Affixation in English and Arabic : A Contrastive Study

The present study is descriptive, analytic and comparative because it describes affixation in English and Arabic to arrive at the similarities and differences between the two languages. This study aims at describing, analyzing and comparing affixation in English and Arabic by defining it, showing ways of classifying affixes and illustrating their types. The final finding of this study is that affixation is found in the compared languages. English is concerned with the types of affixes through the process of affixation. Arabic is interested in the idea of al-wazn in the process of affixation and it does not pay much attention to the types of affixes though both of the two languages have the same ways of classifying affixes.


Introduction
Affixation is one morphological way of making new words.The researcher finds a difficulty in dealing with such a topic because it has not been tackled before by anyone.The present study aims at comparing and contrasting affixation (Al ilSaq) in English and in Arabic by defining it, showing the different ways of classifying affixes (Al lawaSiq) and illustrating their types and to what extent the two languages are similar or different from each other in terms of affixation.To achieve the aims of the study, it is hypothesized that affixation is found in both languages.English and Arabic are inflected languages but Arabic uses inflection more than English.The order of the combination of derivational and inflectional affixes in the word is not the same in both languages.Both English and Arabic have words formed by the addition of more than one affix.There are similarities and differences between affixation in English and Arabic but the number of differences is larger than that of similarities.The procedure of investigation in carrying out the study involves describing affixation in English, and then in Arabic.The analysis of affixation in both languages is made followed by a comparison between the two languages.The findings of the study support its hypotheses.

Definitions of Affixation
Affixation is the morphological process of the word-formation.It creates words with lexical and grammatical information by adding affixes to the word.For example, in English, fond → fondness: the adjective fond is changed to the noun fondness.

Ways of Classifying Affixes
Affixes can be classified according to two criteria: the position and the function of the affixes performed in the word.

Positional Classification of Affixes
Affixes can be classified according to the position: prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes, and superfixes.

Prefixes
A prefix can be defined as a type of affixes which is added to the beginning of the word.For example, the "un-" is a prefix: selfish → unselfish, which can usually change the meaning of the word to the opposite.Prefixes do not often change the class of the original word.The maximum number of prefixes in one word is two: re-in-force (Stagaberge, 1965, p. 89;Haspelmath, 2002, p. 19;Payne, 2006, p. 40;Jekl, 2011, pp. 201-202).

a. Phonological Aspect of Prefixes
The phonological properties of words play a very important role on particular prefixes.There are some general properties concerning the phonetic shape or pronunciation of certain prefixes.For example, Katamba & Stonham (2006, p. 28) illustrate the pronunciation of the negative prefix "in-".The nasal consonant of the prefix "in-" is pronounced in several ways, relying on the nature of the sound which directly follows it.There are three phonetic representations of "in-": /im/ before the labial consonants / p, b, m /: /im/possible; // before the velar sounds /k/ and /g/: incompliance; and /in/ elsewhere before an alveolar consonant / t, d, s, z, n/: intangible, or before a vowel as inelegance.

b. Semantic Aspect of Prefixes
Most of the prefixes can change the meaning of the word to which they are added.So, they ought to be classified into different groups according to their meaning alteration.Stockwell & Minkova (2001, pp. 89-90) list the following categories of prefixes and their meanings: counting prefixes such as "di-" in ditrasitive; involvement prefixes such as: "vice-" in vice-president; locative prefixes such as: "inter-" in interchange; measurement prefixes such as: "micro-" in microscope; negative prefixes such as: "non-" in nonsense; temporal prefixes such as: "post-" in postpone; and judgement prefixes such as: "mal-" in malpractice.(1965, p. 91) views that suffixes are bound morphemes which occur after a word as in failure.They can pile up in a number of three or four ones.Al-Khuli (2006, p. 57) mentions that English permits four suffixes in one word: globalizations.Generally, most suffixes change the class of the word to which they are attached.For example, the suffix "-ness" usually changes an adjective into a noun: kind → kindness.

a. Phonological Aspect of Suffixes
According to the interaction between morphology and phonology, Booij (2007, p. 154) demonstrates that the phonological properties of the words can play a role in choosing the affixes (particularly suffixes) with which they can combine.For example, the suffix "-al" is attached only to verbs in which the syllable is stressed: arr'ive → arrival while it is not possible to add "-al" to ch'atter.Stockwell & Minkova (2001, pp. 92-94) and Adeniyi (2010, pp. 112-114) list the following groups of suffixes according to their meanings: quality suffixes: "-ful" as in careful; causative and activity suffixes: "-age" as in linkage and so on.

Infixes
Infixes are rare in English but common in other languages.It is a bound form inserted inside the root itself.Al-Khuli (2006, p. 58) shows that this type can usually replace other units within the word.For example, foot → feet, goose → geese.

Circumfixes
A circumfix can be defined as an affix that has two parts.The first part is placed before the root whereas the second is added after the root of a word.It is usually called a discontinuous morpheme (Adeniyi, 2010, p. 115).For example, enlighten or embolden.The two "en-" and "-en" are not considered es and suffixes but circumfixes in the word (Denham & Lobeck, 2013, p. 151).

Superfixes
A superfix is an affix which is placed over syllables in the languages.A superfix exists in the form of stress or tone marked over words.For example, a superfix provides a difference in meaning between segmentally identical words.The nouns have stress on the first syllable of the word while the verbs have stress on the second one Onumajuru (2015, p. 24).

Functional Classification of Affixes
According to the function, affixes can be classified into two types: 2.1.2.2.1 Derivational Affixes Derivation is the process which can form a word having a meaning and/or a category different from that of its base.
Derivational affixes are used to create a word with a modification in the meaning to which they are added with or without alteration in the class of the word (Stockwell & Minkova, 2001, p. 64;Jackson & Amvela, 2007, p. 87).English states some constraints and restrictions on the addition of the derivational affixes to the words: phonological, syntactic and semantic constraints.

a. Phonological Constraints
The segmental phonology can determine the addition of the affixes.For example, the "-ly" suffix of forming an adverb ought to be avoided when an adjective ends in "-ly" (/-li/) whereas it is used freely with no "-ly" final adjective.For example, serious → seriously but not silly → *sillily (Katamba & Stonham, 2006, p. 77).O'Grady et al. (2005, p. 121) mention that derivational affixes are sometimes attached to bases with specific phonological properties only.The suffix "-en" can only be added to a monosyllabic base which ends in an obstruent.Thus, for example, whiten, soften and madden are acceptable while *abstructen or *bluen are not because the former have two syllables and the latter have no obstruent.

b. Syntactic Constraints
The addition of the derivational affixes can be determined by the base to which they are attached.Derivational affixes tend to be attached to a particular syntactic category.There are some of those affixes that can be added to verbs only; others to nouns and some to adjectives; therefore, this selection is related to the categorical syntactic features.For example, the suffix "-ize" can be attached to both adjectives and nouns; "-ful" to nouns such as tearful (lieber, 2010, p. 188;Sugioka, 2011, p. 144).Akmajian et al. (2001, p. 55) show that both "-ity" and "-ness" are derivational affixes which are attached to adjectives in order to derive nouns.For example, passive (Adj) -passivity (N) and passiveness (N).
In English, the derivational affixes are subdivided into two types according to their function:

1). Class-maintaining derivational affixes
Class-maintaining derivational affixes are used to change the meaning of the word but do not change the class of the word to which they are added.Robin (1989, p. 241) indicates that they produce words that are syntactically equivalent to simple and underived base as in man (N)→ manhood (N) or wise (Adj.)→ unwise (Adj.).

2). Class-changing derivational affixes
These affixes can change the class of the word to which they are added.They create a word with a new category.For example, hope (N) → hopeful (Adj.) and pay (V) → payment (N) (Fuster, 2008, p. 76).

Inflectional Affixes
In English, inflection is the process of forming words with a change in its grammatical use but it does not create a new lexical form.Inflectional affixes are defined as the types of affixes which are used to indicate the grammatical function of the words to which they are added.For example, the aspects of number (plurality: cats); tense (present simple: walks, past tense: walked, past participle: walked and present participle: walking); comparative: big -bigger -biggest; and possession: rose's.Inflectional affixes include suffixes only.One inflectional affix is used in a word.They always occur at the end of the word (Al-Hamash & Abdulla, 1976, p. 88;Yule, 1985, p. 62;Crystal, 2003, p. 233).

Multiple Affixation and Affix-Ordering
Multiple affixation refers to the way of forming complex words by adding several affixes to the root or base.For example, contradictoriness: "dict" is the base to which the prefix "contra-" is added first and the "-ory" which is followed by "-ness" as two suffixes.Another complex word is disgraceful which has two affixes which are the prefix "dis-" and the suffix "-ful".So, multiple affixation can be done either by different suffixes occurring in a sequence; or by the same prefix repeated such as "re-": re-re-remark (Yule, 1985, p. 55;Katamba & Stonham, 2006, p. 54).Stageberg (1965, p. 91) states that when affixes, and especially suffixes are multiplied, they ought to have a fixed order, that is, there is one order in which they are combined.Derivational affixes are attached first and then inflectional ones are used.For example, in normalizers, the base norm is followed consequently by four suffixes "-al", "-ize", "-er", "-s"

Definitions of Affixation
Affixation is also the way of creating new words with or without a change in their grammatical categories.For example, the prefix (m) in "al-maf9al" with al-fatHa (one of the Arabic diacritics) is used to denote the noun of place (ism al-makaan), for example, maktab (office) which is derived from the verb kataba (he wrote) (Katamba, 1994, p. 42;Crystal, 2003, p. 15;al-samarra?i, 2011, p. 375).The term affix is the key point in the process of affixation.Affixes are normally bound morphemes which can be added to a root in order to derive new words in a particular order according to morphological rules (Gerlach, 2002, p. 62;Al-Khuli, 2006, p. 57;9uka∫a, 2011, p. 62).

Ways of Classifying Affixes
Similarly, two criteria which the position and the function of the affixes are depended upon to divide the affixes into kinds.

Positional Classification of Affixes
In Arabic, there are three types of affixes: prefixes, suffixes, and infixes.

Prefixes
Prefixes (al-sawaabiq) can be defined as those types of affixes which precede a root, for example, (al-hamza): a∫rab (I am drinking) (Tulaymat, 2000, p. 164;Erwin, 2004, p. 60).Prefixes can change the class of the word to which they are attached.For example, the prefix'ma' with al-fatHa is used to form the noun of place from a verb on al-wazn "maf9al": la9iba -mal9ab (he played -playground).

Suffixes
Suffixes (al-lawaaHiq) are those elements which can be added to the end of the root in order to change its original meaning or grammatical function.For example, the suffix which refers to the duality and the suffix which indicates the sound masculine plural (al-nad3aar, 2006, pp. 67-68).
Arabic does not pay attention to the phonological and semantic aspects of prefixes, suffixes and does not mention them clearly and separately.

Infixes
Infixes (al-dawaaxil) are defined as those elements which occur in the middle of the root (al-nad3aar, 2006, pp. 67-68).For example, al-alif (one of the Arabic letters) by which the noun of active participle (ism al-faa9il) is formed when it is added to the verb as in: karuma -kaarim (generous).They are common in the language.

Functional Classification of Affixes
Derivational and inflectional affixes exist in Arabic according to the second criterion.

Derivational Affixes
Derivation (al i∫tiqaq) is the process of forming words from others with an agreement in meaning and structure but the difference is in form between the original word and the derived one (al-Galajiiny, 1993, p. 208;al-d3ard3aany, 2003, p. 22).
Derivational affixes (al lawaSiq al i∫tiqaqija) are used to create new words with a new lexical category.For example, when the derivational suffix of al-nisba (attribution) "-al-jaa?"(one of the Arabic letters) is added to a noun such as "∫axiS" (person), it forms "∫axSiian" (personal) which is a derived adjective (Erwin, 2004, p. 60).They can be long vowels such as al-jaa?, al-waw, al-alif and short vowels such as the diacritics or signs (al Harakat) which are added to the words.
Arabic does not mention constraints or restrictions on the addition of derivational affixes clearly and separately as in English.
In Arabic, the derivation process can be divided into the following four types in addition to what is called the derivatives:

1). Minor Derivation
Minor derivation refers to the process of forming words from others.This type involves an appropriateness in meaning, the radicals (the original letters) and an appropriateness in their order (al-d3ard3aany, 2003, p. 22).For example the following derivatives can be formed from (salama), (safety): jusalm, saalim, salmaan, salmaa, salaamah, saliim and so on.All of these derivatives share one original meaning (ibn d3inny, 2003, p. 490).

2). Middle Derivation
This type (al-kabiir) or (metathesis) involves the sameness in meaning and the radicals but there is a shift in their order between the original word and the derived ones.So, d3abr denotes the meaning of strength or force, which implies a relationship to bad3r, rd3ab, burd3 (tower) rabid3, bad3r.Therefore, this meaning is kept as it is regardless whether any of them occurs initially, medially, or finally.(Ibrahiim, 1945, p. 10;Chejne, 1969, p. 49;d3abal, 2006, p. 40).

3). Major Derivation
This type (?akbar or substitution) involves sameness in the meaning of the words and the same order of the radicals is kept as it is.There is an appropriateness in some radicals, but not in all, and usually the final ones.There ought to be an appropriateness in the final letters between the words as in na9aq from al-nahaq (al-nad3ar, 1993, p. 211; al-d3ard3aany, 2003, p. 22).

4). Acronymy
This type refers to the method of forming a word from a set of words or usually frequently sentences.This type of derivation is called al-i∫tiqaaq al-kubbaar by some grammarians.It is also known as al-naHt by the old studies.For example, basmla which is derived from saying bism ilah; Haj9ala from Haj 9alaa (d3abal, 2006, p. 41).

Inflectional Affixes
In Arabic, inflection (al-taSriif) can be defined as the process of forming different forms of the word by adding inflectional affixes (al lawaSiq al taSrifija) to indicate the grammatical function.Arabic words are inflected for grammatical categories such as number (plurality, duality), gender (masculine, feminine), tense (present and past), and definiteness (al-nad3aar, 2006, pp. 124-125).
Inflectional process can also be used to refer to the derivational process and what is listed under its scale.Inflectional affixes are those types of affixes which are used to form words with the same lexical category but different grammatical function (Al-Bakuu∫, 1992, p. 17).
Arabic mentions two terms for inflection: conjugation and declension.Conjugation refers to the process of verbs inflection by adding affixes and the combination of verbs with the pronouns.Verbs are conjugated for tense, person, number and gender.Declension is the process that refers to the inflection of nouns and adjectives by adding affixes to the roots (Ryding, 2005, p. 51).The words are declined for number, gender, case, and determination.Both nouns and verbs are inflected according to their types and morphological rules in the language.Arabic has types of nouns and verbs and each one has its own morphological rules through the process of affixation.

Multiple Affixation and Affix-Ordering
Arab morphologists neglect the two phenomena which are multiple affixation and affix order and never mention any details and explanations on how the affixes can be ordered and how more than one affix can create a complex word although there are many words which are formed by multiple affixation.There are many examples of the complex words such as makaatib (offices) which is formed by adding "ma" to the beginning of the verb kataba (he wrote) and becomes maktab (office), then the infix "al-alif" is added in the middle of that created word to become makaatib.The first affix creates a new lexical form "noun of place", and the second one indicates the grammatical function "which is the plurality".
Another case of multiple affixation is illustrated in the complex word kuwaiitibuun (a few writers).The affix al-alif of active participle is added to the root is kataba (he wrote) to become kaatib (writer); and the affix al-jaa? of diminutive is attached to the word to result kuwaiitib (a little writer), then the affix of plurality (al-waw and al-nun) are combined at the end of the word.Thus, this complex word is formed by the attachment of three affixes to the root.The first and the second affixes are derivational but the third is inflectional.

Method
This study is carried out by the following steps: The first is describing affixation in English and the second is describing that phenomenon in Arabic.Both steps include definitions of affixation and affixes, showing the ways of classifying those affixes and illustrating their types.The third is analyzing affixation in both languages and the fourth is showing the similarities and differences between English and Arabic in terms of affixation.
The description of affixation in Arabic is translated into English and the translation of the fundamental terms are taken from Wahba and Al-Muhandis' dictionary.The Arabic phonetic symbols are used for the transliteration throughout the study.Every example is translated into English and then transliterated.

Results
After the description of affixation in the two compared languages is done, a number of results can be shown: 1).In English and Arabic, affixation is defined as one of the morphological ways of producing new words with or without changing their meaning and grammatical categories.Those words are formed by adding affixes to the words.Under a number of morphological rules and a restricted order, the affixes are combined with the roots to create new words.
2).In both languages, the position and the function of the affixes are regarded as two criteria to classify the affixes into a number of types.According to the position of the affixes, English includes five types: prefixes, suffixes, infixes, superfixes, and circumfixes while Arabic consists of three ones only which are prefixes, suffixes, and infixes.Concerning the function of the affixes performed in the word, affixes are classified into inflectional and derivational in both languages.
3).English indicates the relation between phonology and morphology concerning the affixes and lists the meanings expressed by each affix but in Arabic there is no clear and meaningful indication about the phonological properties on the affixes in addition to their meanings that they express.4).In the two languages, derivation is a process of forming words with or without a difference in its meaning and grammatical class from its root.English mentions some details about constraints on the affixes phonologically, syntactically and semantically while Arabic does not refer to such constrains on the affixes within the words.In addition to the types of derivation mentioned in Arabic, a number of derivatives are indicated.But English does not deal with these types of derivatives clearly as in Arabic.Most of them are illustrated within the derivational affixes in a general sense and some of them exist in the language without such affixation.5).English uses inflection as a process of forming words with different grammatical functions.One inflectional affix which is always a suffix is added to the end of the word.While in Arabic, inflection is used to derive more than one form for the same word with different grammatical functions.In English, derivation and inflection are totally separated and inflection as a term refers to the change of the grammatical functions of nouns, verbs, and adjectives while in Arabic inflection sometimes refers to derivation.In addition, Arabic inflection indicates two terms which are conjugation for the inflection of verbs and declension for the inflection of the nouns and adjectives.6).In English, more than one affix (prefixes and suffixes) are added to the same word to form complex words under a number of morphological rules to restrict the affix order while Arabic does not deal with those two phenomena clearly.No rules of how to form complex words or how the affixes are ordered in the word are mentioned in the Arabic references although there are many complex words in the language.

Discussion
In the present study, there are five hypotheses which are accepted as the results prove.Since affixation as a morphological phenomenon which is available in English and Arabic, the first hypothesis is accepted.Our searching has explained that both languages are inflected but inflection is used in Arabic rather than English, so the second hypothesis is confirmed.How to combine the derivational and inflectional affixes in the word is different in the two languages, so the third hypothesis is supported.Complex words are created by adding more than one affix in both languages, so the fourth hypothesis is accepted.Then the last one is also confirmed because the description and results of the study prove that there is a number of similarities and differences between the two languages but the differences are more than the similarities.

Conclusions
There are a number of conclusions which are arrived at through this study.These conclusions are illustrated by the following similarities and differences English and Arabic in terms of affixation: 6.1 The Similarities 1).Affixation is one of the morphological processes in the word formation which exists in English and Arabic.
2).The process of affixation is based on the affixes.
3).An affix can be defined as a sound or a group of sounds that can be combined with a word to change its lexical meaning or grammatical use.4).Affixes are classified according to two criteria: positional and functional classification of affixes.5).Prefixes and suffixes are common in both languages.6).In both languages, a root is the type of the morpheme which carries the core meaning of the word.7).Both languages have two types of functional affixes: derivational and inflectional.Inflectional affixes indicate the grammatical functions of the words.8).Both languages involve the processes of derivation and inflection in forming words.Derivation means the process of forming words with new lexical categories and a difference in meaning by adding derivational affixes while inflection indicates the grammatical function of the words.9).Inflection is closer to the grammar than derivation in both languages.10).Inflection is particularly concerned with verbs and nouns (and adjectives).11).Inflection is associated with the syntactic structure and its choice is obligatory.
12).Derivation is applied optionally since the addition of the derivational affixes is not associated by the grammatical structure of the sentence.13).Derivational affixes can be characterized as being internal and closer to the root than inflectional ones.14).In both languages, derivational affixes can be piled up in one word, that is, there can be more than one derivational affix in a word.15).Inflectional affixes are described as being external and they can be added after the derivational affixes when both exist.16).Both languages are inflected for the plurality of nouns.17).Both languages have regular and irregular ways for the inflection process of plurality.The regular way is called the sound plural (al d3am9 al salim) and the irregular is known as the broken plural (d3am9 al taksiir).18).The inflected genitive in English is similar to the genitive case in Arabic because both of them are of the morpho-syntactic property and both of them have suffixes which are added finally.19).In some cases, the genitive suffix does not appear in both languages.In English, the suffix does not appear on the regular plural nouns: boys -boys' which has only an apostrophe.In Arabic, the diacritic is not inflected in al-maqSuur and al-manquuS (types of nouns).

The Differences
1).In English, affixation is achieved by the addition of affixes to the root of the word only whereas in Arabic it is done not only by the addition of affixes but by deletion, substitution, and internal change in the word.
2).Affixes can be defined as bound morphemes in English but in Arabic they can be bound and occasionally free morphemes like al-hamza.
3).Infixes are common in Arabic whereas they are rare in English.4).There are two types of positional classification of affixes: circumfixes and superfixes in English but they are not found in Arabic.5).English mentions the phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects of prefixes and suffixes whereas Arabic does not deal with this topic clearly.6).English classifies affixes into different types but Arabic deals with such classification of the affixes into types in terms of what is called al-wazn (fi9l, fa9il, maf9uul, mif9al, fa9la, etc) which is not available in English morphology.7).In Arabic, inflection is the general term but Arab morphologists use two terms conjugation and declension.The former is for the inflection of verbs and the latter is for the nouns and adjectives.English uses the term inflection for both nouns and verbs only.8).Although both languages are inflected, Arabic uses inflection more than English.English does not use inflection for case, gender, definiteness but Arabic uses it for these three grammatical aspects of the inflection of nouns and adjectives.28).In Arabic, there is declension for the noun of the superiority on al-wazn "af9al" while in English, there is the inflection of the adjective for the comparative and superlative forms by the suffixes "-er" and "-est".29).In Arabic, the derivation of the diminutive is done according to morphological rules and wazns.It is derived by one of the three wazns: "fu9aiil", "fu9aii9il", "fu9ii9iil".Each noun requires a particular wazn according to the type of that noun and it has its own rules through the process of derivation.In English, the derivation of diminutive is formed merely by adding the affix of diminutive regardless of the type of the noun to which it is added since there is no such types.English mentions six suffixes for this derivation since it has few nouns which have diminutive forms.30).In Arabic, the derivation of attributive is derived by adding the affix "jaa?" and taking into account the type of the noun and each type has its own morphological rules.In English, it can be derived by different suffixes: "-ic", "-al", "-ary", "-ly", "-I", "-ian", "-y".There are no such types and English does not mention any rules in this aspect.31).In English, there is only one inflection for the present tense (imperfective verb) which is the third person singular form by adding the suffix "-s" to the end of the verb.There is no inflection for other persons (first and second) or pronouns while in Arabic, the imperfective verb can be conjugated by the addition of one of the four prefixes: al-hamza, al-taa?, al-nun, al-jaa?.So, Arabic has a prefix for each type of person.In this process of affixation, English uses a suffix whereas Arabic uses prefixes.32).In English, the form of the perfective verb is inflected by the regular suffix "-ed" to the end of the verb or sometimes by irregular inflection.But in Arabic, there are no suffixes for the perfective verb.It is found in its infinitive form without any affixation.33).In Arabic, the form of the imperative verb is conjugated by deleting the prefix of the imperfective and putting al-sikuun on the last sound, and some verbs are conjugated by adding al-hamza to the beginning of the verb while, in English, there is no such conjugation for the imperative verb nor any affix.It is formed by adding the separate pronoun of addressee (you) which is not an affix.34).In Arabic, the verb can be conjugated for the affirmation by adding the affix "nun" whereas in English there is no such inflection.35).In Arabic, the verb can be conjugated from the present to future by adding the prefix "siin" while in English, the future is not conjugated by any affix which is formed simply by a separate entity (will) which is not an affix and other constructions.36).English is concerned with the phenomenon of multiple affixation and affix-ordering while in Arabic, morphologists do not pay attention to the those two phenomena.They neglect them and never mention any details and explanations on how the affixes can be ordered and how more than one affix can create a complex word although there are many words which are formed by multiple affixation in the language.Grammarians do not deal with such a topic since they are concerned with al-wazns in forming words not with the classification of affixes and how they are ordered.