A.

Definition of Morpheme
A minimal unit of meaning or of grammatical function in a word.
Ex: Analyze the word “restructured”
It contains the following morphemes.
. re- (minimal unit means again)
. -structur- (minimal unit means construct)
. -ed (minimal unit of grammatical function)
B. Free and Bound Morphemes
Free morphemes: Morphemes that can be uttered alone with meaning.
Ex: straight, bright, man, weak,…
Bound morphemes: Morphemes that can not be uttered alone with meaning.
Ex: preview, played, activity, antedate,…
C. Bases
Base morphemes form the core of a word. They carry very basic meaning.
They are roots.
Base morphemes can be free or bound.
Ex: annoyance,…
D. Difficulties in Morphemic Analysic
1. The first difficulty is that you have your own individual stock of morphemes.
For example, Tom may think of automobile as one morpheme meaning
“car",whereas Dick may know the morphemes auto (self) and mobile (moving),
and recognize them in other words like autograph and mobilize

2. The second difficulty is that persons may know a given morpheme but differ
in the degree to which they are aware of its presence in various words. For
example, the agentive suffix (spelled –er, -or, -ar)meaning “one who, that
which”, and recognize it in words like singer and actor but what about in
professor and sweater .

3. Another problem results from the fact that phors die as language changes.
For example, the morpheme –prehend– in apprehend used to mean “to arrest or
seize”, but in comprehendthe phor seems to be dead, and the meaning of the
word today is merely ‘understand’.

4. Additive meaning is a problem in itself. For example: the

morphemepose(place) in ‘pose a question’ andinterpose (place between), the
meaning is clear but not valid in suppose, repose.
E. Affixes
Affix morphemes add more meaning to the base.
Affix are always bound.
Ex: import, reconsider,…
Kinds of Affixes
Prefixes stand before the base/root.
Ex: replay, inactive, unhappy,…
Suffixes stand after the base/root.
Ex: player, activity, happiness
Infixes occur within the word as addition or replacement.
Ex: gas + -o- + meter = gasometer
goose + {-s plural} = geese
F. Inflectional Suffixes
Do not change the part of speech of the word.
Do not pile up, only one affix at a time.
Go with stems of a given part of speech.
Stem is a part of the word to which an inflectional suffix is added.
Ex: boys = boy (stem) + -s
teacher’s = teacher (stem) + -’s
played = play (stem) + -ed
Stem = base