Affixation
Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building throughout the history of English. It consists in adding an affix to the stem of a definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and prefixation.
Suffixation. The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. ( e.g. «educate» is a verb, «educatee» is a noun, and « music» is a noun, «musicdom» is also a noun) .
There are different classifications of suffixes: 1.Part-of-speech classification. 2.Semantic classification. Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of the stem can be subdivided into groups. 4.Origin of suffixes. 5.Productivity.
Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix
Prefixes can be classified according to different principles: 1. Semantic classification: a) prefixes of negative meaning, such as : in- (invaluable), non- (nonformals), un- (unfree) etc, b) prefixes denoting repetition or reversal actions, such as: de- (decolonize), re- (revegetation), dis- (disconnect), c) prefixes denoting time, space, degree relations, such as : inter- (interplanetary) , hyper- (hypertension), ex- (ex-student), pre- (pre-election), over- (overdrugging) etc.
2. Origin of prefixes: a) native (Germanic), such as: un-, over-, under- etc. b) Romanic, such as : in-, de-, ex-, re- etc. c) Greek, such as : sym-, hyper- etc.