Morpheme

Morpheme
Examples :
What is morpheme?  Conjunctions : They are for, and, nor, but,
Morphemes are the smallest units of or, yet, and so, since, unless, because,
meaning. This means that although, while.
morphemes cannot be broken down
further and remain meaningful.  Prepositions : at, forin, off, on, over, under,
cross, behind, inside, outside, above,
below, before, after
two types of morpheme
 Articles : a, an, the
are morphemes that  Pronoun : I, you, we, they, he, she, it, me,
can stand alone as single words. For you, us, them, him, her, it
example cloud, solitude, and bliss.
Free morphemes are divided into two: are morphemes that
cannot stand alone and must be attached
a) Lexical moprheme (open class)
to another form. For example “un’ in
Lexical morphemes are the ordinary
“unhealthy”, “dis” in “disembark”, and “im”
nouns adjectives and verbs that we
in “imbalance”. Bound morphemes are
think of the words which carry the
divided into two :
content of messages we convey. They
are called open class of words, since
a) Derivational morpheme
we can add new lexical morphemes to
the language easily. Derivational morphemes can make and
E.g. : follow, type, look, yellow, act, form new words and can change the
pick, strange, sad, song class of the word.. But derivational
morpheme doesn’t always cause the
b) Functional morpheme (closed class) changed of word class ; but in such a
Functional morphemes are the case, the meaning of word will usually
functional words in the language such be significantly different from the root.
as conjunctions, prepositions, articles
and pronouns. They are called close Derivational morpheme can be prefix
class of words, since we almost never and suffix. Prefix is an affix added to
add new functional morphemes to the the beginning of the word. And suffix is
language. an affix added to the end of the word.
Examples of suffix : ful, -ness, -less, -ly, -y, vocabulary
-ish, -ment, -ous

Meaning (n)  Meaningful (adj) A bound morpheme is a meaningful

Sad (adj)  Sadness (n) grammatical unit that cannot occur
Care (v)  Careless (adj) alone.
Quick (adj)  Quickly (adv)
Beauty (n)  Beautify (v) A free morpheme is a meaningful
Yellow (n)  Yellowish (adj) grammatical unit that can stand
Establish (v)  Establishment (n) alone.
Humor (n)  Humorous (adj)
A root is a morpheme, usually but not
Example of prefix : un, im, re always a free morpheme, that serves
Touch (v)  Untouched (adj) as a building block for other words
Build (v)  Rebuild (v) and carries the main meaning of
Material (n)  Immaterial (adj) those words.

An affix is a bound morpheme that

can be added to a root.
b) Inflectional morpheme
A prefix is an affix added to the
Inflectional morpheme can make a different beginning of a root.
form of new words but doesn’t change the
meaning and the class of the words. A suffix is an affix added to the end
Inflectional morphemes influence the base of a root.
words to signal a change in quantity, person,
gender, or tense while leaving the base word's A compound is a word made up of
two or more roots.
class unchanged.

There are only 8 inflectional morphemes in

English :
1. -s plural (n) “Both chairs are broken”
2. . -’s possessive (n) “The chair’s leg is
broken”
3. -s 3rd person sg. Present (v) “He waits”
4. -ing progressive (v) “He is waiting”
5. -ed past tense (v) “He waited”
6. -en past participle (v) “I had eaten”
7. -er comparative (adj) “He was faster”
8. -est superlative (adv) “He was the fastest”
Allomorph
Allomorph and
and Allophone
What is Allomorph?
Allomorph is a variation of a morpheme.
Allomorphs of a morpheme are different  [s] If the sound of the end of the word
phonetic forms for the same meaning. is voiced or voiceless, then it will be
pronounced /s/. For example : Waits,
Looks, Laughs, Swims, Sits, Sleeps.
The allomorphs of a morpheme
 [ɪs] If the sound of the end of the
word is /s/, /z/, /tʃ/, /ʃ/, /dʒ/, and /ʒ/,
 [z] If the sound of the end of the word is then it will be pronounced /ɪs/. For
voiced, then it will be pronounced /z/. For example : Watches, Catches, Reaches,
example : Dogs, Boards, Spoons, Eggs, Rises, Matches.
 [ɪz] If the sound of the end of the word is
sibilant like /s/, /z/, /tʃ/, /ʃ/, /dʒ/, and /ʒ/, then
it will be pronounced /ɪz/. For example :
Glasses, Boxes, Beaches, Eyelashes.  a- : apolitical, asymetry
 [s] If the sound of the end of the word is  ab- : abnormal, abuse
voiceless, then it will be pronounced /s/. For  ex- : ex-husband, ex-wife
example : Grapes, Cats, Plates, Forks, Rabbits.
 anti- : antitrust, antiglare
 dis- : dislike, disagree, disadvantage
 il- : illegal, illegible
 [d] If the sound of the end of the word is  im- : impossible, immaterial
voiced, then it will be pronounced /d/. For  in- : inability, incorrect
example : Analyzed, Concerned, Deserved,
 un- : unclear, unbelievable, unfair
Exercised, Grabbed.
 ir- : irregular, irresponsible
 [t] If the sound of the end of the word is
 mal- : malfunction, malformed
voiceless, then it will be pronounced /t/. For
example : Clapped, Laughed, Attached,  mis- : misheard, misadvanture
Chased, Fixed.  non- : non-addictive, nonconformist
 [ɪd] If the sound of the end of the word
is /d/ or /t/, then it will be pronounced /ɪd/.
For example : Applauded, Appreciated,
Attracted, Attended, Avoided.
 What is allophone?
A simple example is the English word a. It Allophone is a variant of the same phoneme.
means something like “one of something, but Phoneme is rge smallest meaning-
not any particular one”, like in these examples: distinguishing sound unit in a language.
 a book
 a skirt Examples of Allophones
 a friend
 a phone call

But if the word following a begins with a vowel has 2 allophones : aspirated and non
and not a consonant, then the word a changes aspirated
its form:  Aspirated : if the first sound of a word
 an apple is voiceless stop consonant and
 an ice cream cone followed by stressed vowel. E.g. pen, pat,
 an iguana pad, purple, taxi, tax, tape, cat, caught,
 an idea cool
 Non aspirated : If the voiceless stop
consonant sound is not in the beginning
The two forms a and an are slightly different of the word. It can be in the middle or
in their form, but they clearly both have the in the end of the word. Voiceless stops
same meaning. And each one shows up in a are unaspirated at the beginning of an
different predictable environment: a before unstressed syllable. E.g. mop, map, rat,
words that start with consonants root, let, look, make, cake
and an before words that begin with vowels.
 Voiced conosnant never aspirated, they
always unaspirated.
 The tables
Prefix and Suffix as “verb” Makers

Prefix Meaning Examples interact,

inter- between intermix,
restructure, interface
revisit,
again or pre-expose,
re- back
reappear,
rebuild, pre- before prejudge,
refinance pretest
disappear, under/belo subcontract,
reverses sub- w subdivide
disallow,
the
dis- meaning of
disarm,
disconnect, transform,
the verb trans- across, over transcribe,
discontinue
transplant
overbook,
over- too much oversleep, underfund,
overwork under not enough undersell,
undervalue,
- underdevelo
reverses
unbend, p
the
un- meaning of
uncouple,
unfasten
the verb
mislead, Suffix Example
badly or
mis- wrongly
misinform, stabilise, characterise,
misidentify -ise symbolise, visualise,
more or specialise
outperform,
out- better than
outbid differentiate, liquidate,
others -ate pollinate, duplicate,
make or befriend, fabricate
be- cause belittle classify, exemplify,
-fy simplify, justify
co-exist, co-
co- together operate, co- awaken, fasten, shorten,
own -en moisten
do the devalue,
de- opposite of deselect
Prefix + verb = verb
earlier, foreclose,
fore- before foresee