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    Adjectival prefixes
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    Quite a number of prefixes are found in adjectives. Usually, the basis is either an adjective or a participle used as an adjective, that is, most adjectival prefixation is category-neutral. Smessaert (2013: 65) distinguishes three classes of adjectival prefixes: negative, amplifying and classical, but not all fit in equally easily, and prefixes like non- are both negative and classical. The native negative prefix is on-, as in ondiep un.deep shallow; the most important non-native one is in- and its allomorphs, as in intransitief intransitive and irreëel unreal. Amplifying adjectival prefixes include native aarts- as in aartslui arch.lazy extremely lazy and non-native super- as in superziek super.ill extremely ill; a boundary category is fourmed by affixoids such as steen- stone and spin- spider that have an amplifying meaning when combined with specific adjectives in so-called elative compounds such as steengoed stone-good very good and spinnijdig spider-angry very angry. The classical prefixes, finally, belong to the realm of neoclassical wordformation and combine mostly with non-native words and bound forms; an example is extra- in extramuraal extramural, where *muraal is not an existing word in Dutch. Many prefixes that are found in complex adjectives combine with bases of other categories as well.

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    There are two native negative adjectival prefixes in Dutch, and a few non-native ones. In addition, there are also a few prefix-like elements that are not negative in the logical sense but that have a semantics which is related to negation:

    • native on- as in oneffen uneven and onacceptabel inacceptable.
    • native niet as in niet-ontvankelijk inadmissible.
    • native wan- as in wanordelijk unorderly.
    • non-native a- and an- as in atonaal atonal and anisotroop anisotropic.
    • non-native in- and its allomorphs as in incongruent incongruent, irrationeel irrational, immoreel immoral and illegaal illegal.
    • non-native non- as in non-figuratief non-figurative.
    Prefixes with a meaning related to negation include
    • native namaak- fake, nep- fake and wan- bad and non-native pseudo-
    • non-native (international) prefixes such as anti-, contra- and extra-
      extra

      anti- ( against), contra- ( counter) and extra- ( outside) attach to adjectives (anti-autoritair anti-authoritarian, contraproductief counterproductive, extraterritoriaal extraterritorial) but semantically the prefix appears to scope over the underlying noun: anti-autoritair anti-authoritarian does not mean against authoritarian but rather being against authority. anti- also combines with nouns. The result is either a noun (antiheld anti-hero) or a predicative adjective (antikernbom anti nuclear bomb against nuclear weapons) that does not inflect (cf. its antonympro-). anti- can be used recursively: an anti-antiraketraketraket is a missile against missiles against missiles. contra- combines with nouns as well (contraspionage counterespionage); the same holds for extra- but then the semantics is different: a extraspeler is an additional player.

    The most important native amplifying prefixes are
    • aarts as in aartslui extremely lazy
    • aller- that only combines with superlative forms, as in zij is de allerleukste she is the aller.funniest she is the funniest of all
    • in- as in intriest very sad and in- en intriest extremely sad
    • oer- as in oerlelijk very ugly
    These prefixes compete among other things with the process of elative compounding (e.g. reuzetrots giant.proud very proud).

    The most important non-native amplifying prefixes are

    • giga- as in gigadronken extremely drunk
    • hyper- as in hyperactief hyperactive
    • mega- as in megazwaar extremely heavy
    • super- as in superzelfverzekerd extremely self-confident
    • ultra- as in ultraliberaal ultra-liberal.

    References
    • Smessaert, Hans2013Basisbegrippen morfologieBasisbegrippen taalkundeLeuven/Den HaagACCO
    About this article
    Author(s): Ton van der Wouden
    Category: Dutch Morphology
    Keywords: prefixderivationadjective
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
    version editor(s) date remarks
    1.0 Ton van der Wouden December 2015
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