I. Structural types of words

Complex
words such as annotation,
builder, professor,
and others have internal structure. It is necessary not only to
identify each component of the morphemes but also to classify them
according to their contribution to the meaning and function of
complex words. Typically, complex words consist of a root
and one or more affixes.
The root constitutes the core of the word and carries the major
component of its meaning. Roots belong to a lexical category such as
noun (N), verb (V), adjective (Adj), adverb (Adv), and preposition
(P). Unlike roots, affixes are bound morphemes, and they do not
belong to a lexical category. Affixes are subdivided into prefixes
and suffixes. For example, when the suffix –er
combines with the root
build,
the noun builder is
coined to denote ‘one who builds.’ The internal structure of
this word can be shown in a diagram, which O’Grady,
Archibald, Aronoff, and Rees-Miller call “a tree structure” (p.
135). When an affix is attached to the root, the form is called a
base
or a stem
(The terms base
and stem
may be used interchangeably). Sometimes a base
corresponds to the
word’s root;
for example, in cat,
the root is cat,
and it is also a base.

3 Stems

A stem
is the actual form to which an affix (a suffix or a prefix) is added.
In blacken,
for example, the affix -en
is added to the root black.
Sometimes, an affix can be added to the form, which is larger than a
root, e.g., authorization
(n).

4 Types of affixes

We can distinguish three types of
affixes in terms of their position relative to the stem. An affix,
which is attached to the front of the stem, is called a prefix, and
an affix,
which is attached to the end of the stem, is called a suffix.

Some English prefixes and
suffixes

A
less common type of affix is an infix,
which occurs within another morpheme. Although it is common in some
languages, in English it appears with expletives, which provide extra
emphasis to the word. One might point to certain usages on the
American frontier such as guaran-damn-tee
, abso-bloody-lutely,
and others.

5 Derivational and Functional Affixes

Functional affixes serve to
convey grammatical meaning. They build different forms of one and
the same word. Instead of creating a new word, functional affixes
modify the form of the word in order to mark the grammatical subclass
to which it belongs. A word form is defined as one of the different
aspects a word may take as a result of inflection. Complete sets of
all the various forms of a word when considered as inflectional
patterns, such as plurality, declension and conjugation, are termed
paradigms. A paradigm is defined as the system of grammatical forms
characteristic of a word, e.g., work, work+s, work+ing, and work+ed.

The word
is
an independent unit of language. The word is composed of morphemes of
different types: root
morphemes
and affixational
morphemes.
Morphemes are not independent. Morpheme
can be defined as the smallest indivisible meaningful two-facet
language unit. The term morpheme is derived from Greek morphe-
form + eme-
smallest unit.

Root-morpheme
is the semantic nucleus of a word with which no grammatical
properties of the word are connected. It has a very general lexical
meaning common to a set of semantically related words such as
teacher,
teach, teaching, teachable.

Affixational
morphemes
are subdivided into inflections
and derivational
affixes.
Inflections are used to form different word-forms such –s,-‘s,
-s’
in teacher, or –s,
-ed
in play. Derivational affixes are used for building new words, they
are subdivided into prefixes
and suffixes
such as –
ness,
in goodness,
-er
in teacher,
-less
in helpless,
-ment
in movement,
dis-
in discover
un-
in untidy
etc.

The
stem is
that part of the word which remains unchanged throughout its
paradigm. If we take the paradigm ask
asks asked asking,
we can find the stem ask-,
if we take the paradigm singer,
singers, singer’s singers’,
the stem will be singer-.
The stem is different from the root morpheme, because the stem always
belongs to a definite part of speech, we can speech of verb stem in
the example ask-
and we can speak of noun stem in the example singer-.
As for root morpheme in teach,
teacher, teaching, teachable
we have root morpheme teach
used in verb stem teach,
noun stems teacher
and teaching
and adjective stem teachable.
There are three structural types of stems: simple,
derived and
compound.
Simple stem consists of one root-morpheme, derived stem consists of
one stem and a derivational suffix of prefix and compound stem
consists of two stems.

According
to the number of morphemes words can be classified into monomorphic
and polymorphic.
Monomorphic
or
root-words consist of only one root-morpheme e.g. dog, give, make
small etc. All polymorphic
words fall into two groups derived words and compound words. Derived
words
are composed of one root-morpheme and one or more derivational
morphemes e.g. cooperate,
supernatural,
retrospective,
kingdom,
freedom,
friendship,
worker,
revolution,
movement,
hopeful,
manly,
comical,
afternoon,
overlook,
undertake.
Compound
words contain
at least two root morphemes, or two stems with or without
derivational morphemes e.g. lamp-shade, eye-ball, door-step,
looking-glass, pen-holder, saleswoman, handicraft, Anglo-Saxon,
wedding-ring, aircraft-carrier.

Word-formation

Word-formation
is the process of creating new words from the material available in
the language after certain structural and semantic formulas and
patterns. For instance, the noun
driver
is formed after the pattern v+er,
i.e.
a verb-stem +
the
noun-forming suffix -er.
The meaning of the noun
driver
is related to the meanings of the stem
drive-and
the suffix -er:
‘a driver is one who drives (a carriage, motorcar, railway engine,
etc.). Likewise compounds resulting from two or more stems joined
together to form a new word are also built on quite definite
structural and semantic patterns and formulas, cf., for instance,
adjectives of the snow-white
type built according to the formula n—adj.,
i.e. a noun-stem+an
adjective stem:
coal-black, age-long, care­free,
etc. It can easily be observed that the meaning of the whole compound
is also related to the meanings of the component parts.

As
a subject of study, word-formation is that branch of lexicology,
which studies the patterns on which a language, in this case the
English language, builds new words. It is self-evident that
word-formation can deal only with words which are analyzable both
structurally and semantically. The study of the simple word has no
place in it. Therefore,
writer, displease, atom-free,
etc. are relevant to word-formation, but
to write, to please, atom, free
are not.

Like any
other linguistic phenomenon word-formation may be studied from two
angles—synchronically and diachronically. It is necessary to
distinguish between these two approaches, for synchronically the
linguist investigates the present-day system of the types of
word-formation while diachronically he is concerned with the history
of word-building. To illustrate the difference of approach we shall
consider affixation. Synchronically a derived word
is
structurally and semantically
more complex
than a simple one, while diachronically it
was formed
from some other word.
Those are cases of the process called backformation
(or
back-derivation),
cf. beggar
—to beg; editor —-to edit; chauffeur —to chauff,
and some others. The fact that historically the verbs to
beg, to edit,
etc. were derived from the corresponding agent-nouns is of no
synchronous relevance. For the present-day speaker no such
relationship exists, therefore they are all simple words in Modern
English.

The
shortening
of
words stands apart from the above two-fold division of
word-formation. It cannot be regarded as part of either
word-derivation or word-composition for the simple reason that
neither the root-morpheme nor the derivational affix can be singled
out from the shortened word (cf.
lab, exam,
V-day,
etc.). Consequently, the shortening of words should be treated
separately as a specific type of word-formation.

It’s no easy task getting your head around root words, prefixes and suffixes, especially if the summer fog is only starting to lift (if it even is at all)!

Prefixes and suffixes are a great way of adding to words to change their meaning within a sentence. They can help improve your child’s understanding of nouns, verbs and adjectives and really enhance their spelling and vocabulary.

What Is A Root Word?

A great place to start is with root words. They are the beginning of the word family and allow children to see how words can be altered. Understanding root words provides a great basis for building their knowledge of prefixes and suffixes.

A root word is a word with no prefix or suffix added to it. An example of a root word is ‘behave’, which is a verb.

By adding a prefix or suffix to a root word, we can change its form (for example, from verb to noun) and what it means.

What Is A Suffix?

Suffixes are a group of letters added to the end of a root word to add to or change its meaning. For example, adding -iour to ‘behave’ gives us the word ‘behaviour’. Adding this suffix to ‘behaviour’ changes it from a verb to a noun.

We can use suffixes to tell if the word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb.

Some suffixes have different meanings. For example, the suffix -ous means ‘full of’. Using this, we can turn ‘danger’ into ‘dangerous’, which means ‘full of danger’. Other examples include -graph, which means ‘to write’, e.g. ‘autograph’, and -age means ‘an action’, e.g. ‘wreckage’.

What Is A Prefix?

Prefixes are a group of letters added to the beginning of a root word to change its meaning. For example, the prefix un- can be added to ‘happy’ to create the word ‘unhappy’. Similarly, anti- can be added to ‘clockwise’ to make ‘anticlockwise’.

Different prefixes have different meanings. For example, in ‘aquarium’, aqua- means ‘water’ and in ‘transport’, trans- means ‘across’. Knowing what each prefix means can help us determine the meaning of the word within the sentence.

How And What Do Children Learn About Root Words, Prefixes And Suffixes?

During KS2 primary English, children will learn how to use roots words, prefixes and suffixes to understand the new words they may meet. In Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 children will normally learn a range of suffixes and prefixes to help them recognise the connections between words without changing the root word. For example, adding the suffix -ing to the root word ‘jump’ gives us ‘jumping’. The root word stays the same although the tense is now different.

Throughout primary English KS1 and KS2 children will learn how to use suffixes to change the meaning of words. In Year 5 children learn the meaning of some suffixes, such as -ology means ‘to study’. Children will learn how these affect the meaning of a sentence, as ‘archaeology’ means the study of the human past through remains. In Year 6 students will learn that sometimes a letter must be added before the suffix, for example, adding -ing to ‘refer’ to create ‘referring’ requires an additional ‘r’.

During primary KS2, children will also be taught how to identify and use prefixes. In Year 1 to Year 4, they will learn how to add a prefix to change the meaning of a sentence, for example using dis- to change ‘appoint’ to ‘disappoint’. In Year 5 and Year 6 they will learn what prefixes mean and should be able to select other words with the same prefix. They will also learn that there are spelling rules attached to prefixes. For example, if the word ends in ‘y’ as in ‘lazy’, the ‘y’ is taken off to add the prefix -ier in ‘lazier’.

Teachers may help children learn prefixes and suffixes by choosing one and then providing a list of the variations for children to learn.

Activities At Home

Looking for ways to practice at home? There’s lots of simple activities to help keep children learning and engaged with prefixes and suffixes. It can be helpful to pick one suffix or prefix and get your child to make a list of all the new words that could be formed using them. Why not try with the suffix -ation? It can be added to lots of words, such as ‘information’ and ‘preparation’.

To help test their knowledge and remember the spelling, try getting your child to look at the word, cover it up, write it down and then check they got it right. A great memory trick!

You also could use fill in the gap exercises where they have to fill in the missing suffixes or prefixes. Worksheets can be a really engaging way of getting children to practice these concepts. There are lots of resources available online that might provide some inspiration!

Each
word consists of morphemes, the smallest meaningful units of the
language. According to the role they play in constructing words,
morphemes are divided into roots and affixes.

The root
expresses the main lexical meaning of a word. The root may often be
homonymous with the word. Such roots are called free morphemes.
Affixes are always bound morphemes, they can function only within a
word.

According
to their function and meaning affixes are divided into derivational
that serve to form new lexemes (words) and functional that express
grammatical meanings and serve to create grammar forms of the same
word. Functional affixes are also called flections (inflections), or
endings. When a functional affix is stripped from a word, what
remains is the stem. If the stem contains nothing but the root, it is
a simple stem. If a stem also contains one or more derivational
affixes, it is a derived stem.

Depending
on their structure and type of formation words are divided into:

Affixation. Classification of affixes. Suffixes and prefixes.

Affixation
is a way of forming new words by adding derivational affixes to the
stem. Derivational affixes are classified in a number of ways.

According
to the degree of productivity affixes are divided into productive
that help to form new words nowadays and non-productive no longer
used in word-formation at the present stage of language development,
e.g. –lock (as in the word wedlock).

According
to their origin affixes are divided into native and borrowed. Native
affixes are those, which already existed in O.E. or were formed from
O.E. words. A root morpheme in a compound word may gradually develop
into a suffix and become a bound form no longer homonymous with any
Modern English word. E.g. –dom (O.E. fate, power), -hood (O.E.
state), etc.

The most
important native affixes are: -d, -dom, -ed, -en, -fold, -ful, -hood,
-ing, -ish, -less, -like, -let, -lock, -ly, -ness, -red,-ship,
-some,-teen, -ty, -th, -wise, -y.

The next
classification deals with suffixes and divides them according to the
part of speech the words they help to form belong to:

1)
noun-forming suffixes: -age (bondage, breakage), -ance/-ence
(assistance, reference), -ant/-ent (desinfectant, student), -dom
(freedom, kingdom), -hood(widowhood, sisterhood), -ee(nominee,
trainee, employee), -er(teacher, writer), -ess(actress, lioness),
-ing (building, moving), -ion (rebellion), -tion (creation), -ation
(explanation), -ism (heroism, criticism),

-ist(novelist),
-ment (government), -ness (tenderness), -ship(scholarship), -ty
(minority);

2)
adjective-forming suffixes: -able(unbearable), -al(formal), -ant/ent
(dependent),

-ary(revolutionary),
-ate/ete(accurate, complete), -ful(delightful), -an(African),
-ish(reddish, childish), -ive(active), -less(useless), -ly(manly),
-ous(curious), some (tiresome), -y(cloudy, dressy);

As
to their lexico-grammatical meanings suffixes can be further
subdivided, for example, noun suffixes into:

In contrast
to suffixes most prefixes do not radically change the basic
lexico-grammatical

meaning
of the stem but just modify it. So the prefixed derivative and its
prototype usually belong to the same part of speech. E.g. behave-
misbehave, read – re-read, please – displease, grateful –
ungrateful. Some prefixes are used with words of one part of speech
only, others – with several parts of speech, e.g. re- with verbs
and nouns, un- with adjectives, verbs and nouns.

In
some cases, however, prefixes may also change general
lexico-grammatical meaning and form words belonging to a different
part of speech as compared with the original word:

1)
negative or reversative: de-, dis-, in-, im-, il-, ir-, non-, un,
anti-.

e.g.
decentralise, disagree, impatient, illiterate, irregular, nonsense,
unhappy, unmask ,

2)
repetitive: re-.

e.g.
rearrange, remake, remarriage.

e.g.
outdo, outnumber, overgrow, overfeed, underestimate, superman.

e.g.
post-mortem, postgraduate, prepay, pre-war.

e.g.
transatlantic, subway, input, output, aboard.

What Is a Word Root? (with Examples)

A word root is the base part of a word (i.e., the word less any prefixes and suffixes).

To change the meaning of a word, a prefix can be added to the front of the word root, or a suffix can be added to the back. Quite often, a prefix and a suffix are added to a word root to change the meaning. (Prefixes and suffixes are known as

Table of Contents

Example of Word Roots with Prefixes and Suffixes

In these examples, the word roots are in shaded, but the prefixes and suffixes aren’t.

Word Roots with Greek Origins

Lots of word roots in English derive from Greek. For example:

Word Roots with Latin Origins

Lots of word roots derive from Latin. For example:

«Word Root» or «Base Word»?

Be aware that there are two different terminologies for dissecting words:

A List of Common Prefixes

Here at Grammar Monster, we use the version on the left (i.e. «word root»), but be aware that you might encounter the version on the right (i.e., «base word» and «root words» to mean the base word and the affixes).

Here is a list of common prefixes with some examples:

A List of Common Suffixes

Here is a list of common suffixes with some examples:

The term «word root» does not just apply to nouns and creating new nouns (e.g., forming «player» from «play»). Word roots also apply to verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. For example:

Why Word Roots Are Important

Here are four good reasons to care about word roots.

(Reason 1) Use root words to increase your vocabulary.

If you’re learning English, you can quickly increase your vocabulary by learning some common word roots and the most common prefixes and suffixes.

(Reason 2) Use your understanding of word roots and affixes to decode the meanings of long words.

Often, you can decode the meaning of a word by identifying the word root and applying your understanding of any affixes. Here’s an easy example with the word «disrespectfully»:

Here are some harder examples:

(Reason 3) Use an affix to reduce your word count.

A word’s meaning is changed when an affix is added. Sometimes, you can exploit this to reduce your word count and to create a more flowing text.

(Reason 4) Break down long words to help with spelling

The word «antidisestablishmentarianism» (a 19th-century political position that sought the removal of the Anglican Church’s status as the state church of England, Ireland and Wales) is best known not for what it represents but for its length (28 letters and 12 syllables). Can you spell it? No? I bet you can. If you break it down into its word root and affixes, it’s pretty simple.

This is well-used technique to help with spelling.

Help Us Improve Grammar Monster

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The English language is filled with words borrowed from ancient Greek and Latin, which makes supplementing your instruction with word parts practice that much more critical.  There are countless ways to incorporate word parts into your lesson plans. You may already have a structured plan in place, or you might be testing the waters. Either way, teach your students to be word detectives.  A word detective looks at all the clues to determine a word’s meaning. When students know how to decode large words by identifying root words and affixes, they will be sufficiently prepared to tackle higher level texts.

The table below lists 120 commonly used Greek and Latin root words, prefixes, and suffixes.  It also includes the meaning of each word part and several example words. It’s a great place to start if you’re interested in adding a regularly scheduled word parts practice to your daily teaching agenda.

FREE! 120 Commonly Used Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes

Brooke Khan, M.A.EdPage load link
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