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In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry grammatical information (inflectional endings) or lexical information (derivational/lexical ...
For example, one effect of the English derivational suffix -ly is to change an adjective into an adverb (slow → slowly). Here are examples of English derivational patterns and their suffixes: adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness) adjective-to-verb: -en (weak → weaken) adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish)
Relational: a suffix which represents syntactic or semantic roles of a noun phrase in clauses. Adnominal: a suffix which relates a noun phrase to another within the one noun phrase. Referential: a suffix which attaches to a noun phrase in agreement with another noun phrase which represents one of the core arguments in the clause.
There are many suffixes that can be used to create nouns. Huddleston (2002) provides a thorough list that is split into two main sections: person/instrument nominalizations and action/state/process nominalizations. An especially common case of verbs being used as nouns is the addition of the suffix -ing, known in English as a gerund.
Other linguists disagree, arguing that they may additionally be syntactic arguments just as free nouns are and, thus, equating lexical suffixes with incorporated nouns. Gerdts (2003) gives examples of lexical suffixes in the Halkomelem language (the word order here is verb–subject–object):
Greek -ισμός (-ismós), suffix forming abstract nouns of state, condition, doctrine dwarfism-ismus: spasm, contraction Greek -ισμός: hemiballismus: iso-denoting something as being equal Greek ἴσος (ísos), equal isotonic-ist: one who specializes in Greek -ιστής (-istḗs), agent noun, one who practices pathologist-ite
The possessive form of an English noun, or more generally a noun phrase, is made by suffixing a morpheme which is represented orthographically as ' s (the letter s preceded by an apostrophe), and is pronounced in the same way as the regular English plural ending (e)s: namely, as / ɪ z / when following a sibilant sound (/ s /, / z /, / ʃ /, / ʒ /, / tʃ / or / dʒ /), as / s / when following ...
The suffix -ing also has other uses in English, although these are less common. It may be used to form derivative nouns (originally masculine) with the sense "son of" or "belonging to", used as patronymics or diminutives. Examples of this use include surnames like Browning, Channing and Ewing, and common nouns like bunting, shilling, and farthing.