Morpheme: Difference between revisions
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# ''Derivational morpheme'': a morpheme which can be derived (added) to another morpheme to create a new word (such as adding '''-ness''' to ''happy'' to form the new word ''happiness'') |
# ''Derivational morpheme'': a morpheme which can be derived (added) to another morpheme to create a new word (such as adding '''-ness''' to ''happy'' to form the new word ''happiness'') |
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# ''Inflectional morpheme'': a morpheme which can change a word's tense, number, etc. (such as adding '''-s''' to ''dog'' to form the plural ''dogs'') |
# ''Inflectional morpheme'': a morpheme which can change a word's tense, number, etc. (such as adding '''-s''' to ''dog'' to form the plural ''dogs'') |
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# ''Allomorphs'': different types of the same morpheme (for example, the morpheme ''ed'' can have the sound |
# ''Allomorphs'': different types of the same morpheme (for example, the morpheme ''ed'' can have the sound /-ɪd/ in the word ''hunt'''ed''''', the sound /-t/ in the word ''fish'''ed''''' or the sound /-d/ in the word ''buzz'''ed''''') |
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Revision as of 03:44, 9 August 2019
A morpheme is the smallest linguistic part of a word that can have a meaning. In other words, it is the smallest meaningful part of a word. Examples of morphemes would be the parts "un-", "break", and "-able" in the word "unbreakable".
There are 5 types of morpheme:
- Free morpheme: a morpheme which can be joined with other morphemes (such as unbreakable) or on its own (such as break)
- Bound morpheme: a morpheme which can only be used when joined to other morphemes (such as unbreakable)
- Derivational morpheme: a morpheme which can be derived (added) to another morpheme to create a new word (such as adding -ness to happy to form the new word happiness)
- Inflectional morpheme: a morpheme which can change a word's tense, number, etc. (such as adding -s to dog to form the plural dogs)
- Allomorphs: different types of the same morpheme (for example, the morpheme ed can have the sound /-ɪd/ in the word hunted, the sound /-t/ in the word fished or the sound /-d/ in the word buzzed)
