MORPHEME

‫ امال محمد هاني‬:‫اسم الطالب‬
‫ ثالثة‬:‫المرحلة‬
‫الجامعة المستنصرية‬
‫ انكليزي‬:‫القسم‬ ‫كلية اآلداب‬
2020-2019 ‫السنة الدراسية‬
‫ الصرف‬:‫المادة‬
‫ المسائية‬:‫الدراسة‬
2020-2019 ‫التقرير العلمي لطلبة الدراسات االولية للسنة الدراسية‬
/‫عنوان التقرير العلمي‬
Morphemes
Definition
A "morpheme" is a short segment of language that meets three basic criteria:
1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.
2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful segments without changing its

meaning or leaving a meaningless remainder.
3. It has relatively the same stable meaning in different verbal environments.
Free and Bound Morphemes
There are two types of morphemes-free morphemes and bound morphemes. "Free
morphemes" can stand alone with a specific meaning, for example, eat, date, weak.
"Bound morphemes" cannot stand alone with meaning. Morphemes are comprised
of two separate classes called (a) bases (or roots) and (b) affixes.
A "base," or "root" is a morpheme in a word that gives the word its principle
meaning. An example of a "free base" morpheme is woman in the word womanly.
An example of a "bound base" morpheme is -sent in the word dissent.
Affixes
An "affix" is a bound morpheme that occurs before or after a base. An affix that
comes before a base is called a "prefix." Some examples of prefixes are ante-, pre-,
un-, and dis-, as in the following words:
antedate
prehistoric
unhealthy
disregard
An affix that comes after a base is called a "suffix." Some examples of suffixes are
-ly, -er, -ism, and -ness, as in the following words:
happily
gardener
capitalis
Derivational Affixes
An affix can be either derivational or inflectional. "Derivational affixes" serve to

alter the meaning of a word by building on a base. In the examples of words with
prefixes and suffixes above, the addition of the prefix un- to healthy alters the
meaning of healthy. The resulting word means "not healthy." The addition of the
suffix -er to garden changes the meaning of garden, which is a place where plants,
flowers, etc., grow, to a word that refers to 'a person who tends a garden.' It should
be noted that all prefixes in English are derivational. However, suffixes may be
either derivational or inflectional.
Inflectional Affixes
There are a large number of derivational affixes in English. In contrast, there are
only eight "inflectional affixes" in English, and these are all suffixes. English has
the following inflectional suffixes, which serve a variety of grammatical functions
when added to specific types of words. These grammatical functions are shown to
the right of each suffix.
-s noun plural
-'s noun possessive
-s verb present tense third person singular

-ing verb present participle/gerund
-ed verb simple past tense
-en verb past perfect participle
-er adjective comparative
-est adjective superlative
Inflectional Affix
Definition:
An inflectional affix is an affix that: expresses a grammatical contrast that is

obligatory for its stem's word class in some given grammatical context
does not change the word class of its stem
is typically located farther from its root than a derivational affix
produces a predictable, nonidiosyncratic change of meaning.
Examples:
(English)
Here are some examples of grammatical categories that are expressed by

inflectional affixes:
Aspect Case Modality Number Person Tense Voice
What are the differences between inflectional and derivational affixes?
Additionally to number, inflectional affixes give grammatical information in terms

of tense, case and gender. Derivational affixes, in contrast, are capable of creating
a new lexeme from a base. Therefore, they can provide a more complex change.
Derivational Affix
Definition:
A derivational affix is an affix by means of which one word is formed (derived)

from another. The derived word is often of a different word class from the original.
Discussion:
In contrast to an inflectional affix, a derivational affix:

is not part of an obligatory set of affixes
generally occurs closer to the root
generally is more meaningful, and
is more likely to result in a form that has a somewhat idiosyncratic meaning.
derivational paradigms as a device of lexical enrichment. He explains that “in.

many cases new complex words are created on the basis of relations between
existing words”
H. Suffixal Homophones:
Some suffixes, both inflectional and derivational have homophonous forms:
1. The inflectional morpheme {-ER cp} has two homophones: {-ER n } & {-ER
rp}
2. The verbal inflectional suffix {-ING vb} has two homophones: {-ING nm} &
{-ING aj}.
3. The verbal inflectional {-D pp} has a homophone: the adjectival derivational
{-D aj}.
4. The adverbial derivational suffix {-LY av} has one homophone: the
adjectival derivational suffix {-Ly aj}.
1. The inflectional morpheme {-ER cp}:
The inflectional morpheme {-ER cp} has two homophones:
a) Derivational morpheme {-ER n}, which is attached to verbs to form nouns

as in hunter, fisher, is often called the agent –er and conveys the meaning of “that
which performs the action of the verb stem”. It may also be attached to nonverbal
stems as in: teenager, New Yorker; conveying the meaning of “that which is
related to”. Both belong to the same morpheme.
b) Derivational morpheme {-ER rp}, which appears at the end of words and
conveys the meaning of repetition as in patter, chatter.
2. The verbal inflectional suffix {-ING vb}:
The verbal inflectional suffix {-ING vb} has two homophones :
a) Nominal derivational suffix {-ING nm} as in meetings, weddings.

b) Adjectival morpheme {-ING aj} as in ‘a charming woman’.
Verbal Inflectional Suffix Tests:
There are two tests to distinguish the verbal {-ING vb} from the adjectival {-ING
aj}:
First Test:
a. The verbal {-ING vb} can usually occur after as well as before the noun it
modifies as in:
I saw a burning house.
I saw a house burning.
b. The adjectival {-ING aj} can be preceded by a qualifier (very) or by the

comparative or superlative (more and most), while the verbal {-ING vb} cannot.
It is a very comforting thought.
This is a more exciting movie.
* I saw a rather burning house

Second Test:
The adjectival {-ING aj} can occur after the verb ‘seems’, but the verbal {-ING
vb} cannot.
The snake seems interesting.
* The snake seems crawling.
3. The verbal inflectional {-D pp }:
The verbal inflectional {-D pp} has a homophone in the adjectival derivational {-D
aj } as in:
Helen was excited about her new job.
She was a devoted mother.
a. The adjectival {-D aj } can be preceded by a qualifier (very, rather, quite) or

(more & most).
b. The test of the verb (seem) is applicable to adjectival {-D aj }, but not to
verbal {-D pp}
*The very departed guests had forgotten their dog.
*The guests seem departed.

4. The adverbial derivational suffix{-LY av}:
The adverbial derivational suffix {-LY av} is added to most adjectives to form
adverb of manner as in kindly, happily.
{-LY av}has as a homophone the derivational suffix {-LY aj}that is distributed as

follows:
a. Added to monosyllabic nouns to form adjectives that are inflected with –er, -
est: love _ lovely.
b. It is added to nouns to form adjectives that are not inflected with –er, -est: king
_ kingly.
c. It is added to few adjectives, giving alternate adjectival forms that are also
inflected with –er, -est : dead _deadly.
d. Added to a short list of time nouns to form adjectives : day_daily, month

_monthly.
I. Noun Feminine Forms
English has about 50 pairs of words with separate forms for the masculine and the
feminine, e.g., bull/cow, uncle/aunt, but this is a matter of lexicography not
morphology.
English has a small group of nouns with feminine derivational suffixes.

Most of these feminizing suffixes are of foreign origin except the feminizing suffix
(-ster) as in spinner/spinster.
They have been added to a masculine form or to a base morpheme.
Allomorph:- is a variant phonological form of a morpheme, that is, when a unit of

meaning varies in sound without changing the meaning. [1] The term allomorph
explains the comprehension of phonological variations for specific morphemes
Simple, Coumpound and Complex words.
Simple words: These are base forms of words that cannot be further simplified or
broken into ‘morphemes’ (meaningful linguistic unit). eg: quick, fire, joke.
Compound words: These contain two or more words that are combined to create a
separate meaning. Eg: (open form) Dog house, (closed form) firefly, (hyphenated)
over-the-counter.
Complex words: These contain words that contain multiple morphemes. Eg: hot
bloodedness (bloodedness is complex since it has blood + ed + ness).

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‫ امال محمد هاني‬:‫اسم الطالب‬

2020-2019 ‫التقرير العلمي لطلبة الدراسات االولية للسنة الدراسية‬

/‫عنوان التقرير العلمي‬

1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.

2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful segments without changing its

3. It has relatively the same stable meaning in different verbal environments.

Free and Bound Morphemes

An affix can be either derivational or inflectional. "Derivational affixes" serve to

-'s noun possessive

-s verb present tense third person singular

-ing verb present participle/gerund

-ed verb simple past tense

-en verb past perfect participle

-er adjective comparative

-est adjective superlative

An inflectional affix is an affix that: expresses a grammatical contrast that is

does not change the word class of its stem

is typically located farther from its root than a derivational affix

produces a predictable, nonidiosyncratic change of meaning.

Here are some examples of grammatical categories that are expressed by

Aspect Case Modality Number Person Tense Voice

What are the differences between inflectional and derivational affixes?

Additionally to number, inflectional affixes give grammatical information in terms

A derivational affix is an affix by means of which one word is formed (derived)

In contrast to an inflectional affix, a derivational affix:

is not part of an obligatory set of affixes

generally occurs closer to the root

generally is more meaningful, and

is more likely to result in a form that has a somewhat idiosyncratic meaning.

derivational paradigms as a device of lexical enrichment. He explains that “in.

Some suffixes, both inflectional and derivational have homophonous forms:

1. The inflectional morpheme {-ER cp}:

The inflectional morpheme {-ER cp} has two homophones:

a) Derivational morpheme {-ER n}, which is attached to verbs to form nouns

2. The verbal inflectional suffix {-ING vb}:

The verbal inflectional suffix {-ING vb} has two homophones :

a) Nominal derivational suffix {-ING nm} as in meetings, weddings.

b) Adjectival morpheme {-ING aj} as in ‘a charming woman’.

Verbal Inflectional Suffix Tests:

I saw a burning house.

I saw a house burning.

b. The adjectival {-ING aj} can be preceded by a qualifier (very) or by the

It is a very comforting thought.

This is a more exciting movie.

* I saw a rather burning house

The snake seems interesting.

* The snake seems crawling.

3. The verbal inflectional {-D pp }:

Helen was excited about her new job.

She was a devoted mother.

a. The adjectival {-D aj } can be preceded by a qualifier (very, rather, quite) or

*The very departed guests had forgotten their dog.

*The guests seem departed.

4. The adverbial derivational suffix{-LY av}:

{-LY av}has as a homophone the derivational suffix {-LY aj}that is distributed as

d. Added to a short list of time nouns to form adjectives : day_daily, month

I. Noun Feminine Forms

English has a small group of nouns with feminine derivational suffixes.

They have been added to a masculine form or to a base morpheme.

Allomorph:- is a variant phonological form of a morpheme, that is, when a unit of

Simple, Coumpound and Complex words.

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