morphology task about free morphemes

 Morphology

Exercise 1
Identify the free morphemes in the following words:
kissed, freedom, stronger, follow, awe, goodness, talkative, teacher, actor
Answer:
a.       Kiss                 : free                ed        : bound
b.      Free          : free                   dom       bound 
c.       Strong              : free                er         : bound           
d.      Follow              : free               
e.       Awe                 : free               
f.        Good               : free                 ness      : bound           
g.       Talk                 : free                ative      : bound           
h.       Teach               : free                er         : bound           
i.         Act             :free     or  bound                                                                                                           
Exercise 2
Some of the words in (2) contain suffixes. Identify the suffixes by underlining them.
1.      happiness
2.      unkind
3.      freedom
4.      flowers
5.      brother
6.      blackboard

Exercise 3
Some of the words in (3) contain prefixes. Identify the prefixes by underlining them.
        unable
        discourage
        establish
        receive
        strawberry
        amoral

Exercise 4
(i) Identify the root in the words in (4) by underlining it and (ii) state which syntactic category it
belongs to.

Example           *friend+y : Noun

a. lamps                  : Noun
b. kindness: Adjective
 c. hinted                 : Verb
d. players               : Verb
e. editors                : Verb
f. grandfathers         : Noun

Exercise 5
For each of the following bound morphemes, determine whether it is derivational or inflectional
and give two words in which it appears:

a.    –ity: Derivational
realibility
Abiliity
b. –s: inflectional
            cars
            papers
c.    un–: Derivational
uncountable
            unremovable
d.    –ing: Inflectional
fishing
running
e. –al: Derivational
            arival
            recital
f. –er: Derivational
            eraser
            deleter
g. –ed: Inflectional
            opened
            closed
           

Exercise 6
The component morphs of the morphologically complex words have been separated by a hyphen
(–). Indicate which of these morphs are bound morphs and which are free morphs, and which of
the bound morphs are inflectional and which derivational.

 en–courage–ment
courage            : Free
en                     : bound, derivational
 ment                 : bound, derivational
 king–dom–s
king                  : Free
dom                 : bound, derivational
s                       : bound, inflectional
 stud–ent–hood
student             : free
hood                : free
 anti–soviet–ism
anti                   : bound, derivational
soviet               : free
ism                   : bound, derivational
 bi–annu–al–ly
bi                     : free
annual               : free
ly                      : bound, derivational
 read–ing–s
read                 : free
ing                    : bound, derivational
 s                       : bound, inflectional

Exercise  7
Divide the following words into the smallest meaningful units and describe how the words are
formed, i.e. describe the morphological processes (derivation, inflection) involved.

a.         kingdoms
the root is “king”. By suffix “-dom” to the root “king” we derive “kingdom”. The morphological
process involved is called derivational. By adding the suffix “-s” to “kingdom” it becomes
“kingdoms”. The morphological process involved called inflectional.

b.        discourages
the root is “courage”. By prefix “dis-“ to the root “courage” we derive “discourage”. The
morphological process involved called derivational. By adding the suffix “-s” to “discourage” it
becomes “discourages”. The morphological process involved called inflectional.

c.         forgetful
the root is “forget”. By adding the suffix “-ful” to the root “forget” we derive “forgetful”. The
morphological process involved called derivational.

d.        submitted
the root is “submit”. By adding the suffix “-ed” we derive “submitted”. The morphological
process involved called inflectional
 Suffix(es)
Prefix(es)

Roo
t
inequality in- equal -ity
a.
hospitalization
b.
invisibly
c.
uninteresting
d.
undercooked
e.
transcontinental
f.
ungrammatical
g.
reinforcement
h.
prototypical
i.
unforgettable
j.
impropriety
k.
disfunctional
l.
inconsiderate
m.
postcolonial
n.
unlikelihood
o.
relationship
p.
asymmetrical
q.
hypersensitivity
r.
unfriendliness
s.
interdependence
t.
monotheism
Key
Prefix(es Root Suffix(es)
)
a. hospital -ize -ation
b. in- vis -ible -ly
c. un- interest -ing
d. under- cook -ed
e. trans- continent -al
f. un- grammar -ic -al
g. re- in- force -ment
h. proto- type -ic -al
i. un- for- get -able
j. im- proper -ity
k. dis- function -al
l. in- consider -ate
m. post- colony -al
n. un- like -ly -hood
o. relate -ion -ship
p. a- symmetry -ic -al
q. hyper- sense -itive -ity
r. un- friend -ly -ness
s. inter- depend -ence
t. mono- the -ism
Note: It might be possible to break down some of these words further, especially if you have
a knowledge of Latin, e.g.
(lʹ) in- con- sider -ate
(oʹ) re- late -ion -ship
(sʹ) inter- pend -ence
de-
If you do so, you will end up with bound roots in most cases.