prefixal

Prefixal is an adjective used in linguistics to describe anything related to prefixes, the morphemes that attach to the beginning of a word or stem. The term is applied to discuss how languages form words or mark grammatical categories through left-attached affixes. A prefixal process adds one or more prefixes to a base, producing a new lexical item or a new grammatical form. For example, in English the prefixes un-, re-, pre-, and dis- attach to bases: unhappy, redo, prewar, disappear. In many languages, prefixes can serve derivational purposes (creating new words or changing word class) and, less commonly, inflectional purposes (expressing grammatical features).

In linguistic typology, prefixal systems are contrasted with suffixal systems, where affixes attach to the end of a base. Some languages are described as prefixing because prefixes are the predominant means of word formation, while others are suffixing or use a mix of affix types. There are also more complex systems that employ circumfixes (an affix that surrounds a base with both a prefix and a suffix) or infixes (affixes inserted inside a word).

The concept helps account for how different languages manage meaning, tense, negation, aspect, voice, and other grammatical or semantic categories through initial morphemes rather than final ones. Prefixal processes are a core topic in morphology and contribute to the study of word formation, linguistic change, and cross-language comparison. See also affix, prefix, derivational morphology, and linguistic typology.