MORPHOLOGY:
THE WORDS OF
LANGUAGE
Gilmara Johnson
Mariana De Luca
Stacy Feldstein
HOMEWORK

At your table, discuss your responses for the
questions and answers you chose from the
homework.
7 minutes
MORPHOLOGY: THE STUDY OF THE
STRUCTURE OF WORDS PAGE 34
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Copyeditor: Adeline Moore
Accounts payable: Ineeda Czech
Pollution control: Maury Missions
Purchasing: Lois Bidder
Statistician: Marge Innovera
Russian chauffeur: Picov Andropov
Legal firm: Dewey, Cheetham, and
Howe
1.
(add a line more)
2.
(I need a check)
3.
(more emissions)
4.
(lowest bidder)
5.
(margin of error)
6.
(pick up and drop off)
7.
(Do we cheat 'em? And
how!)
CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS
Content Words
Function Words
Open class
Closed class
Denote concepts such as objects,
actions, attributes and ideas
Have no clear lexical meaning or
concept attached to it
Specify grammatical relations
Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and
Adverbs
articles, conjunctions,
prepositions, pronouns
WHAT KINDS OF WORDS IS HE TALKING
ABOUT, “CONTENT” OR “FUNCTION”?
SEGMENTING SOUNDS
THECATSONTHEMAT
VS.
UNCHARACTERISTICALLY
JIGSAW READING
Read your section and prepare to present a poster
with the main ideas to the class.
 Group 1: Morphemes: The Minimal Units of
Meaning (pp.36-38)
 Group 2: Bounds and Free morphemes (pp. 3942)
 Group 3: Roots and Stems, Bound Roots (pp.4244)
 Group 4: Rules of word formation, Derivational
Morphology (pp. 44-46)
 Group 5: Inflectional Morphology (pp. 46-49)
 Group 6: Compounds (pp.57)

GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
As groups present, use you graphic organizer to
take notes on the “Description” section.
 At your tables, use you notes to discuss and
complete the “classroom applications” section.
You can explain how morphological knowledge
affects language teaching or you can design a
teaching activity that would help students learn
that morphological aspect of language.
 Share with the class: Pick one concept (different
from the one you presented) to show how it
applies to teaching ELLs.

MAIN DIVISIONS OF WORD CLASSES
(PARTS OF SPEECH):
Content
Words
Function
Words
•
•
•
•
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
•
•
•
•
Conjunctions
Prepositions
Articles
Pronouns
EXERCISE: DETERMINE THE WORD CLASS
OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING WORDS
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
canine
the
him
elegant
inconvenience
eloquently
comply
inasmuch as
over
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
Noun
Article
Pronoun
Adjective
Noun
Adverb
Verb
Conjunction
Preposition
MORPHEME:
THE MINIMAL UNIT OF MEANING
Free morpheme: a single morpheme that
constitutes a word and can stand alone.
Bound morpheme: a morpheme that must
be attached to another morpheme.
QUESTION #2
A, B, I, J, K, L, M
Example:

Retroactive = retro + act + ive
Free morpheme = act
Bound morphemes = retro-, -ive
ENGLISH AFFIXES
(BASED ON THE POSITION)
Prefix: An affix that
occurs before a
morpheme
Suffix: An affix
that occurs
after a
morpheme
ENGLISH PREFIXES
Examples of Negative Prefixes:
un- nondisaExamples of size and degree prefixes:
minisubover- super-
ENGLISH SUFFIXES
Class preserving
suffixation:
-er  lecturer
-ian librarian
-ist  scientist
-let  piglet
Class changing suffixation:
Verb  Noun
perform performance
Adjective  Adverb
nice  nicely
Adjective  Noun
active  activity
AFFIXES
(BASED ON THE FUNCTION)
Inflections vs. Derivations
DEFINITION
Derivational
morpheme: deriving
(creating) a new word
with a new meaning.
Inflectional morpheme:
changing the form of a
word because of the
rules of syntax.
ENGLISH INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES
Nouns
–s
plural
–’s
possessive
Verbs
–s
third person singular present
–edpast tense
–en
past participle
–ing
progressive
Adjectives
–er comparative
–est
superlative
SOME EXAMPLES OF ENGLISH
DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME
-ic
 -ance
 -ly
 -ity
 -able

: Noun  Adj
: Verb  Noun
: Adj  Adv
: Adj  Noun
: Verb  Adj
; alcohol  alcoholic
; clear  clearance
; exact  exactly
; active  activity
; read  readable

-ship : Noun  Noun ; friend  friendship

re-
: Verb  Verb
; cover  recover

in-
: Adj  Adj
; definite  indefinite
DESCRIBE THE ITALIC AFFIXES:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
impossible
terrorized
terrorize
desks
dislike
humanity
fastest
1) Derivational prefix
2) Inflectional suffix
3) Derivational suffix
4) Inflectional suffix
5) Derivational prefix
6) Derivational suffix
7) Inflectional suffix
Describe the italic affixes:
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
premature
untie
darken
fallen
oxen
faster
lecturer
8) Derivational prefix
9) Derivational prefix
10) Derivational suffix
11) Inflectional suffix
12) Inflectional suffix
13) Inflectional suffix
14) Derivational suffix
PHONOLOGY/MORPHOLOGY REVIEW
Test Question:
PHONOLOGY/MORPHOLOGY REVIEW
Test Question:
PHONOLOGY/MORPHOLOGY REVIEW
Test Question:
PHONOLOGY/MORPHOLOGY REVIEW
Test Question:
PHONOLOGY/MORPHOLOGY REVIEW
Test Question: