USE AND FORM OF ENGLISH NEGATIVE PREFIXES

Résumé

Our present paper deals with some aspects of English negative prefixes. Negative prefixes
form categories of interrelated senses arranged according to a primary sense. A given negative prefix has multiple senses comprehended in terms of a ‘category’, a network consisting of a wide range of senses linked via categorising relationships. In terms of the ‘category’ theory, the senses of a negative prefix gather around a prototypical one, from which the peripheral ones are derived.