Structural definition of affixes from multisyllable words

In a recent paper by H. L. Resnikoff and J. L. Dolby, "The Nature of Affixing in Written English," an algorithm for the structural definition of affixes was developed and applied to data consisting of all the words of the form CVCVC in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary. Fourteen strong prefixes and twelve strong suffixes and seven weak prefixes and forty weak suffixes were defined, but it was noted that all the affixes could not be expected to show up in two-vowel-string words. This paper summarizes the results of applying a modified form of the operational definition to data consisting of all the four-, five-, six-, and seven-vowel-string words in Webster's Third New International Dictionary. Thirteen additional weak suffixes, nineteen weak prefixes, seventeen strong prefixes, one strong suffix, and twelve possible suffix-compounding elements were found.