Word formation: affixation

but not

* un– + ‘computer’ = ‘uncomputer’

* un– + ‘very’ = ‘unvery’

In addition, to these distributional constraints, we will see that there is an order in which affixes must be combined with roots and stems. For instance, the word ‘unbelievable’ must be built by attaching –able to ‘believe’, deriving ‘believable’, and then add un– to derive ‘unbelievable’.  We cannot add un– to ‘believe’ and then –able to ‘unbelieve.’  Even though the outcome seems to be the same, the meaning derived from the different rule orderings is not.  This is due to the fact that un- generally attaches to an adjective and not a verb.  That’s why ‘unbelieve’  is not a word to which an affix may be added.

This requirement for an ordered application of affixes is referred to as the hierarchal structure of derived words, which is shown by tree diagrams. These tree structures demonstrate the steps to adding multiple affixes to a root and how each addition may create a new word form. Below is an example of a diagram.

(11)

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We  see in (11) that the result of attaching un–  to a noun root yields an ungrammatical structure.  Furthermore, we cannot add –y to a noun.  This derivation fails. However we see in (12) that when -y is attached to a noun, it yields an adjective.  Now un– can be attached to an adjective.  This derivation results in a grammatical structure.

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(12)

Constructions such as (11 and 12) demonstrate an unambiguous word-formation.  This means that the ordering of affixes is clear.  There are, however, morphologically complex words in which two orders are possible with meaning being dependent upon the ordering.  In (13),  the first construction shows –able attaching to the verb root, resulting in the adjective ‘lockable’ to which un– is added, deriving an adjective with the opposite meaning: ‘not capable of being locked’.  In the second diagram un– is first added to the verb root resulting in the verb ‘unlock’ to which –able can be attached resulting in an adjective meaning ‘capable of being unlocked’.   The formation of the morphologically complex word ‘unlockable’ is ambiguous since both orderings of affixes result in a grammatical structure.

(13)

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As you can see, it is crucial to be well-acquainted with the parts of speech and rules of formation.  For practice, visit our self-correcting morphology exercises.

R. Aronow

[1] We use the term root as a bare, simple word that has not undergone any morphological processes, e.g., read. Stem refers to a morphologically complex word, i.e., 2 or more morphemes, to which additional morphemes may be attached, e.g., reread  rereading.