Exploring Affixation in English

Abstract

One of the keys to mastering English spellings is mastering the processes of word formation. The mode of word formation can influence the spelling. The study of the meaningful parts of a word is known as morphology. Linguists have identified many ways in which English form its words which include borrowing from Latin and Greeks, clipping,
suppletion, affixation, conversion, acronym, blends, compounding and so on. The scope of this study is to look into affixation as a process of word formation; see the meanings of some of those few letters added at the beginning or end of words, look into the changes words undergo when affixes are added to them. Apart from mastering of spellings,
readers of this paper will learn to identify grammatical categories of words by mere looking at the words and identifying the affixes added to them.

African Research Review Vol. 1 (3) 2007: pp. 9-35