The English privative prefixes near-, pseudo- and quasi-: Approximation and 'disproximation'

Abstract

The English prefixes near-, pseudo- and quasi- are privative, in that whatever essential property their morphological base expresses is not strictly possessed by an entity characterized as near-/pseudo-/quasi-X. However, we claim this meaning is not precise enough and hypothesize that near- and quasi- are approximative in meaning, whereas pseudo- is ‘disproximative’, expressing the idea of ‘falling short’ of a standard. Distributional-semantic findings partially support this, as near- shares more bases with quasi- than it does with pseudo-. Near- is most productive, presenting a default choice, while pseudo- is least productive. We also observe a specific tendency of near- to select bases with negative semantic prosody (near-deadly, near-fatal), of quasi- to combine, without any evaluative meaning, with legal-administrative bases (quasi-diplomatic, quasi-governmental), and of pseudo- with terms from the scientific domain. Further qualitative observations about these prefixes are made.