GRAMÁTICA INGLESA II

Practice sheet 2

AIM: The following practice is based on the basic idea that a morpheme is a unit of
form and meaning. The aim is to learn to identify morphemes in English.

1. For the following words, identify all the component MORPHEMES:

a. dragged n. unassuming
b. denationalized o. redness
c. impossible p. auctioneers
d. thumbtack q. cloudiness
e. hopefully r. exceptionally
f. stupidity s. paper
g. misbehaved t. unreliable
h. sleeping u. management
i. classroom v. disinfectant
j. painters w. ugly
k. magazine x. deformed
l. unfairly y. sandwich
m. husbands z. spinster

2. In each of the exercises below, the task is to determine what the morphemes are
in the data. Typically, there is more than one solution, so that part of the point of
the exercise is to consider alternative solutions and determine which (if any) is
preferable and why.

a. brother, father, mother, sister

b. receive, redeem, reflect, regret
c. reboot, recycle, re-enter, refresh, reimport
d. blackbuck, blackguard, blackmail, blacksmith
e. disillusion, dislodge, displease, distress, disturb
f. dictatorial, doctoral, presidential, structural, suicidal, torrential
g. poem, poet; devil, evil
h. carnivorgasm, explorgasm, floorgasm, horrorgasm

Factors you may need to consider include:

i. Is form constant or predictable?
ii. Is the meaning fixed?
iii. How many unique morphs are created by an analysis into morphs?

3. Consider the data from Swahili provided below. Divide the words into morphs.
Make a list of all the morphs with their form and their meaning. What strategies
do you use for determining the forms and the meanings of the morphs? Does this
have any implications for the nature of the morpheme?

1
 GRAMÁTICA INGLESA II
Practice sheet 2

Swahili
nilitaka ‘I wanted’
walitaka ‘they wanted’
watataka ‘they will want’
nisasoma ‘I am reading’
wasafika ‘they are arriving’
nisaandika ‘I am writing’
wataimba ‘they will sing’

4. Analyzability problem. All of the following words end in 'er'. Is 'er' a morpheme
in all of the words? Is it the same morpheme in all of the words? Provide proof of
your answers.

Note: To prove their morphemehood, first, give the meaning of each morpheme you
find in the word and, second, for bound morphemes, give at least two more examples of
words that contain the same bound morpheme with the same meaning.

taller, river, shorter, farmer, either, smarter, caller, painter, finger, sweeter, other,
never, teacher, cover

5. Just for fun! Group-work or homework. All these words share a specific
morpheme of Greek origin. Provide the meaning of this morpheme and of all the
different words containing it:

Note: think of Spanish or English words which also contain the first morpheme with
which phobia is combined to guess their meanings.

acrophobia
claustrophobia
hydrophobia
agoraphobia
gamophobia
ornithophobia
panophobia
melissophobia
demophobia
thanatophobia
phagophobia
ichthyphobia
genophobia
arachnophobia
xenophobia
gynophobia
autophobia
peniaphobia
anthropophobia

Can you find any recent formations?