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Semi-Affixes
Back-formation (Reversion)
Consider the following examples:
Better sorts of lip-stick are frequently described in advertisements as kissproof. Certain
technical devices are foolproof meaning that they are safe even in a fool’s hands.
All these words, with –proof for the second component, stand between compounds
and derived words in their characteristics. On the one hand, the second component
seems to bear all the features of a stem and preserves certain semantic associations
with the free form –proof. On the other hand, the meaning of –proof in all the numerous
words built on this pattern has become so generelized that it is certainly approaching
that of a suffix. The high productivity of the pattern is proved, once more, by the
possibility of coining nonce-words after this pattern: look-proof and knid-proof, the
second produced from the non-existent Knid.
The component proof, standing thus between a stem and an affix, is regarded by
some scholars as a semi-affix.
Another example of semi-affix is –man in a vast group of English nouns denoting
people:sportsman, gentleman, nobleman, salesman, seaman, fisherman, countryman,
statesman, policeman, chairman, etc.
Semantically, the constituent –man in these words approaches the generalized
meaning of such noun-forming suffixes as –er, -or, -ist (artist), -ite (hypocrite). It has
moved so far in its meaning from the corresponding free form man, that such word-
groups as woman policeman or Mrs. Chairman are quite usual.
Other examples of semi-affixes are –land, Scotland, fatherland, wonderland), -like
(ladylike, unladylike, businesslike, unbusinesslike, starlike, flowerlike) –worthy
(seaworthy, trustworthy, praiseworthy).
Shortening (Contraction
)
This comparatively new way of word-building has achieved a high degree of
productivity nowadays, especially in American English.
Shortenings (or contractd\curtailed words) are produced in two different ways. The
first is to make a new word from a syllable (rarer two) of the original word. The latter
may lose its beginning (as in phone made from telephone, fence from defense), its
ending (as in hols from holidays, vac from vacation, props from properties, ad from
advertisement) or both the beginning and ending (as in flu from influenza, fridge from
refrigerator).
The second way of shortening is to make a new word from the initial letters of a word
group: U.N.O. (United Nations Organization), B.B.C. (British Broadcasting Corporation),
M.P/ Member of Parliament. This type is called initial shortenings. They are found not
only among formal words, but also among colloquialisms and slang. So, g.f. is a
shortened word made from the compound girl-friend. The word, though. seems
somewhat ambiguous as the following conversation clearly shows:
-
Who’s the letter from?
-
My g.f.
-
Didn’t know that had girl-friends. A nice girl?
-
Idiot! It’s from my grandfather!.
It is believed that the preference for shortenings can be explained due to the ever-
increasing tempo of modern life. Yet, confusion and misunderstanding are quite natural
consequences of the modern overabundance of shortened words, and initial
shortenings are often especially enigmatic and misleading.
Both types of shortenings are characteristic of informal speech in general and of
uncultivated speech particularly. The history of the American Okay seems to be rather
typical. Originally this initial shortening was spelt O.K. and was supposed to stand for all
correct. The purely oral manner in which sounds were recorded for letters resulted in
O.K.
Here are some more examples of informal shortenings. Movie (from moving-
picture), gent (from gentleman), specs (from spectacles), circs (circumstnces), I.O.Y (a
written acknowledgement of debt, made from I owe you), lib (liberty. May I take the lib of
saying something to you?), cert (certainly. This enterprise is a cert if you have a bit of a
capital), metrop (metropoly Paris is a gay metrop).
Students’ informal speech abounds in words of the type:exam, lab, prof, vac, hol, co-
ed (a girl student at a coeducational school).
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