Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

CHAPTER 7
ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY:
Structure meaning in words

orphology is the study of how words are structured and how

they are put together from smaller parts. To convey meaning,
sounds are combined into words. But in fact, words are not
the smallest unit of meaning. Many words are made of smaller units of
meaning, and these units are combined in particular ways, forming
words.

Morpheme
A morpheme, designated with braces, { }, is smallest meaning-
bearing unit of language. For example, {re-} is not a word, but it does
carry meaning. A morpheme ordinarily consists of a sequence of one
or more phonemes. Yule (2002) states that a morpheme is the
minimal linguistic unit which has a meaning or grammatical function.

111 | P a g e
Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words and Sentences

Units of grammatical function include forms used to indicate past

tense or plural. In the sentence The police reopened the investigation,
the word reopened consists of three morphemes, a minimal unit is
{open}, a minimal unit of meaning is {re-} (meaning ‘again’), and a
minimal unit of grammatical function is {-ed} (indicating past-tense’).
A single word may be composed of one or more morphemes:

One morpheme : {boy}

{desire}
Two morphemes : {boy} + {-ish}
{desire} +{- able}
Three morphemes : {boy} +{- ish} + {-ness}
{desire} + {-able} + {-ity}
Four Morphemes : {gentle} + {man} + {li} + {-ness}
{un} + {desire} + {-able} + {-ity}
More than four : {un-} + {gentle} + {man} + {li} + {-
ness}
Morphemes {anti-} +{ dis-} + {establish} +{-ment} +
{ari} + {-an} + {-ism}

In short, a morpheme is defined as the minimal linguistic sign, a

grammatical unit that is an arbitrary union of sound and a meaning
and that cannot be further analyzed.

Types of Morphemes
Free vs. Bound Morphemes
Many words are themselves morphemes, such as {boy} and {desire};
they cannot be broken down into smaller units and they carry
meaning. But many other words consist of more than one morpheme.
For example, desirable consists of two morphemes, {desire} and {-
able}; desirability consists of three morphemes, {desire}, {-able} and
{-ity}. Most compound words, such as sandbox, are created by joining
together two morphemes, in this case {sand} and {box}, each of
which can be recognized as a word that carries a meaning by itself. All

112 | P a g e
 Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

morphemes named thus far are free morpheme; that is they can exist
as independent words.

Another type of morpheme is the bound morpheme, which occurs

only when attached to another morpheme. This type includes prefixes
and suffixes of all kinds, such as {pre-}, {-ness}, {-ly}, {-ed}, and
many others. The word reprinted, for instance, consists of three
morphemes: the free morpheme {print} and the two bound
morphemes {re-} and {-ed}. Each of the three morphemes bears
meaning and contributes to the overall meaning of reprinted: {print}
carries the meaning of making an impression, {re-} signifies
repetition, and {-ed} designates the past tense.

In general, the analysis of a word into its component morpheme

requires that each morpheme occur elsewhere in the language; that is,
it must occur with the same meaning either as a free morpheme or as
bound morpheme in other combinations. For example, the morphemes
{re-} and {-ed} in the word reprinted also occur in many other words
and have the same meanings in those words. For example, in replayed,
regained, and retyped, {re-} again signifies repetition and {-ed} again
indicates the past tense.

Content (Lexical) vs. Function (grammatical) Morphemes

There is one more distinction between types of morphemes which it
can be useful to make. Most morphemes have semantic content, that
is, they either have some kind of independent, identifiable meaning or
indicate a change in meaning when added to a word. Others serve only
to provide information about grammatical function by relating certain
words in a sentence to each other. The former are called
content/lexical morphemes, the latter are called function/functional
morphemes. In English, all roots and derivational affixes are content
morphemes, while inflectional affixes and such “function words” as
preposition, e.g. {at}, {of}, articles, {a} or {an}, pronouns, {her}, and
conjunctions, {but}, {or}, etc. are functional/grammatical morphemes.

Derivational vs. Inflectional Morphemes

This distinction applies only to the class of bound morphemes. The
more familiar terms for bound grammatical morphemes is affix.
Affixes in turn can be subdivided into prefix and suffixes depending
upon whether they are attached to the beginning of a lexical

113 | P a g e
Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words and Sentences

morpheme, as depress (where {de-} is a prefix), or to the end of a

lexical morpheme, as in helpful (where {-ful} is a suffix..
A derivational morpheme is one that is added to a root (that is a
word) to form a new word that differs, usually, in its part-of-speech
classification. For example, when the suffix –ness is added to
adjective happy, the noun happiness is formed. Similarly, the
adjective quick becomes the adverb quickly when –ly is added. We
may also classify such bound morphemes as un- and pre- as
derivational morphemes, although these differ from –ness and –ly in
two basic ways: (1) un- and pre- do not change the part-of-speech
classification; for example, unambitious and predetermined remains
adjectives, (2) the addition of un- and pre- changes the meaning of the
word in a significant way, whereas the addition of –ness and –ly has
little effect on the basic meaning of the word. In English, prefixes are
usually derivational morphemes that change the meaning but not the
part-of-speech classification, whereas suffixes are usually derivational
morphemes that change the part-of-speech classification but not the
meaning. Exceptions include joy/enjoy and dear/endear.

An inflectional morpheme indicates certain grammatical properties

associated with nouns and verbs, such as gender, number, case, and
tense. Unlike highly inflected languages like Latin, English has very
few inflectional morphemes. In English, the inflectional morphemes
are all suffixes. The suffix –s, which indicates either possession or
plurality in nouns, is an inflectional morpheme; the past tense suffix –
ed, which added to verbs, is another.

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 eight inflectional morphemes, illustrated
in the following sentences.
- Jim’s two sisters are really different.
- One likes to have fun and is always laughing.
- The other liked to read as a child and has always taken thing
seriously.
- One is the loudest person in the house and the other is quieter
than a mouse.

From these examples, we can see that two of the inflections, -s

(possessive) and –s (plural), are attached to nouns. There are four
inflections attached to verbs, -s (3rd person singular), -ing (present

114 | P a g e
 Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

participle), -ed (past tense) and –en (past participle). There are two
inflections attached to adjective: -est (superlative) and –er
(comparative). In English, all the inflectional morphemes are suffixes,
as in the following table.

Table 5
English Inflectional Affixes

Nouns

Plural –s The books

Possessive –‘s John’s book

Verbs

3rd person sing, nonpast -s John reads well

Progressive –ing He is working
Past Tense –ed He worked
Past Participle –en/-ed He has eaten/ finished

Adjectives

Comparative –er The smaller one

Superlative -est The smallest one

There is some variation in the form of these inflectional morphemes.

For example, the possessive sometimes appears as –s (those boys’s
bags) and the past participle as –ed (they have finished).

Below are listed four characteristics which separate inflectional and

derivational affixes;

Inflectional morpheme Derivational morpheme

• Do not change meaning part • Change meaning or part of

of speech, e.g. big and bigger speech, e.g. –ment forms
are both adjectives nouns, such as judgment,
from verbs, such as judge

115 | P a g e
Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words and Sentences

Inflectional morpheme Derivational morpheme

• Typically indicate syntactic or • Typically indicate

semantic relations between semantic relations within
different words in a sentence, the word, e.g. the
e.g. the present tense morpheme –ful in painful
morpheme –s in waits shows has no particular
agreement with the subject of connection with any other
the verb (both are third person morpheme beyond the
singular) word painful.

• Typically occur with all • Typically occur with only

members of some large class some members of a class
of morpheme, e.g., the plural of morpheme, e.g., the
morpheme –s occurs with suffix –hood occurs with
most nouns just a few nouns such as
brother, neighbor, and
knight, but not with most
others, e.g., friend,
daughter, candle, etc

• Typically occurs at the • Typically occur before

margins of words, e.g., the inflectional suffixes, e.g.,
plural morphemes –s always in chilier, the derivational
come last in a word, as in suffix –y comes before the
baby-sitter or rationalization. inflectional –er.

A summary of the divisions of morphemes is presented schematically

in the following figure

116 | P a g e
 Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

Figure 6
Division of Morpheme into Various Types

Morpheme

Lexical Grammatical

Free Bound Free Bound

Nouns Affix Preposition Inflect Deriva

Verbs Article
ional tional
Adj Conjunction

Morph and Allomorphs

The morpheme is an abstract unit. In actual speech, one morpheme
may have several pronunciations or several phonological forms. For
example, -ed is pronounced differently in rented, employed, and faked.
Just as phonemes are abstract units realized through allophones,
morphemes are realized through allomorphs. Allomorphs are any of
variant forms of a morpheme. The plural morpheme in English, {Pl.},
is realized through many allomorphs. Consider, for example, the
words hats, dogs, and buses. Phonemically, these words are written as
[hæts], [d]gz], and [b sχz], from which it is apparent that the plural
endings are [-s], [z], and [-χz]. These three allomorphs do not occur
randomly; which allomorph occurs depends on the phonetic
environment. Noun that end in one of the sibilants [s, z, Σ, ∞, ±, ϕ]
take the [-χz] plural allomorphs, as in mazes, judges, and wishes.
Nouns that end in a voiceless consonant (other than a sibilant) form
their plurals with the voiceless allomorphs {-s], as in caps, chiefs, and
wicks. All other regular nouns end in a voiced sound and take the
voiced allomorph [-z], as in joys, burns, and liquids. Some irregular
allomorph of the plural morpheme are [χn] as in oxen, [-rχn] as in

117 | P a g e
Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words and Sentences

children, and Ø as in deer. These allomorphs help to account for the

difference in pronunciation of the various plural endings.

Morphs is the actual forms used to realize morphemes. For example,

the form of cars consist of two morphs, car + -s, realizing a lexical
morpheme and an inflectional morpheme (‘plural’). The form buses
also consists of two morphs (bus + es), realizing a lexical morpheme
and inflectional morpheme (‘plural’). Just as we noted that there were
‘allophones’ of a particular phoneme, so we can recognize the
existence of allomorphs of a particular morpheme. That is, when we
find a group of different morphs, all versions of one morpheme, we
can use the prefix ’allo-‘ (= one of a closely related set) and describe
them as allomorphs of that morpheme.

English Word Formations

There are many processes to form a word or new words in English.
Some of them are derivation, compounding, acronym, back formation,
blending, clipping, etc. In the following discussion, we are going to
introduce you these processes one by one.

Derivation
Derivation is the most common word-formation process to be found in
the production of new English words. Derivation forms a word with a
meaning and/or category distinct from that of its base through the
addition of an affix. English has a number of derivational morphemes
which we use to derive words. There are prefixes (added to the
beginning of a stem) or suffixes (added to the end of a stem). Some
common prefixes in English are re-, dis-, anti, in-, pre-, post, and sub.
And common suffixes; -ly, -ness, -er, -ity, -ation, -ful, -able, and –al.

The table below lists some English derivational affixes, along with
information about the category of their base (ignoring bound roots)
and of the resulting new word. The seventh entry states that the affix –
able applies to a verb base and converts it into an adjective. Thus, if
we add the affix -able to verb fix, we can get an adjective (with the
meaning ‘able to be fixed’).

118 | P a g e
 Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

Affix Change Examples

Suffixes:
-ant V
N claim-ant, defend-ant
-(at)ion V
N realiz-ation, assert-ion, protect-ion
-er V
N teach-er, work-er
-ment V
N treat-ment, amaze-ment
-ing1 V
N the shoot-ing, the danc-ing
-ing2 V
A the sleep-ing giant, a blaz-ing fire
-able V
A fix-able, do-able, understand-able
-ive V
A assert-ive, impress-ive
-ful N
A faith-ful, hope-ful, dread-ful
-(i)al N
A president-ial, nation-al
-(i)an N
A Arab-ian, Einstein-ian
-ic N
A optimist-ic, cub-ic
-less N
A brain-less, penni-less
-ous N
A poison-ous, lecher-ous
-ize N
V hospital-ize, crystal-ize, computer-ize
-ate A
V active-ate, captive-ate
-en A
V black-en, hard-en
-ize A
V modern-ize, national-ize
-ity A
N prior-ity, stupid-ity
-ness A
N happi-ness, sad-ness
-ly A
Adv Slow-ly, careful-ly

Prefixes
anti N
N anti-pollution
ex- N
N ex-president, ex-wife
de- V
V de-activate, de-mystify
dis- V
V dis-continue, dis-obey
mis- V
V mis-identify, mis-place
un-1 V
V un-tie, un-lock, un-do
re- V
V re-think, re-state
in- A
A in-competent, in-complete
un-2 A
A un-happy, un-intelligent

To determine the category of the base to which an affix is added, we

should consider the following example. In the case of worker, for
instance, the base (work) is sometimes used as verb (as in they work
hard) and sometimes as a noun (as in the work is time-consuming).
Which category serves as base for the suffix –er in the word worker?
The solution to this problem is to consider the use of –er (in the sense
of ‘one who x’s’) with bases whose category can be unequivocally

119 | P a g e
Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words and Sentences

determined. In the words teacher and writer, for instance, we see this
affix used with bases that are unequivocally verb (teach and write).
Moreover, we know that –er can combine with the verb sell (seller)
but not the noun sale (*saler). These facts allow us to conclude that
the base with which –er combines in the word worker must be a verb
rather than a noun.

Derivation at work

The information above allows us to build word structures such as the

following examples:
a. N V
b.

V Af Adj Af

treat ment modern ize

Adj Adj
c. d.

N Af Af Adj

season al un kind

In each of these structures, an affix combines with a base of a

particular type to give a new word. In the case of treatment, for
instance, the affix –ment combines with the V treat to give the N
treatment.

These examples illustrate an important property of English complex

words: the rightmost morpheme is generally the one that determines
the category of the entire word. Thus, the word unkind is an adjective
because kind (the rightmost morpheme) is an adjective. In contrast, the
word treatment is a noun since the rightmost element is the affix –
ment, which combines with a V to give an N

120 | P a g e
 Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

Complex Derivation

Since derivation can apply more than once, it is possible to create

multiple levels of word structure, as in the following example.

Adj

V Af Af Af

Act ive ate ion

The word activation contain several layers, each of which reflects the
attachment of an affix to a base of the appropriate type. In the first
layer, the affix –ive combines with the V base act to give an Adj. The
suffix –ive is the types of affix that converts it into an Adj. In the next
layer, the affix –ate combines with this Adj and converts it into a V
(activate). At this point, the affix –ion is added, converting the V into
an N and giving the word activation.

In some cases, the internal structure of a complex word is not so

obvious. The unhappiness, for instance, could apparently be analyzed
in either of the ways indicated in the following diagrams:

121 | P a g e
Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words and Sentences

a. N b. N

Adj N

Af Adj Af Af Adj Af

un happy ness un happy ness

By considering the properties of the affixes un- and –ness, however, it

is possible to find an argument that favors diagram a over diagram b.
The key observation is that the prefix un- combines quite freely with
adjective, but not with nouns.

un- + Adj un- + N

unable *unknowledge
unkind *unhealthy
unhurt *uninjury

This suggest that un- must combine with the adjective happy before it
is converted into a noun by the suffix –ness, exactly in diagram a.

By contrast, in a word such as unhealthy, the prefix un- can be

attached only after the suffix –y has been added to the root. Otherwise,
there would be no adjective category to which it could attach.

Af N Af

un health y

122 | P a g e
 Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

Compounding
Another common way to build words in English involves
compounding, the combination of lexical categories (nouns adjectives,
verbs, or prepositions). In other words, compound is two or more
existing words are put together to create a new word such as
blackboard, expressway, and air-conditioner. The resulting of
compound word is a noun, a verb, or an adjective. Compound
preposition includes into and onto. Most of compound words, the final
component determines the category of the entire word. Thus,
greenhouse is a N because its right-most component is an N,
spoonfeed is a V because feed also belongs to this category, and
nationwide is an A just as wide is. The morpheme that determines the
category of the entire word is called the head.

Can you think of other examples of English compound? Recent

compound include moonshot, waterbed, upfront, color-code,
computerlike, bookcase, fingerprint, textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket,
waterbed. All these examples are nouns, but we can also create
compound adjectives {good-looking, low-paid} and compound of
adjective (fast) plus noun (food) as in a fast-food restaurant or a full-
time job.

English orthography is not consistent in representing compounds since

they are sometimes with an intervening hyphen, and sometimes
written as separate words. In terms of pronunciation, however, there is
an important generalization to be made. In particular, A-N compounds
are characterized by a more prominent stress on the first component.
In non-compounds consisting of an adjective and a noun, in contrast,
the second element is generally stressed.

Compounds words Non-compound expression

gréenhouse ‘an indoor garden’ green hóuse ‘a house painted green’
bĺackboard ‘a chalkboard’ black boárd ‘a board which is black’
wét suit ‘a driver’s costume’ wet súit ‘a suit that is wet’

There are two types of compound words. They are endocentric and
exocentric. In most cases of endocentric compound, it denotes a
subtype of the concept denoted by its head (the rightmost component).
Thus, dog food is a type of food, a cave man is a type of man, sky-blue
is a type of blue, and so on. But if the meaning of compound does not
follow from the meaning of its parts is called exocentric compound.

123 | P a g e
Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words and Sentences

Thus, redhead is not a type of head; rather, it is a person with the red
hair. Similarly, a redneck is a person and not a type of neck.

Types of Compounds

1. Compound Nouns
Compound nouns are formed from left-handed elements as in the
following table:

VERB - NOUN : ⇔swearword, ⇔⇔playtime

NOUN - NOUN : ⇔fireengine, , ⇔jumpsuit
ADJ - NOUN : ⇔blackboard, ⇔greenhouse
PREP - NOUN : in-group, in-law

The main stress is given on the left element to distinguish

compound nouns from noun phrases (NP).

2. Compound Verbs
Verbs formed by compounding are much less usual than verbs
derived by affixation. Nevertheless, a variety of types exist which
may be distinguished according to their structure:

VERB - VERB : drop-kick, freeze-dry

NOUN – VERB : spoon- feed, hand-wash
ADJ – VERB : dry-clean, white-wash
PREP - VERB : underestimate, overcook

All these compounds have verb as the rightmost element, with

most of them, the activity denoted by the compound. This type of
compound is called right-handed—the rightmost element being
the head.

3. Compound Adjectives
On the analogy of compound verbs above, ere are some examples
of right-headed compound adjectives:
NOUN – ADJ : sky-high, coal-black
ADJ – ADJ : red-hot, deep-blue
PREP - ADJ : over-ripe, in-grown

The head compound adjective is the adjective itself.

124 | P a g e
 Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

Acronym
Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of
other words. In other words, acronyms are formed by taking the initial
sounds (or letters) of the words of a phrase and uniting them into a
combination which is itself pronounceable as a separate word. More
typically, acronyms are pronounced as new single words, such as

NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration
UNICEF = United Nations International Children
Emergency Fund
AIDS = Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
MAAD = mothers against drunk living
WAR = women against rape
ATM = automatic teller machine
PIN = personal identification number
laser = light amplification through the simulated
emission of radiation,
zip = zone improvement plan
radar = radio detecting and changing.
scuba = self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

Back Formation
Back formation is a process that creates a new word by removing a
real or supposed affix from another word in the language. Resurrect
was originally formed in this way from resurrection. Other
backformations in English include enthuse from enthusiasm, donate
from donation, orient or orientate from orientation, and self-destruct
from self-destruction. Sometimes, backformation involves an incorrect
assumption about a word’s form; for example, the word pea was
derived from the singular noun pease, whose final /z/ was incorrectly
interpreted as the plural suffix.

A major source of backformations in English has been words that end

in –or or –er and have meanings involving the notion the notion of an
agent, such as editor, peddler, swindler and stoker. Because hundreds
of words like these are the result of affixation, it was assumed that
these words too had been formed by adding –or or –er to a erb. By the

125 | P a g e
Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words and Sentences

process of back formation, the erb edit, peddle, swindle, and stoke
were formed.

In other words, back formation makes use of a process called analogy

to derive new words, but in a rather backwards manner. For example,
we have words like revision and revise and supervision and supervise.
Revision is form by regular derivation from revise and –ion. When
television was invented the verb televise was back-formed on the basis
of analogy with revision and revise, that is:

revision : revise : : television : X

To cite another example, the verb donate was formed on the basis of
pairs like creation – create. The word donate was borrowed from
French:
creation : create : : donation : X

Blending
Blends are created from nonmorphemic parts of two already existing
items. As in the following examples, a blend is a combination of the
parts of two words, usually the beginning of one word and the end of
the second one.

smog  smoke and fog

brunch  breakfast and lunch
spam  spicy and ham
telethon  telephone and marathon
telecast  television and broadcast
aerobicise  aerobics and exercise
chunnel  channel and tunnel
infomercial  information and commercial
infotainment  information and entertainment
simulcast  simultaneous and broadcast

Some blends have become so integrated into the standard vocabulary

of English that speakers are unaware of their status. For example,
relatively few people know that blending has produced, such as,

126 | P a g e
 Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

motel  motor and hotel

bit  binary and digit
modem  modulator and demodulator
telex  teleprinter and exchange

Clipping
Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one
or more syllables. Clipping is especially popular in the speech of
students, where it has yielded forms like:
prof for professor;
burger for hamburger,
zoo for zoological, fax for facsimile, etc.

Frequently we shorten words without paying attention to the

derivational morphology of the words (or related words).
exam from examination,
dorm from dormitory,
taxi or cab from taxi cab
(itself a clipping from taximeter cabriolet)

Conversion
Conversion is a process that assigns an already existing word to a new
syntactic category. A change in the function of a word, as for example
when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction) is
called conversion. Other labels for this very common process are
‘category change’ and ‘functional shift’. Even though it does not add
an affix, conversion is often considered to be a type of derivation
because of the change in category and meaning that it brings about.

A number of nouns such as bottle, butter, chair and vacation have

come to be used, through conversion, as verbs:
(1) We bottled the home-brew last night;
(2) Have you buttered the toast?;
(3) Someone has to chair the meeting;
(4) They are vacationing in Florida.

The conversion process is particularly productive in modern English,

with new uses occurring frequently. The conversion can involve verbs
becoming nouns, with guess, must and spy as the sources of a guess, a
must and a spy. Phrasal verbs (to print out, to take over) also become
nouns (a printout, a takeover). One complex verb combination (want

127 | P a g e
Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words and Sentences

to be) has become a new noun as in He isn’t in the group, he’s just a
wannabe.

Verbs (see through, stand up) also become adjectives, as in see-

through material or a stand-up comedian. Or adjectives, as in a dirty
floor, an empty room, some crazy ideas and those nasty people, can
become the verbs to dirty, and to empty; or the nouns a crazy and the
nasty.

Some compound nouns have assumed adjectival or verbal functions,

exemplified by the ball park appearing in a ball-park figure or asking
someone to ball-park an estimate of the cost. Other nouns of this type
are carpool, mastermind, microwave and quarterback which are all
regularly used as verbs. Other forms, such as up and down can also
become verbs, as in They’re going to up the price of oil or we downed
a few beers at the chimes.

Onomatopoeia
All languages have words that have been created to sound like the
thing that they name. Examples of such onomatopoeic words in
English include:
buzz
hiss
sizzle
cuckoo
cock-a-doodle-doo
meow
chirp
bow-wow

Other Sources
In still other cases, a word may be created from scratch. It is called
manufacture or coinage. This phenomenon is especially common in
cases where industry requires a new and attractive name for product.
Kodak, Dacron, Orlon, and Teflon are examples of product names that
are result of word manufacture.

Finally, it is sometimes possible to create new words from names. For

example, brand names sometimes become so widely used that they are
accepted as generic terms (Kleenex for ‘facial tissue’ or Xerox for
‘photocopy’). A related practice is exemplified by the words watt,

128 | P a g e
 Chapter 7: English Morphology: Structure Meaning in Words

curie, Fahrenheit, and boycott, all of which were derived from the
names of individuals (usually the inventors or discoverers) associated
with the things to which they refer.

Inflection

Virtually all languages have contrasts such as singular versus plural,

and past versus present. These contrasts are often marked with the
help of inflection, morphology used to indicate the grammatical
subclass to which it belongs. (The base to which an inflectional affix
is added is sometimes called a stem.). In the case of most English
nouns, for instance, inflection marks the plural subclass by adding the
affix –s. In the case of verbs, inflection can mark a distinction between
the past and nonpast subclasses—usually by adding the suffix –ed to
indicate the past tense.

Number Tense
Singular Plural Non-past Past
apple apple-s work work-ed
car car-s jump jump-ed
dog dog-s hunt hunt-ed

129 | P a g e