Running head: THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 1

Shuting Shen

Morphology paper

Colorado State University

THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 2

The Contrasts Between the Negative Prefixes un-, in-, non- and dis-

Introduction

This paper is completed for a particular class E514: Phonology/Morphology for

ESL/EFL. This course not only introduces some basic assumptions about language, but also

focuses on the main topics of the course, English phonology, and word-formation. Several

previous studies have been carried out concerning the origins and semantic features of different

negative prefixes un-, in-, non- and dis-. In the historical process of the development of English

words, there has been morphological processing of the relationship between the form and the

words’ meaning (Booij, 2016). During the study of English, affixes are one of the important tools

to broaden vocabulary. Therefore, dealing with affixes is one of the methods for managing a

large amount of vocabulary.

Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. As a branch of linguistics,

morphology was first named morphology by the German linguist August Schleicher in 1859. He

used morphology to study the forms of words (Booij, 2012). Morphemes are the constituent parts

of morphology and the smallest units of meaning in a language (O'Grady, Dobrovolsky &

Katamba, 1997). Morphemes can be divided into different groups according to different criteria.

One of the criteria is to divide morphemes into inflectional morphemes, derivational morphemes,

and roots. The derivational morpheme attaches in front of the root of a word is defined as a

prefix. Furthermore, many prefixes denote a negative meaning in English (Dzuganova, 2006).

The characteristics of semantic features and the formation of words are different because of the

differences in etymology. The study of the negative prefix in English can be used to understand

morphology better. There are at least ten English prefixes that denote negative meaning, like a-,
THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 3

an-, in-, im-, il-, ir, de-, dis-, mis-, non-, un- and so on (Dzuganova, 2006. Dzuganova, 2007).

The prefixes un-, in-, non-, and dis- are the most common negative prefixes. Because of their

different etymology, these negative prefixes have different characteristics and different semantic

features, which cause significant obstacles and confusion for beginners. The study of the

characteristics and semantic features of these negative prefixes can help us to understand their

word formation and semantic features, grasp their usage characteristics, and improve our ability

to construct words and efficiently expand vocabulary that improves the ability to read, listen,

write, speak and understand.

Word formation of Prefixes un-, in-, non- and dis-

The negative prefixes which come from a language are combined with other stems of this

language in neologisms (Dzuganova, 2006). Because of the difference between the etymology

and the semantics of English negative prefixes, they have specific characteristics of word

formation. Also, there are three primary sources of English derivatives: Greek, Latin, and Old

English. So, the stem of a combination with a particular negative prefix also comes from that

same language, such as Latin, Greek and Old English.

In- is a prefix from Latin that means the opposite of the stem meaning. There are two

prefixes spelled in- that are from Latin, but they are not related (Dzuganova, 2006). In addition

to the basic form of in-, due to the influence of the sound assimilation, there are three other

variant prefixes that mean the same thing as the prefix in-. The first is il- that appears before the

stem at the beginning of the l letter. The second is im- which appears before the stem words

beginning with m, b, p. The third is ir- that appears before the stem word beginning with the r

letter (Okada, 2008). These are the four forms that are a group of negative prefixes derived from
THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 4

Latin (Andreou, 2015). The negative prefix in- (im-, il-, ir-) means “not” or “not accurate”

(AHD, 2011), as in inaccurate, illegal, informal. In addition, in many contexts, the words with

these negative prefixes must be translated into words that are opposite to their roots under most

circumstances (e.g., illegible, impurity). When adding the prefix in- , it constitutes nouns and

adjectives that mostly contain strong emotional colors including criticism, blame or complaints.

Examples would be illegitimate, incompetent, indignity or illiberal. The characteristics of word

formation with the prefix in- are clear through these examples.

The negative prefix dis- was borrowed from Old French which was derived from Latin

(Andreou, 2015). Dis- is a Latin prefix that means “reverse of the stem” and can be combined

with verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Dis- can be added before the verb and noun, equivalent to

“not, opposite of, the absence of” (AHD, 2011). Example would be disagree, disinterest,

disorder, discourage. Besides, dis- can be added before the adjective that means “not” (AHD,

2011), as in disloyal, dishonest. As shown in examples 1 and 2 below, the negative prefix dis-

means “remove, the opposite action” and the words formed by it are often matched with "from."

(1) It disappeared from view.

(2) He discounted 15% from the price of a car.

The negative prefix non- comes from Latin, which means “not” (AHD, 2011). It can be used

before nouns and adjectives and non- has frequently been used for words developed in the 19th

century. For example, noncontagious, non-defensive, nonessential, non-productive, non-

adherence, non-producer, nonresident. Quirk (2010) states that the negative prefix non- means

“not or absence of something.” It can be used with adjectives, adverbs, and nouns. For a noun
THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 5

example, non-smoker which means a person who does not smoke (Dzuganova, 2006). In

addition, in most cases, when non- is used in conjunction with other words, generally hyphens

are used. For example, non-elimination, non-stop, non-finite, etc. There is not a verb that can

combine with non- because non- never combines with verbs (Dzuganova, 2006).

The most commonly used negative prefix is un- which comes from Old English

(Dzuganova, 2006). It can be widely used with nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and results

in the formation of a variety of negative relations, such as unnatural, unambitious. Un- has

basically two meanings when added to adjectives. With adjectives it means “not, opposite or

contrary to” (AHD, 2011). For example, the word lucky means “producing or resulting in good

by chance” and the word unlucky has the opposite meaning “likely to bring misfortune”. Un- is

a prefix that can be freely added to many adjectives before the stem. Although the un- can be

added to an adjective, not all adjectives can add prefixes for the corresponding antonyms. In

general, the negative prefix un- mainly attaches to simple adjectives with an Old English basis

(Subandowo, 2017), such as unclean, unhappy, unwise, unafraid. Un- does not attach to

adjectives that already have a negative connotation. Thus, we do not say unsick, unfoolish,

unwrong, unrude and so on. Also, when un- is added before verbs, the basic meaning is the

“reverse, remove, opposite of” (MWAL, 2008). For example, the word settle means to make or

become calm, untroubled, composed. The word unsettle means to make troubled, anxious or

uncertain. Besides, un- is one of the most widely used negative prefixes in English. The negative

prefix un- combines with those borrowed words to create new words (Lehrer, 1995), and

combines with many borrowed words freely.

The Latin prefix in- was very popular in the past, but now the productivity has been greatly
THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 6

reduced. It can no longer be synonymous with the English native synonym un-. So, when using

un-, learners should pay attention to the difference between in- and un- (Subandowo, 2017).

Since the prefix is derived from Latin, Latin suffix words can be used on a stem with the prefix

in-. Examples would be incessant, incoherent, indefinite, invisible, but there are exceptions like

unfortunate. Latin suffixes such as -able, -ed, -ful, -like can go on the end of the word with an

un- prefix, such as uncontrollable, unhatched, unworthily and so on. Some Latin suffixes can no

longer attach to a word with a prefix in-, but can with a prefix of un-, such as, uninspiring,

uninvited, unimaginable. Those which have added a Latin suffix and usually cannot use un-,

include inaudible, inactive.

Non- is a negation of the stem, but it is used far less than un- and in-. Un- adjectives and in-

adjectives have negative meanings, while non- adjectives show neutral colors (Subandowo,

2017). For instance, immoral-nonmoral, unrealistic-nonrealistic, unprincipled-nonprincipled.

The antonyms cannot be inserted into a spectrum of meaning where words that represent

different degrees of nature, and the derived antonyms formed by the prefix un- would fit. The

two levels can be inserted into the middle of the nature of the words (Subandowo, 2017). For

example, “unmoral”, “unartistic” and other words can appear in the syntactic framework

“subject + is (rather / extremely / very / awfully) + adj”. This framework can help us to detect

whether the adjectives are hierarchical (Andreou, 2015). The framework is precise because the

non-constituent adjectives are not hierarchical, so the general professional meaning of the word

before the addition of the prefix non-constitutes a negative, such as linear-non-linear, metal-

nonmetal. The general meaning of the word plus un- constitutes a negative, such as graceful-

ungraceful, quiet-unquiet.
THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 7

Semantic Features

In a large number of English words, there are many words that share the same root but

have different prefixes. In the implication of the semantic features the difference is observable.

Beginners often only pay attention to the form, while ignoring the meaning of words, which is

not good because the intrinsic meaning of the word requires in-depth study and research. In a

wide range of English words, there are a lot of words that share the same roots, but have different

prefixes. Especially helpful are those that form words with the same root. However, a variety of

negative prefixes may cause significant problems for English learners. It is often difficult to

distinguish between semantic meaning and learners cannot always grasp the use of the situation.

The precise grasp of the negative prefix semantic features is the key to learning and application.

In contrast to un-, the prefix dis- most effectively attaches to verbs and has less efficiency

in nouns and adjectives. The prefixes un- and dis- both work as the negative role that means “not,

in contrary to, opposite” (AHD, 2011). When dis- the means “remove,” the prefix is attached to

verbs only; when un- conveys the meaning of “reversal of an action or state” (AHD, 2011), the

prefix is also attached to verbs only. However, un- and dis- have different functions. Dis- has two

functions that are “remove” and narrow function from root to prefix words, which is different

from un-.

As for un-, it has the same functions as in- (Okada, 2008). In- attaches to adjectives and

nouns, and un- attaches to three lexical classifications (Bauer, Lieber, & Plag, 2015). Un- and in-

are two negative prefixes, not only from the etymological point of view because they have their

own word formation characteristics, but from the word point of view. Therefore, with already

negative words we should not use un- because this is a negative prefix. For example, “foolish”
THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 8

does not become “unfoolish” and “ugly” does not become “un-ugly”. Furthermore, the

inclusiveness of English and the absorption and assimilation of foreign languages make the rules

slightly different, depending on the original language. Some Latin suffixes are also used in

conjunction with un-, such as unadventurous, unceremonious, unconditional and unconventional.

Some of the stems can be used with the two negative prefixes, but the meaning is different. For

example, invaluable means “value cannot be measured” (AHD, 2011), but un-valuable means

“no value.” Un- denotes contrary negation that refers to “a specific point on the negative side of

a positive-negative continuum.” As for non-, it means contradictory negation that refers to “the

whole of the negative side of the positive-negative continuum” (Allen, 1978). As shown in

examples (a) below,

(a) unwearable = [not able] [to be worn]

non-wearable = [not] [able to be worn]

unreliable = [not able] [to be relied on]

non-reliable = [not] [able to be relied on]

(Allen, 1978)

When used in conjunction with an adjective, non- distinguishing things that do not belong

to the type indicated by the stem, whereas un- distinguishes something that is different from the

exemplary nature of this type. For example, “nonmilitary personnel” refers to people who are not

in the military, and “unmilitary” refers to the opposite of typical military in the clothing, habits or

attitudes of different people. Un- and non- are the prefixes that are negative in meaning, but un-

is less strong than non-, and un- often does not have the meaning of neutral (Dzuganova, 2008).

With non-there is not always negative meaning of the words, such as a non-scientific book which
THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 9

means that it is a book not related to science (possibly a novel or biography). An unscientific

book is a scientific book but with the evaluation of low quality. Unacademic is not academic

referring to the absence or lack of academic features. Non-academic refers to the concept of the

category (academic) that it does not belong to. Brief summary of the usage of the four prefixes (c)

is shown in Table 1 (see the appendix).

Conclusion

This paper focuses on two different aspects: the characteristics of the English word

formation of prefixes un-, in-, non- and dis- and the semantic features in the English negative

prefixes un-, in- non- and dis-. Also, I have demonstrated these four kinds of English negative

prefixes, and lots of examples have been given.

The most common negative prefixes in English are in-, un-, non- and dis-. Despite the

negative connotations, there are still differences in semantic features and word formation. The

study concludes that the negative prefix in- is a Latin prefix, which is generally associated with

Latin borrowings. Negative prefixes in- (il-, im-, ir-) are derived from Latin, and can be used

before nouns and adjectives. Dis- is from Latin, which can be added before nouns, verbs, and

adjectives. The negative prefix non- comes from Latin, which can be added before adjectives but

not verbs. Un- comes from Old English, which can be added before verbs, nouns, and adjectives.

The words with the negative prefixes un-, in- and dis- have different parts of speech and

meaning, but the commonality of these three negative prefixes is that all are equivalent to “not”

when combined with the stem.

Although the number of English words is huge, the number of roots, prefixes, and
THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 10

suffixes that add to words are limited. Grasping the meaning of roots and knowing the different

meanings of these prefixes can generally allow students to infer a lot of new meanings. It is

important to understand the negative prefixes in English to enlarge vocabulary. In my view, the

process of learning English affixes is an important tool for expanding vocabulary, so mastering

affixes are one of the active ways to learn and understand a large number of words. As a future

English teacher, I believe I have a better understanding of these negative prefixes un-, in-, non-

and dis- from this paper research. Also, I will teach it to my students so that it can help them to

expand their vocabularies.

THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 11

References

Allen, M. (1978). The morphology of negative prefixes in English. In Annual Meeting (pp. 1-11).

Andreou, M. (2015). Lexical negation in lexical semantics: the prefixes in-and dis. Morphology,

25(4), 391-410.

Bauer, L., Lieber, R., & Plag, I. (2015). Negatives. The Oxford reference guide to English

morphology (pp. 356-384). Oxford University Press.

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Booij, G. (2016). Morphology: The structure of words. The Routledge handbook of

linguistics, (36), 104-117.

Dzuganova, B. (2006). Negative affixes in medical English. Bratislavske Lekarske Listy, 107(8),

332- 335.

Dzuganova, B. (2007). Seemingly or partially negative prefixes in medical English. Bratislavské

lekárske listy, 108(4/5), 233- 236.

Dzuganova, B. (2008). Synonymy of negative prefixes concerns also medical

English. Bratislavské Lekárske Listy, 109(5), 242-4.

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Lehrer, A. (1995). Prefixes in English word formation. Folia linguistica, 29(1-2), 133-148.

Okada, A. (2008). The linguistic features of the negative prefix non-: comparison

with in- and un-. 語学教育研究論叢, 25, 163-178.

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O'Grady, W., Dobrovolsky, M., & Katamba, F. (Eds.). (1997). Contemporary linguistics. St.

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THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NEGATIVE PREFIXES UN-, IN-, NON- AND DIS- 13

Appendix

Table 1

Summary of the usage of the four English prefixes

Negative prefix Origin Attached word class Semantics

in (im-/ il-/ ir-) Latin adjectives, nouns “without”

“lacking of”
“not”
un- Old adjectives, verbs “not opposite of”;
English “reverse the action,
deprive of, remove”
dis- Latin mainly with verbs, secondarily “not opposite of”;
with nouns and participle “reverse the action,
adjectives deprive of, remove”
non- Latin mainly nouns, then adjectives “not opposite of”;
“unimportant,
worthless” etc.