Definition

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language. A

morpheme is not identical to a word. The main difference between them
is that a morpheme sometimes does not stand alone, but a word, by
definition, always stands alone.

A morpheme can be defined as a minimal unit having more or less

constant meaning and more of less constant form.

For example, linguists say that the word buyers is made up of three
morphemes {buy}+{er}+{s}. The evidence for this is that each can
occur in other combinations without changing its meaning. We can find
{buy} in buying, buys, and {er} in seller, fisher, as well as buyer. And
{s} can be found in boys, girls, and dogs.
Classification of morphemes

Free and bound morphemes

Every morpheme can be classified as either free or bound. Since the
categories are mutually exclusive, a given morpheme will belong to
exactly one of them.

 Free morphemes can function independently as words

(e.g. town, dog) and can appear within lexemes (e.g. town
hall, doghouse).
 Bound morphemes appear only as parts of words, always in
conjunction with a root and sometimes with other bound morphemes.
For example, un- appears only accompanied by other morphemes to
form a word. Most bound morphemes in English are affixes,
particularly prefixes and suffixes. Examples of suffixes are -tion, -
sion, -tive, -ation, -ible, and -ing. Bound morphemes that are not
affixed are called cranberry morphemes.
Classification of bound morphemes
Bound morphemes can be further classified as derivational or
inflectional morphemes. The main difference between derivational
morphemes and inflectional morphemes is their function for words.
Derivational morphemes

 Derivational morphemes, when combined with a root, change the

semantic meaning or the part of speech of the affected word. For
example, in the word happiness, the addition of the bound
morpheme -ness to the root happy changes the word from
an adjective (happy) to a noun (happiness). In the
word unkind, un- functions as a derivational morpheme since it
inverts the meaning of the word formed by the root kind. Generally,
affixes used with a root word are bound morphemes.
We have many more morphemes called derivational affixes, which go
at the start of words (prefixes) or the end (suffixes) to change their
meaning or word type. For example, we can add:

 "anti" before a noun adds the meaning "against" e.g. antiwar,

anticlimax, antidote.
 "ante" adds the meaning "before" as in antechamber, antecedent,
antenatal (but beware, sometimes the meaning "ante" is spelt "anti"
as in anticipate, antique)
 "omni" adds the meaning "all/every", as in omnivorous,
omniscient, omnibus.
 "ist", "ian" or "eer" after a noun to add the meaning "one who…"
e.g. pianist, dramatist, optometrist, politician, magician, musician,
mountaineer, musketeer, engineer.
 "vore" after a noun adds the meaning "eater", as in carnivore,
herbivore, omnivore, locavore.
 "gate" has within my lifetime become a suffix which turns a word
into a scandal, as in Watergate, Camillagate and Wormgate (an
Australian federal election debate controversy).
 "er" after a verb to add the meaning "one who…" or "that
which…" e.g. dancer, swimmer, repairer, can-opener, toaster,
typewriter. However, "er" is not always a suffix when it appears at
word endings – a brother is not someone who broths, and water is
not a thing that wats,
 "ity" after a verb to make it into a noun e.g. prosperity, equality,
security.
 "un" before a verb to reverse its action e.g. undo, unpack, unlace,
unwind, unpick.
 "ment" after a verb to turn a verb into a noun e.g. embarrassment,
 "ly" after an adjective to make it into an adverb e.g. kindly, quietly,
aggressively.
 "ous" after an adjective to add the meaning "full of" or
"possessing" e.g. joyous, nervous, spacious.

Categories of Free Morphemes

There are two categories. These are Lexical morphemes and

Functional morphemes.

Lexical Morphemes

These morphemes carry ‘content’ of messages we convey. In other

words, lexical morphemes are content words. A content word is a
word that is semantically meaningful; a word that has dictionary
meaning. Examples of these words are nouns, adjectives verbs and
adverbs. They are words that belong to the Open Class of the Parts
of Speech or Word Classes in English.

Functional Morphemes

These morphemes consist mainly of the functional words in the

English language and they include words that belong to the Closed
Class of the Parts of Speech or Word Classes in English. Examples
are conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns and articles. Functional
words or grammatical words do not contain meanings on their own
 except when used alongside content or lexical words. They have
no dictionary meaning and only perform a grammatical function.

Inflectional morphemes
Inflectional morphemes modify the tense, aspect, mood, person,
or number of a verb, or the number, gender, or case of a noun,
adjective, or pronoun, without affecting the word's meaning or class
(part of speech). Examples of applying inflectional morphemes to
words are adding -s to the root dog to form dogs, or adding -ed to wait to
form waited. An inflectional morpheme changes the form of a word.
There are a large number of derivational affixes in English. In contrast,
there are only eight "inflectional affixes" in English, and these are all
suffixes. English has the following inflectional suffixes, which serve a
variety of grammatical functions when added to specific types of words.
These grammatical functions are shown to the right of each suffix.

-s noun plural
-'s noun possessive
-s verb present tense third person singular
-ing verb present participle/gerund
-ed verb simple past tense
-en verb past perfect participle
-er adjective comparative
-est adjective superlative

Two inflectional suffixes are added to the ends of nouns:

 Plurals: show there's more than one of something. The usual

plural morpheme is "s" or "es" e.g. cat-cats, dog-dogs, witch-
witches. However, sometimes we form plurals in unusual ways, in
words that come from Old English, Latin or French e.g. mouse-
mice, child-children, radius-radii, phenomenon-phenomena, genus-
 genera, larva-larvae, bureau-bureaux etc. Click here for more
examples.
 The possessive: shows that something belongs to a noun, and is
written as an apostrophe + "s" e.g. the frog's leg, the city's skyline,
the cat's pyjamas. If we are talking about two frogs having four
legs, we just add a possessive apostrophe after the plural "s" ("the
frogs' legs).

Two inflectional suffixes are added to the ends of adjectives:

 The comparative: is used to make adjectives that compare things,

and written "er" e.g. funkier, lazier, redder.
 The superlative: is like the comparative, only moreso, and written
"est" e.g. funkiest, laziest, reddest.

Four inflectional suffixes are added to the ends of verbs:

 Third person singular present tense: is the "s" verb agreement in

"she sleeps", "he wakes" or "it lurks".
 Simple past tense: is usually "ed" as in "it lurked" but we also
have many irregular forms from good old Old English, like "she
slept" and "he woke", where it is hard to say which bit of the word
is the base word and which bit is the past tense, but there are still
two meanings and therefore two morphemes.
 Past participle: usually "en" as in "she has chosen" or "he had
woken" or "ed" as in "they have danced" or "we have smashed",
but there are again many irregular forms e.g. "I have slept", "you
had crept" etc. There are many lists of irregular simple past and
past participle verbs on the www, click here for one from the
British Council.
 Present participle: the "ing" that shows continuous action e.g.
"she is carousing", "he was prancing". Note that these "ing" words
can be used as adjectives e.g. "The prancing pony", or they can be
used as nouns e.g. "Prancing has worn me out".

Differences
 All affixes are bound and they are of two types: derivational
morphemes and inflectional morphemes. Morphology “is
concerned with two quite different phenomena: derivation and
inflection. Derivation has to do with the way morphemes get
attached as affixes to existing lexical forms or stems in the process
of word formation”. While inflectional morphology “does not
create new words but adapts existing words so that they operate
effectively in sentences. It is not a process of lexical innovation but
of grammatical function. The differences between them are many,
yet the most important ones are as follows:

Derivation Inflection

1. Many words contain several 1. There is only one inflectional

derivational affixes. affix in each word except for plural -
e.g., unkindly. Kind is the root. s and s of possessive. e.g., cats’
While un- and -ly are derivational cheese. Cats’ is both plural and
affixes. (11) possessive in meaning.

2. They never close off the word. 2. They close off the word. e.g.
e.g. playful plays

3. They can be found in 3. They cannot be found in

dictionaries. dictionaries.

4. Derivational is irrelevant to
4. Inflectional is relevant to syntax.
syntax.

5. It is optional. 5. It is obligatory.

6. Expresses the same concept as the

6. Expresses a new concept.
base.
7. Derivational meanings are 7. Inflectional categories express a
relatively concrete relatively abstract meaning.

8. Derivational is semantically 8. Inflectional is semantically

irregular. regular.

9. The meanings are relevant to the 9. The meanings are less relevant to
meaning of the base. the meaning of the base.

10. Derivation is expressed at the 10. Inflection is expressed close to

periphery of words. the root.