def cols_to_percentile(df, columns):
    """Convert data points to their percentile linearized value and return new columns of prefixed data. 
    
    Args: 
        df: Pandas dataframe.
        columns: List of columns to transform.

    Returns: 
        Original dataframe with additional prefixed columns.
    """
    for col in columns:
        df['pc_lin_' + col] = df[col].rank(method='min').apply(lambda x: (x -
            1) / len(df[col]) - 1)
    return df
