Practice Exercises in Morphology
Linguistics 201
Free and Bound Morphemes
List the morphemes in each word below, and state whether each morpheme is free (F) or
bound (B).
1. creating
2. seaward
3. wastage
4. incomplete
5. modernize
6. unhealthy
7. waiter
8. reconsider
9. keys
10. astronomer
Derivational and Inflectional Affixes
For each word below, indicate whether the word is morphologically simple (S), includes
an inflectional affix (I), or includes a derivational affix (D).
1. rider
2. colder
3. silver
4. lens
5. legs
6. reader
7. redder
8. radish
9. redness
10. rotation
Word Trees
For each word below, draw a word tree. Then state whether it has inflectional affixes,
derivational affixes, or both.
1. shipper
2. disobey
3. resettled
4. anticlimaxes
5. unemployment
6. simply
7. jumping
8. digitizes
9. activated
10. confrontational
Esperanto
Esperanto is an artificial language that was invented by Ludwig Zamenhof in 1887. It
was designed to be easy to learn and is based largely on the languages of western Europe.
It is now primarily spoken in France, although it may also be found in eastern Asia, South
America and eastern Europe. There are now between 200-2,000 native speakers and
about 2,000,000 people worldwide speak it as a second language.
Examine the following data from Esperanto and then answer the questions below:
1. bono
2. instrua
3. malfacila
4. patrino
5. instruisto
6. porti
7. facila
8. patro
9. portisto
10. instrui
‘goodness’
‘instructive’
‘difficult’
‘mother’
‘teacher’
‘to carry’
‘easy’
‘father’
‘porter’
‘to instruct’
11. portistino ‘female porter’
12. pura
‘pure’
13. malbone ‘badly’
14. facile
‘easily’
15. bona
‘good’
16. malgranda ‘small’
17. bone
‘well’
18. facilo
‘easiness’
19. granda
‘big’
20. instruo
‘instruction’
A. What are the morphemes that correspond to the following lexical categories and
concepts?
i.
Nouns
iv. Adverbs
ii.
Verbs
v. Feminine
iii.
Adjectives
vi. The opposite (not…)
B. Translate the following English words and phrases into Esperanto.
i.
“purity”
ii.
“bad”
iii.
“female teacher”