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, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. An inflectional suffix is sometimes called a desinence^[1] or a grammatical suffix^[2] or ending. Inflection changes the grammatical properties of a word within its syntactic category. Derivational suffixes can be divided into two categories: class-changing derivation and class-maintaining derivation.

Particularly in the study of Semitic languages, suffixes are called afformatives, 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). Suffixes can carry grammatical information or lexical information.

A word-final segment that is somewhere between a free morpheme and a bound morpheme is known as a suffixoid^[3] or a semi-suffix^[4] (e.g., English -like or German -freundlich "friendly").

Informational

Suffixes can carry grammatical information (inflectional suffixes) or lexical information (derivational/lexical suffixes). An inflectional suffix is sometimes called a desinence^[5] or a grammatical suffix.^[6]

Examples[edit]

English[edit]

Girls—where the suffix -s marks the plurality.

He makes—where suffix -s marks the third person singular present tense.

It closed—where the suffix -ed marks the past tense.

French[edit]

De beaux jours—where the suffix -x marks the plural.

Elle est passablement jolie—where the suffix -e marks the feminine form of the adjective.

German[edit]

mein Computer—where the lack of suffixes is because its case, nominative, is "unmarked"

meines Computers—genitive case

meinem Computer—dative case

meinen Computer—accusative case

Russian[edit]

мой компьютер—where the lack of suffixes is because its case, nominative, is "unmarked"

моего компьютера—genitive case

моему компьютеру—dative case

мой компьютер—accusative case

за-туш-и-ть свечу—where first word has -и- suffix, -ть ending (infinitive form); second word with ending -у (accusative case, singular, feminine).

добр-о-жел-а-тель-н-ый—добр- root, -о- interfix, -жел- root, verbal -a- interfix, nominal -тель suffix, adjectival -н- suffix, adjectival -ый ending (nominative case, singular, masculine).

Inflectional suffixes[edit]

Inflection changes the grammatical properties of a word within its syntactic category. In the example:

I was hoping the cloth wouldn't fade, but it has faded quite a bit.

the suffix -ed inflects the root-word fade to indicate past participle.

Inflectional suffixes do not change the word class of the word after the inflection.^[7] Inflectional suffixes in Modern English include:

Verbs[edit]

• -s third person singular present tense
• -ed past tense
• -t past tense
• -ing progressive/continuous aspect
• -en past participle

Nouns[edit]

• -s plural number
• -en plural number (irregular)

Adjectives and Adverbs[edit]

• -er comparative degree
• -est superlative degree

Derivation[edit]

Derivational suffixes can be divided into two categories: class-changing derivation and class-maintaining derivation.^[8] In English, they include

• -ise/-ize (usually changes nouns into verbs)
• -fy (usually changes nouns into verbs)
• -ly (usually changes adjectives into adverbs, but also some nouns into adjectives)
• -ful (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
• -able/-ible (usually changes verbs into adjectives)
• -hood (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
• -ess (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
• -ness (usually changes adjectives into nouns)
• -less (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
• -ism (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
• -ment (usually changes verbs into nouns)
• -ist (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
• -al (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
• -ish (usually changes nouns into adjectives/ class-maintaining, with the word class remaining an adjective)
• -oid (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
• -like (usually changes nouns into adjectives)
• -ity (usually changes adjectives into nouns)
• -tion (usually changes verbs into noun)
• -logy/-ology (usually class-maintaining, with the word class remaining a noun)
• -ant (usually changes verbs into nouns, often referring to a human agent)

Synthetic languages[edit]

Many synthetic languages—Czech, German, Finnish, Latin, Hungarian, Russian, Turkish, etc.—use many endings.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Media related to Suffixes at Wikimedia Commons