O PREFIKSU OVER
ABOUT PREFIX OVER

Summary/Abstract: Having in mind that prefix over- is very productive in forming new words in English, one of the aims of this study is to analyse its morphological and semantical characteristics. Methods used in this study are qualitative and quantitative and are based on word analysis. We have tried to interpret all possible meanings of prefix over- and compare them to the previously conducted researches on the same topic. As the analysis has shown, prefix over- has more meanings than it is usually stated, especially in reference grammars of the English language. Moreover, it is added not only to verbs and adjectives but to all open class words. The majority of nouns with prefix over- are the existing nouns ending in -or/-er, -ing, -ness, while the prefix is not added to nouns ending in -hood, -ant, -ee, -ie, -let, -ette. The study has also discussed all possible translations of prefix over- in Serbian. The meaning of prefix over- in nouns is not always ‘excessive’. There are nouns in which over- has miscellaneous meaning as in overgrainer, overtaking, overcoating, and overbalance. In verbs, the meaning of over- is mostly ‘excessive’, but it also carries local, metaphorical and accidental meanings. Prefix over- in adjectives intensifies the basic meaning of the adjective to which it is added. Adverbs with prefix over- are mostly ‘excessive’ modifiers of adjectives. Since the topic has not been thoroughly discussed in the past, we believe that this study will contribute to both morphological and lexical-semantic researches in the two languages.

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