prefix

…subject are commonly marked by prefixes or suffixes—e.g., Karuk ni-’áhoo ‘I walk,’ nu-’áhoo ‘he walks.’ In some languages, an affix (prefix or suffix) can simultaneously indicate the subject and the object that it acts on—e.g., Karuk ni-mmah ‘I see him’ (ni-‘I.him’), ná-mmah ‘he sees me’ (ná-‘he.me’). In nouns, possession is…

…single verb may contain many prefixes. Moreover, groups of verb prefixes with the same meaning may not necessarily be adjacent to each other in a verb word. For example, the Witsuwit’en verb wec’ontəzisyin’ ‘I’m not going to pick berries’ contains three prefix sequences: we-s-’ negative (wec’ontəzisyin’), u-yin ‘pick berries’ (wec’ontəzisyin’),…

Prefixing of modifying elements remains frequent in all languages (Italian autostrada ‘highway,’ Spanish contraveneno ‘antidote,’ French photocopie ‘photocopy’), although some older prefixes may hardly be recognized as such today. The “repetitive” verbal prefix re- remains particularly active (Romanian răpune ‘to kill,’ Italian ricattare ‘to recover,’…

…use many suffixes and some prefixes like Arawakan and Panoan. Also very numerous are those languages having few prefixes and suffixes, such as Ge, Carib, or Tupian. Languages employing only prefixes to show grammatical distinctions have not been reported. There are a few with many prefixes but still more suffixes…

Prefixes are of primary importance for Sino-Tibetan reconstruction, though they have left only the most indirect traces in Chinese. Sinologists are increasingly becoming aware of the possibility that a complex system of prefixes may account for morphological alternations within Chinese word families and for…