Morphemes

Free  Morphemes   Bound  Morphemes  

Morpheme  that  can  be  u0ered   Morpheme  that  cannot  be  

alone  with  meaning   u0ered  alone  with  meaning  

straight   preview  
bright   played  
man   ac9vity  
weak   antedate  
Exercise  8-­‐3  
Underline  the  bound  morphemes.  It  is  possible  for  the  word  to  consist  
en9rely  of  bound  morphemes.  
1.  speaker  
2.  kingdom  
3.  petrodollar  
4.  idolize  
5.  selec9ve  
6.  biomass  
7.  intervene  
8.  remake  
9.  dreamed  
10. undo  
 MORPHEMES  

Bases   Affixes    
(the  part  of  a  word  that  has  the  
principal  meaning)    

prefixes     suffixes  
free   bound  

denial   consent  
lovable   dissent  
annoyance   assent  
re-­‐enter   sentiment  
sentient  
resent    
Q:  Iden9fy  the  morphemes:  readability,  unmistakable    
 
readability  
unmistakable    
Exercise  8-­‐4  
Underline  the  bases  in  these  words.  
1.  womanly  
2.  endear  
3.  failure  
4.  famous  
5.  infamous  
6.  lighten  
7.  enlighten  
8.  friendship  
9.  befriend  
10. Bostonian  
11. unlikely  
12. prewar  
13. subway  
14. falsify  
15. unenlivened    
Exercise  8-­‐5  
Write  the  meaning  of  the  italicized  bound  bases.  
1.  audience,  audible,  audi9on,  auditory  
2.  suicide,  patricide,  matricide,  infan9cide  
3.  oral,  ora9on,  oracle,  oratory  
4.  aquaplane,  aqua9c,  aquarium,  aquanaut  
5.  photography,  biography,  calligraphy  
6.  corps,  corpse,  corpora9on,  corporeal  
7.  monochrome,  monologue,  monorail,  monogamy  
8.  pendulum,  pendant,  suspenders,  impending  
9.  manual,  manicure,  manuscript,  manacle  
10. eject,  inject,  project,  reject      
It  is  be0er  to  check  meaning  of  bound  bases  from  dic9onaries.  
e.g.  The  American  Heritage  DicDonary  of  the  English  Language  
phot-­‐,  photo-­‐  (light)  
xer-­‐,  xero  (dry)  
Bi-­‐,  bio-­‐  (life)  
mis-­‐,  miso-­‐,  (hatred)  
ge-­‐,  geo-­‐  (earth)  
biblio-­‐  (book)  
-­‐meter  (measuring  device)  
Tele-­‐,  tel-­‐  (distance,  distant)  
 
 
Exercise  8-­‐6  (Homework)    
 Difficul9es  in  Morphemic  Analysis  
1.  Everyone  has  his  own  stock  of  morphemes.    
automobile  =  (car)  
automobile  =  auto-­‐  (self)  mobile  (moving)  
           autograph,    mobilize    
chronometer  =  (watch)  
chronometer    =  chrono-­‐  (9me)  meter  (measure)  
                 chronology,  photometer      
2.  Persons  may  know  a  given  morpheme  but  differ  in  the  degree  
to  which  they  are  aware  of  its  presence  in  various  words.    
agen9ve  suffix  (-­‐er,    -­‐or,    -­‐ar)  singer,    actor  
professor,    voucher,    cracker,    tumbler,    sweater        

3.  The  language  is  constantly  changing.    (obsolescence)    

troublesome,  burdensome,  cuddlesome  (two-­‐morpheme  words)  
winsome  has  obsolete  base  wynn  (Old  English=  pleasure,  joy)  
ungainly  is  not  in  common  use  “rare”,  “obsolete”,  “dialectal”    
 Affixes  
Bound  morpheme  that  occurs  before  or  within  or  aber  a  base.    

Prefixes     Infixes     Suffixes    

import   ungetatable   failure  

prefix   reliable   shrinkage  
reconsider   accountable       noisy  
unenlivened       realize    
  dreamed    
normalizers    

When   suffixes   mul9ply,   their   order   is   fixed;   there   is   one   and   only   one   order  
in  which  they  occur.