The Iconicity of English AffixationDidi Sukyadi

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Challenges to arbitrariness:

• De Saussure (1993:87): Arbitrariness can be very absolute (unmotivated) or relatively motivated.

• For example, in dix-neuf, individually dix and neuf are unmotivated, but dix-neuf is relatively motivated because it is derived from dix and neuf.

Peirce (1940:101):

• Signs can have iconic, indexical or symbolic mode.

• The iconic mode can be (Hartsthorne and Weiss, 1965:157) an image, diagram or a metaphor.

Jakobson (1971:349): Diagram

Similarities between signifier and signified exist in the relation among the parts:

• sequence of four sonorant consonants (S) and four vowels (V) (SVSV-VSVS),

• comparison (high-higher-highest)• constellation of words having the same

meaning bound certain sounds (smash, crash, dash, lash, hash, rash, brash, clash, trash, plash, splash, and flash).

Haiman (1985:3)

• In a diagram, the relation among parts of the diagram is similar to the relation among the parts of the concept.

Greenberg (1995: 57-62)

• There are external and internal iconicity. The first refers to the isomorphic relation between external/conceptual world and language

• This mapping according to Nany and Fischer (1999) takes place in metaphor: foot (body part) and foot (lowest part of a mountain).

Nöth (2001:21): Miming

• 1) form miming meaning and

• 2) form miming form.

• The first is exophoric (referring to language signs beyond the language)

• The second is endophoric (referring to reference inside the language).

Endophoric iconicity,

• a sign can be mapped into the language either syntagmatically (repetition, parallelism, alliteration, rhymes, and reduplication)

• paradigmatically (iconicity in the system of the language) such as in iconicity of distance or number.

Endophoric-paradigmatic iconicity

• water, watery, waterfall have the same basic meaning (water).

• watery is diagrammatically iconic to waterfall because of the root of water and

• it is also iconic to rainy and snowy because of –y derivation.

Argument of this paper

• Diagrammatic notion can be extended to the process of affixation. I believe that affixation is an iconic process.

METHODOLOGY

• Corpus: 400.000.00 words derived from texts related to education, linguistics, TESOL, and literature

• Affixes studied: (-ly, -ity, -tic, cy and-ful) and 5 prefixes (dis-, de-, re-, in- and inter).

• Theretical framework: Jackson (1990:9) about semantic category of English lexems.

• Analysis• All verbs with a certain affix are examined and

matched to the categories.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

• The formation a new word using affixation mostly refers to already existing affixation process.

• For example, the formation “reconsider” is possible because we already have “review”, “rethink”, “redesign”, “reconstruct”.

Diagrammatic Iconicity

• Diagrammatically, prefix re- in “reconsider” corresponds with prefix “-re” in “review”, “rethink”, “redesign”, “reconstruct” etc., while “consider” as a base corresponds with the root “think”, “design”, “construct.”

Iconicity of Affixation

• Affixation is iconic in the sense that there is a transparency in the formation of the words through derivation.

Transparent and Opaque

• When a language has symbols of the concepts or objects represented, the language is transparent or isomorphic, while the reverse is opaque or arbitrary.

• When we encounter suffix –ity, we can directly say that it is nominal, -de and -re are verbal, and –ly is adverbial and

• If it is so, we can say that the process is transparent or iconic.

Deep structure - Surface structure

• There is a projection from the deep structure into its surface structure and the projection is like a diagram, a diagrammatic projection.

Syantagmatic-Paradigmatic

• There is a one-to-one syntagmatic correspondence between quick and quickly and adjective and verb.

• In addition, there is also a one-to-one paradigmatic correspondence between quick and adjective, and between quickly and adverb as described below.

Diagrammatic iconicity

• Quick → quickly

Adjective → verb

CONCLUSION

• To summarize, affixation in English is iconic seen from three perspectives.

• First, the formation of a new word is relatively motivated because it tends to refer to an already established word such as the formation of reestablish which might refer to reorganize.

CONCLUSION(cont’d)

• Secondly, the fact that the attachment of affixes to their bases is rule governed lets us say that affix categorization is transparent not opaque, while transparency is an indicator of iconicity.

CONCLUSION(cont’d)

• Finally, the correspondence between the surface structure and the deep structure in the process of affixation whether syntagmatically or paradigmatically allows us to draw an association, projection, or a diagram and this diagram is iconic.