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A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.

Prefixes, like other affixes, can be either inflectional, creating a new form of a word with the same basic meaning and same lexical category, or derivational, creating a new word with a new semantic meaning and sometimes also a different lexical category. Prefixes, like all affixes, are usually bound morphemes.

English has no inflectional prefixes, using only suffixes for that purpose. Adding a prefix to the beginning of an English word changes it to a different word. For example, when the prefix un- is added to the word happy, it creates the word unhappy.

The word prefix is itself made up of the stem fix (meaning "attach", in this case), and the prefix pre- (meaning "before"), both of which are derived from Latin roots.

English language

List of English derivational prefixes

This is a fairly comprehensive, although not exhaustive, list of derivational prefixes in English. Depending on precisely how one defines a derivational prefix, some of the neoclassical combining forms may or may not qualify for inclusion in such a list. This list takes the broad view that acro- and auto- count as English derivational prefixes because they function the same way like that of prefixes such as over- and self- do.

As for numeral prefixes, only the most common members of that class are included here. There is a large separate table covering them all at Numeral prefix > Table of number prefixes in English.

Hyphenation

The choice between hyphenation or solid styling for prefixes in English is covered at Hyphen > Prefixes and suffixes.

Japanese language

Commonly used prefixes in Japanese include お〜 (o-) and ご〜 (go-). They are used as part of the honorific system of speech, and are used as markers for politeness, showing respect for the person or thing they are affixed to, notably also being used euphemistically.

Bantu languages

In the Bantu languages of Africa, which are agglutinating, the noun class is conveyed through prefixes, which is declined and agrees with all of its arguments accordingly.

Example from Luganda

ò-mú-límí

AG-CL1-farmer

ò-mú-néné

AG-CL1-fat

ò-mú-kâddé

AG-CL1-old

ò-mú

AG.one

à-∅-gênda

he-PRES-go

ò-mú-límí ò-mú-néné ò-mú-kâddé ò-mú à-∅-gênda

AG-CL1-farmer AG-CL1-fat AG-CL1-old AG.one he-PRES-go

The one, old, fat farmer goes.

Navajo

Verbs in the Navajo language are formed from a word stem and multiple affixes. For example, each verb requires one of four non-syllabic prefixes (∅, ł, d, l) to create a verb theme.

Sunwar

In the Sunwar language of Eastern Nepal, the prefix ma- म is used to create negative verbs. It is the only verbal prefix in the language.

ma.rimʃo

NEG.nice

al

child

ma.rimʃo al

NEG.nice child

Bad child! (scolding)

Russian

As a part of the formation of nouns, prefixes are less common in Russian than suffixes, but alter the meaning of a word.

пред- and положение 'position' becomes предположение 'supposition'

пре- and образование 'formation (verb)' becomes преобразование 'transformation'

German

In German, derivatives formed with prefixes may be classified in two categories: those used with substantives and adjectives, and those used with verbs. For derivative substantives and adjectives, only two productive prefixes are generally addable to any substantive or adjective as of 1970: un-, which expresses negation (as in ungesund, from gesund), and ur-, which means "original, primitive" in substantives, and has an emphatic function in adjectives. ge-, on the other hand, expresses union or togetherness, but only in a closed group of words—it cannot simply be added to any noun or adjective.

Verbal prefixes commonly in use are be-, ent-, er-, ge-, miss-, ver-, and zer- (see also Separable verb). be- expresses strengthening or generalization. ent- expresses negation. ge- indicates the completion of an action, which is why its most common use has become the forming of the past participle of verbs; ver- has an emphatic function, or it is used to turn a substantive or an adjective into a verb. In some cases, the prefix particle ent- (negation) can be considered the opposite of particle be-, while er- can be considered the opposite of ver-.

The prefix er- usually indicates the successful completion of an action, and sometimes the conclusion means death. With fewer verbs, it indicates the beginning of an action. The prefix er- is also used to form verbs from adjectives (e.g. erkalten is equivalent to kalt werden which means "to get cold").

See also

• Affix
• Suffix
• Privative
• Bound and unbound morphemes
• English prefix
• List of Greek and Latin roots in English
• substring#Prefix
• Metric prefix

References

1. ^ Wilson 2011, p. 152–153. sfn error: no target: CITEREFWilson2011 (help)
2. Beard, Robert (1998). "She Derivation". The Handbook of Morphology. Blackwell. pp. 44–45.
3. Miyake, Yoshimi (1999). The Japanese deferential prefix o: A natural history (PhD). University of Michigan. hdl:2027.42/131729. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
4. Kaiser, Stefan; Ichikawa, Yasuko; Kobayashi, Noriko; Yamamoto, Hilofumi (2013). Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar. pp. 29–31. ISBN 9780415687393.
5. Nurse, Derek; Philippson, Gérard, eds. (2003). The Bantu languages. London: Routledge. pp. 103–110. ISBN 9780700711345.
6. Young & Morgan (1980). The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary. University of New Mexico Press. p. 99.
7. Borchers, D. (2008). A Grammar of Sunwar: Descriptive Grammar, Paradigms, Texts and Glossary. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 169.
8. Wade, T. (2000). A Comprehensive Russian Grammar. Blackwell Publishers. pp. 32, 33. ISBN 9781405136396.
9. ^ a short history of the german language. Taylor & Francis.
10. ^ Cf. Chambers, W. Walker and Wilkie, John R. (1970) A Short History of the German Language, London: Methuen & Company, Ltd., p. 63
11. Boileau, Daniel (1820). The Nature and Genius of the German Language: Displayed in a More Extended Review of Its Grammatical Forms Than is to be Found in Any Grammar Extant, and Elucidated by Quotations from the Best Writers. T. Boosey and sons.
12. Maylor, B. Roger (2002-01-01). Lexical Template Morphology: Change of State and the Verbal Prefixes in German. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-3061-4.
13. ^ Schmidt, Karl A. (1974-01-01). Easy Ways to Enlarge Your German Vocabulary. Courier Corporation. ISBN 978-0-486-23044-3.

Works cited

• Mihaliček, Vedrana; Wilson, Christin (2011). Language Files: Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-5179-9.

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