Affixe

Affixe is a bound morpheme attached to a word stem to modify its meaning or grammatical function. The term derives from Latin affigere, “to fasten to.” In linguistics, affixes are categorized by their position relative to the stem: prefixes (before the stem), suffixes (after the stem), infixes (inserted inside the stem), and circumfixes (a combination of prefix and suffix attached around a stem).

Affixe serve two broad functions: derivational and inflectional. Derivational affixes create new words or shift word classes, such as un- in unhappy or -ness in happiness. Inflectional affixes encode grammatical information, such as tense, number, case, or mood, without necessarily changing the core meaning. English uses prefixes and suffixes for both purposes, while many languages rely heavily on affixation. Infixes occur in several languages, notably some Austronesian languages, where an affixe may be inserted inside the base rather than at a boundary.

Affixe is a bound morpheme; it cannot stand alone, unlike free morphemes such as words. It attaches to stems, which can be free or bound as well. Phonological variation among speakers can produce allomorphs of the same affixe, for instance the plural marker s pronounced as /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/ depending on context.

Typologically, languages differ in how they use affixes. Agglutinative languages attach many clear, discrete affixes to a stem to encode distinct meanings; fusional languages fuse multiple grammatical categories into fewer morphemes; isolating languages minimize affixation. The study of affixes is central to morphology and historical linguistics, informing word formation, syntax, and language change.