In linguistics, 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 and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry grammatical information ( endings) or lexical information (derivational/lexical suffixes) .
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).
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 language -like or German language -freundlich "friendly").
Examples
English
- Girl s—where the suffix -s marks the plurality.
- He make s—where suffix -s marks the third person singular present tense.
- It clos ed—where the suffix -ed marks the past tense.
- It's bright er—where the suffix -er marks the comparative.
French
- De beau x jours—where the suffix -x marks the plural.
- Elle est passablement joli e —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"
- mein es Computer s—genitive case
- mein em Computer—dative case
- mein en Computer—accusative case
Russian
- мой компьютер—where the lack of suffixes is because its case, nominative, is "unmarked"
- мо его компьютер а—genitive case
- мо ему компьютер у—dative case
- мой компьютер—accusative case
- за-туш- и-ть свеч у—where first word has -и- suffix, -ть ending (infinitive form); second word with ending -у (accusative case, singular, feminine).
- —добр- root, -о- interfix, -жел- root, verbal -a- interfix, nominal suffix, adjectival -н- suffix, adjectival -ый ending (nominative case, singular, masculine).
- '—here suffix -ся (reflexive) is so-called postfix''' as it is placed after the adjectival ending.
Barngarla
- wárraidya "emu" — where the lack of suffixes is because its grammatical number, singular, is "unmarked"
- wárraidya lbili "two emus" — dual
- wárraidya rri "emus" — plural
- wárraidya ilyarranha "a lot of emus", "heaps of emus" — superplural
[Zuckermann, Ghil'ad 2020, , Oxford University Press. / ]
Inflectional suffixes
Inflection changes the grammatical properties of a word within its syntactic category. In several languages, this is realized by an inflectional suffix, also known as
desinence. In the example:
- I was hoping the cloth wouldn't fade, but it has fad ed 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.[Jackson and Amvela (2000): Word, Meaning and Vocabulary; An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology. London, Athenaeum Press, p. 83] Inflectional suffixes in Modern English include:
Verbs
-
-s third person singular simple present indicative active
-
-ed past tense and past participle
-
-t past tense (weak irregular)
-
-ing present participle and gerund
-
-en past participle (irregular)
Nouns
-
-s plural number
-
-en plural number (irregular)
Adjectives and adverbs
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
-
(usually changes adjectives into adverbs, but also some nouns into adjectives)
-
' /' (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-
' /' (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-
(usually changes nouns into adjectives/class-maintaining, with the word class remaining an adjective)
-
(usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-
(usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-
(usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-
(usually changes nouns into adjectives)
-
'/' (usually changes verbs into adjectives)
-
(usually changes verbs into nouns, often referring to a human agent)
-
'/'/ (usually changes verbs into nouns)
-
(usually changes verbs into nouns)
-
(usually changes adjectives into nouns)
-
(usually changes adjectives into nouns)
-
(usually changes nouns into verbs)
-
'/' (usually changes nouns into verbs)
-
(usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-
(usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-
(usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-
(usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-
'/' (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
-
(usually) museum; stadium; auditorium; aquarium; planetarium; medium
-
From wīse ("manner, way, condition, direction")
Altered pronunciation in English
A suffix will often change the stress or accent pattern of a multi-syllable word, altering the phoneme pattern of the root word even if the root's morphology does not change.
[Nancy K. Lewkowicz, " Pronouncing Longer Words: Don't Begin at the Beginning". Journal of Reading, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Dec., 1985), 226–237.] An example is the difference between "photograph" and "photography". In this case, the "-y" ending governs the stress pattern, causing the primary stress to shift from the first syllable ("pho-") to the antepenultimate ("-to-"). The unaccented syllables have their ordinary vowel sound changed to a schwa. This can be a particular problem for dyslexics, affecting their phonemic awareness,
[" Dyslexia Help: Success Starts Here". University of Michigan.] as well as a hurdle for non-native speakers.
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