Prefixes

Prefixes in English cannot build grammatical forms as in Russian. In English prefixes change the lexical meaning of the root without changing the part of speech. This is their main function. But there are some prefixes in English that are exceptions,

They form one part of speech from another:

be - Germanic origin, forms verbs from noun or adjective

stems — to belittle, to benumb, to befriend, to becloud, to be- madam, to behead;

en- (em-) — Romanic origin, forms verbs from noun stems with the meaning ‘to put (an object) into or on something’ — to encamp, to embed.

This prefix can form verbs from noun or adjective stems with the meaning ‘to bring somebody into some state’ — to enable, to enslave.

Pre-, post-, inter-, anti - Romanic origin, form adjectives

from noun stems, quite productive — anti-war, pre-war, post-war.

There are some prefixes in English that became an issue of discussion.

So, Prof. Amosova does not consider ad-, ac-, af- (adverb, affirm, accumulate) prefixes, as we simply feel these French prefixes to be prefixes because the English can already percept the word- structure of French borrowings due to their large number in English. But they are not English prefixes from her point of view, because they never form English words.

There exist two points of view as for ‘after-, i.e. if it is a prefix or a stem. The authors of Webster’s Dictionary keep to the point of view that it is a stem, but in the Oxford Dictionary it is called a prefix. So, for example, ‘afternoon’ is a compound word in Webster’s Dictionary and a derived word in the Oxford Dictionary.

There exist 2 classifications of prefixes:

1) according to the part of speech in which they are met, used;

2) according to the meaning of a prefix.

The meaning of the prefix is not so completely fused with the meaning of the primary stem, as in the case with suffixes, the prefix retains a certain degree of semantic independence. It allows to classify them according to their meaning.

In a very ancient prelanguage, primitive language prefixes and suffixes were independent words added to other words and later, they lost, to a bigger or smaller degree, their independence and their lexical meaning, and became some formal parts of words with a certain grammatical function. But it so happened that up to now, prefixes retained their semantic independence and their lexical meaning to a greater degree than suffixes.

Classification of Prefixes According to the Part of Speech in Which They Are Used

Verb Prefixes:

1) out - Germanic origin, adds the meaning ‘to surpass’ — to outnumber, to outlive;

2) over- Germanic origin, adds the meaning ‘to do more than enough’ — to overload, to overcrowd;

3) under - Germanic origin, adds the meaning ‘to do less than enough’ — to underestimate;

4) mis - Germanic origin,adds the meaning ‘to do in the wrong way’ — to mislead, to misinform

5) un -Germanic origin, adds the negative meaning to the stem — to unpack;

6) dis - Romanic origin, adds the negative meaning to the stem — to disagree;

7) re- Romanic origin, adds the meaning of repeating the action expressed by the stem — to rewrite.

Adjective Prefixes:

1) in- (il-, ir-, im- )- Romanic origin, adds the negative meaning. The spelling depends on the initial letter of the stem — inactive, illiterate, impossible, immovable, irrational;

2) non -Romanic origin, adds the negative meaning to the stem — non-effective;

3) dis - Romanic origin, adds the negative meaning to the stem — dishonest;

4) extra - Romanic origin, adds the meaning of ‘more than enough’ — extraordinary;

5) un - Germanic, adds the negative meaning to the stem — unhappy.

Noun Prefixes:

1) non - Romanic origin, adds the negative meaning to the stem — nonsense;

2) ex – Romanic origin, adds the meaning of former occupation — ex-champion, ex-soldier, ex-king, ex-wife;

3) dis - Romanic origin, adds the negative meaning to the stem — disarmament, disagreement;

4) mis - Germanic origin, adds the meaning of doing something in the wrong way — misunderstanding.

Classification of Prefixes According to Their Meaning

negative, reverse, opposite meaning:

im - (verbs, adj.): to undo, to unlock, unjust,

non - (nouns, adj.): non-acceptance, non-essential,

in- (im-, il-. ir-) (adj., nouns): immoral, impatient, dis- (verbs, nouns, adj.): dishonesty, disloyal, to dislike,

1) relationship in time, place, degree:

a) in time — ex-, pre-, post-, inter-

ex-president, ex-soldier, ex-student, inter-festival;

b) in place - inter

international;

c) in degree - over-, under-, out-, extra-, super-

to outwit, to outweigh, overactive, to oversleep, to underfeed.

As we can conclude, prefixes are more semantically independent in English than suffixes and that allows to classify them according to their meaning.

On the whole a greater freedom of affixation is characteristic n| English than of other Indo-European languages (see the examples above).

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