Introduction to Linguistics

Exercises on English Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology

1. Free and Bound Morphemes

List the morphemes in each word below, and state whether each morpheme is free (F)
or bound (B).
1.creating
create (F)
ing (B)

2. seaward
sea(F)
ward (B)

3. wastage
waste (F)
age (B)

4. incomplete
in (B)
complete (F)

5. modernize
modern (F)
ize (B)

6. unhealthy
un (B)
health (F)
y (B)

7. Waiter
wait (F)
er (B)

8. reconsider
re (B)
consider (F)

9. keys
key (F)
s (B)

10. astronomer
astronom (F)
er (B)

2. Derivational and Inflectional Affixes

For each word below, indicate whether the word is morphologically simple (S),
includes an inflectional affix (I), or includes a derivational affix (D).
1. Rider (D) 6. Reader (D)
2. Colder (I) 7. Redder (I)
3. Silver (S) 8. Radish (S)
4. Lens (S) 9. Redness (D)
5. Legs (I) 10. Rotation (D)
3. Word Trees
For each word below, draw a word tree. Then state whether it has inflectional affixes,
derivational affixes, or both.
1. shipper
N

V Daff

shipp er

2. disobey
V

Daff V

dis obey

3. resettled
V

Daff V IAff

re settle d

4. anticlimaxes
N

DAff N IAff

anti climax es

5. unemployment

6. simply
Adv

Adj DAff

simple y

7. jumping
V

V IAff

jump ing
8. digitizes
V

N DAff IAff

digit ize s

9. activated
N

Adj

V DAff DAff

act ive ted

10. confrontational
Adj

V DAff DAff

confront ation al