Asist. dr. Imola-gnes FARKAS Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Letters farkas_imola_agnes@yahoo.com, farkas.imola.agnes@gmail.com

Lexicology Spring 2015, English Minors

SEMINAR 31 Word Formation: Affixation (I)

I. MEANS OF ENRICHING THE VOCABULARY A. Internal

Predominantly morphological:

Major: affixation, composition, conversion Minor: abbreviation, clipping, portmanteaux, change of morphological accent etc.

Predominantly semantic: polysemy, mutation of meaning etc.

B. External

borrowings

II. AFFIXATION

a. Suffixation (morphological criteria) Nominal suffixes

Adjectival suffixes Verbal suffixes

Adverbial suffixes Numeral suffixes

b. Prefixation (semantic criteria) Negative prefixes

Iterative prefix

Spatial and directional prefixes Temporal prefixes

Numeral prefixes

1 You find in this handout the main topics covered during our seminar. They are made available to you before class to save

time and to make note-taking easier, but not unnecessary! The handout as such (without your notes covering the explanations and examples that I give during the seminar) cannot constitute a sufficient source of information when preparing for the exam. If you miss the seminar, it is strongly recommended that this handout be used as a guide to the bibliography.

Practice 1: Comment on the formation of the following words. State the type of the affix: a. hopelessly, impossibility, irresistibly, foreteller

b. overpayment, simplification, ladylike, counter-revolutionize

Practice 2: Comment on the following pairs of words: reform vs. re-form and recreate vs. re-create

Practice 3: Add the right negative prefix to one of the following roots: -courage, -smoker, -sane, -symmetry, -normal, -assuming, -like, -loyal, -experienced, -conclusive

Practice 4: Change the following adjectives and verbs into nouns, by adding the necessary suffix: a. discuss, announce, accurate, bored, anxious, refuse, certain, necessary, serious, long b. dismiss, strong, rare, deny, wise, deep, freeze, discover, add, poor

Practice 5: Complete each of the following sentences with a word derived from the one in brackets:

a. German cars are known for their _______________. (to rely) b. I usually have a headache after a night of __________ drinking and smoking. (to exceed) c. Check if there is a ___________ fee. (to cancel) d. Have you got a ____________ I can put my jacket on? (hang) e. The teacher warned the children that if they ___________ again, theyd be punished. (behave) f. They were caught in an ______________ shower of rain. (expect) g. The weather in England is so ______________ that you never know what to expect. (predict) h. At the Halloween party Jane was _____________. (recognize)