Учебное пособие: Lectures in Contrastive Lexicology of the English and Ukrainian Languages

e.g.: comfortable – uncomfortable, convenient – inconvenient, satisfied – dissatisfied, understand – misunderstand.

Prefixes denoting reversal or repetition of an action: un-, dis-, re-, роз-, пере-.

e.g.: lock – unlock, regard – disregard, consider – reconsider, єднати – роз’єднати, писати – переписати.

In the Ukrainian language the most productive is the prefixне-, which is used to form adjectives and nouns, but never verbs: нелегкий, невільний. A very productive prefix is the prefix без-: безпомічний. In the English language this prefix corresponds to the suffix –less: defenceless.The prefixes де-, дис-, а- are used as parts of borrowed words and they are unproductive: децентралізація, дисбаланс, асиметричний.

Prefixes denoting space and time relations: fore-, pre-, post-, over-, super-, до-, перед-, над-, під-, пере-, після-.

e.g.: tell – foretell, war – prewar, war – postwar, spread – overspread, structure – superstructure, історичний – доісторичний, воєнний – післявоєнний, водний – підводний.

Prefixes can be international:

- Anti-/анти- (antifascist, антифашист);

- Counter-/контр (countermarch, контрмарш);

- sub-/суб (submarine, субмарина).

Some prefixes can have a semantic identity only (but no linguistic similarity):

- foresee – передбачити;

- extranatural – надприродний.

There can be semantically alien prefixes pertaining to one of the contrasted languages:

- de- (decamp);

- mis- (misstate);

- по- (по-українському);

- що- (щонайкраще).

A specifically Ukrainian phenomenon is the usage of the prefix по-(попоїсти).

Suffixation

Suffixation is the formation of words with the help of suffixes. Suffixes usually modify the lexical meaning of stems and transfer words to a different part of speech. There are suffixes, however, which do not shift words from one part of speech into another. A suffix of this kind usually transfers a word into a different semantic group.

e.g.: A concrete noun becomes an abstract one: child – childhood.

Suffixes can be classified according to their ability to form a new part of speech, to their origin, productivity.

Noun-forming suffixes:

- -er (teacher, worker),

- -ing (living, reading);

- -ness (kindness, tenderness). These suffixes are productive.

- -age (voyage, courage);

- -ard (coward, drunkard);