Morphemic issues: what is the suffix

As you know, most new words in the language appear with the help of morphemes. Of course, lexical units are formed and through the transition from one part of speech to another, and with the help of borrowing. But the most productive way is to attach prefixes and suffixes to the original basis.

Let us dwell in more detail on one of the word-forming morphemes. So, let's answer the question about what a suffix is.

The Russian word can consist of four elements, and the obligatory one is only the root. The suffix, the ending and the prefix are not always there. Absence of inflexion is an indicator of the unchangeable part of speech, this morpheme does not participate in word formation.

Presence of prefixes and suffixes in a lexical unit usually gives us to understand that before us is not the original word, but a derivative. This means that it arose by attaching the morphemes to the producing basis.

So, the suffix is one of the two word-forming elements. This morpheme has a fixed position after the root, or after the upcoming suffix.

Each part of speech has its own group of such elements. In other words, the suffixes of nouns and the suffixes of verbs never coincide, very rarely they are homonymous. Even without having an idea of what this or that word means, we can guess by the suffix what morphological group it refers to. By the way, the prefixes do not have such a feature.

To better understand what a suffix is, consider examples of words from different parts of speech.

In a series of words: "burning", "mixing," "zeal," "striving," "weave" - there is one and the same producing element. The suffix "eni" has the meaning of an action, and with its help only nouns are formed.

Adjective "talkative", "steady", "reckless" unites the general meaning of ability or inclination to any action. This semantic attribute is given by the suffix "chiv".

The verb and its special forms - participles and gerunds - this morpheme usually has no semantic nuances like the nominal parts of speech. Their suffixes are only an indicator of the grammatical features of the word:

For example: "did", "learned", "ran away" - in all these verbs "l" indicates the form of past tense.

In words: "thinking", "living", "shining" - the alternating suffixes "yusch" / "ush" form the real participle present tense.

The origin of the verbal participles is also associated with this word-building morpheme. Their appearance is conditioned by the basis of the verb, to which the characteristic suffixes "a", "I", "Uchi", "yuchi", "in", "louse" join: play - play, learn - learn, look - looking, etc. .

The answer to the question of what a suffix is, will be incomplete, if you do not recall the phenomenon of unique affixes. Most often, word-forming morphemes are used many times, they give lexical units a common semantic connotation. But in the language there are suffixes, which can be seen only in one word. They are relatively few. For example, in the noun "priest" there is an unusual affix "ad". Or in the word "bugle" after the root to the zero end there is a suffix "tier", not found in other units.

The role of word-building morphemes is very great, with their help the lexical composition of the language is enriched. Morphemic, as one of the sections of linguistics, includes knowledge of what a suffix is. The study of the constituent elements of words is extremely important for understanding language laws.