In terms of the relevant theoretical framework, the present study in this field are mainly carried out by summarizing the regularity of word affixation, compiling as well as classifying word affixes in a book of lexicology for educational purposes, such as A Course in English Lexicology (Zhang Weiyou: 2005) and English Affixes and How to Use Them to Decipher English Derivatives (Li Pingwu: 2003).

It is worthy to mention that Zhang Weiyou has been focusing on studying English and Chinese affixes, affixation and lexicology for a long time and put all his contribution into higher education. Since people may sometimes skip the study on Chinese morphemes and English morphemes by their oversight, he thought that it is of paramount importance in the position of linguistics. In one of his excellent papers, he analyzed the origin and quantity, length and pronunciation, formation and sense along with position and significance and stated that Chinese and English are two distinct language features, which reveals the essential features of the two distinct vocabulary systems (2006). His another remarkable achievement also compared the origin, characteristics and formation of affixes in lexical degree between the two language systems (2007); he came to a similar conclusion that the persities of formation of affixes in both of the two languages are much more considerable than their similarities, which perfectly echoes his research on morphemes in 2006.

And another two linguistic scholars, Wang yan and Li Hong focused on the research from a perspective of cognitive linguistics. In their studying achievement, they explored human reactions and responses to Chinese letters and English words formed by various formation patterns under different language modes (2003). Setting the Prototype Theory into foundational basis, they mainly discussed the different sense categories between the two languages’ forming elements and cognition on them.

Except the study of affixes in different language systems, linguists and scholars also direct at the inner development and significance in English words themselves. Based on the previous research related to affixation, Lu Meiya’s study explains how English affixes and quasi-affixes are put into effect in pragmatic approach (2002).

In this paper, the researcher mainly explores the actual use of English affixes and how cognitive patterns are reflected in English affixation acts. More specifically, the researcher will firstly have recourse to synchronic and diachronic version (Saussure: 1907) and prototype theory (Eleanor Rosch: 1978) to spell out the true nature of English affixes and the forming process of English affixation and then rely on the iconicity of linguistics to illustrate the pragmatic significance of English affixation from a cognitive perspective. In other words, she will study the inner structure and elements of a word from the cognitive linguistics perspective together with a description of how English affixation is formed and how it interacts with people’s cognition. Thus, detailed analysis with a great number of examples will be the first essential to support her points of view. Also, a comparative and contrastive analysis will be applied to analyze the differences and similarities between English affixes and Chinese affixes so as to explore the potential and inner relations between the two distinct languages systems on human cognitive framework. Last but not least, there are several theoretical frameworks having been sought for to explain the researcher’s proposition. In sum, both quantitative and qualitative methods will be employed to back up the researcher’s point of view.

2 Introduction to English Affixation

A tendency to the evolvement of language is from an integral system to an analytical system. This trend is also a transition from multi-inflection, or it can be illustrated from multi-transformational morphemes to relatively stable word forms. Feng Keming, a researcher on the literature of English language, once said in his book, “The modern English is an analytical language (indicating the dissection of language construction), while the ancient Indo-European language family is a highly integral language system (indicating an unpided whole of the language)” (2013:5). His standpoint demonstrated the analyzable quality of vast majority English words in present-day society by means of some certain regular formation systems.