Download Bound Morphemes

UNIT 4
TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF MORPHEMES
CONTENTS
What is a morpheme?
A morpheme IS defined as the smallest grammatical unit
or
A morpheme is a short segment of language that meets the
following criteria:
1-It is a word or apart of word that has meaning.
It can not be divided into smaller meaningful parts without violating
its meaning or without meaningless remainder.
It occurs in different verbal environment with relatively stable
meaning.
Example: the word “straight” Can you divide it into smaller
meaningful units? (no) – It can be combined with other segments :
straight +en ( makes something straight)
It is a morpheme.
- Free Morphemes
Words are made up of morphemes either free or bound. The free
morpheme is the core part which usually sit anywhere within a word.
On its own, it can function as an independent word, that is, a word
that can stand on its own because it carries meaning. The following
words are free morphemes: school, church, boy, girl, teach, courage,
examine, etc. Another name for the free morpheme is the base or
stem or root. As the base or core, it can accept other elements either
before it or after it. But whether the free morpheme or base or core
is attached to another element or not, it can stand on its own. It is a
meaning carrying unit.
Bound Morphemes
1. A bound morpheme is that morpheme that cannot stand or
occur as an independent word. It has to be attached to a free
morpheme or word to have a clear meaning. Examples of
bound morphemes are –ment, -en, -ing, -ed, -ness, -ful, mis-, anti, -less,
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2-Exercise
Underline the free morphemes in the following words.
‘government’, ‘encouragement’, ‘dancing’, ‘accepted’, ‘happiness’,
‘hopeless etc. Another name for the bound morpheme is empty
morphemes.
3-They can also be called grammatical indicators because they have
the tendency to affect grammar.
3-Bound morphemes are of two types.
-Inflectional Bound Morphemes and derivational bound
morpheme
An inflectional morpheme is a type of a bound morpheme which is
defined by linguists as a mere grammatical indicator or marker. An
inflectional morpheme cannot generate or create new words nor
can it affect the grammatical class of a word.
An inflectional morpheme plays three grammatical roles in English:
1. It indicates tense – Tense relates to a verb. It then means that to
indicate tense, it affects verb. A verb is affected in the following
ways.
come come + s, come + ing,
walk walk + s, walking, walk + ed
write walk + s, write + ing, (writing), write + en (written) ‘s’ is the
third person singular marker, ‘ed’ is the past tense marker while ‘ing’
is the continuous tense marker.
2. It indicates number – plurality. Plurality deals with nouns. Nouns
are subdivided into singular and plural. Plural nouns are indicated
with plural ‘s’. Thus,
boy + s boys
school + s schools
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3-It indicates comparison. The ‘er’ and ‘est’ morphemes are
usedto indicate comparative and superlative forms of the
adjectives Adjectives have comparative form (for two items) fat +
‘er’= fatter and fast + ‘er’=faster
superlative (more than two items). fat + ‘est’ = fastest
Derivational Bound Morphemes(Affixes)
A derivational morpheme is a type of bound morpheme which is
added to words and generates or creates new words by either
changing the class of word or forming new words.
This change in word class, caused by the addition of a derivational
bound morpheme, is not restricted to a particular class of words. It
affects all classes of words. This transformation does not, however,
affect the lexical meaning of the base forms of the free morpheme.
That is, the lexical meanings of the core or base or free morpheme
remain unchanged.
Derivational Bound Morphemes( Affixes) are either suffixes or
prefixes
E.g. Suffixes
Nouns from verbs
verb
arrive
act
govern
employ
differ
Bound
morpheme
/suffixe
al
ion
ment
ee
ance
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noun
arrival
action
government
employee
difference
Adjective + suffix= noun
noun
care
home
Nigeria
friend
disaster
suffix
ful
less
n
ly
ous
adjective
careful
homeless
Nigerian
friendly
disastrous
c. Nouns from Adjectives
adjectiv
rapid
kind
intelligent
humble
suffix
ity
ness
ce
ity
noun
rapidity
kindness
intelligence
humility
. Verbs from Adjective
Adjective + Suffix= Verb
weak + en= weaken
liquid + ize= liquidize
solid + fy= solidify
. Adjectives from verbs
Verb+ Suffix =Adjective
wash +- able =washable
digest + ive= digestive
satisfy – tory= satisfactory
Verbs from nouns
Nouns+ Suffix= Verbs
special +ize =specialize
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Derivational bound morphemes, thus, have the following features:-They change the meaning or word class
e.g govern + ment government. (change the meaning and word class)
It occurs before the inflectional bound morphemes they should cooccur. For example, teach + er teacher + s teachers (verb) (bound
morpheme) (a new word) + inflectional morpheme plural's" Thus,
‘er’ comes before‘s’.
They occur before and after the base morpheme.
Prefixes examples include: - un- dis-il-ir- ab-en
Un + comfortable
Il +legal
Dis+ order= disorder
Ir+ regular= irregular
Ab+ normal= abnormal
En + able =enable
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