Understanding the Affix

 

An affix is a word element that is placed at the beginning (prefix), in the middle (infix), or at the end (suffix) of the root or word stem.

 

Affixes are divided into several types, depending on their position with reference to the root:

• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Infixes
• Circumfixes
• Interfixes
• Suprafixes
• Simulfixes
• Duplifix

The most commonly known are prefixes and suffixes.

In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the word to which it can attach. Prefixes are bound (they can't stand as a word on their own). While most languages employ both prefixes and suffixes, prefixes are crosslinguistically less common. Some languages employ mostly suffixes and almost no prefixes at all. The use of prefixes has been found to correlate statistically with other linguistic features, such as a verb-object word order and the use of prepositions. Interestingly, "pre-" is a prefix meaning "before". Hence, the word "prefix" itself contains a prefix.

A suffix is a word part that is added to the end of a root word. Suffixes used in English frequently have Greek, French, or Latin origins.