MORPHOLOGY

Unit Sections

1. What is Morphology?
2. Morpheme Types
3. Affixing, Prefixing, and Suffixing
4. Function of Affixes
5. Rounding Up

Unit Aims:
This unit aims to:
1. introduce you to basic morpheme types and the difference between them,
2. explain the functions of morphemes, and
3. identify the difference between inflectional and derivational affixes.

1. What is Morphology?

Morphology is the study of word formation. The basic unit in the study of morphology is the
morpheme. As explained in Unit One above, the relationship between words and morphemes is
like this:
 A word consists of at least one morpheme as in friend, but it may consist of three or
more morphemes as in the word uninteresting , which consists of three units
[morphemes]: [un + interest + ing]

In terms of structure, words in English are of two types:

(i) a free single (basic) unit that has meaning as in the word house
(ii) a free unit that can be divided in smaller units as in the word houses [house + es]
or classroom [class + room].

Units that form words are called morphs or morphemes. These two terms are used
interchangeably.

2. Morphemes Types

A morpheme or morph is often defined as the minimal meaningful unit. This definition means
two things:
1. The morpheme/morph has meaning. For example, the word impossible consists of two
morphs im + possible. Each of these two morphs has meaning. What is the meaning of
the prefix im-?

2. It is a minimal meaningful unit. This means that it cannot be subdivided into any more
meaningful units. This is true of the two morphemes in the word impossible. Neither of
them can be subdivided into more units.
Morphemes are two types: free and bound morphemes.

(i) Free Morphemes: like the word possible in the above example, which has meaning and can
stand on its own. A free morpheme is also called a stem or a root word. It is usually a lexical
word, that is, a word with lexical meaning: a noun , a verb, an adjective, or an adverb: e.g. run ,
cat, possible, quickly.

(ii) Bound [not free] Morphemes: [like the prefix im- in the word impossible. These are
morphemes that cannot stand on their own., e.g. -s, -ed. These have to join another morph to
become meaningful.

Words in English can be structured in one of the following ways:

 free morph + free morph: e.g. black + bird = blackbird

 free morph + bound morph: e.g. cat + s = cats
 bound morph + free morph: e.g. un + happy = unhappy
 bound morph + free morph+ bound morph: e.g. un + kind + ness = unkindness.
.

Exercise 1
Categorize the following words into free or bound morphemes:
A. Camels
B. Player
C. Plant
D. Book
E. Truthful
F. Dreaming

Exercise 2
Divide the following morphemes into their free and bound morphs and state the type of
combination, for example : going = go [free] + ing [bound]
A. Housewife
B. Unpleasant
C. Recall
D. Boys
E. Painter
F. Something

3. Affixing, Prefixing, and Suffixing

As we have seen above, bound morphemes are units that need to attach to a root to become
meaningful. This process is called affixing.

Affixing can come at the beginning of a root word [un + kind] or at the end of it [kind + ness].
These are called "prefixes" and "suffixes" respectively.

(i) Prefixes: An Affix [bound morpheme] that is added at the beginning of a root word [e.g.
unhappy, unseen] is called a prefix.
(ii) Suffixes: An Affix [bound morpheme] that is added at the end of a root word [e.g. kind
+ness = kindness; teach + er = teacher] is called a suffix.

Sometimes a bound morpheme is affixed at the beginning of a root word and at the end, at the
same time e.g. un + kind + ness.

Exercise 3
Look at the sets of words and identify the odd one out of each pattern:
A. cat, player, train, land
B. happiness, forgetfulness, unpleasant
C. illiterate, irresponsible, studied

Exercise 4
Describe the type of affixing, whether prefixing or suffixing or both in the following words:
A. Unaware
B. Immobile
C. Truthful
D. Planted
E. Incomprehensible
F. Atypical

4. Functions of Affixes

4.1. Inflectional Affixes

As we have seen above, the bound morphemes that are affixed to a root word are not part of the
original word form. They are prefixed or suffixed to it. They do not have a lexical (meaning)
value on their own as in, for example, the plural suffix [“s”] added to singular nouns [boy + s =
boys] , or the past tense suffix [“ed”] added the base form of the verb [clean + ed = cleaned].
These are called inflectional affixes. Consider the following examples:

(i) Number in Nouns:

The regular plural1 of the noun is always associated with the presence of the suffix “s” [cat + s =
cats] or "es" [wish + es = wishes].

Important Notes on Plural Suffixes:

The plural form is derived from the singular form through the addition of the suffix “s”
or “es” (e.g. boy --> boys; cat --> cats; match --> matches).

In phonetic terms this regular process can be illustrated as follows:

 /s/: Add the suffix /s/ if the base (i.e. singular form) ends in a voiceless sound (except
sibilants). e.g.: lip - -> lips; book --> books
 /z/: Add /z/ if the base ends in a voiced sound (except sibilants), e.g. dog --> dogs; boy
--> boys
 /iz/: Add /iz/ if the base ends in a sibilant, e.g. church --> churches; wish --> wishes

Reminder: Sibilant sounds are /s/; /z/; / /;/ /; / /; / /.

1
There are irregular categories that will be discussed in the following section of this unit.
(ii) Tense in Verbs:
The regular past tense of the verb is always associated with the presence of the past tense marker,
"d" [smile + d = smiled] OR “ed” [paint + ed = painted].

(i) comparative and superlative markers

big + er= bigger
great + est= greatest

So an inflectional morpheme is a bound morpheme that does not change the meaning nor
the grammatical category of the root. It has only a grammatical function to indicate:
plural, past, aspect: progressive ( -ing) perfect (-ed) , comparative and superlative.

Note: all inflectional morphemes in English are suffixes. How about Arabic?

 Consider this example from Arabic

 ‫خرجن‬--------‫يخرج‬-------‫خرجت‬-------‫أحرج‬------‫خرج‬

Identify the inflectional morphemes. Are they all suffixes?

4.2. Derivational Affixes

In contrast some affixes change the class of the root word to which they are added. These are
called derivational affixes (deriving one word from another). The following are some examples:

(i) Suffixes added to nouns and adjectives change the noun or adjective into an adverb as in the
following examples:

 Noun into Adverb :hour → hourly, week → weekly

 Adjective into Adverb: quick → quickly , intelligent → intelligently

(ii) Suffixes added to verbs or adjectives change the verb or adjective into a noun as in the
following examples:

 Verb into Noun : teach → teacher, argue → argument

 Adjective into Noun: wise → wisdom ,kind → kindness

(iii) Suffixes added to adjectives change the adjective into a verb as in the following examples:
 length→ lengthen; wide→widen

Negating Adjectives:
Other prefixes indicate the opposite meaning of the root word as in the following examples:
 The prefix un- : e.g. happy → unhappy, lucky → unlucky,
 The prefixes in- &im- : direct → indirect; possible → impossible
 The prefixes il-&ir-: literate → illiterate; regular → irregular

So a derivational morpheme is a bound morpheme that changes the grammatical category

of the root or its meaning
Note: derivational affixes can be prefixes or suffixes in English. How about Arabic?

Consider these examples from Arabic.

 ‫سكوت‬------‫سكت‬
 ‫مسروق‬--------‫سرق‬
 ‫كاتب‬-------‫كتب‬

Identify the derivational morphemes and say if they are prefixes or suffixes ?

Note: in the third example a morpheme is inserted within the root after the first syllable.
This affixation is special to Arabic and the derivational morpheme is called infix

The diagram below sums up the different morpheme types in English

Word

one or more morphemes

Morpheme

Free bound

Affix

Prefix suffix

derivational derivational inflectional

Exercise 5
Prefix the following root words with the appropriate derivational morph:
A. Happy
B. Lucky
C. Literate
D. Do
E. Sincere
F. Mobile

Exercise 6
Suffix the following root words with the appropriate inflectional morpheme:
A. Quick
 B. Lion
C. Beauty
D. Happy
E. Plant
F. go

Exercise 7
The following list has free and bound morphemes. Determine the function of the bound
morpheme:

Free +Bound bound morpheme Function: Derivational or

inflectional
A. Cat Cats s
B. Play Played ed
C. Eat Eats s
D. Happy Unhappy un
E. Train Trainer er
F. Swim Swimming ( N) ing

Exercise 8
Look at the following words and determine the type of affixing whether inflectional or
derivational:
A. bound à unbound
B. truck à trucks
C. Legal à illegal
D. Arrive à arrival
E. Deal à dealer
F. speedà speedy

Exercise 9
Read the information and decide whether true (T) or False (F)
A. Morphemes are parts of a word.
B. Bound morphemes can exist on their own.
C. Suffixes come at the beginning of a word
D. Prefixes come at the beginning of a word
E. Inflectional morphemes change the meaning of the word when affixed to it.
F. Derivational morphemes work by changing word meaning or word class category.

Exercise 10
Break down the following words into their constituent morphemes. Identify the free morph.
A. Unsuccessful
B. Presentable
C. Humorous
D. Childish
E. Manageable
F. Luckily
5 . Word formation processes
English words acquire new forms and new meanings in a variety of word formation
processes/methods. The most common of these are: compounding, affixation, clipping,
blending and acronyms. Below is a brief discussion of each of these processes together with
examples.

(i) Compounding
Compounds are made up of more than one word element [more than one root]. They are written
in three ways:
a) solid: written as one word, e.g. bedroom,
b) hyphenated: linked by a hyphen, e.g. tax-free,
c) open: written as separate words, e.g. reading material.

American English (AmE) tends not to use hyphenated compounds. In AmE, a new compound
remains open until it is commonly used, in which case it becomes solid or written as one word.

It is worth pointing out that the meaning of a compound is not always predictable from the
meanings of its parts [constituents]. For example hotdog cannot be predicted from the parts
forming it: hot or dog. Similar examples are:
 wildgoose in ‘a wildgoose chase’, meaning a chase getting nowhere,
 dogfight in ‘the two fighter jets were locked up in a dogfight’, meaning they were trying to
shoot down each other.

(ii) Affixation
English uses this method frequently for coining words. As you already know from Units 5 and 6
above, affixes in English are two types: prefixes and suffixes.

Reminder:
(a) A prefix is a word or a syllable added at the beginning of a word to form a new word or to
change its meaning.
(b) A suffix is a letter or a group of letters added at the end of a word also to form another word.
Some examples are:
a) Prefixes: un- (unacceptable), im- (improper) inter- (intercontinental), pan- (pan-Arab),
anti- (anti-clockwise), re- (reassure).
b) Suffixes: -ist (industrialist), -hood (childhood), -less (careless), -ism (realism), -ify
(classify), -some (troublesome).

Activity I
Access the Cambridge Dictionaries Online to find how the meanings of the following entries are
organized: get, point, record, turn, and run.

Exercise 1
What is the meaning of the underlined prefix?
1. restart
2. unjust
3. inactive
4. misinterpretation
5. co-exist
 6. overestimate
7. underestimate
8. anti-racism
9. pro-Arab
10. subway
11. pre-school
12. postgraduate
13. monotone
14. auto-drive

Exercise 2
Add a suffix to the following words. Notice that some words have different suffixes.
1. hope
2. man
3. relation
4. king
5. China (language)
6. Kuwait (citizen)
7. work (person)
8. state (noun)
9. happy (adverb)
10. clock (adverb)

(iii) Clipping
Clipping means removing one or more parts of a word. In a word like phone, the removed (or
clipped) part is (tele-) which stands at the beginning of the original word telephone. However, in
an example like lab, the clipped part is at the end of laboratory. In some special cases, clipping
is made of the first and last parts of a word, e.g.
 fridge in which the clipped parts are re- and -rator from the original word refrigerator.

(iv) Blending
Blending is achieved when two words are merged together (or blended) in order to coin a new
word. This is normally done by using a part of each word. Here are some examples:
 smog is made up of the two words smoke and fog.
 brunch is a blend of breakfast and lunch.

(v) Acronyms
Acronyms are words formed from the initials of two or more words such as:
 VIP which is made up of the initial letters of the words: very important person.

Acronyms are classified into two types according to how they are pronounced:
1. The acronym is pronounced as one word: e.g.
 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)
 ALECSO (Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization)

2. The acronym is pronounced letter by letter, e.g.

 IMF (International Monetary Fund) pronounced as: /aɪemef/
 GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) pronounced as: /dʒi: si: si:/
 AOU (Arab Open University)pronounced as: /eɪәʊju:/
There are many types of acronyms for different specializations. A glossary of common acronyms
prepared especially for you appears at the end of this Unit.

6. Rounding Up

This unit has introduced you to the study of morphology.

5.1 New Terms

 Affix
 Bound morpheme
 Derivational affixes
 Free morpheme
 Inflectional affixes
 Lexical words
 Morph
 Morphology
 Prefix
 Root word
 Stem
 Suffix
 Acronym
 Blending
 Clipping

5.2 What you have learnt in this unit

In this unit you have learnt:
 Basic morpheme types and the difference between them.
 The functions of bound morphemes
 The difference between inflectional and derivational morphemes.
 The different processes in word formation
Glossary of Useful Acronyms

AD anno Domini [after Christ]

AM ante meridiem [before noon]
AOU Arab Open University
ASA As soon as possible
P
BA Bachelor of Arts
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BC Before Christ
BS Bachelor of Science
C Celsius (centigrade)
CV Curriculum Vitae
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
MA Master of Arts
MD Medicinae Doctor [Doctor of Medicine]