Unit 7

Morphology
Instructional Objectives
Upon completion of this unit, you should:
 explain what morphemes are
 distinguish between a free morpheme and bound morpheme;
 explain the affixes of words;
 comment on some of the irregular morphemes in English.

TWO KEY WORDS

Morphology is the study of morphemes. These two words (morphology and
morpheme) are derived from the same root (morph). They differ significantly at the
end of each word, one ending in –logy, and the other in –eme. Note further that:
 the suffix in morphology is –logy; It indicates a branch of knowledge
(compare biology, theology, etc).
 the suffix in morphemes is –eme; It is something related to minimal
distinctive unit.—that is the smallest unit that can be distinguished in some
systems of classification.
The root of the words comes from Greek word ‘morphe’ which means form
or shape. The words ‘morphology’ and ‘morpheme’ have the same structure, that is
morph+logy, and morph+eme of which they differ in suffixes (attached to the same
root ‘morph’).
Morphology is particularly important feature in English. It is called ‘the
grammar of words (while syntax discussed late in Unit 9 is the grammar of
sentences). Morphology is part of grammar which mostly causes language learning
to be difficult, and therefore, it is important to deal with the morphological systems.

Task 7-1
Fill each blank with one word
‘Grammar can be divided into two main parts, namely _______ and
syntax. Morphology concerns the form of ______ whereas ______
deals with the order and grouping of words in sentences.’

MORPHEMES
There are several ways in which words are formed in English. The most
obvious way is to add something to the beginning or the end of a word. For

1
example, we can add –ed to the end of a word to show a past action, so walk
becomes walk+ed; un— at the start of a word shows an opposite meaning, so
happy becomes un+happy. But, there are other ways of forming a word, such as by
changing the root forms of words. For example, bring becomes brought in the past
form, and man becomes men in the plural form.
It can be generalized that the concept of morphemes is very suitable for the
first type of change—as shown from the example walk + ed , forming a new word by
adding together two morphemes. But morphemes also make the second type of
change, although less obviously. For the moment, let us concentrate on the first
type of change.
Look at the following words
walks
walked
Both words consist of two morphemes
walk = walk + s
walked = walk + ed
Here are another pair of words
happily
unhappy
Again, both words consist of two morphemes
happily = happy + ly
unhappy = un = happy
These examples show the following points about morphemes
 Some morphemes are complete words (e.g. walk, happy) and others are not
(e.g. –s, --ed, --ly, --un).
 In English, some morphemes can be added to the end of words (e.g. walks),
and some morphemes to the beginning of words (unhappy).
 Sometimes the form or spelling of a word changes slightly when a morpheme
is added (e.g. happy happily)
 Each morpheme has a meaning, even if it is a morpheme that consists of only
one letter. For example, the –s of walks can mean plural—I love going for
walks., or third person singular, present tense—she walks to work every
morning. We can also us‘s to indicate “possessive” –the girl’s love story.

Thus, morphology tells us a lot about how language works.

Task 7-2
State how many morphemes are in each of the following words and identify
what those morphemes are. Two examples have been done for you.
Word Number of morphemes Breakdown

2
 1. Morphemes 3 morph + eme + s
2. Watching 2 watch + ing
3. Houses
4. Book
5. Playfully
6. Stayed
7. Trying
8. Unbreakable
9. Runners
10. Sorry
11. Noisy
12. Magelang’s

What about ‘sorry’ and ‘noisy’? Do not worry the answers are:
Sorry = 1 morpheme = sorry
Noisy = 2 morphemes = nois(e) + y
Did you get it right?

How does the ‘y’ differ in the two words?. The y in both words is the
phoneme /i/, but it is not a morpheme in both words.
 In sorry, the y is not a morpheme. It is a part of the whole root ‘sorry’. Thus,
we cannot break sorry into any smaller meaningful unit; so the whole word is
a single morpheme.
 In noisy, the y is a morpheme as it has been added to the word noise to
change its meaning. The y is a very small unit, but it carries meaning.
Remember the definition of a morpheme: A morpheme is the smallest
meaningful unit of a language.

Now, we are going to look at the difference between two types of

morphemes:
 morphemes which can be complete words by themselves are called free
morpheme; and
 morphemes which cannot stand on their own are called bound morphemes.

Free Morphemes
As the word free suggests, free morpheme is a morpheme which can stand
on own as a word. Examples of words which are free morphemes are:
walk sorry book course watch
The concept of free morphemes is quite straightforward and this area does
not usually cause problem for the students, no details are therefore required here.

3
Instead, we will turn our attention to an area that is potentially much more
problematic.

Bound Morphemes
Bound morpheme must be attached to a free morpheme in order to form a
new word. That is why it is called ‘bound’, which comes from the word ‘bind’
meaning to tie together. We have to tie a bound morpheme to a free morpheme.
The following table will clarify:

Table 7-1 Free and Bound Morphemes

word Free morpheme Bound Morpheme Function
walks walks -s To show ‘tense’ and
‘plurality’
unhappy unhappy un- To change the
meaning of a word
walked walked -ed To show ‘tense’
houses houses -s To show plurality
disagree disagree dis- To change the
meaning of a word

Task 7-3
Classify the following words into free and bound morphemes. Two examples
are given to you.
Word Free morpheme Bound morpheme
1. teacher teach -er
2. bicycle cycle bi-
3. typed
4. triangle
5. walking
6. kingdom
7. feasting
8. misspell
9. burnt
10. impolite
11. suddenly
12. children

Affixes
The most common form of bound morpheme is an affix. Both teachers and
students benefit if they have a good understanding of how the English affix system

4
works. If you can recognize and use affixes, it is easier to both decode a message
and build words. There are two types of affix:
 prefixes; and
 suffixes
A prefix is an affix that goes in front of root word and changes the meaning
of that root word in some way. Have a look at the examples in Table 7-2

Table 7-2 Prefixes in English

Prefix Main area of Examples
meaning
auto- self, without help automatic, automobile, autobiography
bi- two bicycle, binary, biped, bilingual, bifocal
bio- living organism biology, biodegradable, biography, biodiversity
co- together cooperative, coordinate, cohabit, coeducation
dec- ten deciliter, decimate, decapods, decade, decibel
sub- below submarine, substandard, subhuman, submerge
tri- three triangle, tripod, triennium, trilogy, tricycle

Mini Project 7-1

Get an English text, preferably a news item. Select words from the text that
have prefixes, and identify the area of meaning.

Suffixes
A suffix, (apart from being a plural and tense marker) is an affix that is
attached at the end of a root word, to change the word from one part of speech to
another (e.g. changing a noun to an adjective, or an adjective to an adverb. Look at
the examples in Table 7.3

Table 7-3 Suffixes in English

Prefix Part of Speech Examples
-en verb soften, lengthen, darken, widen, enlighten
or adjective broken, golden, wooden, woven, spoken
-cal adjective musical, practical, historical, theatrical
-ing present participle swimming, reading, opening, walking
and, gerund listening, learning, reading, decoding, building
-ism noun tourism, fascism, racism, Hinduism
-ly adverb happily, slowly, unfortunately, gradually
-ship noun relationship, partnership, censorship
-wards adjective and backwards, homewards, upwards
adverb downwards

5
Mini Project 7-2
Get an English text, preferably a news item. Select words from the text that
have suffixes and identify their functions (i.e. adverb formation, noun formation,
etc.)

“Irregular” Morphemes
Apart from the regular morphemes as described above, there are also
“irregular” morphemes. Some linguists called them “marked” morphemes in that
they do not follow the rules in word-formation. For example:
man  men (plural)
buy  bought (past)
am  was (past)
bind  bound (past)
bring  brought
catch  caught
goose  geese
is  was
Based on the above example, there are possibly three types of change:
 internal change, e.g. man to men
 almost complete, e.g. buy to bought
 complete, e.g. am to was

Task 7-4
Continue classifying the above irregular morphemes into internal change,
almost complete change, and complete change.

Mini Project 7-3

Get an English text, preferably a news item. Select words from the text that
have undergone “irregular” morphemic process, and classify them into three
categories above (internal change, almost complete change, and complete change).

DIFFERENT LANGUAGES HAVE DIFFERENT MORPHOLOGICAL SYSTEM

Let us turn our attention to the morphological systems of other languages.
This area is important because English is a foreign language to our students. They
have already learnt at least two languages. We need to remember that the
morphological system of their first language involves using a new system to
communicate information, thoughts, and feelings. And part of that system is
morphology.

6
 The important thing to remember is that different languages have different
system. English uses far more prefixes, suffixes, and other morphemes than
languages belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian group (which is the group that most
Pacific languages belong to).
Take the plural system as an example. We’ve seen that many English nouns
generally have an -s morpheme to show plurals. There are also the unusual plurals
such as women, children, geese, and fish.

Compare the English system with the Indonesian system with respect to
plural nouns.

English Indonesian
one book sebuah buku
two books dua buah buku
a woman seorang wanita
two women dua orang wanita

When the meaning changes from singular to plural, in Indonesian, no

morphemic changes take place in the noun (bukubuku / wanita wanita).
However, changes do occur in the unit of quantity (sebuah dua buah, dua=two).
With respect to the quantifying element, it is very complex. The general form is buah
(dua buah buku); for human, it is orang (dua orang wanita). The others are quite
complex. See below.

dua utas tali (two ropes)

dua kuntum bunga (two flowers)
dua biji kelereng (two marbles)
dua ekor sapi (two cows)
dua lembar kertas (two pieces of paper)
etc.

Task 7-5
Based on the data above, please predict the learning problems encountered
by Indonesian students learning English as a foreign language.

Language 1
The first example to demonstrate the Bauan morphological system is:
yavaqu = my foot / leg
Yavaqu is made up of two morphemes:
 yava is a free morpheme (meaning leg / foot)

7
  qu is a bound morpheme (meaning my)
A second example is
noqu i tau = my friend

The literal translation for this phrase is my + grammatical marker+ friend.

Thus, the phrase consists of three separate words and three morphemes (the i is a
special grammatical feature).
Based on the two examples, it is clear that the Bauan dialect shows two
different ways of indicating ‘possession’ in that language. In some contexts, a bound
morpheme (-qu) is added; for other words, a free morpheme (noqu) comes before
the noun, provided that a particle (i) is added between them.
To conclude, basically there are two types of language with respect to
morphological analysis.
 In isolating languages, words cannot be broken into smaller unit. That is,
each word is a morpheme. Polynesian languages, such as Samoan are in this
group; and
 In synthetic languages, words often consist of more than one morpheme.
(Synthesis means ‘putting together’. In this case, the morphemes are put
together). Included in this group are Micronesian and Melanesian languages.

Task 7-6
What about Indonesian and Javanese? Do they belong to isolating language
or synthetic language? Justify your answer with linguistic evidence.

MORPHEMES AND MISTAKES

Look at the following advertisement:

TEA’s
AND
COFEE’s

This sort of problem occurs because the –s morpheme has several functions
in English, and the above picture shows that the writer was confused with the plural
and possessive. Note that this advertisement comes from the United Kingdom—so it
is not just second or foreign language speakers who have problems!