Suffix - Setsubigo

Japanese: 接尾語 - せつびご

Among affixes, those that are added after the base word. Usually called "suffixes," they are not independent words, so strictly speaking they should be called "postfixes." Even with this definition, there can be differences of opinion as to whether or not they should be recognized as suffixes, as in the underlined parts of " oarsman ," "pretend not to know ," " start writing," " advertiser ," and "pessimistic mood ." Compared to prefixes, there are many more types of suffixes and they have a greater ability to create new words.

Generally, there are two types of suffixes: (1) those that only add meaning, and (2) those that change the grammatical properties of the base word in addition to the meaning. In Japanese, examples of (1) include "shacho-san" ( president) , "fruit and vegetable industry " (fruit and vegetable industry), and "company employee" (company employee ). Examples of (2) include (1) " chill ," " chill ," and " weakness " that form nouns, (2) " fun " and " happy " that form adjectival verb stems, (3) " solemn " and " feminine " that form adjectives, (4) "saboru" (to slack off), " jogger ," "banjou ga ru" ( to be bothered ), and "harumeki" ( to feel spring ) that form verbs, (5) "gorika" ( rationalization ) and " identification " that form sa-hen verb stems, and (6) "tokuteki" ( particularly ), "kakuri" ( clearly), and " jitsubo " (in deed), that form adverbs. In addition to these examples of Japanese and Chinese suffixes, there are also foreign suffixes such as "yukkuri -zumu " (yakkari- zumu ) and "ganbarisuto" (to do one's best).

In English, a distinction is made between inflectional suffixes (boy s , deep er , paint ed , paint ing ) and derivational suffixes (boy ish , deep en , paint er ), but the term suffix in the strict sense refers only to the latter, and this article follows that rule. There are few words in category (1), such as cabin et , mani kin , and leaf let, which indicate the little finger. Examples of category (2) include (1) bak er and spin ster , which form nouns indicating people, (2) free dom and kind ness , which form abstract nouns, (3) earth en and boy ish , which form adjectives, (4) dark en and clatt er , which form verbs, and (5) actually ly and after ward(s) , which form adverbs. All of the examples given in [2] are of Germanic origin, but in addition there are also Latin ( student , assistance , brilliant ) and Greek (demo cracy , realize ) suffixes.

[Shigeo Sugiura]

[See also] | affix | prefix

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

接辞のうち、語基の後に添加されるもの。通常「接尾語」とよばれるが、これは独立の語ではないので、厳密には「接尾辞」とよぶほうがよい。このように定義しても、「漕(こ)ぎ手」「知らんふり」「書きだす」「宣伝マン」「悲観ムード」の下線部のように、接尾語と認めるべきか否かについて、意見の相違がおこりうる場合がある。接頭語と比べて、接尾語は種類も多く、造語力も高い。

　接尾語には一般に、〔1〕意味だけを添えるものと、〔2〕意味に加えて、語基の語の文法上の性質を変えるものとがある。日本語では、〔1〕の例として、「社長さん」「青果業」「会社員」など、〔2〕の例として、(1)名詞をつくる「寒さ」「寒け」「弱み」、(2)形容動詞の語幹をつくる「楽しげ」「うれしそう」、(3)形容詞をつくる「重々しい」「女性らしい」、(4)動詞をつくる「サボる」「ジョギングする」「迷惑がる」「春めく」、(5)サ変動詞の語幹をつくる「合理化」「同一視」、(6)副詞をつくる「とくに」「はっきりと」「事実上」などがある。これらの例のような和語系、漢語系のものに加えて、「ゆっくりズム」「頑張りスト」のような外来系の接尾語もある。

　英語では、屈折接尾語（boys, deeper, painted, painting）と、派生接尾語（boyish, deepen, painter）とを区別するが、狭義の接尾語は後者だけをさし、本稿でもそれに従う。〔1〕に属するものは少なく、「指小」を示すcabinet, manikin, leafletなどがこれにあたる。〔2〕は、(1)人を表す名詞をつくるbaker, spinster、(2)抽象名詞をつくるfreedom, kindness、(3)形容詞をつくるearthen, boyish、(4)動詞をつくるdarken, clatter、(5)副詞をつくるactually, afterward(s)などがある。〔2〕であげた例はすべてゲルマン系であったが、それらに加えてラテン系（student, assistance, brilliant）、ギリシア系（democracy, realize）の接尾語もある。