60 Rosa Rabadán and Marlén Izquierdo
given to negation by means of affixes. The standard repertoire of English negative
affixes (Quirk et al. 1985: 1540–41, Bauer & Huddleston 2002: 1687–88 and 1711)
includes five core prefixes and one suffix: a-, dis-, in-, non-, un-, and –less. Their
meanings are summarized in Table 1.Table 1. Semantics of English negative affixes in standard reference works
Meaning(s) a- dis- in- non- un- –less
Contradiction ✓
Contrary ✓ ✓ ✓
Privation ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Reversal and removal ✓ ✓Most authors add three peripheral ones, namely anti-, counter- and contra-, which
indicate ‘opposition’ rather than ‘negation’, plus de-, which indicates ‘reversal’
exclusively. These are not considered in this study.
The Spanish reference grammar, Real Academia Española de la Lengua (2009)
(R.A.E.),^3 provides an inventory which is recurrent in standard studies on word-
formation (see Table 2).Table 2. Inventory of Spanish negative affixes in standard works
Negative affixes a- des- in- sin no
R.A.E. 2009 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Varela and Martín García 1999 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Montero Curiel 1999 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
García Platero 2006 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
González Rodríguez 2009 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓A clear difference between the inventories of English and Spanish affixal negation
is that Spanish only has prefixes, since there is no suffix able to convey the negative
meaning cluster. A distinction is usually made between detachable and integrated
prefixes. Sin can be both, and is a homograph (and a homophone as well) of the
preposition sin (Eng without). As a detachable prefix it combines with nouns to
designate ‘a class of people or objects lacking in something’, e.g. los sin techo, Eng
the homeless; cerveza sin alcohol, Eng alcohol-free lager. When integrated with a
nominal base, sin displays very limited productivity and often its meaning no lon-
ger reflects its morphological structure, maintaining the negative semantics (see- The Real Academia Española de la Lengua describes grammatical uses of Spanish in Europe
and in America and reflects mainstream analyses of the Spanish language. It is regarded by
native users of Spanish as the standard grammar.