The properties of the words as the basic units of the language

25.Semantic classification of suffixes.
When dealing with suffixes they can be analyzed from two perspectives: syntactic and semantic. From the syntactic point of view they are classified according to the part of speech they form.

Thus, they fall into the following subclasses: nominal suffixes, verbal suffixes, adjectival suffixes and adverbial suffixes or nominalizers, verbalizers, adjectivizers and adverbializers. The semantic classification of suffixes regards the meaning of derivatives and their particular aspects.

1.1 Nominal suffixes

Nominal suffixes are often used to derive abstract nouns from verbs, adjectives and other nouns. They are called nominalizers and are formed from verb and adjective stems. The syntactic classification regards the general aspect of the formation of a word and it analyzes from this aspect.

According to Hulban (2001:73) the general formula for the syntactic classification with several examples is:

1) Verb stem + Nominalizer - Noun marry -age - marriage, arrive -al - arrival;

2) Adjective stem + Nominalizer - Noun drunk -ard - drunkard free -dom - freedom;

3) Noun stem + Nominalizer - Noun brother + -hood - brotherhood taxi + -man - taximan.

According to the derivative class they form, Katamba (1994:44, 45, 46) makes the followingclassifications of nominal suffixes:

a. Suffixes which derive nouns from verbs:

- ation derives nouns of action - don-ation, reconcil-ation, regul-ation, confisc-ation, stimul-ation;

- er: instrument - cook-er, strain-er, drain-er, pok-er;

- ant/-ent: agentive nouns or person that does whatever the verb means - inhabit-ant, celebr-ant, particip-ant, protest-ant, occup-ant, ag-ent;

- ant: instrument that is used to do whatever the verb means - stimul-ant, intoxic-ant;

26.Semantic classification of prefixes. The function of prefixes.
Prefixation is the formation of words with the help of prefixes. Prefixes are derivational morphemes affixed before the derivational base. Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the base. They seldom shift words from one part of speech into another and therefore both the source word and its prefixed derivative mostly belong to the same part of speech, e.g. to rewrite < to write.

Prefixes can be classified according to different principles.

1. According to the lexico-grammatical character of the base prefixes are usually added to, they may be:

deverbal (those added to the verbal base), e.g. re- (rewrite); over-overdo); out- (outstay);

denominal (those added to the nominal base), e.g. un- (un­button); de- (detrain); ex- (ex-president);

deadjectival (those added to the adjectival base), e.g. un-(uneasy); bi- (biannual).

2. According to the class of words they preferably form prefixes are divided into:

verb-forming prefixes, e.g. en-/em (embed, enclose); be-(befriend); de- (dethrone);

noun-forming prefixes, e.g. поп- (non-smoker); sub- (sub­committee); ex- (ex-husband);

adjective-forming prefixes, e.g. un- (unfair); il- (illiterate); ir-(irregular).

d) adverb-forming prefixes, e.g. un- (unfortunately); up- (uphill). It should be specially mentioned that the majority of prefixes function in more than one part of speech.