Question 1 (Consolidate)
At the start of Chapter 3, we saw that the -er suffix is used to indicate an agent (the performer of a specific action), as in teacher, singer, printer. This suffix also has a range of other functions, including showing that something inanimate is carrying out a process or action. From the list, identify the inanimate ‘agents’ and then identify the uses of the remaining examples:
A-lister, beeper, forehander, immobiliser, juicer, New Zealander, nine-to-fiver, no-brainer, off-roader, stapler, teenager, toaster, volumiser, YouTuber
Answer
The examples where -er denotes an inanimate agent are:
beeper, immobiliser, juicer, stapler, toaster, volumiser.
The remaining examples:
| denote status or membership | A-lister teenager |
| denote origin or nationality | New Zealander |
| denote when, where or how someone does something | nine-to-fiver off-roader YouTuber |
| denote a feature or quality of something | no-brainer forehander |
Question 2 (Explore)
Look at the following pairs, and consider what’s strange about the use of affixes in relation to the meanings. Can you account for any of these apparent oddities?
| flammable | inflammable |
| habitable | inhabitable |
| grace | disgrace |
| liquefy | liquidise |
| transparency | transparentness |
| syntactic | syntactical |
Answer/discussion
Flammable/inflammable both mean ‘capable of being inflamed’. However, inflammable is sometimes taken to mean ‘not vulnerable to flame’. Non-flammable is the opposite of both flammable and inflammable.
In Present-Day English habitable/inhabitable also share the same meaning (‘fit for habitation’/ ‘fit to inhabit’). However, until at least the seventeenth century, inhabitable usually meant ‘not habitable’.
In Present-Day English, disgrace doesn’t really seem to be the opposite of grace. The original meaning of grace is in reference to a (divine) quality of goodness. That sense has been partly retained in disgrace. The primary meaning of grace now relates to movement or shape, although grace can also refer to decent or fair behaviour.
The suffixes -ify and -ise share the meanings of ‘become’ or ‘cause to become’. In some contexts, liquefy and liquidise could be used as synonyms, begging the question of why two such similar words exist. (Liquefy came into English wholesale from the French liquéfier, while liquid-ise is a native English formulation.) The pair are not true synonyms, however, with liquefy more commonly meaning ‘to become liquid’ and liquidise meaning ‘make something liquid’ (particularly in the context of liquidising fruit and vegetables).
Transparency and transparentness are effectively synonyms, both meaning ‘the state of being transparent’, although transparentness is less formal than its counterpart. Users will often use the suffix -ness if they are unsure about a possible -cy or -ity alternative, or to avoid sounding pretentious. Opacity/opaqueness are comparable examples.
Syntactic/syntactical are adjective synonyms, the oddity of syntactical being its possession of two suffix endings (-ic, -al) with the same function. They are both based on the Latin syntacticus which has yielded these two formations, one through the removal of -us and the other by the replacement of -us with -al.
