Free and bound morphemes

A broad distinction can be made between two types of morphemes. There are
freemorphemes, that is, morphemes that can stand by themselves as single words,
for example, open and tour. There are also bound morphemes, which are those
forms that cannot normally stand alone and are typically attached to another
form, exemplified as re-, -ist, -ed, -s. These forms were described in Chapter 5 as
affixes. So, we can say that all affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in English are
bound morphemes. The free morphemes can generally be identified as the set of
separate English word forms such as basic nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. When
they are used with bound morphemes attached, the basic word forms are
technically known as stems. For example: undressed carelessness un- dress -ed
care -less -ness prefix stem suffix stem suffix suffix (bound) (free) (bound) (free)
(bound) (bound) We should note that this type of description is a partial
simplification of the morphological facts of English. There are a number of
English words in which the element treated as the stem is not, in fact, a free
morpheme. In words such as receive, reduce and repeat, we can identify the
bound morpheme re- at the beginning, but the elements -ceive, -duce and -peat
are not separate word forms and hence cannot be free morphemes. These types of
forms are sometimes described as “bound stems” to keep them distinct from
“free stems” such as dress and care.
Lexical and functional morphemes
What we have described as free morphemes fall into two categories. The first
category is that set of ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs that we think of as the
words that carry the “content” of the messages we convey. These free
morphemes are called lexical morphemes and some examples are: girl, man,
house, tiger, sad, long, yellow, sincere, open, look, follow, break. We can add
new lexical morphemes to the language rather easily, so they are treated as an
“open” class of words. Other types of free morphemes are called functional
morphemes. Examples are and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the, that,
it, them. This set consists largely of the functional words in the language such as
conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns. Because we almost never add
new functional morphemes to the language, they are described as a “closed” class
of words.

BASES (or ROOTS) vs. AFFIXES

A base (also called A root) is ‘that morpheme in a word that has
the principal meaning’ . It is the central morpheme, the basic part of a word.
There are two kinds of bases:
A FREE BASE is a base ‘which may be a word on its own right once the other
morphemes have been stripped away’
E.g. break in unbreakable, act in deactivated, friend in friendship, etc.
A BOUND BASE is a base (i.e. it is the basic part of a word and has the
principal meaning) which can never occur on its own but can only be joined to
other bound morphemes.
E.g. The bound base of audience, audible, audition, auditory, auditorium,etc. is
audi–;
that of suicide, patricide, matricide, infanticide, etc. is –cide; and that of
suspender, pendant, pendulum, etc. is –pend or pend–.
Common Latin Roots

Latin Root Definition Examples

ambi both ambiguous, ambidextrous

aqua water aquarium, aquamarine

aud to hear audience, audition

bene good benefactor, benevolent

cent one hundred century, percent

circum around circumference, circumstance

contra/counter against contradict, encounter

dict to say dictation, dictator

duc/duct to lead conduct, induce

fac to do; to make factory, manufacture

form shape conform, reform

fort strength fortitude, fortress

fract to break fracture, fraction

ject throw projection, rejection

jud judge judicial, prejudice

mal bad malevolent, malefactor

mater mother material, maternity

mit to send transmit, admit

mort death mortal, mortician

multi many multimedia, multiple

pater father paternal, paternity

port to carry portable, transportation

rupt to break bankrupt, disruption

scrib/scribe to write inscription, prescribe

sect/sec to cut bisect, section

sent to feel; to send consent, resent

spect to look inspection, spectator

struct to build destruction, restructure

vid/vis to see video, televise

voc voice; to call vocalize, advocate

Common Greek Roots

Greek Root Definition Examples

anthropo man; human; humanity anthropologist, philanthropy

auto self autobiography, automobile

bio life biology, biography

chron time chronological, chronic

dyna power dynamic, dynamite

dys bad; hard; unlucky dysfunctional, dyslexic

gram thing written epigram, telegram

graph writing graphic, phonograph

hetero different heteronym, heterogeneous

homo same homonym, homogenous

hydr water hydration, dehydrate

hypo below; beneath hypothermia, hypothetical

logy study of biology, psychology

meter/metr measure thermometer, perimeter

micro small microbe, microscope

mis/miso hate misanthrope, misogyny

mono one monologue, monotonous

morph form; shape morphology, morphing

nym name antonym, synonym

phil love philanthropist, philosophy

phobia fear claustrophobia, phobic

phon sound phone, symphony

photo/phos light photograph, phosphorous

pseudo false pseudonym, pseudoscience

psycho soul; spirit psychology, psychic

scope viewing instrument microscope, telescope

techno art; science; skill technique, technological

tele far off television, telephone

therm heat thermal, thermometer

Categories of free morphemes

Lexical morphemes
Morphemes that carry the content or meaning of the messages that we are
conveying. In order to identify a lexical morpheme, ask yourself this: “If this
morpheme was deleted, would I not be able to understand the main message of
this sentence?” If the answer is yes, then you have a lexical morpheme.
Examples of lexical morphemes: follow, type, look, yellow, act, pick, strange
-ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs
-carry the ‘content’ of the messages we convey
-e.g. girl, man, house, tiger, sad, long, yellow, open, look, break
-Open class of words; new lexical morphemes can easily be added to the
language.
Functional morphemes
Morphemes that do not carry the content of a message, but rather help the
grammar of the sentence function. These free morphemes can be identified by
asking yourself this question: “If this morpheme was deleted, would I still be
able to understand the main message of this sentence?” If the answer is yes, then
you have a functional morpheme. Closed class of words; we almost never add
new functional morphemes.
 Articles: the, a, an
 Demonstratives: this, that, those, these
 Auxiliary Verbs: will, is, must, does
 Quantifiers: some, many, few
  Prepositions: under, over, to, by
 Pronouns: he, she, his, her
 Conjunctions: for, and, but, or

What are the Lexical & functional morphemes in the following sentences.
1.She doesn’t study German on Monday.
2.Does she live in Paris?
3.He doesn’t teach math.
4.Cats hate water.
5.Every child likes an ice cream.
6.My brother takes out the trash.
7.The course starts next Sunday.
8.She swims every morning.
9.I don’t wash the dishes.
10.We see them every week.

AN AFFIX is a morpheme (usually a bound morpheme) ‘that occurs before or

behind a base’ .Classified according to their POSITION in words, affixes have
three main subclasses:
• PREFIXES ‘occur before a base’ as in import, prefix, reconsider, unkind,
understate, over-react, etc.
• SUFFIXES ‘occur after a base’ as in shrinkage, noisy, quickly, nails, dreamed,
mouse-like, etc.
• INFIXES are inserted within words, e.g. the infix –um–in
Tagalog(Phillippenese),which shows that a verb is in the past tense: sulat (to
write) sumulat (wrote).
Affixes may be added directly to bases or to constructions consisting of a base
plus one or more (either free or bound) morphemes. Thus we have:
work + –s = works
worker + –s = workers
workshop + –s = workshops

Bound morphemes: Derivational & Inflectional

Categories of bound morphemes
Derivational morphemes ‘which may be prefixes or suffixes in English, have a
lexical function; they create new words out of existing words or morphemes by
their addition’.
Derivational affixes may be of two kinds:
1- Class-changing derivational affixes change the word class of the word to
which they are attached: –al added to nation makes an adjective out of a
noun.
2- Class-maintaining derivational affixes do not change the word class of
the word to which they are attached. Derivational prefixes are usually
class-maintaining: re–mark, dis–agree, un–refined, etc.

There is not usually more than one prefix in a word in English and from
what was said in the previous paragraphs, it is clear that English prefixes are
always derivational. There is never more than one inflectional suffix in
English words and it always comes last. A number of derivational suffixes may,
however, occur. Derivational suffixes need not close off a word; that is, after a
derivational suffix one can sometimes add another derivational suffix and can
frequently add an inflectional suffix(e.g. teachers). The relative order of
morphemes in the English word is, then, as follows:
derivational prefix – base – derivational suffix(es) – inflectional suffix
Generally speaking, bases are central and affixes are peripheral. In
English, affixes are almost always bound morphemes and bases are nearly
always free.

Inflectional morphemes
Morphemes that indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word, such as
changing a word into a plural or possessive form. In order to identify an
inflectional morpheme, ask yourself this: “By adding this bound morpheme, does
it keep the word in the same grammatical category, but change some aspect of
it?” If the answer is yes, then you have an inflectional morpheme. English only
has 8 inflectional morphemes.
1- the noun plural morpheme {–S1}: book–s, apple–s, box–es, etc.
2- the noun possessive morpheme {–S2}: man–‘s, girl–‘s, students–‘,
Alice–‘s, etc.
3- the verb third person singular present tense morpheme {–S3}: walk–s,
find–s, mix–es, etc.
4- the verb present participle morpheme {–ing1}: play–ing, typ(e)–ing,
dig(g)–ing, etc.
5- the verb past simple morpheme {–D1}: flow–ed, work–ed, creat(e)–ed,
drank, broke, thought, show–ed, etc.
6- the verb past participle morpheme{–D2}: flow–ed, work–ed, creat(e)–ed,
drunk, broken, thought, show–n, etc.
7- the adjective or adverb comparative morpheme {–er1}: small–er, saf(e)–er,
thinn–er, long–er, fast–er, hard–er, etc.
8- the adjective or adverb superlative morpheme {–est1}: small–est, saf(e)–
est, thinn–est, long–est, fast–est, hard–est, etc.
In English, all the inflectional morphemes are suffixes.
Common Prefixes

Prefix Definition Examples

anti- against anticlimax

de- opposite devalue

dis- not; opposite of discover

en-, em- cause to enact, empower

fore- before; front of foreshadow, forearm

in-, im- in income, impulse

in-, im-, il-, ir- not indirect, immoral, illiterate, irreverent

inter- between; among interrupt

mid- middle midfield

mis- wrongly misspell

non- not nonviolent

over- over; too much overeat

pre- before preview

re- again rewrite

semi- half; partly; not fully semifinal

sub- under subway

super- above; beyond superhuman

trans- across transmit

un- not; opposite of unusual

under- under; too little underestimate

Common Suffixes

Suffix Definition Examples

-able, -ible is; can be affordable, sensible

-al, -ial having characteristics of universal, facial

the dog walked,

-ed past tense verbs; adjectives
the walked dog

-en made of golden

one who;
-er, -or teacher, professor
person connected with

-er more taller

-est the most tallest

-ful full of helpful

-ic having characteristics of poetic

verb forms;
-ing sleeping
present participles

-ion, -tion, -ation, submission, motion,

act; process
-tion relation, edition

-ity, -ty state of activity, society

-ive, -ative, active, comparative,

adjective form of noun
-itive sensitive

-less without hopeless

-ly how something is lovely

-ment state of being; act of contentment

-ness state of; condition of openness

riotous, courageous,
-ous, -eous, -ious having qualities of
gracious

-s, -es more than one trains, trenches

 -The child’s wildness shocked the teachers. There are 11 morphemes.

lexical (child, teach, wild,

shock)

free

functional (the, the)

Morphemes

derivational(-er-, -ness)

bound

inflectional (-’s, s , -ed)

1-Determine what type of morphemes are in the sentences.

1-Sarah and Ira drove to the store.
2-Jenny and I opened all the gifts.
3-My parents and I went to a movie.
4-Samantha, Elizabeth, and Joan are on the committee.
5-The car turned the corner.
6-Kelly twirled in circles.
7-She opened the door.
8-They made a number of pictures.
9-Open the jar carefully.
10-These sentences have just one independent clause.

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

Edinburgh University Press
-M. Haspelmath and A. Sims (2010): Understanding Morphology. Hodder Education, an
Hachette UK Company.(Ch2)
-Stageberg, N., & Oakes, D. (2000). An Introductory English Grammar (5th ed.). Orlando,
FL.: Harcourt College Publishers.(Ch8)
-Yule,G.(2010).The study of Language(4th ed.).Cambridge.CUP.(Ch 6)