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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 In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ...
which is placed after the
stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the
grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...
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 (
inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
al 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 A syntactic category is a syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume. Word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, etc.), are syntactic categories. In phrase structure grammars, the ''phrasal c ...
. For derivational suffixes, they can be divided into two categories: class-changing derivation and class-maintaining derivation. Particularly in the study of
Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant ...
, suffixes are called affirmatives, as they can alter the form of the words. In
Indo-European studies Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical p ...
, a distinction is made between suffixes and endings (see
Proto-Indo-European root The roots of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) are basic parts of words that carry a lexical meaning, so-called morphemes. PIE roots usually have verbal meaning like "to eat" or "to run". Roots never occurred alone in the lan ...
). Suffixes can carry grammatical information or lexical information. A word-final segment that is somewhere between a
free morpheme In linguistics, a bound morpheme is a morpheme (the elementary unit of morphosyntax) that can appear only as part of a larger expression; a free morpheme (or unbound morpheme) is one that can stand alone. A bound morpheme is a type of bound form, ...
and a
bound morpheme In linguistics, a bound morpheme is a morpheme (the elementary unit of morphosyntax) that can appear only as part of a larger expression; a free morpheme (or unbound morpheme) is one that can stand alone. A bound morpheme is a type of bound form, ...
is known as a suffixoidKremer, 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-suffixMarchand, 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 The present tense ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
. :''It closed''—where the suffix ''-ed'' marks the
past tense The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some ha ...
.


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 Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...
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 In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
changes the grammatical properties of a word within its
syntactic category A syntactic category is a syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume. Word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, etc.), are syntactic categories. In phrase structure grammars, the ''phrasal c ...
. In the example: :I was hoping the cloth wouldn't fade, but it has faded quite a bit. the suffix ''-d'' inflects the
root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...
-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 ''-ing'' is a suffix used to make one of the inflected forms of English verbs. This verb form is used as a present participle, as a gerund, and sometimes as an independent noun or adjective. The suffix is also found in certain words like ''morn ...
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 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 ...
(irregular)


Nouns

*-s plural number *-en plural number (irregular)


Adjectives and Adverbs

*-er
comparative general linguistics, the comparative is a syntactic construction that serves to express a comparison between two (or more) entities or groups of entities in quality or degree - see also comparison (grammar) for an overview of comparison, as well ...
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 ''-logy'' is a suffix in the English language, used with words originally adapted from Ancient Greek ending in ('). The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French '' -logie'', which was in turn inherited from the Latin ''-lo ...
/ -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 language A synthetic language uses inflection or agglutination to express syntactic relationships within a sentence. Inflection is the addition of morphemes to a root word that assigns grammatical property to that word, while agglutination is the combi ...
s— 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