Cl?ssification of Prefixes

Prefixation is the formation of words with the help of prefixes, i.e. by adding a derivational prefix to a derivational base.

Prefixes and suffixes as any other types of word formation can be classified according to various approaches and criteria. Diachronically prefixes are subdivided into native and borrowed ones. The native English prefixes as well as native English words belong to the ancient Anglo-Saxon element of the language. They are fewer in number than the borrowed ones (mostly from Latin, French and Greek). To native English prefixes refer: a-1(in native English words like alive), after-, be-, for(e)-, mis-, off-, out-, over, un-, over-, un-, under-. To borrowed prefixes belong: ?-2(in borrowed words like amoral), ab-, ad-, anti-, arch-, bi-, bis-, cis-, co-, con-, contra-, counter-, de-, demi-, dis-, en-, ex-, extra-, hyper-, hypo-, in- (variants il-, im, ir-), inter-, intro-, non-, para-, post-, pre-, pro-, re-, sub-, super-, sur-, syn-, trans-, ultra-, uni-, vice- and some others. Despite the fact that native English prefixes are fewer in number, they play an important part in English prefixation. They are of high frequency of occurrence, productive and are used in all the styles and registers while the borrowed ones are for the most part appear in formal discourse and scientific style.

Structurally two types of prefixes are distinguished:

1) those not correlated with any independent word either notional or functional: un-, dis-, re-, pre-, etc.

2) those correlated with functional words (prepositions or adverbs): out-, over-, off-, under-, up-.

Synchronically prefixes may be classified from the point of view of their valency, i.e. their potential ability to collocate with other lexical units. Some prefixes may collocate with the derivational bases of only one part of speech, others with the bases of two and more parts of speech. For example, the prefix arch- collocates only with nouns (archbishop, archenemy), and the prefix dis- collocates only with verbs (disagree, discover, displease) and nouns (disadvantage, discomfort).

Further on prefixes are classified according to the type of lexico-grammatical character of the base they are added to, or in other words, according to the base of what particular part of speech they are added to, into:

? deverbal prefixes (added to verbal bases, they may be represented by the formula pf + v, where pf is a prefix and v is a derivational verbal base): rewrite, outstay, overdo, underestimate, etc.;

? denominal prefixes (added to nominal bases: pf + n): unbutton, ex-president, coexistence, etc.;

? deadjectival prefixes (added to adjectival bases: pf + a): uneasy, bilingual, incorrect, etc.

Prefixes are differentiated according to the parts of speech theypreferably form. Thus, according to V. Piottukh [??????? 1971:42] out of 42 derivational prefixes only five (be-, de-, en-, out-, un-1) are verb-forming; five (be-, de-, en-, out-, un-1) are noun-forming; one (a-1) is adverb-forming, fourteen prefixes (a-2, anti-, demi-, epi-, hemi-, hypo-, hyper-, im-/in-, non-, pro-, pan-, subter-, supra-, un-2) form nouns and adjectives; three (for-, sur-, re-) form verbs and nouns; twelve (co-, contra-, counter-, dis-, intra-, mis-, post-, pre-, sub-, trans-, over-, under-) form verbs, nouns and adjectives.

The semantic classification of prefixes makes it possible to distinguish first of all monosemantic and polysemantic prefixes. The majority of prefixes are monosemantic. Topolysemantic prefixes refer:

The prefix ?-:

a-1(1? abed, afield, ashore ? expresses the locative meaning; 2 ? alive, asleep, ablaze expresses the meaning of state; 3 ? obs. a-running, a-singing ? the meaning of process);

?-2 (amoral, aseptic, atheist ? the meaning of negation, absence of quality or property indicated by the derivational base) is homonymous to the prefix ?-1: their meanings have no common components and they are also etymologically different.

The prefix dis-:

dis-1 (disagreeable , disadvantage) has a negative meaning;

dis-2 (1 ? disjoin, disconnect, disorganize) ? the reversative meaning, the meaning of the action contrary to the one expressed by the derivational base; 2 ? disable, discourage ? the meaning of deprivation of a certain quality, property, etc.).

The prefix un-:

un-1 (uneasy, unacceptable, undemocratic) ? negative meaning;

un-2(unbind, uncoil, unarm) ? reversative meaning (the meaning reverse to the one expressed in the derivational base).

As it was pointed above, affixal morphemes have generalized lexical meaning which may possess denotational and connotational components. According to their generalized lexical meaning prefixes are subdivided into various groups. Below are the basic lexico-semantic groups of prefixes:

?) negative prefixes: un-1, non-, in-/il-,im-, ir-, dis-1, a- : unreal, non-politician, non-stop, incorrect, disadvantage, disloyal, amoral, asymmetry. The prefix in- has several allomorphs, which depend on the initial phoneme of the base the prefix is affixed to: il- goes before [l] (illegal), im- is added to a base beginning with [p,m] (improper, immortal), ir- before [r] (irrelevant); in- in all other cases;

b) reversative prefixes : un-2, de-, dis-2: untie, decentralize, disconnect;

c) prefixes of time and order: pre-, fore-, post-, ex-: prepay, foretell, post-war, ex-president;

d) locative prefixes: up-, under-, super-, sub-, inter-, trans-: upstairs, underwear, superscription, subway, international, transatlantic;

e) the prefix of repetition: re- : rewrite, rebuild;

The above-mentioned prefixes are subdivided into groups according to their generalized denotational meaning. But there is a group of prefixes characterizes by negative connotations (pejorative prefixes): mis-, mal-, pseudo- : misunderstand, maltreat, malpractice, pseudo-scientific.

Prefixes are also classified according to their stylistic reference into stylistically neutral as un-, out-, re-, under-, etc. and stylistically marked, formal, literary-bookish, belonging to the style of scientific prose: hyper-, hypo-, supra-, ultra-, uni-, bi-, pseudo-, in the words, e.g. hypersensitive, hypodermic, suprasegmental, ultraviolet, unilateral, bilingual; publicistic, newspaper styles: anti-, counter-, ex-, pre-, pro-, vice- in the words, e.g. anti-tactics, counter-terrorism, ex-president, pre-election, vice-president, etc.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 586