Morphology exercises

Name: Maritza Zapata

1. Underline the free morphemes in the following words:

a. kissed
b. freedom
c. stronger
d. follow
e. awe
f. goodness
g. talkative
h. teacher
i. actor

2. Divide the following into free and bound sets:

ation, nation, pre, post, angle, ible, infra, out

Free sets Bound sets

nation ation
angle pre
post ible
out infra

3. Separate the affixes from the stems in the following words:

Example: faster = fast + er

Trains, succeeded, lighter, predetermine, retroactive, confusions,

instructional.

trains = train + s
succeeded = succeed + ed
lighter = light + er
predetermine = pre + determine
retroactive = retro + active
confusions = confusion + s
instructional = instruction + al

.4. Use the words that you think are relevant to answer the
following questions:

a. Can a morpheme be represented by a single phoneme? Give examples.

 Yes, it can. A morpheme can be illustrated by a single phoneme. For
example, in the word spicy (/i/), she (/i/), empty (/i/)

By more than one phoneme? Give examples.

Yes, morphemes can be drawn in more than one phoneme. For instance, the
word bookstore (/bʊk/), butterfly (/flaɪ/)
b. Can a free morpheme be more than one syllable in length? Give
examples.
Yes, it can be larger than one syllable in length. For example, company
(/ˈkʌm.pə.ni/), object (/ˈɑːb.dʒɪkt/)
Can a bound morpheme? Give examples.
Yes, a bound morpheme can have more than one syllable in its length. As in,
Regularity (/ə.t̬ i/), curiosity (/ə.t̬ i/), respiration (/eɪ.ʃən/)

c. Does the same letter or phoneme-or sequence of letters or phonemes-

always represent the same morpheme? Why or why not?
(Hint: you must refer to the definition of morpheme to be able to answer
this.)

No, it doesn’t. For example the letter “s” illustrates three different
morphemes: plural (cats), 3rd person singular (flies) and the possessive
(dog’s barking). However, the plural morpheme is represented by 3 different
sets of phonemes stops /s/, loves /z/ and races/iz/.

d. Can the same morpheme be pronounced differently? Give examples.

Yes, it can. For example the “-ed” ending in the past tense of regular verbs
it’s written in the same form but, its phoneme differs, like in called (/t/),
helped (/t/), wanted (/id/)

e. Can different morphemes be pronounced identically? Give examples.

Yes, for instance wait and weight are pronounced as (/weɪt/); there and
their (/ðer/); lane and lain (/leɪn/)
f. A morpheme is basically the same as:
i. a letter
ii. a sound
iii. a group of sounds
iv. none of the above