Konfix

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Konfix is a term from linguistics , more precisely from linguistic morphology, and describes a morpheme that simultaneously has the status of a lexical morpheme and the property of a bound morpheme. Examples of this can be found particularly in foreign words, such as the word components bio- , omni- or -nom . In the terminology of some German linguists, they are understood as a subclass of the Kombineme .

Confixes in German

In German, because of their lexical meaning, confixes have the same position as native adjective or noun stems. In contrast to these, however, confixes are always bound morphemes . (Verb stems are also considered tied in German.) The confixes used in German come in many cases from Greek ( bio- ) and Latin ( omni- ), but also z. B. from English ( Cyber- , -minator , cf. Michel 2006). In most cases, these are constituents (components) of complex foreign or loan words. So z. B. the confix bio- back to the word "biological". There are also examples of confixes in the local vocabulary: "step-" ("stepmother"), "zimper-" ("squeamish"). If at least two confixes are involved in a word, as in “library”, one speaks of a konfix kompositum (Fleischer / Barz 1995: 67).

The confix bio-

The confix bio- , which occurs in constructions like biology or biorhythm , cannot actually stand alone. But there are also courses such as organic coffee or organic farming . The latter case is derived from the word biological and was also used as a confix at the beginning. However, due to the widespread use and frequent use of the term, bio , meaning 'unencumbered, natural', lost its pure fixed status, so that this bio can now also be used as a stand- alone word, as in “I only buy bio” or “Is the coffee really organic? ".

About the term Konfix

The term Konfix is missing from the Bußmann linguistic dictionary (2002). B. in Metzler Lexikon Sprach (2005) and in Duden. The foreign dictionary (2005) listed. It was not chosen quite happily because it is too reminiscent of affix , prefix , suffix , etc., that is, grammatical morphemes; in fact, these are not grammatical but lexical morphemes. However, this fact is not sufficient as a criterion for a morphological category.

While the German linguistic field is still working with the term “confix”, French and English linguists use the term “combining form” as a category for components of foreign or loan words.

The concept of a confix is ​​not a category, because components of loan and foreign words are too different in their morphological behavior for all of them to be called confixes. When the term found its way into German linguistics, a real “Konfix boom” set in (Eisenberg 2011). All non-native units such as Anglicisms in German compound words, for example, were referred to as confixes, so that the confix term was useless as a suggestion for a morphological category. However, there are too many foreign components in German morphology that cannot be considered affixes. They are not affixes and they are not words or shorthands. However, they are productive. Eins (Eins 2009) describes such foreign units as tied tribes, for Donalies (Donalies 2009) they are “cross-lying”. Some confixes, e.g. B. "-phob", form stems.

literature

  • Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language. 4th edition. Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar, 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02335-3 .
  • Hadumod Bußmann (Ed.) With the collaboration of Hartmut Lauffer: Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft. 4th, revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-520-45204-7 .
  • Elke Donalies: The Konfix. To define a central unit of German word formation. In: German language. Volume 28, 2000, 144-159. Also in: Peter O. Müller (Ed.): Foreign word formation. Theory and Practice in Past and Present . Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. a. 2005, ISBN 3-631-53222-9 , pp. 179-198.
  • Elke Donalies: The word formation of the German. An overview. Narr, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-8233-5157-5 , pp. 21-23.
  • Elke Donalies: Stiefliches Geofascintainment - About Konfix theories. In: Peter O. Müller (ed.): Studies on foreign word formation. (= German linguistics. 197-198). Olms, Hildesheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-487-14285-2 , pp. 41-64.
  • Duden . The foreign dictionary. 8th, revised and expanded edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim / Leipzig / Vienna / Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-411-04058-0 .
  • Hilke Elsen: German Konfixes. In: German language. Volume 33, 2005, pp. 133-140.
  • H.-J. Grimm: Confixes. Observations in daily newspapers and in dictionaries. In: Irmhild Barz, Marianne Schröder: Nomination research in German. Frankfurt am Main 1997, pp. 277-284.
  • Gisela Harras: Foreign in the German word formation. In: Rainer Wimmer, Franz-Josef Berens (ed.): Word formation and phraseology. Institute for German Language. Narr, Tübingen 1997, pp. 115-130.
  • Wieland Eins: Old wine in new bottles? To the Konfix. In: Peter O. Müller (ed.): Studies on foreign word formation. Olms, Hildesheim et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-487-14285-2 , 65-88.
  • Wolfgang Fleischer, Irmhild Barz, with the collaboration of Marianne Schröder: Word formation in contemporary German. 2nd, revised and supplemented edition. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1995, ISBN 3-484-10682-4 .
  • Sascha Michel: From the 'Terminator' to the 'TORminator'. The word formation unit '-minator': structural and socio-pragmatic analyzes. In: mother tongue. Volume 116, 2006, pp. 289-307.
  • Sascha Michel: The confix between Langue and Parole. Approaches to a usage-related definition and typology. In: Peter O. Müller (ed.): Studies on foreign word formation. Olms, Hildesheim et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-487-14285-2 , pp. 91-140. ( direct download as pdf ( Memento from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ))
  • Anja Seiffert: informing, informing, information desk. In: Peter O. Müller (ed.): Studies on foreign word formation. Olms, Hildesheim et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-487-14285-2 , pp. 41-60.

Web links

Wiktionary: Konfix  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günter Dietrich Schmidt: The Combine. Suggestions for expanding the field of terms and terminology for the area of ​​loanword formation. In: Gabriele Hoppe, Alan Kirkness, Elisabeth Link, Isolde Nortmeyer, Wolfgang Rettig, Günter Dietrich Schmidt: Deutsche Loehnwortbildung. Contributions to the research of word formation with borrowed WB units in German. Narr, Tübingen 1987, ISBN 3-87808-464-1 , pp. 37-52. Also in: Peter O. Müller (Ed.): Foreign word formation. Theory and Practice in Past and Present . Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. a. 2005, ISBN 3-631-53222-9 , pp. 91-107.
  2. ↑ Duden. The foreign dictionary. 8th, revised and expanded edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim / Leipzig / Vienna / Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-411-04058-0 .
  3. ↑ Konfix. In: Helmut Glück (Hrsg.): Metzler Lexikon Sprache.