English Morphology 1

English Morphology
MORPHEMES
DEFINITION – CHARACTERISTICS
What is a morpheme?
- ‘A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language.’
- ‘A morpheme is a short segment of language that meets three criteria:
- It is a word or part of a word that has meaning.
- It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without violation of
its meaning or without meaningless remainders.
- The English word unkind consists of two morphemes: the base kind
the lexical meaning of which is ‘friendly and thoughtful to others’ and the
prefix un– the lexical meaning of which is ‘not’; the English word talks
consists of two morphemes: the base talk the lexical meaning of which is
‘say something’ and the suffix –s, which has no lexical meaning and which is
used to show that the verb talks is in the third person singular present-tense
form.
In other words, we can recognize a morpheme by either its lexical or its
grammatical meaning.
- Straight is an English adjective meaning ‘without a bend or curve’. By
dividing straight, we get smaller meaningful units of trait , rate
and ate; but their meanings violate the meaning of straight. We
also get the meaningless remainders: /s–/, /st–/ and /str–/. Therefore, straight
must be considered a morpheme, the smallest meaningful unit in English.
Bright means ‘light’, and brighten means ‘make light’. This leads us to
conclude that –en means ‘make’. We also know that –en recurs with a stable
meaning in words like cheapen, darken, deepen, soften, stiffen, etc.
Therefore, –en must be considered a morpheme.
HOW TO DISTINGUISH MORPHEMES FROM PHONEMES,
SYLLABLES AND WORDS?
-MORPHEMES vs. PHONEMES
A morpheme differs from a phoneme in that the former has meaning
whereas the latter does not. Although phonemes have no meaning, they have
distinctive features that help to distinguish meaning.
- The initial consonant of bitch is [− aspirated] while that of pitch is

[+ aspirated]. [teɪk] vs. [teɪp] "take" vs. "tape“
[tim] vs. [dim] "team" vs. "deem“
A morpheme may consist of only a single phoneme like the /–z/ in

goes/ɡəʊz/. But the phoneme /z/ and this morpheme are by no means
identical. The phoneme /z/ occurs many times where it has nothing to do with
this morpheme. For example, zoo /zu:/ and rose /rəʊz/both contain /z/ but the
/z/ here has nothing to do with the morpheme realized as /–z/ in goes.
-MORPHEMES vs. SYLLABLES

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. It is
typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional
initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often
considered the phonological "building blocks" of words
syllable
onset rhyme
(optional) Nucleus coda
(not optional) (optional)
one or more
consonants vowel one or more
consonants
A morpheme happens to be identical to a syllable, e.g. the morpheme

{strange} and the syllable / streɪndʒ /; and so are many English morphemes.
However, any matches between morphemes and syllables are incidental.
Many poly-syllabic words are mono-morphemic.
E.g. lion/ˈlaɪ.ən/: two syllables – one morpheme
crocodile /ˈkrɑː.kə.daɪl/: three syllables – one morpheme
On the contrary, both /ɡəʊ/ and /–z/ in goes /gəυz/ are morphemes, though
altogether they are but a single syllable. That is, goes is mono-syllabic but
poly-morphemic.
Briefly, in some cases a morpheme may consist of one syllable or several
whole syllables. In other cases, it is only part of a syllable. In fact, to form a
morpheme, some phonemes are usually combined together without any
regard to their status as syllables.
In English, a morpheme is not identical with a syllable. The syllable is a
phonological unit whereas the morpheme is the basic unit in morphology.
- MORPHEMES vs. WORDS
Words are made up of morphemes. In other words, morphemes are the
constituents of words.
A word may be composed of one or more morphemes:
One morpheme: boy, desire
Two morphemes: boy + –ish, desir(e) + –able
Three morphemes: boy + –ish + –ness, desir(e) + –abil + –ity
Four morphemes: gentle + man + –li + –ness, un– + desir(e) + –abil– + –ity
More than four morphemes: un– + gentle + man + –li + –ness
CLASSIFICATION OF MORPHEMES
It is always found that morphemes can be grouped into certain classes, each
with a characteristic distribution. There are two basic classes of morphemes:
free morphemes and bound morphemes. Affixes are almost always bound
whereas bases can be either free or bound.
BOUND MORPHEMES vs. FREE MORPHEMES

FREE MORPHEMES
• A free morpheme is ‘one that can be uttered alone with meaning’.
• A free morpheme ‘can be used on its own’.
• Free morphemes ‘may stand alone as words in their own right, as well as
enter into the structure of other words’.
E.g. Drink is a free morpheme which occurs as a word on its own and as a
free base in drinkable, undrinkable, drinking-water, drinking-fountain, etc.
BOUND MORPHEMES
• A bound morpheme ‘cannot be uttered alone with meaning. It is always
Attached to one or more morphemes to form a word’.
• A bound morpheme ‘is never used alone but must be used with another
morpheme’.
• Bound morphemes ‘may occur only if they combine with another
morpheme’.
E.g. the English suffix –ing must be used after a verb form: writing,
living, driving, etc.
Examples of bound morphemes

in- ________________________________
dis- ________________________________
mis- _________________________________
un- ________________________________
-ful ________________________________
-able _______________________________
-ment ______________________________
-ly _________________________________
-ise ________________________________
-er________________________________
1-How many morphemes are there in each of the following words?

1-assertion
2-certainly
3-corner
4-prepay
5-tighten
6- staying
7-dislocation
8-smarten
9- regrouping
10-stapler
2-Identify the bound & free morphemes in these words:

1-fearlessly___________________________
2-happier ______________________________
3-misleads ___________________________
4-previewer __________________________
5-shortening __________________________
6-unreconstructed________________________
7-cats_______________________________
8-recycling___________________________
9-dishonorable________________________
10-countability_________________________
-Carstairs-McCarthy, A. (2002). An introduction to English morphology.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.(chapter3)
-Stageberg, N., & Oakes, D. (2000). An Introductory English Grammar (5th
ed.). Orlando, FL.: Harcourt College Publishers.
-Yule,G.(2010).The study of Language(4th ed.).Cambridge. CUP.(Ch 6)

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English Morphology

- The initial consonant of bitch is [− aspirated] while that of pitch is

A morpheme may consist of only a single phoneme like the /–z/ in

-MORPHEMES vs. SYLLABLES

A morpheme happens to be identical to a syllable, e.g. the morpheme

BOUND MORPHEMES vs. FREE MORPHEMES

Examples of bound morphemes

1-How many morphemes are there in each of the following words?

2-Identify the bound & free morphemes in these words:

-Carstairs-McCarthy, A. (2002). An introduction to English morphology.

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