became quite irrational.
miscount: to count wrongly: The teacher miscounted the number ofboys.
nonresident: a person not living in a certain place: Are nonresidentsentitled to vote?
unannounced: having given no sign of being present; appear unexpectedly:He burst into doctor’s room quite unannounced and started shouting at her.
countless: very many; too many to be counted: countless reasonsagainst it. [6]
Since we have even more examples of words with the negative affixes, itis more possible to apply the definitions of the affixes to the definitions ofthe words with these affixes. It is becoming clear then that the meanings ofthe affixes given in the dictionary are quite general. It was stated above,that affix has no independent meaning, so only when attached to words, affixesacquire a more specific meaning in each case. The reason for it is that affixis not an independent unit; therefore its meaning taken separately can bestated only generally.
To make the analysis more complete we should consult at least one otherdictionary. So if it is Oxford Advanced Lerner’s Dictionary of Current English,the result will be the following.
a-: (in nouns, adjectives and adverbs) not; without: amoral(=not moral): atheists
anti-: 1 apposed to; against: anti-tank weapons 2 the opposite of:an anti-hero
contra-: (in nouns, verbs and adjectives) against; opposite:contraflow
de-: (in verbs and related nouns, adjectives and adverbs): theopposite of: decentralization
dis-: (in adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs): not; the oppositeof: dishonest
il-suffix=in
im-=in
in-: (also il- im- ir-)(in adjectives, adverbs and nouns): not;the opposite of: infinite
ir-=in
mal-: (in nouns, verbs and adjectives): bad or badly; not corrector correctly: malpractice
mis-: (in verbs and nouns) bad or wrong; badly or wrongly
non-: (in nouns, adjectives and adverbs): not: nonsense
un-: 1(in adjectives, adverbs and nouns): not; the opposite of:unable 2 (in verbs that describe the opposite of a process): unlock
less-: (in adjectives): 1without: treeless 2 not doing; not affected by:tireless [7]
Such affixes like mys- and nega-, which are present in the list ofnegative affixes, are not present in both Longman and Oxford dictionaries, aswell as words with them, so we can make a suggestion that they are notproductive nowadays, that is no words are built with it. But there are foundsome words beginning with dys-, like dysfunctional (=not working in asatisfactory or successful way), or dyslexia (=a slight disorder of the brainthat causes difficulty in reading and spelling, for example, but does notaffect intelligence). Therefore, it should be included in the list of negativeaffixes to make it more complete. It is obvious, that the prefix dys- really existsand has approximately the same meaning as the prefix dis-.
Analyzing the meanings given by both dictionaries we can make aconclusion that they just slightly differ in meanings in different dictionaries(for example, contra- in Longman Dictionary means “opposite”, while OxfordDictionary gives a wider definition – “against; opposite”, and like), andaccording to the examples the meanings given there reflect the additionalmeaning, which they bring to the derivative word. All the negative affixesposses the meaning of either opposition or lack of something that also carriesthe idea of negation. The Oxford dictionary marks the word class of the wordthe affix belongs to, what is not always done in Longman dictionary. It is veryuseful for our further classificatrional analysis.
But it is known that some words can acquire several negative affixes andnew words can seem semantically similar to language learners. It is a rudemistake to misuse the affixes. So on this stage of analysis appears a question,why some words are attached with a certain negative affix and others areattached with others. And it is also very important to find out how not to mixup some affixes with very similar meanings. The Longman dictionary contains anarticle comparing prefixes un-, in- and non-, which look very much alike at thefirst sight. “The difference between them is the degree to which they suggestthe idea of the opposite rather than negative. Non- is usually just negative(for example, nonalcoholic drinks contain no alcohol), but un- is often used tosuggest an opposite quality. Compare: He is applied for a nonscientific job(=not connected with science) in the Civil Service. | It was very unscientific(=showing too little attention to scientific principles) not to measure yourresults. Of the three prefixes (un-, in-, non-), in- tends most often tosuggest opposite qualities. Compare: their inhuman (=very cruel) treatment ofpolitical prisoners | The archeologists discovered both human and non-human bones”.This explanation is a great help for language learners and also for thepractical purposes of our work. [6]
3. The place of affixes in classifications ofmorphemes. The classifications of negative affixes
It has already been said that English grammarians usually point out two maincriteria for the general classification of morphemes: the positional criterion and the semantic (orfunctional) criterion. And according to them there are root-morphemesand affixal morphemes, roots and affixes [4, 58]. For example, in theword miscast “cast” is a root and “mis-” is an affix. The semanticdifference between them is obvious: root morphemes have the concrete,“material” meaning, while affixes just specify the main meaning, or transformthe meaning of the root. In the given example “cast” means “to to choose actorsto plat the different parts in the film/movie, play etc.”, while “mis-” means“badly or wrongly” [7]. So the complete meaning of the word is compound fromthese two meaning, but the first is the main, as it is independent, and thesecond is additive.
There is alsoanother division of morphemes in Descriptive Linguistics. Morphemes can be freeor bound. Free morphemes can build up words by themselves, for example, home.Bound morphemes are used only as parts of words, like dis- in disregard [4,58]. So, as all the affixes are attached to some root (as affixes do), they areall can be referred to the class of bound morphemes.
Morphemes alsocan be divided into overt and covert. The latter shows themeaningful absence of a morpheme distinguished in the opposition of grammaticalforms in paradigms [4, 59]. For example in the paradigm of noun in the wordhand –s is a covert morpheme. As suffixes can be either present or absent inthe word structure they can be of both kinds in different contexts.
Full or meaningful morphemesare opposed to empty morphemes. The later ones have no meaning like thefull ones, for example, in the word ‘children’ child- is the root of theword, bearing the core of the meaning, -en is the suffix of the plural, while-r- is an empty morpheme. In this case it is clear that suffixes can also be ofboth kinds, but usually, as it was already mentioned, they have a certainmeaning [4, 59].
Segmental morphemes consist ofphonemes, while supra-segmental leave the phonemic content of the wordunchanged, but the meaning of the word is specified with the help of varioussupra-segmental lingual units, like in`convert (a noun) — con`vert (averb). As suffixes refer to the segmental level, they are all segmentalmorphemes [4, 60].
Additive morphemes, which arefreely combined in a word, e.g.: look+ed, small+er, are opposed to replacivemorphemes, or root morphemes, which replace each other in paradigms, e.g.: sing-sang – sung [4, 60]. Within this classification affixes are sure to refer toadditive morphemes.
And one moredivision is to continuous and discontinuous morphemes. Continuousones are combined with each other in the same word, like in worked,while discontinuous consist of two components, used to form analytical forms,for example, is running [4, 60]. As affixes can notconsist of several parts, so they are continuous.
The specification of affixes themselves can be of two kinds: lexical andgrammatical. And according to this criterion there are lexical, orword-building, or derivational affixes and grammatical, or word changingaffixes. The latest group expresses different morphological categories, such asnumber, case, tense and others. Grammar study is primarily concerned withgrammatical affixes, because they change the word according to its grammaticalcategories and serve to insert the word into an utterance. Lexical affixes serve to build newwords, grammatical – to change the form of the word, for example, go – goes [4,56]. Regarding this classification we can come to a conclusion that negativeaffixes, which we are interested in, refer to the group of lexical affixes, asthey change the lexical meaning of the word, not its form. For example, smoker– a person who smokes; non-smoker – a person who does not smokes.Prefixes in English are only lexical, they do not transform a word into anotherpart of speech (understand-misunderstand). Suffixes can be both lexical andgrammatical. For example, home-homeless, but go-goes. Grammatical suffixes arealso called inflexions (inflections, inflectional endings) [4, 56].
Grammatical suffixes form word-changing, or morphological paradigms ofwords, which is typical for inflexional languages, but they can be observed inEnglish too (boy-boys). Lexical affixes are the subject of lexicology, becausethey change the meaning of the word. In grammar they are regarded as formalindicators of belonging of the word to one or another part of speech. They formlexical (word-building, or derivational) paradigms of words united by a commonroot, for example, to decide — decision — decisive – decisively [4, 56].
Affixes can also be divided according to their position. They aredivided into prefixes (before the root) and suffixes (after theroot) [5, 136]. There are other types of affixes in different languages, butprefixes and suffixes are the most typical for English. As we have seen, thenegative affixes tend to come mostly from prefixes.
One more meaningful parameter in classification of affixes is theirsemantic impact, due to which they are united in semantic groups of a type:
-affixes with meaning of similarity (-al, -ial, -ed, -esque, -ful,-ic, -ical, -ish, -like, -ly, -ous, -some, -y, crypto-, neo- etc.);
-affixes with meaning of denying (a-, dis-, in-, non-, un-,-less), and it is the group of our particular interest, as they also can decalled negative;
-diminutive affixes (-ette, -ie/-y, -ikin, -let, -ling);
-affixes with meaningof the person (-an, -ian, -arian, -ant, -ard,-by, her(it), -een, -eer, -er, -ess, -ette, -ician, -ie, -ing, -ist, -ister,-kin, -ing, -ster, -ton);
-affixes with meaning of number (bi-, demi-, di-, mono-, multi-,pan-, poly-, semi-, tri-, twi-, uni-);
and many others. It is impossible to speak about one complete classificationof this type, because many affixes are polysemantic and different lexicologistrefer them to different groups [5, 148].
Prefixes and suffixes form various subgroups depending on what from allvariety of properties, that they inherit, is selected as classificationparameter. That can become, for example their origin, on the basis ofwhich there is a division into native affixes and borrowed [5,145]. As an example of borrowed affix we can take anti-, as in anticyclone,and as native – less, as in motionless.
There is also one more very important classification of affixes. It isknown that affixes are attached to stems of different parts of speech. Andaccording to this they are called:
-substantive (like anti-, non-, dis-, -less);
-adjectival (like dis-, un-, in-)
-verbal (like dis-, de-, mis-);
-adverbial (like un-, anti-, re-, non-) [5, 146].
For example, if we take a noun ability, it can be attached with aprefix dis-: disability. A verbal stem code can be transformed with theverbal prefix de: decode. An adverbial stem, like easily, can be attached with theadverbial prefix un-: uneasily.
It is also noteworthy to mention, that the basis of the classificationcan be the part of speech, into which the given affix transforms a word. Thisclassification is referred to suffixes, as their role in definition of thecharacteristics of derivatives’ parts of speech is more obvious, than that ofprefixes. It is interesting that the names of the groups are the same as in theprevious classification. So while classification the criteria for it mustalways be mentioned. The groups are:
-substantive (-dom, -ness);
-verbal (-en, -ize);
-adverbial (-ly);
-adjectival (-less) [5, 146].
As it is seen, there is only one negative affix in this classification –suffix -less, so this classification is not of much importance in our analysis.Due to the suffix –less we can transform a nouncolour to the adjective colourless.Prefixes are not included into this classification as they usually do notchange the part of speech of the word, but touch only its meaning.
Several more classifications are given in one of the RussianDictionaries. According to their function affixes are of two kinds:
-of nominative function (serving to denote some objects,phenomena etc.);
-of structural (connecting) function.
To the first group belong word-building affixes and flexions. The firstserve to build new words and the second – to refer a word to this or thatgrammatical form. Affixes of structural function are called interfixes. Theyare used for connection of two joined morphemes, like in паровоз [2, 153]. They are nottypical for English language and all the negative affixes must be referred to thefirst group.
According to the peculiarities of combinability there is the followingopposition:
-regular (multivalent) affixes;
-irregular (univalent) affixes.
Regular affixes are combined within the word with the different kinds ofaffixal or root morphemes, for example, un- (unable, unacceptable).Irregular affixes posses restricted combinability and are called unifixes (like–ух in двух). It is quite obvious that all thenegative affixes are included into the first group too, because all they possesa certain word-building pattern and their degree of combinability is very high.[2, 153-154]
Summing up, having consulted some sources, we have found out, that thereis a number of classifications of morphemes, and affixes in particular,according to different criteria.
4. The functions of negative affixes
As it was said above, negative affixes are lexical, because they are usedto build new words. And they also always bring some negative additional meaningto the derivative word, changing its meaning to opposite. From this it can bemade a conclusion that one of the functions of English negative affixes is:
1) Tocreate antonyms of the derivatives.
This function is performed only if the part if speech is not changed (andonly the suffix less does changes it).
And if we look at them more generally, as a part of the discourse onemore function appears:
2) Bringingthe negation to the sentence.
Speaking about the second function it is important to mention that thereare 6 ways of negation on the sentence: negative affixes, negativeparticles, negative pronouns and adverbs, negative conjunctionsand negative prepositions. Affixation is a morphological way of negation(while others are sintactical). The most popular negative affixes are un-, dis-, de-. To the verbs suchprefixes likeun-,dis-, de-give the meaning of opposite action. So, such affixes like dis-, mis-, in-,un-, less- and such bring to the sentence the idea of absence,deprivation andoppositeness. It is important to mention that there are certain rules ofcombinability of affixes. For example, the prefix un-, Germanic in itsorigin, is not usually combined with the stem of the word. Such words like unlikeare not typical for English.More oftenthe particlenotis used instead. The prefix un- should be used with care, as when is attachedto the verbs, it tends to bring the meaning of the opposite action, as well as mis-,dis-, de- (tie — untie). There are only several verbs in English with theseaffixes, possessing the meaning “not”. They are to dislike, disbelieve,mistrust. [3, 14-15]
Nouns and adjectives are usually attached with such affixes likeun-, non-, in- (im-, il-, ir-) dis-, mis-.The closest to each other in meaning are non- and un- (but it wasspoken earlier about their difference). The suffix less- is also usually addedto nouns and adjectives. The prefix un- is the closest in meaning tothis suffix less- (endless — unending, profitless — unprofitable) [3, 16].
So, we can come to the conclusion that the most widely used are theaffixes de-, un-, dis; and negative affixes tend to come with nouns andadjectives. The stems of verbs are not combined with them and the negation isexpressed in the sentence by the analytical negative verb-form. So, thefunction of creating antonyms can hardly find its application in verbs, buttypical for nouns and adjectives.
Let us take the novel of Lauren Weisberger “Chasing Harry Winston” fordifferent examples of these two functions. We will take not only sentencescontaining words with negative affixes, but also sentences where negation isexpressed in other ways, for example participle not. It will help toprove (or not to prove the statement that the negation of actions are morelikely to be expressed by the particle not).
1) When Leigh’s doorbell rang unexpectedly at nine onMonday night, she did not think, Gee, I wonder who that could be. [8, 1]
Here we see that the function of negation is performed here: it isstressed that Leigh did not expect the doorbell. Unexpectedly is derived fromthe word expect (because there is no such word in English as ”expectedly”[7]), so the first function is not performed here.
2) Where there people who actually welcomed unannouncedvisitors when they just stopped to “say hello” or “check in”? [8, 1]
In this example both functions are realized: there is a negation in thesentence (there are few people who welcome visitors who are notannounced), and the word unannounced comes from the word announced, being itsantonym.
3) The apartment might have been the most perfect she’d seenin a year and a half of looking, but she had not wanted to take anychance. [8, 2]
Here the negation in the sentence is expressed by the negative particle not.It is used to change the meaning of the verb to the opposite, what is veryfrequent, as it was said above.
4) Before her, removing a QVC catalog from an unlockedmailbox, stood an overweight woman in a polka-dot housedress. [8, 3]
In the example above both functions are performed: unlocked is an antonymfor locked and there is an idea of negation on the sentence (from themailbox which was not locked).
5) Not a day younger than eighty, thought Leigh, andshe breathed a sigh of relief. [8, 3]
This sentence is another example of the negation expressed by thenegative particle not.
6) How could she possibly have predicted that the seemingly innocuousupstairs neighbor was a dedicated wearer of massive wooden orthopedic clogs? [8,3]
In the given example only the second function is performed (the neighbordid not seem a person intending to do harm), because there is no such aword as “nocuous” [8], so antonymic function is irrelevant here.
7) Before she had spotted her neighbor wearing the offendingshoes, Leigh had created an elaborate explanation for the relentlessupstairs racket. [8, 4]
Here we see the adjective built with the suffix –less. As we remember itis the only negative affix which transports a word from one part of speech toanother. So it can not perform the antonymic function, because antonyms mustrefer to one part of speech (relent is a verb, relentless is an adjective [7]).The conclusion can be made that only the second function is expressed by theaffix (the upstairs racket which never stopped moving).
8) Leigh’s throat constricted and her pulse inexplicablyquickened. [8, 5]
In the sentence above inexplicably is derived from explicable, butnot “explicably”, so it does not perform the antonymic function. But theaffix expresses the function of negation in the sentence (it was not easyto explain, why her pulse quickened).
9) Leigh did not think she was a likely candidate fora coronary: It was a panic attack, plain and simple. [8, 5]
10) I amnot falling for this, she thought as shestealthily dialed her doorman. [8, 5]
In the last two examples we can observe the expression of the negation inthe sentence with the participle not.
11) In an ineffective attempt to dispel the panic, Leighpressed her fingertips into her temples and stretched her neck from side toside. [8, 5]
Here ineffective is an antonym of effective, and the secondfunction is also expressed by the affix (the attempt is not effective).
12) Never mind that in eighty years of city living she did notpersonally known anyone who had been so much as pickpocketed, or that thechances of a psychopathic murderer choosing her apartment from more than twohundred other units in her building was unlikely… 8, 6]
In the example given in the first case the negation is expressed by theparticle not, and in the second case unlikely, which affix un- isalso one way of expressing the negation in the sentence, is also an antonym forlikely.
From the examples above it can be seen that the most popular way ofnegation is particle not, as it is used in five examples from twelve. Themost active of the negative affixes are un-and in- (they are usedin three examples each). The least active of the present ones is the suffix less-,it is used only once.
What is also important for the classificational analysis of the negativeaffixes is to apply different classification to concrete examples of affixes.Thus, when we deal with certain examples, we can see, how the classificationsgiven work. So let us take the examples 1, 6 and 7: unexpectedly, innocuous andrelentless.
Unexpectedly: negative affix un-. Morphemic analysis:un-expect-ed-ly. Derivational analysis: expected – unexpectedly. As all theaffixes un- is bound, overt, full, segmental, additive, continuous morpheme(the same will be common for other classified affixes). It is a prefix, sinceit is in preposition to the root. It is a native affix. As it is an adjectivalaccording to the pert of speech it is attached to. We can not speak of theclassification based on the criteria of the part of speech of the built word,because it is not only the affix which transfers the word from one part ofspeech to another. It is an affix of nominative function, because it is not aninterfix, and it is regular, as long as it has certain models of combinability(derivational patterns).
Innocuous: negative affix in-. Morphemic analysis: in-nocuous.Derivational analysis: can not be done, the word is non-derived. In- is aprefix. We can not apply to it the classifications, based on the part of speechthe affix is attached to and the part of speech if forms, because this worddoes not have derivatives, it was not built from any other word, it was createdas it is. It has a nominative function, and it is regular.
Relentless: negative affix –less. Morphemic analysis: relent-less.Derivational analysis: relent – relentless. It is verbal according to thecriteria of the word it is attached to, and adjectival according to the part ofspeech of the derived word. It is also regular and performs a nominativefunction.
Summing up the written above, we can notice that:
1) Allthe negative affixes in context bring the negation into a sentence, and viewedindependently, some of them perform the antonymic function.
2) Thoughit was stated that un-, dis- and de- are the most popular negative affixes, accordingto the present examples the most frequent are un- and in-.
3) Negativeaffixes are rarely attached to verbs. For the purpose of negation verbs aremore often preceded by a particle not and the analytical form is used.
The conclusion
So, we are done with the comparative and classificational analysis. Inthis work we, first, managed to study different sources and to make onecomplete list of negative affixes. We found out that all affixes can be studiedfrom two criteria: morphological and derivational. These two criteria were veryuseful in the further classificational analyses. We also studied one of themorphemic classifications and stated the place of affixes there.
There are different points of view on the semantics of affixes, but mostscholars agree, that they have a kind of general, additional meaning. So,sticking to this opinion, we gave the meanings of the negative affixes from differentdictionaries, compared them, and observed how they are expressed in differentcontexts.
There are numerous ways of classifying affixes. We tried to give as manyclassifications of both morphemes in general and affixes in particular aspossible and also find out, what place is occupied by the negative affixes inany of then.
Different shades of meanings were also studied and the choice fordifferent affixes for one and the same stem was explained. We also found outthe main functions of the negative affixes, taken independently and in thecontext. A popular novel was used for the context, which is an example ofcontemporary British literature. We also studied which affixes are attached todifferent parts of speech and which parts of words they then build.
Analyzing the examples from the novel, we made a conclusion, whichaffixes are the most active nowadays (which affixes are used most frequently).After giving the examples of the negative affixes in context, we singled outseveral words containing them and gave a complete descriptive analysis of thenegative affixes using all the possible ways of classification studied earlier.
Making this course paper, we gave a general overview to affixation as away of word formation, familiarized ourselves with English negative affixes,learned how they differ in shades of meaning from each other, and learned todifferentiate them. We studied which affixes are used with stems of differentparts of speech and saw which of them are able to transform words of one partof speech into another, studied the peculiarities of their usage. It is veryuseful for a linguist and a translator, it can be a great help especially inour future study and work.
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