Infix

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Infix has similar meanings in linguistics and mathematics.

Linguistics

An infix is an affix inserted inside another morpheme. This is not uncommon in Austronesian and Austroasiatic languages. For example, the Tagalog language has borrowed the English word graduate as a verb. In this language, a grammatical form similar to the active voice is formed by adding the infix -um- to the first syllable of a verb, so a speaker saying "I graduated" uses the derived form grumaduate. The Semitic languages have a form of ablaut (changing the vowels within words, as in English sing, sang, sung, song) which is sometimes called infixation, but there is often no identifiable infix common across the vocabulary.

English has very few infixes, and those it does have are marginal. A few are heard in colloquial speech, and a couple more are found in technical terminology.

• The infix -iz- or -izn- is characteristic of hip-hop slang, for example hizouse for house and shiznit for shit. Infixes occur in some language games. The -ma- infix, whose distribution was documented by linguist Alan C. Yu, originated in the US television show The Simpsons and gives a word an ironic pseudo-sophistication, as in sophistimacated, saxomaphone, and edumacation.
• Chemical nomenclature includes the infixes -pe-, signifying complete hydrogenation (from piperidine), and -et- (from ethyl), signifying the ethyl radical C₂H₅. Thus from picoline is derived pipecoline, and from lutidine is derived lupetidine; from phenidine and xanthoxylin are derived phenetidine and xanthoxyletin.

Tmesis is sometimes considered a type of infixation. It's found in English profanity, such as Massafuckingchusetts and absobloominlutely. See Expletive infixation.

Note that sequences of prefixes or suffixes do not result in infixes: An infix must be internal to a single morpheme. Thus the word originally, formed by adding the suffix -ly to original, does not turn the suffix -al into an infix. There is simply a sequence of two suffixes, origin-al-ly. In order for -al- to be considered an infix, it would have to be inserted in the non-existant word *originly. The "infixes" in the Bantu languages are generally sequences of prefixes of this type.

Mathematics

In the syntax of notations used in mathematics, and correspondingly in computer science, infix is used to describe an operator such as the usual addition sign + that is taken to bind to the variables immediately preceding and following it. See operator for more on the placement of operators.

• prefix: Polish notation
• postfix: reverse Polish notation
• infix: infix notation

See also

• prefix
• suffix

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