In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...
, 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, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the
conjugation
Conjugation or conjugate may refer to:
Linguistics
*Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form
* Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language
Mathematics
*Complex conjugation, the change ...
of verbs. Suffixes can carry grammatical information (
inflectional suffixes) or lexical information (
derivational/lexical suffixes'').'' An inflectional suffix or a
grammatical suffix.
Such inflection changes the grammatical properties of a word within its
syntactic category. For derivational suffixes, they can be divided into two categories: class-changing derivation and class-maintaining derivation.
Particularly in the study of
Semitic languages, suffixes are called affirmatives, as they can alter the form of the words. In
Indo-European studies, a distinction is made between suffixes and endings (see
Proto-Indo-European root). Suffixes can carry grammatical information or lexical information.
A word-final segment that is somewhere between a
free morpheme and a
bound morpheme is known as a suffixoid
[Kremer, Marion. 1997. ''Person reference and gender in translation: a contrastive investigation of English and German''. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, p. 69, note 11.] or a semi-suffix
[Marchand, Hans. 1969. ''The categories and types of present-day English word-formation: A synchronic-diachronic approach''. Munich: Beck, pp. 356 ff.] (e.g., English ''-like'' or German ''-freundlich'' "friendly").
Examples
English
:''Girls''—where the suffix ''-s'' marks the
plurality.
:''He makes''—where suffix ''-s'' marks the
third person singular
Singular may refer to:
* Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms
* Singular homology
* SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS)
* Singular or sounder, a group of boar ...
present tense.
:''It closed''—where the suffix ''-ed'' marks the
past tense.
French
:''De beaux jours''—where the suffix ''-x'' marks the
plural
The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
.
:''Elle est passablement jolie''—where the suffix ''-e'' marks the
feminine form of the adjective.
German
:''mein Computer''—where the lack of suffixes is because its case, nominative, is "unmarked"
:''meines Computers''—genitive case
:''meinem Computer''—dative case
:''meinen Computer''—accusative case
Russian
:''мой компьютер—''where the lack of suffixes is because its case, nominative, is "unmarked"
:''моего компьютера''—genitive case
:''моему компьютеру''—dative case
:''мой компьютер''—accusative case
:''за-туш-и-ть свечу''—where first word has -и- suffix, -ть ending (infinitive form); second word with ending -у (accusative case, singular, feminine).
:''
добр-о-жел-а-тель-н-ый''—добр- root, -о- interfix, -жел- root, verbal -a- interfix, nominal
-тель suffix, adjectival -н- suffix, adjectival -ый ending (nominative case, singular, masculine).
Barngarla
:''wárraidya'' "
emu" — where the lack of suffixes is because its grammatical number, singular, is "unmarked"
:''wárraidyalbili'' "two emus" — dual
:''wárraidyarri'' "emus" — plural
:''wárraidyailyarranha'' "a lot of emus", "heaps of emus" — superplural
Inflectional suffixes
Inflection changes the grammatical properties of a word within its
syntactic category. In the example:
:I was hoping the cloth wouldn't fade, but it has faded quite a bit.
the suffix ''-d'' inflects the
root-word ''fade'' to indicate past participle.
Inflectional suffixes do not change the word class of the word after the inflection. Inflectional suffixes in Modern English include:
Verbs
*-s third person singular simple present tense
*
-ed
Verbs constitute one of the main parts of speech (word classes) in the English language. Like other types of words in the language, English verbs are not heavily inflected. Most combinations of tense, aspect, mood and voice are expressed peri ...
past tense and past participle
*-t past tense (weak irregular)
*
-ing present participle and gerund
*
-en
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
past participle (irregular)
Nouns
*-s plural number
*-en plural number (irregular)
Adjectives and Adverbs
*-er
comparative degree
*-est
superlative degree
Derivation
Derivational suffixes can be divided into two categories: class-changing derivation and class-maintaining derivation.
[Jackson and Amvela(2000): Word, Meaning and Vocabulary- An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology. London, Athenaeum Press, p.88] In English, they include
*
-ise/
-ize
Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American ...
(usually changes nouns into verbs)
*
-fy (usually changes nouns into verbs)
*
-ly (usually changes adjectives into adverbs, but also some nouns into adjectives)
*
-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
The suffix ''-ess'' (plural ''-esses'') appended to English words makes a female form of the word.
ESS or ess may refer to:
Education
* Ernestown Secondary School, in Odessa, Ontario
* European Standard School, in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Governmen ...
(usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
*
-ness (usually changes adjectives into nouns)
*
-less (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
*
-ism
''-ism'' is a suffix in many English words, originally derived from the Ancient Greek suffix ('), and reaching English through the Latin , and the French . It means "taking side with" or "imitation of", and is often used to describe philo ...
(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
In chemistry, the suffix -al is the IUPAC nomenclature used in organic chemistry to form names of aldehyde
In organic chemistry, an aldehyde () is an organic compound containing a functional group with the structure . The functional group itse ...
(usually changes nouns into adjectives)
*
-ish (usually changes nouns into adjectives/ class-maintaining, with the word class remaining an adjective)
*
-oid (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
*
-like (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
*
-ity (usually changes adjectives into nouns)
*
-tion/
-ion/
ation (usually changes verbs into noun)
*
-logy/
-ology (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
*
-ant (usually changes verbs into nouns, often referring to a human agent)
Synthetic languages
Many
synthetic languages—
Czech,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
,
Finnish,
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
,
Hungarian,
Russian,
Turkish, etc.—use many endings.
References
External links
*{{Commonscatinline, Suffixes
Affixes
Linguistics terminology
English suffixes