UB 00902:

MEANING
IN COMMUNICATION
CONTEXT
LESSON 3:
Meaning and Morpheme

WHAT IS MORPHEME ?
Morphology, which deals with
morphemes (the minimal units of
linguistic form and meaning), and
how they make up words
Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit
in a language
It can be a phoneme, affix or word/lexicon

WHAT IS MORPHEME ?
What

is the relationship between

words and morphemes?
It's a hierarchical one: a word is
made up of one or more morphemes.
Most commonly, these morphemes
are strung together, or concatenated,
in a line

BASE MORPHEME & AFFIX

base: a morpheme that gives a word its meaning.
The base morpheme cat gives the word cats its
meaning: a particular type of animal.
affix: a morpheme that comes at the beginning
(prefix) or the ending (suffix) of a base morpheme.
Note: An affix usually is a morpheme that cannot
stand alone.

eg:

-ful, -ly, -ity, -ness. A few exceptions are able, like, and
less.

prefix: an affix that comes before a base morpheme.

The in in the word inspect is a prefix.
suffix: an affix that comes after a base morpheme.
The s in cats is a suffix

BASE MORPHEME & AFFIX

Suffixes

can also be used to tell the part of

speech of a word. The following examples
show the parts of speech indicated by the
suffixes in the chart.
Nouns: -ance, -ful, -ity, -ment, -ness, -tion
Verb: -ate
Adjectives: -able, -ful, -less, -ly
Adverb: -ly

TYPES OF MORPHEMES?
Bound

Morphemes cannot occur on their

own,
e.g. de- in detoxify, -tion in creation, -s in
dogs, cran- in cranberry.
Free Morphemes can occur as separate
words,
e.g. car, yes.

INFLECTIONAL MORPHEME
Inflectional

morpheme can only be a suffix An

inflectional morpheme creates a change in the
function of the word.
eg:

The s in cats plural;

the d in invited past tense.

INFLECTIONAL MORPHEME

The seven inflectional morphemes in English and

their meanings:
-s (plural)
-s (possessive)
noun inflections
-s ( 3rd-person singular)
-ed ( past tense)
-en (past participle)
verb inflections
-ing ( present participle)
er (comparative)
-est (superlative)
adjective & adverb inflections

DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME
Derivational

morpheme can be prefix or suffix.

Derivational morpheme changes the meaning of
the word or the part of speech or both. It creates
new words. eg. un- added to invited not;

-less added to useless without.

Here are more meaning of derivational
morphemes in English:

Prefix

Meaning

Eg of Words

ad-

to, toward

adjudge

circum-

around, about

circumscribe

com-

with, together

community

de-

away from, of

detach

dis-

away, apart

disagree

ex-

from, out

exchange

in-

not

inconsiderate

in-

in, into

intoxicant

inter-

between

Interracial, interface

mis-

wrong

misjudge

post-

after

postnatal

re-

back, again

rearrange

sub-

beneath, under

Subtitle

trans-

across

transport

un-

not

unfriend

Suffix

Meaning

eg of Words

-able (-ible)

capable of being

capable

-ance (-ence)

the act of

attendance

-ate

making or applying

-ful

full of

helpful

-ity

the state of being

ethnicity

-less

without

useless

-ly

in a certain way

badly

-ment

the result of being

movement

-ness

the state of being

happiness

-tion (-ion,
-sion)

the act of or the state of

being

reaction

ALLOMORPH, HOMONYM &

HOMOPHONE

allomorphs: diferent phonetic forms or variations

of a morpheme.
eg:

The final morphemes in the following words are

pronounced diferently, but they all indicate plurality:
dogs, cats, and horses.

homonyms: morphemes that are spelled the same

but have diferent meanings.
eg:

bear (an animal) and bear (to carry), plain (simple)

and plain ( a level area of land).

homophones: morphemes that sound alike but

have diferent meanings and spellings.
eg:

bear, bare; plain, plane; cite, sight, site.

JOURNAL 3
a)Identify and label the parts of the following
words as: bound or free, derivational or
inflectional, and base or affix. Indicate the
number of morphemes in each word.
1. postgraduate
2. citizen
3. potatoes
4. inescapable
5. driven
6. largest
7. misfortune
8. unlikely

JOURNAL 3
b)Identify and label the parts of the following
words as: bound or free, derivational or
inflectional, and base or affix. Indicate the
number of morphemes in each word.
1. datang
2. disukai
3. gangguan
4. memasuki
5. terlupa
6. mendahulukan
7. terbang
8. anaknya

JOURNAL 3
c)What is the meaning of the prefixes in Malay?
Berikan makna imbuhan awalan berikut:

Imbuhan Awalan
kedisemeNbeRterpeR-

Makna

Contoh

perkataan

JOURNAL 3
d)What is the meaning of the suffixes in Malay?
Berikan makna imbuhan akhiran berikut:

Imbuhan
Akhiran
-kan
-an
-i
-nya

Makna

Contoh Perkataan

JOURNAL 3
e) Is there any homonyms and homophones in
Malay? Give 2 sets of example each.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fromkin, Victoria, and Robert Rodman. An
Introduction to Language. 5th ed. Fort Worth:
Harcourt Brace Joanovich College Publishers, 1993.
Kolln, Martha, and Robert Funk. Understanding
English Grammar. 5th ed.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.
Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook for Writers.
3rd ed. Boston: Bedford
Books of St. Martin's Press, 1991.
Bauer, Mary Beth, et al., Grammar and
Composition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1982.