Class-Changing Prefixes in the English Language

Abstract

It is claimed that English prefixes do not generally change the class of a base to which they are attached. The aim of this paper is to probe the hedge word “generally” from the previous sentence, and establish which prefixes do change the class of their base and how productive they are. Thus, seven prefixes (a-, be-, de-, dis-, en-, non-, and un-) are described in terms of their origin, meaning, productivity and bases to which they can be attached.

Keywords

• word formation
• derivation
• prefixes
• word class change
• English language