How to Explain Morphology

Building Words It does not always occur to people that words are not the smallest meaningful unit in a language. Words are actually made up of smaller units that have meanings of their own. The study of the structure and formation of words is called morphology. Here we will explain what the smaller units of meaning in a language are, what the functions of these units are and how these units are used as building blocks to form words. Instructions

1 Know what a morpheme is. A morpheme is defined as the smallest meaningful unit in a language. Morphemes cannot be broken down into smaller units that also have form of meaning. Take the word "nationalization," for example--it is made up of the morphemes "nation," "al," "-iz" and "-ation." You might think that the morpheme "nation" could be broken down into "na-" and "-tion"; however, it cannot because neither "na-" nor "-tion" has any meaning on its own. 2 Understand how individual morphemes convey meaning. Let's use the word "nationalization" to demonstrate. Each morpheme in "nationalization" changes the grammatical function of the word--this is how the morphemes carry meaning. "Nation" is the main morpheme (known as the root). It is a noun; "-al" is a morpheme that changes the word to an adjective; "-iz" is a morpheme that changes the word to a verb; and "-ation" is a morpheme that changes the word to a noun again. 3 Recognize the different types of morphemes. All morphemes are either free or bound. A free morpheme is one that can stand on its own as a word (e.g. "nation"). A bound morpheme is one that cannot stand on its own and must be attached to another morpheme to convey meaning (e.g. "-al," "iz" and "-ation"). 4Know that free morphemes are further classified as either open-class or closed-class. Open-class (also known as lexical morphemes) are nouns, verbs and adjectives to which additional morphemes can be added. Closedclass (also known as functional) morphemes are conjunctions, prepositions and determiners which cannot take an additional morpheme. 5 Understand that bound morphemes are further classified as either inflectional or derivational affixes or roots. Affixes include prefixes, suffixes

and, in some languages, infixes and cicumfixes. Examples of inflectional morphemes include "-er," "-ed," and "-s." Examples of derivational morphemes include "-ness" and "-ify." Inflectional morphemes do not change the grammatical function of the word, but derivational morphemes do. To better understand the difference between inflectional and derivation morphemes, think about the words "neat," "neater" and "neatness"; "neat" and "neater" are both adjectives, whereas "neatness" is a noun. 6 Find a list of words and practice breaking the words into the morphemes from which they are built. Once you have a list of morphemes, you can try to label each one as bound or free, open-class or closed-class, inflectional or derivational.

Morphemes
by Kirsten Mills Student, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, 1998 Introduction Morphemes are what make up words. Often, morphemes are thought of as words but that is not always true. Some single morphemes are words while other words have two or more morphemes within them. Morphemes are also thought of as syllables but this is incorrect. Many words have two or more syllables but only one morpheme. Banana, apple, papaya, and nanny are just a few examples. On the other hand, many words have two morphemes and only one syllable; examples include cats, runs, and barked. Definitions

morpheme: a combination of sounds that have a meaning. A morpheme does not necessarily have to be a word. Example: the word cats has two morphemes. Cat is a morpheme, and s is a morpheme. Every morpheme is either a base or an affix. An affix can be either a prefix or a suffix. Cat is the base morpheme, and s is a suffix. affix: a morpheme that comes at the beginning (prefix) or the ending (suffix) of a base morpheme. Note: An affix usually is a morpheme that cannot stand alone. Examples: -ful, -ly, -ity, -ness. A few exceptions are able, like, and less. base: a morpheme that gives a word its meaning. The base morpheme cat gives the word cats its meaning: a particular type of animal. prefix: an affix that comes before a base morpheme. The in in the word inspect is a prefix. suffix: an affix that comes after a base morpheme. The s in cats is a suffix.

free morpheme: a morpheme that can stand alone as a word without another morpheme. It does not need anything attached to it to make a word. Cat is a free morpheme. bound morpheme: a sound or a combination of sounds that cannot stand alone as a word. The s in cats is a bound morpheme, and it does not have any meaning without the free morpheme cat. inflectional morpheme: this morpheme can only be a suffix. The s in cats is an inflectional morpheme. An inflectional morpheme creates a change in the function of the word. Example: the d in invited indicates past tense. English has only seven inflectional morphemes: -s (plural) and -s (possessive) are noun inflections; -s ( 3rd-person singular), -ed ( past tense), -en (past participle), and -ing ( present participle) are verb inflections; -er (comparative) and -est (superlative) are adjective and adverb inflections. derivational morpheme: this type of morpheme changes the meaning of the word or the part of speech or both. Derivational morphemes often create new words. Example: the prefix and derivational morpheme un added to invited changes the meaning of the word. allomorphs: different phonetic forms or variations of a morpheme. Example: The final morphemes in the following words are pronounced differently, but they all indicate plurality: dogs, cats, and horses. homonyms: morphemes that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Examples: bear (an animal) and bear (to carry), plain (simple) and plain ( a level area of land). homophones: morphemes that sound alike but have different meanings and spellings. Examples: bear, bare; plain, plane; cite, sight, site. Fifteen Common Prefixes The following tables and tip are adopted from Grammar and Composition by Mary Beth Bauer, et al.

Prefix adcircumcomdedisexininintermispostresub-

Meaning to, toward around, about with, together away from, off away, apart from, out not in, into between wrong after back, again beneath, under

transun-

across not

Ten Common Suffixes

Suffix -able (-ible) -ance (-ence) -ate -ful -ity -less -ly -ment -ness -tion (-ion, -sion) Tip

Meaning capable of being the act of making or applying full of the state of being without in a certain way the result of being the state of being the act of or the state of being

Suffixes can also be used to tell the part of speech of a word. The following examples show the parts of speech indicated by the suffixes in the chart. Nouns: -ance, -ful, -ity, -ment, -ness, -tion Verb: -ate Adjectives: -able, -ful, -less, -ly Adverb: -ly Exercises Identify and label the parts of the following words as: bound or free, derivational or inflectional, and base or affix. Indicate the number of morphemes in each word. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. dogs replay carrot inescapable television tenacity

7. captivate 8. unlikely Identify at least 10 sets of homophones and give the different meanings. Example: board (a flat piece of wood) and bored (uninterested, weary). Bibliography Fromkin, Victoria, and Robert Rodman. An Introduction to Language. 5th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Joanovich College Publishers, 1993. Kolln, Martha, and Robert Funk. Understanding English Grammar. 5th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998. Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook for Writers. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1991. Bauer, Mary Beth, et al., Grammar and Composition. New Jersey: PrenticeHall, Inc., 1982.

Affixes
When you affix something, you stick it on to something else. You might affix a stamp to a letter or affix colorful stickers to your notebook. The verb affix often refers to physically attaching something -- like when you affix a label onto a folder -- but it can be used more broadly to describe adding on something. You might affix your signature to a contract. If you like grammar, you might already know that the noun form of affix refers to letters or words that can be tacked onto other base words to alter their meaning. For example, the prefix un- is an affix.

Prefixes
A prefix is affix that's added in front of a word and often changes the meaning of it. Common prefixes include re-, un-, and mis-. Lots of words have a prefix, and it's sometimes easier to figure out the meaning of those words if you know the meaning of the prefix. For example, the super- means "above" or "over"; hypo- and infra- mean "under." Prefix itself has a prefix: pre-, which means "before." In fact, the Latin root of prefix is praefixus, meaning "fixed in front." (Note our word's opposite here, suffix, which describes what is fixed at the back of a word.)

Suffixes
In linguistics, the suffix is part of the word that's added onto the end, like the -ish in foolish. When a suffix is added to a word, it changes the form, like when adding the suffix -y turns the noun soap into the adjective soapy. You can also use suffix as a verb. If you suffix the word cake with -less, you end up cakeless, which is pretty sad, especially if it's your birthday.

Word Grabber for Morpheme

1. bound morpheme

English example: The word "unbreakable" has three morphemes: "un-", a bound morpheme; "break", a free morpheme; and "-able", a bound morpheme. "un-" is also a prefix, "-able" is a suffix.
a morpheme that occurs only as part of a larger construction; eg an -s at the end of plural nouns 2. free morpheme

A morpheme is free if it can stand alone (ex: "one", "possible"), or bound if it is used exclusively alongside a free morpheme (ex: "im" in impossible).
a morpheme that can occur alone 3. allomorph

Its actual phonetic representation is the morph, with the different morphs ("in-", "im-") representing the same morpheme being grouped as its allomorphs.
any of several different crystalline forms of the same chemical compound 4. grapheme

A morpheme is composed by phoneme(s) (the smallest linguistically distinctive units of sound) in spoken language, and by grapheme(s) (the smallest units of written language) in written language.

a written symbol that is used to represent speech 5. morpheme

Morphemes carry meaning.

minimal meaningful language unit; it cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units 6. linguistic unit

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest component of word, or other linguistic unit, that has semantic meaning.
one of the natural units into which linguistic messages can be analyzed 7. linguistics

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest component of word, or other linguistic unit, that has semantic meaning.
the scientific study of language 8. morph

Its actual phonetic representation is the morph, with the different morphs ("in-", "im-") representing the same morpheme being grouped as its allomorphs.
cause to change shape in a computer animation 9. phoneme

A morpheme is composed by phoneme(s) (the smallest linguistically distinctive units of sound) in spoken language, and by grapheme(s) (the smallest units of written language) in written language.
(linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language 10. linguistically

A morpheme is composed by phoneme(s) (the smallest linguistically distinctive units of sound) in spoken language, and by grapheme(s) (the smallest units of written language) in written language.
with respect to the science of linguistics

11. written language

A morpheme is composed by phoneme(s) (the smallest linguistically distinctive units of sound) in spoken language, and by grapheme(s) (the smallest units of written language) in written language.
communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten) 12. semantic

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest component of word, or other linguistic unit, that has semantic meaning.
of or relating to meaning or the study of meaning 13. spoken language

A morpheme is composed by phoneme(s) (the smallest linguistically distinctive units of sound) in spoken language, and by grapheme(s) (the smallest units of written language) in written language.
(language) communication by word of mouth 14. morphology

The term is used as part of the branch of linguistics known as morphology (linguistics).
the branch of biology that deals with the structure of animals and plants 15. kat

The morpheme plural-s has the morph "-s", /s/, in cats (/kts/), but "es", /z/, in dishes (/dz/), and even the voiced "-s", /z/, in dogs (/dz/). "s".
the leaves of the shrub Catha edulis which are chewed like tobacco or used to make tea; has the effect of a euphoric stimulant 16. suffix

English example: The word "unbreakable" has three morphemes: "un-", a bound morpheme; "break", a free morpheme; and "-able", a bound morpheme. "un-" is also a prefix, "-able" is a suffix.

an affix that is added at the end of the word 17. phonetic

Its actual phonetic representation is the morph, with the different morphs ("in-", "im-") representing the same morpheme being grouped as its allomorphs.
of or relating to speech sounds 18. linguistic

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest component of word, or other linguistic unit, that has semantic meaning.
consisting of or related to language 19. prefix

English example: The word "unbreakable" has three morphemes: "un-", a bound morpheme; "break", a free morpheme; and "-able", a bound morpheme. "un-" is also a prefix, "-able" is a suffix.
an affix that is added in front of the word 20. affix

Both "un-" and "-able" are affixes.

attach to 21. component

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest component of word, or other linguistic unit, that has semantic meaning.
an abstract part of something 22. bound

A morpheme is free if it can stand alone (ex: "one", "possible"), or bound if it is used exclusively alongside a free morpheme (ex: "im" in impossible).