CHAPTER 6
MORPHOLOG
Y
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EXERCISE
Free morphemes vs. bound morphemes
Quick Exercise:
-For each morpheme below, determine
whether it is free or bound.
pre pro worth with -ive able
re -ion un -ed duct
FREE AND BOUND MORPHEMES
Types of Definition Example
morphemes
Free morphemes morphemes that can open, tour
stand by themselves
as single words
Bound morphemes forms that cannot re-, -ist, -ed,
normally stand alone -s. (affixes)
and are typically
attached to another
form.
All
affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in
English are bound morphemes.
Thefree morphemes can generally be
identified as the set of separate
English word forms such as basic
nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.
When they are used with bound morphemes
attached, the basic word forms are
technically known as stems.
For example:
There are a number of English words in which
the stem is not a free morpheme.
In words such as receive, reduce and
repeat, we can identify the bound morpheme
re- at the beginning, but the elements -ceive,
-duce and -peat are not separate word forms
and hence cannot be free morphemes.
These types of forms are sometimes described
as “bound stems” to keep them distinct from
“free stems” such as dress and care.
LEXICAL AND FUNCTIONAL
MORPHEMES
Types of free Definition Example
morphemes
Lexical morphemes set of ordinary nouns, girl, man, house,
adjectives and verbs tiger, sad, long,
that we think of as yellow, sincere, open,
the words that carry look, follow, break.
the “content” of the
messages we convey.
(open class of words)
Functional consists largely of the and, but, when,
morphemes functional words in because, on, near,
the language such as above, in, the, that, it,
conjunctions, them.
prepositions, articles
and pronouns.
(closed class of
words)
DERIVATIONAL AND INFLECTIONAL
MORPHEMES
The set of affixes that make up
the category of bound morphemes
can also be divided into two types
a. derivational morphemes
b. inflectional morphemes
DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES
We use these bound morphemes to make new
words or to make words of a different
grammatical category from the stem.
For example, the addition of the derivational
morpheme -ness changes the adjective good
to the noun goodness.
A list of derivational morphemes will include
suffixes such as the -ish in foolish, -ly in
quickly, and the -ment in payment. The list
will also include prefixes such as re-, pre-,
ex-, mis-, co-, un and many more.
INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES
These are not used to produce new
words in the language, but rather to
indicate aspects of the grammatical
function of a word.
Inflectional
morphemes are used to
show if a word is plural or singular, if it
is past tense or not, and if it is a
comparative or possessive form.
English has only eight inflectional
morphemes (or “inflections”), illustrated in
the following sentences:
In the first sentence, both inflections (-’s, -s) are attached
to nouns, one marking possessive and the other marking
plural.
Note that -’s here is a possessive inflection and different
from the -’s used as an abbreviation for is or has (e.g. she’s
singing, it’s happened again).
There are four inflections attached to verbs: -s (3rd person
singular), -ing (present participle), -ed (past tense) and -en
(past participle).
There are two inflections attached to adjectives: -er
(comparative) and -est (superlative).
In English, all the inflectional morphemes are suffixes.
MORPHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION
An inflectional morpheme never changes the grammatical
category of a word. (e.g. apple apples)
A derivational morpheme can change the grammatical
category of a word. (e.g. good goodness)
The verb teach becomes the noun teacher if we add the
derivational morpheme -er (from Old English -ere).
So, the suffix -er in Modern English can be an inflectional
morpheme as part of an adjective and also a distinct
derivational morpheme as part of a noun. (darker –
adjective; teacher – noun)
Whenever there is a derivational suffix and an inflectional
suffix attached to the same word, they always appear in that
order.
First the derivational (-er) is attached to teach, then the
Armed with all these terms for different types
of morphemes, we can now take most
sentences of English apart and list all the
“elements.”
For example, in the sentence “The child’s
wildness shocked the teachers”, identify the
morphemes
List the morpheme and the types of
morphemes
PRACTICE: IDENTIFY THE
MORPHEMES – ON BOARD
Fearful cats waited tentatively.
Fear-ful cat-s wait-ed tentative-ly.
Billy Sue ate the rotten apples and went
home.
Proper nouns = 1 morpheme, went = 1
morpheme
PRACTICE
The frog is very happy.
Harriet James travels to Paris each spring.
Her travels keep her bank account empty.
Travels = verb +s (Harriet travels to Paris
each spring).
Travels = noun + s (Her travels keep her
bank account empty)
HOMEWORK SHARING
FIND 5 PREFIXES WITH THE MEANING IF POSSIBLE (e.g. what
does un mean)– Share on padlet
FIND 5 SUFFIXES WITH THE MEANING IF POSSIBLE (e.g. what
does ness mean)– Share on padlet
