A review
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What is a morpheme?
What is the difference between free and
bound morphemes?
What is a root morpheme?
What is the difference between inflectional
and derivational morphemes?
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Morphemes
◦ The most elemental unit of a word
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believable
unbelievable
desirable
undesirable
happy
unhappy
dressed
undressed
Morphology
◦ Study of the internal structure; rules of word
formation
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Prefixes
Prefixes are added to the beginning
Suffixes
Suffixes are added to the end
Form a word with 2 suffixes
Form a word with 1 Prefix and 2 Suffixes
For each of the words below, determine the
number of morphemes it has.
Sister
sister’s sisters
blister
unhappy the
teacher
happy
carefully
◦ Free morphemes can be used alone
◦ Bound morphemes must be attached to other
morphemes
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Free morpheme in a complex word:
Deactivation
de+act+iv+at+ion
Act: 1 a : the doing of a thing (Merriam Webster
Dictionary)
Quick exercise
For each morpheme below, determine whether
it’s free or bound.
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Pre
pro
ive
y
worth
un
ion
re
duct ed
with
able
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Lexical morpheme
◦ Have a ‘real world’ meaning
◦ Also called content morpheme
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Grammatical morpheme
◦ Change the form of a word but don’t have ‘real
word’ meaning
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Test: find a synonym for the morpheme
◦ If you can find one, it’s a lexical morpheme
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What is the difference between free &bound
morphemes and lexical & grammatical
morphemes?
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What’s a root morpheme?
Note:
-roots tend to be free and
lexical
-affixes tend to be bound and
grammatical
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Quick exercise
Analyze the word: “production”
How many morphemes does it have?
Which morpheme is the stem? Which ones are
affixes?
Is the stem free and lexical?
Word
Meaning
con+duct
To carry out
in+duct
To place ceremoniously
ab+duct
To lead away
Conclusion: ‘duct’ is a bound root morpheme
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Quick exercise
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Identify the roots of the following words
kingdom
margins
interplanetary
paintball
dimensional
children
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What are inflectional affixes?
◦ Do not create new words when they attach to
existing words
◦ They change the form of that word to indicate
grammatical meaning
Inflectional morpheme
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Plural –s, -es (noun)
Possessive –’s, s’ (noun)
Comparative –er (adj.)
Superlative –est (adj.)
3rd person singular –s (verb)
Past tense –ed (verb)
Past participle –ed, -en
Present participle -ing
Example
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Pim likes to eat peach-es
Pim’s grades are great
Pim is smart-er than Boss
Pim is the quick-est of all
Pim like-s to study
Pim studi-ed hard for the
quiz
Pim hasn’t fail-ed a test
yet.
Pim has been study-ing for
3 hours
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Derivational Affixes
◦ Create new (or derive) new words in two ways
◦ Some derivational morphemes change the content
meaning but not grammatical meaning
◦ Others don’t significantly change the meaning but
the grammatical meaning.
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Unlike inflectional affixes, derivational affixes
can be both, prefixes or suffixes in English.
Function
Morpheme
Example Word
Change content meaning
un-
un+happy
Change content meaning
re-
re+write
Change grammatical function (noun ⇒verb)
-ize
trauma(t)+ize
Change grammatical function (noun ⇒adj.)
-y
health+y
Change grammatical function (adj.⇒adverb)
-ly
quick+ly
The number of derivational affixes in English is
far greater than inflectional affixes
Quick exercise
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Each of the words below contains two morphemes, a
root and a derivational affix. Decide if the derivational
affix changes the meaning or class of the root.
retake
undress
disembark
hopeless
tension
cheerful
What is the general trend with regard to the behavior
of derivational prefixes vs. suffixes? That is, how
does each kind of affix derive new words?
Quick exercise
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Each of the words below contains two morphemes, a
root and a derivational affix. Decide if the derivational
affix changes the meaning or class of the root.
rewrite
unclear
unhappy
hopeless
creation
helpful
What is the general trend with regard to the behavior
of derivational prefixes vs. suffixes? That is, how
does each kind of affix derive new words?
Morphemes
bound
free
grammatical
lexical
derivational
prefixes
ex:-un
lexical
-bound roots
inflectional
-eight suffixes
suffixes
ex: -ness
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Affixing
◦ Affixing and derivation create new words in English
◦ X number of affixes +Y number of words (stems)
◦ Example: ‘un-’
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Functional shift
◦ Words changing word class
◦ Example: impact (noun and verb)
Quick exercise:
Transition
hope
reference
proposition
help
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Coined words
◦ Speakers continually create new words.
Consider the word ‘dissing’ in the sentence:
Are you dissing me?
1. What does dissing mean?
2. What part of speech does it belong to?
answer on a morphological basis)
(Defend your
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Acronyms
◦ Common acronyms that turned into words:
◦ Laser, radar, scuba, MUIC
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Where do they derive from?
Light Amplification (by) Stimulated Emission
(of) Radiation
RAdio Detecting And Ranging
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Borrowing
Speakers of English aggressively borrow from
other languages
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Kindergarten (German)
Croissant (French)
Sushi (Japanese)
Macho (???)
List 3 words in Thai that are borrowed
from English?
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Blending
◦ Mixing words
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Quick exercise: from what words are the
following blends mixed?
Motel
Netiquette
Infomercial
Edutainment