CHAPTER 1: MORPHEMES

Exercise 1: Write CORRECT or INCORRECT for the following sentences.

1. A morpheme is always a part of a word with meaning.
2. The smallest meaningful unit in a language is a morpheme.
3. A single word is a free morpheme.
4. A word may contain a base and several bound morphemes.
5. Bound morphemes are affixes only.
6. A free base is the one that stands alone as a word.
7. Bound morphemes contain bound bases and affixes.
8. Affixes by positions are prefixes, infixes, and suffixes.
9. If we break a morpheme into smaller units, the breakages become meaningless.
10. One simple way to form a word is to combine the affixes – a prefix, an infix, and a suffix.
Exercise 2: Write a word/ phrase in the gaps to complete the sentences
1. A morpheme is a word (a free base or a free morpheme) or a -------- (a bound base or an
affix).
2. Bound morphemes may occur only when they -------with another morpheme.
3. A base of a word brings the -------- meaning (of the whole word). It is the important part from
which a word grows.
4. Affixes are -------- morphemes which can be joined before, in the middle, or at the end of
bases.
5. The infixes{-o-}, or {-ee-} in “wrote” and “geese” change the -------- of words.
6. -------- are bound morphemes which change the meaning and the word-class.
7. The study of how morphemes combine to form words is --------.
8. A free base is a -------- morpheme.
9. A bound base can combine with a(n) -------- or another base to make a new word.
10. Derivational morphemes can change the --------- functions of words.
Exercise 3: In these words the base is italicized. After each word write the number of suffixes
it contains.
1. organists 6. greasier
2. personalities 7. countrified
3. flirtatiously 8. responsibilities
4. atomizers 9. contradictorily
5. trusteeship 10. friendliest
Exercise 4: Identify the morphemes for each of the following words, in the order that they
appear in the word.
1. inputs = input + -s
2. components 3. elements 4. Indo-European
5. Persian 6. within 7. another 8. notable
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Exercise 5: Some of the words contain suffixes. Identify all the suffixes and their meaning.
1. happiness 2. unkind 3. freedom
4. flowers 5. brother 6. blackboard
7. expression 8. noisier 9. popularize 10. Discover

Exercise 6: Some of the words contain prefixes. Identify the prefixes and their meaning.
1. discourage 4. establish 7. Receive
2. strawberry 5. Amoral 8. Devalue
3. contradict 6. Antedate 9. oration 10. hygiene

Exercise 7: Identify the base/root in the words by underlining it and state which syntactic
category it belongs to.
1. lamps: Noun 2. kindness 3. hinted
4. players 5. editors 6. grandfathers
7. weaken 8. infamous 9. falsify 10. Unlivened

Exercise 8: Analyze words into morphemes.

e.g. teacher = {teach}= FB (free base), {-er}= DS (derivational suffix)
1. longanberries 4. telephone 7. illegibly 9. declaration
2. reinterpreting 5. researchers 8. photographer 10. dictation
3. audible 6. exceptionally

Exercise 9: Analyze the following words into morphemes, then name the morphemes
according to their positions and functions as FB (free base), (BB (bound base), DP
(derivational prefix), II (inflectional infix), DS (derivational suffix), IS (inflectional suffix).
e.g. warmth: {warm}: FB, {-th}: DS
television: {tele-}: DP, {-vise-}: BB, {-ion}: DS

kingdoms beautifying deactivation undeniable

discourages declaration marriageability warmth
forgetful dictation co-presenter teething
submitted exceptionally obstructionists length
unlovable unworkability morphologically blackberries

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