Lex_010_Morpheme
THE MORPHEMEOutline:
I. Definition II. Semantic classification of morphemes III. Structural classification of morphemes IV. Allomorphs
Key words:
morpheme, semantic classification (root-morpheme, non-root / affixational morpheme, unique / pseudo- / blocked root morpheme, derivational affix, functional affix / inflectional morpheme / inflection), structural classification (freemorpheme, bound morpheme, semi-free / semi-bound morpheme, combining form / completive), allomorph / morpheme variant (complementary distribution / alteration). I. Definition
Morpheme
is the smallest indivisible two-facet language unit
. Morphemes, thoughthey are as a rule easily singled out in words, are
not independent
and are
found only as parts of the word
. Morphemes can be classified: a)
from the semantic point of view
; b)
from the structural point of view
.
II. Semantic classification of morphemes
Semantically morphemes fall into 1)
root-morphemes
and 2)
non-root morphemes
/
affixational morphemes
.1)
The root-morpheme
is the lexical nucleus of the word, it has an individual lexical meaning shared by no other morpheme of the language
.
Besides the lexical meaning root-morphemes possess all other types of meaning proper to morphemes except the part-of- speech meaning which is not found in roots
. The root-morpheme is common to a word-cluster, e.g. the morpheme
to teach–,
in
teacher, teaching
or
theor-
in
theory, theorist,theoretical
, etc.Those root morphemes which never occur by themselves are called
unique
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