THE PLACE OF PREFIXATION IN THE WORD-FORMATION SYSTEM OF THE UZBEK LANGUAGE

Abstract

Uzbek belongs to the most consistently suffixing group of the world’s languages, yet its modern lexicon contains a stable and codified layer of units built with word-initial derivational formatives. The article determines the position occupied by this layer within the general architecture of Uzbek word formation. It is argued that prefixation is not a derivational type on a par with affixation and compounding but a subtype of affixal derivation which is peripheral in quantitative, genetic and structural terms while remaining functionally non-redundant. A set of five criteria — free-word status, semantic bleaching, independent stress, codified solid spelling, and attachment to inherited Turkic bases — is proposed for delimiting prefixes from adjacent categories, and its application yields a gradient with three zones: prototypical prefixes, prefixoids and combining forms. The study further shows that the prefixal slot is strictly root-adjacent and non-recursive, that prefixation feeds suffixation but never the reverse, and that the resulting template has been integrated into the inherited agglutinative structure without disturbing it. The native reduplicative intensifier of the type qip-qizil, sap-sariq is analysed as a form-building rather than word-forming device and is accordingly excluded from the prefixal inventory. Consequences for orthographic codification are drawn.