영어 부정접두사에 대하여

On English Negative Prefixes

The purpose of this article is to clarify the similarities and distinctions between the English prefixes dis- and un- on semantical basis. Both disand un- can be affixed to adjectives, nouns and verbs, among which this article concerns verbs in general. Dis- is affixed to both intransitives and transitives, which derives negative meaning, reversative meaning and privative meaning on the basis of the semantic representation of the verbs combined with dis-. Whereas un- is affixed only to transitives. Then un+transitives owns either reversative or privative meaning except negative meaning. In this process, one problem occurs that the verbs combined with un- are derived as causatives even though they are not causatives before combined. This means that un- may affect the semantic representation of the verb to be combined with itself. This discord doesn't happen to any derivative of 'dis+verb'. We assume that there are two kinds of un-. One is what combines with adjectives. This other is what combines with transitives. 'Un+transitives' are always causatives. In order to derive a causative including causer and causee, un- should be affixed to transitives with two arguments that will be realized as causer and causee, respectively. As for the similarity between dis- and un-, we find that reversatives and privatives are semantically derived, dis- and un- being affixed to part of the verbs. This is because dis- and un- negate only [+state] semantic features in the semantic representations. Through this discussion, we find another significant fact that un- endows external arguments with causer role and internal arguments with causee role.