MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENCE

MILITARY SCIENCE ACADEMY

NGUYEN TUAN HUNG

A CORPUS-BASED STUDY ON PREFIXES

IN ENGLISH WORD-FOMATION WITHIN
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS TAUGHT
AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
 HOC ■ QUÂN Sự
Specialization: English Linguistics THƯ VIỀN NGOẠI NGỬ

Code : 60 22 02 01 Ký hiệu:.
SỐĐKCB://X..^^.ốLZ

MASTER THESIS IN FOREIGN LINGUISTICS

THESIS SUPERVISOR:
PhD. NGUYEN THU HANH

HANOI-2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION 1

Chapter 1. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL 5

BACKGROUND
1.1. Review of previous studies 5

1.2. Theoretical background 6

1.3. Chapter conclusion 21

Chapter 2. METHODOLOGY 23

Chapter 3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 28

3.1. REALIZATION OF PREFIXATION TYPE 28

 WITHIN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS USED AT HANOI
UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY

3.2 DISCUSSION 4
. 4
3.3 5
CHATER CONCLUSION
. 6
5
CONCLUSION
7

REFERENCES

APPENDIX
 INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
English language is nowadays known as a mean of international
communication so there has been a great demand for the learning of English all over
the world. It is frequently used in nearly every field of life: from communication,
economics, science and technology to sports or all the fields of arts, games and so
forth. English is also widely used in literature. This is the reason why English is a
compulsory subject in most schools and tertiary institutions. However, both English
teaching and learning still leave many things to be desired. When learning English,
Vietnamese students cope with a number of problems such as grammar, sounds,
vocabulary, etc. Vocabulary is one of the most difficult factors for learners in process
of acquiring this language. Words, therefore, play a very important role. The process
in which the words are formed is called morphological process.
Morphological process is a way of forming words by connecting one
morpheme with other morpheme or in other words, morphological process is a
process of combining morphemes to form words [10]. Word-formation is a process
which produces a new word and sometimes a new meaning. It can add thousands of
English vocabularies. Word-formation has a great role in maintaining the existence of
every language, especially English language.
In communication, a person who is poor of vocabulary (even vocabulary of his
native language vocabulary) definitely meets with difficulties to express his thoughts
or ideas. Wallace points out that not being able to find the words to express one’s
ideas is the most frustrating experience in speaking another language[18]. As a matter
of fact all the language teachers and learners consider that one of the biggest
components of a foreign language acquiring process is vocabulary. No matter how
well students learn
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grammar, no matter how well the sounds of languages are mastered, without words,
communication totally breaks down.
One question, therefore, is posed: how a learner may enrich easily with
vocabulary? We will not find out the answer until we recognize how the words are
produced or formed, so we will discuss the word-formation.
The new words of a language are formed in different ways. According to
Quirk et al. [16], new words may be produced by: affixations (prefixation and
suffixation), convention, compounds, backformation, reduplicative, abbreviations
(clipping, acronyms, blends). Prefixes are extremely common in English and they
cause so many problems for students for instance how to add them to words, how to
pronounce those words, why a particular prefix may combine with this word but not
with that one... This is the reason why I choose this topic and carry out a thorough
scrutiny in English prefixes and their productiveness. In this paper I would like also
to make a corpus linguistic research to find out which prefixes more and less
productive.
2. Significance of the study
This thesis is expected to give some significance for readers. It is:
- To add some certain knowledge about English word formation, particularly
prefixation to the students.
- To be reference for further studies concerning Morphology, Lexicology or
Semantics relating to prefixation.
- To improve English vocabulary teaching and learning process at Hanoi
University of Industry.
3. Aims and objectives of the study
We decide to study English prefixes with the following aims:
- Finding out solutions for overcoming problems in using English prefixes
- Helping students get a deeper understanding of English prefixes to improve
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their English vocabulary.

- Providing the readers with a comprehensive introduction and guide to a
deeper understanding of English prefixes to improve their English vocabulary.
The main objective of this study is to develop an understanding of deeper
understanding of English prefixes to improve their English vocabulary. The students
then can get the best approach to enrich their vocabulary.
4. research questions
This study will answer the following questions:
- What is the role of prefixes in English word-formation?
- What are the most frequently- used types of prefixes according to this
research?
What the difficulties are faced by the student in learning prefixes and how to
overcome?
5. Scope of the study
- This research focuses on English prefixation based on their form, derivation,
distribution, and function. The thesis also refers to the productiveness of English
prefixes which are most often used and most easily used by native speakers and
especially by foreign students.
6. Method of the study
The researcher uses descriptive method in order to analyze the possible
prefixes in the selected textbooks of Hanoi University of Industry. This research is
conducted by collecting, classifying, analyzing the data and draws some conclusions.
The researcher also uses qualitative approach to know the kind of prefixation which is
most common in using. Especially, the statistic and corpus linguistic methods are used
in the work may apply materialized quantity involved prefixation in word-formation
process of English language. In other words, by means of employing this combined
approach, the researcher obtains the advantages of both quantitative and qualitative
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methods to overcome the limitations.

7. Structure of the study
The study consists of three main parts as follows:
Part I is the introduction of the study which discusses the rationale,
significance, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, scope, method as
well as structure of the study.
Part II, the main part of the thesis, consists of three chapters:
- Chapter 1 entitled Literature Review will review previous studies which are
related to the current research and give out some basic notions of word formations and
prefixes.
- Chapter 2 will discuss the methodology which researcher employs to carry
out of the study.
- Chapter 3 entitled Findings and Discussions will analyze the data, reveal and
discuss the findings of the study.
Part III is the conclusion of the study that summarizes the findings of the
study, states the limitations of the study and offers suggestions for further studies.
CHAPTER 1
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1. REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES

There have been many linguists of different native languages from all over the
world who had their researches on English affixation in general and prefixation in
particular. Syam [17] in his thesis “A Brief Study of Affixation in “A Tale of Two
Cities” by Charles Dickens” concludes that the most popular suffixes (- merit, -less, -
able, -ism, etc.) change the form and function if they are attached to the base forms
(e.g.:“sad” is an adjective but when suffixed, it becomes a noun “sadness”). But
most prefixes (pre-, re-, a-, al-, in-, un-, dis-, mis-, be-, ỉm-, under-, over-, out-, and
fore...) do not change form when they are attached to the base forms, e.g.: conductor
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(noun) -> semiconductor (noun); to charge -> to discharge.

Osla Xhina [20], in a research, shows that one of the most productive word-
formation processes is derivation including prefixation and suffixation. Prefixation is
a way of enlarging vocabularies and most of the prefixes do not change the lexico-
grammatical category of the word such as en- in enlarge.

Quirk and Greenbaum in “A University grammar of English” analyse prefixes

in details. He lists kinds of prefixes, their classification, functions and productivity.
The Vietnamese linguist Truong Hoang Tat also wrote “Basic English Lexicology” in
1993 which goes deeply into the prefixes: their classification, their definition, their
meaning, and their functions.

In “Prefixes in English Word Formation” Adrienne Lehrer [1] deals with

several related issues involving English words formed with certain prefixes. He makes
clear the relationships and constraints on full lexemes and semantic units smaller than
lexemes. Traditionally, lexical semantics has concentrated on lexemes, devoting
relatively little attention to semantic units that are smaller or larger than words.
Adrienne Lehrer, in this work, also deals with description of the semantics of English
prefixes: Most English prefixes have two interesting properties: they are iterative and
they combine freely.

In this research I would like to concentrate on the productivity and frequency

of use of English prefixes in word-formation process.

1.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.2.1. Definitions of words

Different linguists give different definitions of words. All of them agree that it
is very difficult to determine the most appropriate definition for the term “word”.
Thomas Hobbes, one of the great British philosophers, wrote “Words are not mere
names but sounds of matter”. Words, in terms of linguistics, have been defined
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syntactically, semantically, phonologically and by combining various approaches.

Escaper, from the semantic aspect calls the word “one of the smallest, completely
satisfying bits of isolated meaning”, into which the sentence revolts itself. He also
points out one more a very important characteristic of the word: its indivisibility. The
semantic- phonological approach may be illustrated on Alan Henderson Gardiner’s
definition: “A word is an articulate sound symbol in its aspect of denoting something,
which is spoken about”. Antoine Meilet, an eminent French linguist of the early 20th
century, combines the semantic, phonological grammatical criteria and advances a
formula which underlines many subsequent definitions that considered available for
every language : “A word is defined by the association of a particular meaning with a
particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment”.

On summarizing the discussion of the possible definitions of word, Plag [15]

wrote “in spite of the intuitive appeal of the notion of ‘word’, it is sometimes not easy
to decide whether a given string of sounds (or letters) should be regarded as a word or
not. In the treatment above, we have concentrated on the discussion of such
problematic cases. In most cases, however, the stress criterion, the integrity criterion
and the syntactic criteria lead to sufficiently clear results. Plag also summarized the
properties of words as below:
- Words are entities having a part of speech specification.
- Words are syntactic atoms.
- Words (usually) have one main stress.
- Words (usually) are indivisible units (no intervening material possible).
In short, a word is one of the fundamental units of language. It is a dialectical
unity of form and content, independent unit of language to form a sentence by itself,
for example: earth, love, eat, slowly and so forth.
1.2.2. Morpheme
It is necessary to deal with the notion of morpheme when we want to carry out
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a research on prefixes because prefixes are naturally morphemes. The smallest units
of language that have a meaning or a grammatical function and form words or parts of
words are called morphemes [15]. In writing, individual morphemes are usually
represented by their graphic form, or spelling; e.g., -es, -er, un-, re-; or by their
graphic form between square brackets [ ], e.g., [-es], [-er], [wn-], [re-]. From the
definition above, we can make a conclusion that a morpheme is the smallest
grammatical unit that cannot be separated again and it has a meaning where one or
more morpheme can form a lexeme.
1.2.3. Types of words and morphemes
a. Types of words
The morphological analysis of word structure aims at splitting the word into its
constituent morphemes, the basic units at this level of analysis, and at determining the
number and types. According to the number of morphemes, words can be classified
into “monomorphic” and “polymorphic”, “monomorphic” or “simple word” or “root
word” consists of only one root morpheme like mother, sun, machine, etc. All
“polymorphic” words fall into two sub groups: derived words and compound words
based on the number of root morphemes they have. Derived words are composed of
one root morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes, e.g.: sun/ny, up/dat/ed,
un/believ/able. Compound words contain at least two root morphemes, the number of
derivational morphemes in compounds as in kind-hearted, man- eater, or only root
morphemes as in ball-point-pen, blackboard.
b. Types of morphemes
English words are composed of morphemes of different types. There are two
criteria for classifying the morphemes: structurally and semantically.
Structural morphemes fall into three types: free morphemes, bound
morphemes, semi-free (semi-bound) morphemes.
- A free morpheme is defined as one that coincides with the stem 2 or a word-
form. A great many root-morphemes are free morphemes, for example, the root-
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morpheme friend of the noun friendship is naturally qualified as a free morpheme

because it coincides with one of the forms of the noun friend.
- A bound morpheme occurs as affixes are, naturally, it always makes part of a
words, e.g. the suffixes -ness, -ship, -ize, etc., the prefixes un-, dis-, de-, etc.
- Semi-bound (semi-free) morphemes are morphemes that can function in a
morphemic sequence both as an affix and as a free morpheme. For example, the
morphemes well or half or micro on the one hand occur as free morphemes that
coincide with the stem and the word-form in utterances like sleep well, half an hour,
micro loans, on the other hand they occur as bound morphemes in words like well-
known, half-eaten, half-done, micrometer.
Semantic morphemes fall into two classes: root morphemes or lexical
morphemes (roots) and non-root or affixational morphemes (affixes). Roots and
affixes make two distinct classes of morphemes due to the different roles they play in
word-structure:

First, the roots morphemes are the nucleus of the word, it has a very general
and abstract lexical meaning common to a set of semantically related words
constituting one word cluster, e.g.: “to conduct", “conductor", “semiconductor" ... .
Besides the lexical meaning, the roots possess all other types of meaning proper to
morpheme except the part of speech meaning, which is not found in roots. The root
remains after removing all the other elements and cannot be analyzed any further.

Second, affixational morphemes are classified into prefixes and suffixes: a

prefix precedes the root-morpheme, a suffix follows it. Affixes besides the meaning
proper to root morphemes possess the part-of-speech meaning and a generalized
lexical meaning.
1.2.4. English word-formation
1.2.4.1. Definition
The study of “how words are made”, how they are patterned, and by what unit
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(word or word group) their meaning is determined, is known wordformation. It is the

most effective means of enriching vocabulary for the learners of language [15].
Contemporary scholar Richard Nordquỉst, an emeritus professor of rhetoric
and English at Armstrong State University refers word-formation in linguistics
(particularly morphology and lexicology) to the ways in which new words are made
on the basis of other words or morphemes.
Kubriakova E. s, a Russian linguist, said “word-formation is the process or
result of forming new words, called derived words, from words or word groups with
the same root”. Word-formation occurs through formal means established within a
given language that give a new or more precise meaning to the original elements.
Such means include joining affixes to roots (hero-ic; re-charge-able), joining several
stems (black-board, loud-speaker), transferring stems from one word class to another
(short -ỳ to short-en and short-age). Word-formation is a means of deriving
(generating) linguistic units in order to create a new one word name having a semantic
and formal connection with the original unit. It is an important means of
supplementing vocabulary and forming specialized terms.
Word-formation is the branch of linguistics that examines derived words
synchronically and diachronically and in terms of their origin and functioning, their
productivity or un-productivity, and their use in different styles of speech. English
word-formation is usually taken for-granted by teachers and planners, and words are
still assigned to classes (noun, verb, adverb, adjective etc.) by a technique which goes
back for two millennia [14].
Summing up those points of view we go to state that word-formation is the
process or result of creating a new word from other words or groups of words with the
same root. Word formation has traditionally been considered a branch of lexicology or
a branch of grammar equal in importance to morphology and syntax, or it has been
assigned to morphology. Usually viewed as an independent linguistic discipline, word
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formation ascertains and describes the structure and meaning of derived words, the
components, classification, and patterns of derived words, and the basic devices and
means of derivation. Word-formation studies the alignment of derived words in series
and families, as well as derivational meanings and categories. It establishes the
structural and organizational principles of the derivational system as a whole.
1.2.2.2. Word-formation units
Word-formation process is a large source of getting new words in English. To
put it simple, word-formation represents a way of enlarging the vocabulary. The units
of word-formation, in particular the word and its components, are essentially the same
as the units of morphology in general. A new word is composed of smaller units
called root and affix, stem by so called morphological process.
- Root: The part of the word that cannot be broken down is called a base
word, also known as a root word. Crystal [2] also explains that the root is a base form,
which if analyzed, would lose its identity. Thus, when all of the affixes are removed
from a word, what is left is then called the root, e.g.: mean-ing-ful-ness - mean is the
root of the word.
- Affix (prefix, suffix, infix): Affixation is one of the most representative
major word-formation processes and the result of such process is a structure called a
complex word. It consists of two elements: one expressing the basic meaning, known
as a base or stem and it can be represented either by a single word (consisting of only
one morpheme), or a part of word. Another important element is an affix. In English
this is the smallest unit that expresses meaning. Thus many English newly-formed
words are structured by a base and one or more affixes e.g.: on-line, re- charge-able.
Affixes are known as bound morphemes, which mean that they cannot stand
on their own. When an affix precedes the base (root/stem), it is called a prefix. On the
other hand, if an affix follows the base, it is a suffix. An infix is a morpheme that is
placed within the root/stem [2], e.g.: un-friend-ly (un- = prefix, -ly = suffix).
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- Stem: Crystal [2] describes the stem as an item which is part of a word
structure. It can be a root morpheme, which is also called a simple stem (man). The
stems may consist of two root morphemes, called compound stems (blackbird).
Lastly, the stem can already include a root morpheme and a derivational affix and
therefore be called a complex stem (manly, unmanly, manliness).
1.2.2.3. Word-formation processes
Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvick [16] mention several main ways of
forming a new word as follows:
a) Borrowing: foreign words are always being borrowed from other languages,
especially to accompany new ideas, inventions, products and so on. For example, the
word “banh mi'’ or “ao dai” derived from Vietnamese, “karaoke” derived from
Japanese.
b) Coinage: is a new word created from names. It is common in cases where
industry needs a name for a product. Such brand names as Xerox, Kodak, Linux were
made up without reference to any other word.
c) Compounding: is the combination of lexical categories (noun, verb,
adjective or preposition). There are three categories of compounding words, they are:
(1) Noun Compound is two words or more combined to create a noun compound such
as postcard, greenhouse’, (2) Verb Compound is two words or more combined to
create a verb compound such as spoon-feed, overlook: (3) Adjective Compound is
two words or more combined to create an adjective compound such as nationwide,
sixteen-year-old.
d) Initialization and Acronym: Initialization is another reduction process
where each letter on the word is pronounced. The examples are UK [ju-kei] (for
United Kingdom), GDP [dfi-di-pi] (for Gross Domestic Product). Meanwhile,
acronym is a word made up abbreviation, too, but the result is pronounced as a word,
not as list of letters, for examples RAM [rcem] (for Random Access Memory),
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NATO [ncetau] (for North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

e) Blending: Blending is a combination of the parts of two words, usually the
beginning of the word and the end of another. Well known examples of blends
include Brunch from breakfast and lunch, Smog from smoke and fog, Gasohol from
gasoline and alcohol, and Motel from motor and hotel.
f) Clipping: Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting
one or more syllables. For examples; Website becomes web, “Laboratory” becomes
“lab”, or 'facsimile ” becomes 'fax ”. We may shorten longer terms and then create
new words. There are two kinds of clipping, they are Backlipped words (Examination
becomes exam) and Foreclipped words (telephone becomes phone).
g) Back formation: Back formation is a process that creates new word by
removing a real or supposed affix from another word in language. For examples:
Relation (noun) becomes relate (verb.); Demonstration (noun) becomes demonstrate
(verb).
h) Conversion: is a process that assigns an already existing word to a new
syntactic category. Even though it does not add an affix, conversion resembles
derivation because of the change in category and the meaning that it brings about.
There are several types of conversions: Verb that comes from noun: "I water the
flowers”', Verb that comes from adjective: 'dry the clothes!’; Noun that comes from
verb: an answer.
i) Affixations is a word-formation process in which affixes are added to a base.
Affixes are mainly divided into prefixes, which are added before the base {un- as in
unhappy; mid- as in midfield), infixes which are inserted into the base {-bloody- as in
fan-bloody-tastic), and suffixes, which appear after the base {-able as in portable; -
ion as in submission). They represent a basis for processes of Prefixation, Infixation
and Suffixation, therein, the Affixation and Prefixation are the most common in
English word-formation process. Infixation seems not to exist formally in English
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language.
1.2.5. Prefixation
1.2.5.1. Definition
Prefixation is attaching a prefix in front of the word stem and prefix, therefore,
is a letter or group of letters which is added to beginning of word in order to make a
new word. In other words, “A prefix is a syllable or group of syllables placed at the
beginning of a word, affecting its meaning” [18]
Prefixation, all in all, offers another way of learning English new words and
broadens our vocabulary. Acquiring the usage of principal prefixes in English can
facilitate English speakers, especially foreign English speakers, to figure out the
meaning of unfamiliar words. It is as well helpful to express the ideas in different
ways within a limited stock of vocabulary. For example, instead of saying '‘She
understands me in the wrong way”, we can say “She misunderstands me ”.
1.2.3.2. Main features of the English prefixes
By means derivation process the majority of English prefixes are able to create
new words or lexemes, but they cannot change the word class of the derived words
[20]: to use- to reuse (v); conductor- semiconductor (n); violetultraviolet (adj.).
Lenski, in “The status of Etymology in the Synchronic Morphology of English”
wrote: “the vast majority of prefixes do not change syntactic category of their base
words, they merely act as modifiers”. They are called class-maintaining prefixes.
Prefixes rarely form new part of speech. They mainly modify the lexical
meaning of the words, therefore not only simple words but derived words are often in
the same part of speech. However there are only a few prefixes which cause a change
of the category of words, such as: large (adj.) enlarge (v); sleep (v) Ạ asleep (adj.).
These are called classchanging prefixes.
Almost English prefixes become meaningless if they are used alone as words.
They are called bound. Several prefixes have more than one constant meaning. As
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said above, the prefix "un-” have two meanings, the first meaning is “not” in such
words as '‘untrue, unhappy, unable", the second meaning is “back, reversal” as in
"untie, unfriend”. The prefix “dia-” that has meaning "through” as in "diacritical”
and “across” as in "diameter ”,
Though the current trend in English language is avoiding the unnecessary
hyphens, there are several rules that should be taken into consideration in term of
prefix-root right punctuation. Thus, must be used a hyphen between prefix and proper
name: anti-American, between prefix ending in an -a or -i or -o and the root beginning
with the same letter such as in ultra-ambitious or semi-invalid or co-operations. Also
we must use the hyphen to avoid confusion with another word, e.g.: re-cover (=
provide something with a new cover) different from recover (get well again).
Most English prefixes have two interesting properties: they are iterative and
they combine freely.
Almost all English prefixes do not have effect on stress of derivatives. “The
most general rule that can be given for prefixes is that they do not bear primary stress
and do not affect the stress of derivatives” [Bauer, 12]. Bauer also shows “the effect
on the stress does not have the comparative regularity, independence and
predictability of suffixes and there is no prefix of one or two syllable that always
carries primary stress. Consequently, the best treatment seem to be to say that stress in
words with prefixes is governed by the same rules as those for words without
prefixes” [12] e.g.: logical sounds /’lodfikl/ and illogical also sounds /i’lodfikll.
Especially, some prefixes are stressed much more often in nouns than in verbs:
discharge - rdist\a:d/ (n) discharge - /dỉs't\a:đ/ (v). An English prefix requires a
special stress to help in clarifying the meaning or to avoid mispronouncing, e.g.: co-
op, it is not the same as coop.
Ỉ.2.3.3. Classification of English prefixes
There are different criteria for classifying prefixes according to their origin,
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meaning or function. Some of the prefixes can appear more than once and in different
groups of words (Ex-vice-president) as the meaning is sometimes different, e.g.: the
prefix un- means “not, lack of' in unhappy but in unlock it means "reverse, opposite".
Most other prefixes have their unique meaning, e.g.:
anti- means ‘against or opposed to': antibiotic, anticlimax, anti- nuclear, anti-
clockwise, anti-icing
de- means ‘to revers, to alter': decommission, deform, destabilize, deactivated,
demagnetize
over- means ‘too much': overeat, over indulgent, overheat
There are different principles upon which various classifications of prefixes are
done. In other words, they may be classified according to different criteria:
morphological and semantic or lexico-grammatical; native or foreign origin;
productive or unproductive.
As the type of lexico-grammatical character they are added to, English prefixes
fall into:
a. Deverbal prefixes: rewrite, overeat.

b. Denominal prefixes: Ex-wife, resistance.

c. Deadjectival prefixes: biannual, uneducated.

Though there are many different criteria for classifying prefixes, the majority

of linguists, as previous as contemporary, concentrate on semantic features of prefixes

to classify them. In this paper we base on analysis and classification of Quirk R. et al.[

16] when carrying out a thorough scrutiny into frequency of use and productiveness

of English prefixes. According to them, English prefixes are divided into ten types:

- Negative prefixes: non-, un-, dis-, in-, a-...

- Private prefixes: un-, dis-, de-...

- Pejorative prefixes: mal-, mis-, pseudo-...

- Prefixes of degree or size: over-, arch-, out-, super-,...

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- Prefixes of orientation or attitude: co-, pro-, anti-...

- Locative prefixes: inter-, super-, sub-...

- Prefixes of time and order: pre-, fore-, post-...

- Number prefixes: mono-, uni-, multi-, bi-, poly-, tri-..

- Conversion prefixes: a-, be-, en-...

- Other prefixes: semi-, auto-, vice-, proto-...

1. Negative prefixes

Quirk et. al. [16] explain that the meaning of the following prefixes is negative.

Prefix a- suggests that there is a lack of something and the rest of the prefixes (dis-,

in-, non-, and un-) mean the converse of something. The prefix non- is usually

combined with a hyphen, e.g., discomfort, invisible, non-payment, unfaithful

2. Privative prefixes
Reversal prefixes de-, dis-, and un- denote the reverse of the action [Quirk, 16].
E.g.: decommission, discharge, undo
3. Pejorative prefixes
When adding pejorative prefixes to a word, we change its meaning into
something that is bad or done badly [Quirk, 16]. The prefixes are mal-, mis- and
pseudo-.
e.g. malnutrition, misconduct.
4. Prefixes of size or degree
These prefixes tell US about the size, amount or degree of something. Prefixes
arch-,mega-, out-, over-, super-, and sur- mean a large amount or high position, while
ultra and hyper- denote an extreme. On the other hand, prefixes mini-, sub- or under-
and hypo- suggest that the meaning is a little or below something. Arch- and over- can
also have a pejorative meaning. Lastly, the prefix co- means jointly or on the same
footing [Quirk, 16].
5. Prefixes of orientation and attitude
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Prefixes of orientation and attitude such as anti- and counter- mean against or
in opposition to something. The prefix contra- marks contrast and the prefix pro-
denotes for or on the side of something [Quirk, 16], e.g. antimalaria, counterattack
6. Prefixes of locations
Prefixes of locations can extend the meaning of the words to metaphorically
abstract spheres. Fore- means the front part of something, inter- means between two
or among more than two and sub- means under something and super- is the opposite
of sub-. The prefix trans- means across something, from one part to another [Quirk,
16], e.g. subgroup, transhopping
7. Prefixes of time and order
Prefixes fore- and pre- both mean before. The opposite meaning has the prefix
post- ex- can be understood as former and the prefix re- is as “again, or “back”
[Quirk, 16], e.g. reopen, prejudge
8. Prefixes of number
Number prefixes express the numeric meaning of a word. Prefixes such as uni-
and mono- stand for the number one, bi- and di- stand for the number two, tri- is for
three, semi- and demi- are for half and poly- and multi- are for many [Quirk, 16], e.g.
bilingualism, polysyllable
9. Miscellaneous neo-classical prefixes
There are some prefixes that are not included in the groups stated above. These
are prefixes auto- as “self’, extra- meaning exceptionally, neo- is new and the
opposite can be paleo- as old. Proto- stands for the first, panfox all or world-wide and
vice- for deputy or representative. Prefix tele- mean distant or connected with
communication, e.g. telepathy, viceroy
10. Conversion prefixes
As the title of these prefixes suggests, they are slightly different prefixes from
those already mentioned. Conversion prefixes do not have a stress and their main use
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is influencing the conversion of the base form in order to form a different word-class.
The prefix a- is used to form adjectives from verbs, while be- and en- (em- before /p/
and /b/) form verbs from nouns [Quirk, 16], e.g: asleep; bewitched; endanger,
emphasize.
1.3. BASIC CONCEPTS OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS
The reason we have some presentation on corpus linguistics is that we base our
approach on this study.
Corpus (plural form: corpora or corpuses) is Latin origin. In linguistics, Oxford
dictionary defines that corpus is a collection of texts of written (or spoken) language
presented in electronic form. It provides the evidence of how language is used in real
situations, from which lexicographers can write accurate and meaningful dictionary
entries. The Oxford English Corpus is at the heart of dictionary-making in Oxford in
the 21st century and ensures that we can track and record the very latest developments
in language today. By analyzing the corpus and using special software, we can see
words in context and find out how new words and senses are emerging, as well as
spotting other trends in usage, spelling, world English, and so on. Corpus linguistics,
thus, is a method of carrying out linguistic analyses. As it can be used for the
investigation of many kinds of linguistic questions and as it has been shown to have
the potential to yield highly interesting, fundamental, and often surprising new
insights about language, it has become one of the most widespread methods of
linguistic investigation in recent years, s. Houston [11] from University of
Birmingham, UK, wrote: “Corpus linguistics can be regarded as a sophisticated
method of finding answers to the kinds of questions linguists have always asked”.
A large corpus can be a test bed for hypotheses and can be used to add a
quantitative dimension to many linguistic studies. It is also true, however, that corpus
software presents the researcher with language in a form that is not normally
encountered and that this can highlight patterning that often goes unnoticed. Corpus
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linguistics has also, therefore, led to a reassessment of what language is like [11].
We would like, in our research, to employ corpus linguistic methods to
approach the English prefixes. We hope the computer-processed corpora allow us to
clarify as well lexical, morphological, semantic, pragmatic information as
accountability, frequency, productiveness and use of particular prefix in collected
materials.
1.4. CHAPTER CONCLUSION

Language in general or words in particular always present and exist around US

no matter what we do. But both language and words represent a very important part of
the human life because they are used to express our ideas, thoughts, wishes, emotions,
etc. and to send them to other persons expecting a kind of reaction and in such a way
producing communication between human beings. That is why language with its
words is described in the simplest way as the basic means of communication. From
the point of view of linguistics, words are basic units to some degree, the smallest,
and from the point of view of meaning, abstract. But basically, they are minimal free
units with their structure and they express meaning. Words are parts of a language so
the identification and the description of them cannot be done without a short review of
what is language. The same happens with English words. In order to get a precise idea
about English words, both diachronic and synchronic methods are applied. Thus,
word-formation process is a large source of getting new words in English. That is why
it is usually divided according to certain criteria, most often a frequency of forming
new members into affixation, compounding and conversion, and less productive
process of Acronyms, Clipping, Blending, Back-Formation... New members are
structured by using word-formation rules such is a rule according to which newly-
formed words do not change category of word class. Students usually adopt the
structure of words in an easy way.
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In this chapter, one of the biggest sources of producing new words in English,
words-formation process is involved, as an example; a process of prefixation is
described. Prefixes are a smaller number of affixes but the process of prefixation is
the essential in derivation. The main goal of the paper is to reveal some new ideas
about English words-formation with prefixes and represent a new approach to
vocabulary in the process of learning English as a foreign language. The Researcher
employs computerized corpora to give clear statistics on how the prefixes are
employed in the collected textbooks of different fields of sciences that are used for
teaching at Hanoi University of Industry.