MAKALAH ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY AND

SYNTAX
MORPHEME

Burhansyah, S.Pd. M.A

Muhammad Sofian (2006102020075)

Muhammad Daffa Akbar (2006102020059)

PRODI PENDIDIKAN BAHASA INGGRIS

FAKULTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN
UNIVERSITAS SYIAH KUALA
2023
 Contents
CHAPTER 1 ...................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 3
A. Background............................................................................................................. 3
B. Problem Formulation............................................................................................... 3
C. Objective of the paper ............................................................................................. 3
CHAPTER 2 ...................................................................................................................... 4
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................... 4
A. Definition of morpheme ........................................................................................... 4
B. How to identify a morpheme ................................................................................... 4
C. Type of morpheme .................................................................................................. 4
D. Structure of morpheme ........................................................................................... 5
E. Morpheme: affixes .................................................................................................. 5
F. Morphemes: categories .......................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 3 ...................................................................................................................... 9
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 9
REFERENCE .................................................................................................................. 10
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
It is quite known that English is one of the languages that has unique roots in
how its words are built. Many aspects affect the creation of a word in English. In
different circumstances and situations, words can be modified according to their use.
On certain occasions, some words can be changed into different forms. Each form
could have different meanings based on the context that is occasionally used. Of
course, there are rules and certain ways to understand this transformation of words.
One of the studies that massively underlie the concept of words is Morphology.
Now, Morphology is the arrangement and relationship of the smallest
meaningful units in a language. The word Morphology is from Greece “morphe“
that has to mean “forms”. It means that morphology is a science of language that
focuses on language and how that language's special words are formed. Morphology
is the study of the basic building blocks of meaning in language. Morphology is the
study of how words are put together or “shaped” by using morphemes, which include
prefixes, roots, and suffixes.
The term “morpheme” is essential to word transformation. It is the smallest
unit of a word that has meaning. The transformation of certain words can be caused
by simple morpheme changes. In this paper, we will briefly explain what a morpheme
is and several explanations related to It.
B. Problem Formulation
1. What is morpheme?
2. How to identify a morpheme?
3. What are the type of morpheme?
4. Is there any structure of morpheme?
5. What are affixes?
6. What are the categories of morpheme?
C. Objective of the paper
1. To know the definition of morpheme
2. To know how to identify a morpheme
3. To acknowledge the type of morpheme
4. To understand the structure of morpheme
5. To know affixes
6. To find out the categories of morpheme
 CHAPTER 2
DISCUSSION
A. Definition of morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning within a word. These units of meaning
are spelled consistently even though their pronunciation may change within words, e.g.,
child/children, heal/healthy. Understanding morphemes is important for understanding
reading and spelling. English has a complex writing system that is representative of both
sound and meaning. Morphology is the study of words, word formation, and the
relationship between words. In Morphology, we look at morphemes - the smallest lexical
items of meaning.

B. How to identify a morpheme

We can identify morphemes by seeing if the word or letters in question meet the
following criteria:
Morphemes must have meaning. E.g. the word 'cat' represents and small furry animal.
The suffix '-s' you might find at the end of the word 'cat' represents plurality.
Morphemes cannot be divided into smaller parts without losing or changing their
meaning. E.g. dividing the word 'cat' into 'ca' leaves us with a meaningless set of letters.
The word 'at' is a morpheme in its own right.
C. Type of morpheme
There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes and bound morphemes.

1. Free morphemes
Free morphemes can stand alone and don't need to be attached to any other
morphemes to get their meaning. Most words are free morphemes, such as the
above-mentioned words house, book, bed, light, world, people, and so on.

2. Bound morphemes
Bound morphemes, however, cannot stand alone. The most common examples
of bound morphemes are suffixes, such as -s, -er, -ing, and -est.

Let's look at some examples of free and bound morphemes:

Tall
Tree
-er
-s
'Tall' and 'Tree' are free morphemes.
We understand what 'tall' and 'tree' mean; they don't require extra add-ons. We can
use them to create a simple sentence like 'That tree is tall.'
On the other hand, '-er' and '-s' are bound morphemes. You won't see them on their
own because they are suffixes that add meaning to the words they are attached to.
 So if we add '-er' to 'tall' we get the comparative form 'taller', while 'tree' plus '-
s' becomes plural: 'trees'.
D. Structure of morpheme
Morphemes are made up of two separate classes.
- Bases (or roots)
- Affixes

A morpheme's base is the main root that gives the word its meaning.
On the other hand, an affix is a morpheme we can add that changes or modifies
the meaning of the base.

E. Morpheme: affixes
Affixes are bound morphemes that occur before or after a base word. They are made
up of suffixes and prefixes.
Suffixes are attached to the end of the base or root word. Some of the most
common suffixes include -er, -or, -ly, -ism, and -less.

Prefixes come before the base word. Typical prefixes include ante-, pre-, un-
, and dis-.
 1. Derivational affixes
Derivational affixes are used to change the meaning of a word by building on its
base. For instance, by adding the prefix 'un-' to the word 'kind', we got a new word
with a whole new meaning. In fact, 'unkind' has the exact opposite meaning of 'kind'!
Another example is adding the suffix '-or' to the word 'act' to create 'actor'. The
word 'act' is a verb, whereas 'actor' is a noun.
2. Inflectional affixes
Inflectional affixes only modify the meaning of words instead of changing them. This
means they modify the words by making them plural, comparative, or superlative, or
by changing the verb tense.

There are many derivational affixes in English, but only eight inflectional affixes and
these are all suffixes.

F. Morphemes: categories
The free morphemes we looked at earlier (such as tree, book, and tall) fall into two
categories:
- Lexical morphemes
- Functional morphemes

1. Lexical morphemes
Lexical morphemes are words that give us the main meaning of a sentence, text, or
conversation. These words can be nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Examples of lexical
morphemes include:
Because we can add new lexical morphemes to a language (new words get added to
the dictionary each year!), they are considered an 'open' class of words.
2. Functional morphemes
Functional (or grammatical) morphemes are mostly words that have a functional
purpose, such as linking or referencing lexical words. Functional morphemes include
prepositions, conjunctions, articles, and pronouns. Examples of functional
morphemes include:

We can rarely add new functional morphemes to the language, so we call this a
Closed’ class of words.

3. Allomorphs
Allomorphs are a variant of morphemes. An allomorph is a unit of meaning that can
change its sound and spelling but doesn't change its meaning and function.

Past tense allomorphs

In English, regular verbs use the past tense morpheme -ed; this shows us
that the verb happened in the past. The pronunciation of this morpheme
changes its sound according to the last consonant of the verb but always
keeps its past tense function. This is an example of an allomorph.
 Plural allomorphs
Typically we add 's' or 'es' to most nouns in English when we want to create
the plural form. The plural forms 's' or 'es' remain the same and have the
same function, but their sound changes depending on the form of the noun.
The plural morpheme has three allomorphs: [s], [z], and [ɨz].
When a noun ends in a voiceless consonant (i.e. ch, f, k, p, s, sh, t, th), the
plural allomorph is /s/.

When a noun ends in a voiced phoneme (i.e. b, l, r, j, d, v, m, n, g, w, z, a, e, i,

o, u) the plural form remains 's' or 'es' but the allomorph sound changes to /z/.

When a noun ends in sibilant (i.e. s, ss, z), the sounds of the allomorph sound
become/iz/.

4. Zero (bound) morphemes

The zero-bound morpheme has no phonetic form and is also referred to as an
invisible affix, null morpheme, or ghost morpheme. A zero morpheme is when a word
changes its meaning but does not change its form.
In English, certain nouns and verbs do not change their appearance even when they
change number or tense.
 CHAPTER 3
CONCLUSION
Morphemes are the smallest lexical unit of meaning. Most words are free morphemes, and
most affixes are bound morphemes. Also, there are two types of morphemes namely free
morphemes and bound morphemes, where free morphemes can stand alone and bound
morphemes must be attached to another morphemes to get their meaning. It is also
important to notice that morphemes are made up of two separate classes called bases ( or
roots) and affixes. Finally, free morphemes fall into two categories; lexical and functional.
Lexical morphemes are words that give us the main meaning of a sentence, while functional
morphemes have a grammatical purpose.
 REFERENCE
https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english/english-grammar/morphemes/
https://fivefromfive.com.au/phonics-teaching/essential-principles-of-systematic-and-explicit-
phonics-instruction/morphemes/
https://www.scribd.com/document/422740311/Makalah-Morphology