Word-building. Derivative and complex words

In the Middle English language, like in Old English, two main means of word-building may be distinguished:

1)  affixation, i.e. the formation of words from the roots existing in the language with the help of suffixes and/or prefixes;

2)  stem-composition, i.e. the formation of new words by means of combination of two or more roots.

Many suffixes with the help of which noun in Old English were formed disappeared. Yet a number of old suffixes survived in the Middle English language; they remained productive and as a rule became polysemantic. This group includes first of all the suffixes -er, -ing, -ness.

By the end of the Middle English period a considerable increase of suffixes of French and Latin origin had taken place. In the course of further development of the English language borrowed word-building elements grew very widespread and more numerous than the original ones.

The suffixes borrowed from French are as follows: -age, -ance, -ence, -ard, -ee, -ess, -et, -ty, -ity, -tion, -ation, -ment.

The suffixes borrowed from Latin are: -ism, -ist.

In the Middle English language the suffixes produced from the nominal stems (-dom, -hood, -ship) were completely fixed as word-building morphemes.

Of the adjective-forming suffixes of the Old English origin -ish, -y, -ed remain productive. They enlarge their semantics and combinability with types of stems with which they could not be combined in the Old English language.

The adjective-forming suffixes -able, -ible, -ous were borrowed from French.

The suffixes -ful, -less, -ly produced from the adjective stems are finally fixed as word-building morphemes.

Important changes took place in the class of adverbs. In the Middle English language the word-building patterns with the suffixes -inge, -inga, -e disappeared. By the end of the Middle English period the suffix -ly had become the most productive adverb-forming suffix.

The number of verb-forming suffixes also enlarged. The suffixes -ish, -ize were borrowed from French, -ify from Latin.

 

Most Frequently Used Suffixes of the Middle English Language

 

Suffix	Origin	Examples	Suffix	Origin	Examples
-able	Old French	beleevable ‘believable’	-hod,  -hode	Old English	knighthode ‘knighthood’
-acie	Old French	conspiracie ‘conspiracy’	-i, -y	Old English	hungri ‘hungry’
-age	Old French	baronage ‘barony’	-ing	Old English	meting, meeting ‘meeting’
-al, -aile	Old French	arrival, arrivaile ‘arrival’	-ish, -isch	Old English	childish ‘childish’
-al	Latin	misikal ‘musical’	-ite, -itee	Old French	abilitee ‘ability’
-ance, -aunce	Old French	accordance ‘accordance’	-les, -less	Old English	endeless ‘endless’
-acioun, -ation	Old French	creacioun ‘creation’	-ling	Old English	nestling ‘nestling’
-dom	Old English	kingdom ‘kingdom’	-li, -ly	Old English	manli ‘manly’
-ed	Old English	forked ‘forked’	-ment	Old French	jugement ‘judgement’
-en	Old English	stonen ‘stone’	-nesse	Old English	bitternesse ‘bitterness’
-end	Old English	demend ‘judge’	-ous, -us	Old French	famous, famus ‘famous’
-er, -ere	Old English	baker, bakere ‘baker’	-schipe, -shipe	Old English	hardschipe ‘hardship’
-erie, -rie	Old French	husbondrie ‘husbandry’	-som, -sum	Old English	frendsom ‘friendly’
-ess, -esse	Old French	frendesse ‘girl-friend’	-ward	Old English	bacward backward
-ful	Old English	sinful ‘sinful’

 

The use of prefixes in word-building in the Middle English languages considerably decreased. Only the prefixes be-, mis-, un- remainproductive being mainly combined with verb stems. Beginning with 14th century a great number of French prefixes were borrowed in English. Those were: de-, dis-, en-, em-, in-, im-, non-, re-.