December 04, 2009

Word Formation (5) : Opposites


This post is the finale of our series about word formation. To recap, here is what we've already learned so far:
Now we're about to know how to form opposites in English. Uniquely enough, in forming opposites there is no suffixes/ endings involved. All of affixes are beginnings or prefixes.This is totally different from the formation of verbs, adverbs, nouns, and adjectives, which always need suffixes. 


To cut things short, these are the common prefixes people add to verbs, adjectives and  nouns to form opposites or antonyms.
  • un- : unbelievable, unhappy, unlucky
  • in-/il-/ir-/im- : incompetent, illiterate, irresponsible, improbable
  • dis- : disbelief, discount, discharge
  • de- : dethrone, destress, demoralize
  • non- : non-transferrable, non-residents

5 comments:

  1. Bro, lagi ngejar setoran atau gimana ? kok jadi english lesson semua postnya ? :)

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  2. hmm............kunjunga di malam minggu
    salam hangat selalu
    mantab

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  3. Wow, great, Bro. Now I want you to help me about the words below:

    Dissatisfied , unsatisfied (Which one is correct?)

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  4. @ches: Both are correct, but to decide which one is the most appropriate, context ought to be taken into account, Ches. ^_^

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  5. @ches: Both are correct, but to decide which one is the most appropriate, context ought to be taken into account, Ches..because each conceives slightly different meanings ^_^
    There're cases like this, a root (e.g. 'satisfy') can be transformed into many other forms that belong to the same part of speech like adj, adv, or verb (e.g. 'satisfy' can be changed into several adjectives: satisfying, satisfactory, unsatisfied, dissatisfied). Some are synonymous. The rest, however, offer different sense. In other words, they have different meanings.

    Take 'tiring' and 'tiresome' (coming from the same root 'tire') as a typical example. Both may look like conveying the same message, but truthfully they don't. I'm afraid I'll bore you by elaborating too much here. Suppose you want to learn more, do a little research on this on your own. Then you might grab the point I'm expanding here. ^_^

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Tell me what you think, folks!