Types of Forming Words. Derivation. Affixation

Suffixation is mostly characteristic of noun and adjective formation.

Suffixation is mostly characteristic of noun and adjective formation.

Prefixation is mostly typical of verb formation.

The distinction also rests on the role different types of meaning play in the semantic structure of the suffix and the prefix.

The part-of-speech meaning has a much greater significance in suffixes as compared to prefixes which possess it in a lesser degree.

A prefix may be confined to one part of speech, e.g. enslave, encage, unbutton or may function in more than one part of speech as, e.g., over- in overkind a, to overfeed v, overestimation n

Suffixes as a rule function in any one part of speech often forming a derived stem of a different part of speech as compared with that of the base, e.g. careless a — cf. care n; suitable a — cf. suit v, etc.