 an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. affixes may be derivational, like english -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like english plural -s and past tense -ed. they are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes. affixation is, thus, the linguistic process speakers use to form different words by adding morphemes (affixes) at the beginning (prefixation), the middle (infixation) or the end (suffixation) of words. ==positional categories of affixes== affixes are divided into plenty of categories, depending on their position with reference to the stem. prefix and suffix are extremely common terms. infix and circumfix are less so, as they are not important in european languages. the other terms are uncommon. {| class="wikitable" |+ categories of affixes ! affix !! example !! schema !! description |- | prefix || un-do || prefix-stem || appears before the stem |- | suffix/postfix || look-ing || stem-suffix || appears after the stem |- | suffixoidkremer, marion. 1997. person reference and gender in translation: a contrastive investigation of english and german. tÃ¼bingen: gunter narr, p. 69, note 11./semi-suffixmarchand, hans. 1969. the categories and types of present-day english word-formation: a synchronic-diachronic approach. munich: beck, pp. 356 ff. || cat-like || stem-suffixoid || appears after the stem, but is only partially bound to it |- | infix || minnesota || stem || appears within a stem â common in borneo-philippines languages |- | circumfix || enen || circumfixcircumfix || one portion appears before the stem, the other after |- | interfix || speed-o-meter || stema-interfix-stemb || links two stems together in a compound |- | duplifix || money~shmoney || stem~duplifix || incorporates a reduplicated portion of a stem(may occur before, after, or within the stem) |- | transfix || maltese: ktb "he wrote"(compare root ktb "write") || stem || a discontinuous affix that interleaves within a discontinuous stem |- | simulfix || mouse â mice ||stem\simulfix || changes a segment of a stem |- | suprafix || produce (noun)produce (verb) ||stem\suprafix || changes a suprasegmental feature of a stem |- | disfix || alabama: tipli "break up"(compare root tipasli "break") || stm || the elision of a portion of a stem |} prefix and suffix may be subsumed under the term adfix in contrast to infix.'
Affixes Lexical_units