Morphology

Morphology
The field of linguistics that studies

the internal
structure of words
Source: The Study of Language 2010 by G. Yule chapter 6

Morphemes
The Words Talk, talks, talker, talked, talking
consist of (one element ‘talk’ + other elements
‘ -s, -er, -ed, -ing’)
All these elements are morphemes
A morpheme: A minimal unit of meaning or

grammatical function (it can’t be broken
down into smaller components)
Morphemes
reopened
re- open -ed
Minimal unit of Minimal unit Minimal unit of

meaning of meaning grammatical function
Morphemes
tourists
tour -ist -s
Minimal unit of Minimal unit Minimal unit of

meaning of meaning grammatical function
Free and bound morphemes
Free and bound morphemes
• All affixes (prefixes & suffixes) in English are bound morphemes.
• Free morphemes = separate English word forms (basic nouns,

adjectives, verbs, etc.)
• When free morphemes are used with bound morphemes, the basic word
forms are known as stems
undressed carelessness
un- dress -ed care -less -ness
prefix stem suffix stem suffix suffix
(bound) (free) (bound) (free) (bound) (bound)

Free morphemes: Lexical and Functional
Lexical morphemes:
• ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs
• They carry the ‘content’ of the messages we convey
• e.g. girl, man, house, tiger, sad, long, yellow, open, look, break
• New lexical morphemes can easily be added to the language, so

they are treated as an open class of words
Functional morphemes:
• Functional words (conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns)
• e.g. and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the, it, tchem
• Because we almost never add new functional morphemes to the

language, they are described as a closed class of words.
Bound morphemes
There are two kinds of bound morphemes:
Derivational bound morphemes

&
Inflectional bound morphemes
Derivational bound morphemes
•Derivational morphemes:
• We use them to make new words or words of a different grammatical category from
the stem.
• They include suffixes & prefixes
e.g. good (adj.) >> goodness (n.)
care (n.) >> careful or careless (adj.)

write (v.) >> rewrite
(v.) judge (v.) >> prejudge(v)
•More examples:
• -ic Noun >> Adj alcohol >> alcoholic
• -ly Adj >> Adv quick >> quickly
• -ate Noun >> Verb vaccine >> vaccinate
• -ity Adj >> Noun active >> activity
• -ship Noun >> Noun friend >> friendship
• -ish Adj >> Noun fool >> foolish
• -ment Verb >> Noun pay >> payment
Inflectional bound morphemes
Inflectional morphemes:
• Not used to produce new words in the language.
• Used to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. (plural,
singular, past tense, comparative, possessive)
• English has only 8 inflectional morphemes
Noun
• -s plural e.g. books
• -’s possessive e.g. The girl’s book
Verb
• -s 3rd person singular simple present e.g. walks
• -ing present progressive e.g. walking
• -ed past tense e.g. walked
• -en past participle e.g. written
Adjective
• -er comparative e.g. taller
Morphological description
An inflectional morpheme never changes the

grammatical category of a word.
• e.g. old, older, oldest are all adjectives
A derivational morpheme can change the grammatical

category of a word.
• e.g. teach (v.) >> teacher (n.)
• Bound morphemes always appear in order, first

derivational then inflectional. (e.g. teachers)
There are 11 morphemes in the sentence:
The child’s wildness shocked the teachers.
MORPHEMES
FREE MORPHEMES BOUND MORPHEMES
FREE LEXICAL FREE FUNCTIONAL BOUND BOUND

MORPHEMES MORPHEMES DERIVATIONAL INFLECTIONAL
MORPHEMES MORPHEMES
child, wild, The , the -ness, -er -’s, -ed, -s

shock, teach
Morphs and allomorphs
Morphs are the actual forms used to realize

morphemes.
A group of different morphs, all versions of

one morpheme, are referred to as
allomorphs of that morpheme
Morphs and allomorphs
cars (car + -s) = (lexical + inflectional ‘plural’)
buses (bus + -es) = (lexical + inflectional ‘plural’)
2 morphs (-s & -es) used to realize the inflectional
morpheme ‘plural’. Both -s & -es are allomorphs of
the morpheme ‘plural’.
There are more allomorphs of the morpheme
‘plural’:
Cat + plural = cats = (cat + -s)
Bus + plural = buses = (bus + -es)
Sheep + plural = sheep= (sheep + ∅ )
Man + plural = men = (æ > ɛ)
NOTE:
Less in less than an hour is a free functional
morpheme
Less in careless is a derivational bound morpheme
Or in right or wrong is a free functional
morpheme
Or in editor is a bound derivational morpheme.
Er in driver is a derivational bound morpheme.
Er in taller is a bound inflectional morpheme.
En in written is a bound inflectional morpheme.
En in lengthen is a derivational bound morpheme.

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The field of linguistics that studies

Source: The Study of Language 2010 by G. Yule chapter 6

All these elements are morphemes

A morpheme: A minimal unit of meaning or

re- open -ed

Minimal unit of Minimal unit Minimal unit of

Minimal unit of Minimal unit Minimal unit of

• Free morphemes = separate English word forms (basic nouns,

un- dress -ed care -less -ness

prefix stem suffix stem suffix suffix

(bound) (free) (bound) (free) (bound) (bound)

• They carry the ‘content’ of the messages we convey

• New lexical morphemes can easily be added to the language, so

• Because we almost never add new functional morphemes to the

There are two kinds of bound morphemes:

Derivational bound morphemes

care (n.) >> careful or careless (adj.)

An inflectional morpheme never changes the

A derivational morpheme can change the grammatical

• Bound morphemes always appear in order, first

FREE MORPHEMES BOUND MORPHEMES

FREE LEXICAL FREE FUNCTIONAL BOUND BOUND

child, wild, The , the -ness, -er -’s, -ed, -s

Morphs are the actual forms used to realize

A group of different morphs, all versions of

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