MORPHOLOGY - PRACTICE

Exercise 1: Which of the following words may not deserve to be regarded as lexical items, and so may not need to
be listed in a dictionary of modern English?
1. punish punishing punishable punishment punished
2. breaks breaking broken breakable heartbroken
3. two twice second secondly secondhand
4. normal normally norm normality abnormal
5. university universities universities’
6. drink drank drunk (v) drunk (a) drinker
7. good well better best bestie
8. wash rewash rewashed

Exercise 2: In the following sentences, count word tokens, types, and lexemes:

1 I say now, just as I said yesterday, that the price of a wombat is high but the price of a platypus is higher.
_______ tokens _______ types _______ lexemes
2 I've just replaced my printer with a new one that prints much faster.
_______ tokens _______ types _______ lexemes

Exercise 3: What words belong to the same word family or lexeme as sing?

Exercise 4: Identify the word type (simple, complex or compound) and the root(s) of each of the following words.

Word Word type Root Word Word type Root

1. forget 16. online
2. undo 17. downsides
3. tonight 18. reassessment
4. sleepy 19. kingdom
5. sunburn 20. academic writing
6. fully-furnished 21. disarms
7. calculating 22. children’s
8. heard 23. teddy bear
9. tidiest 24. abnormality
10. never 25. tablets
11. semi-detached 26. bicycles
12. photo 27. almost
13. e-books 28. whole-hearted
14. dragon fruit 29. googling
15. improbability 30. hopelessness

Exercise 5: Analyze the following words into morphemes. Put a plus (+) sign between morphemes. Label each as B
(bound morpheme) or F (free morpheme).

e.g. cars = car (F) + -s (B)

1. anti-hero
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2. sprayed
3. childhood
4. truthfulness
5. justify
6. television
7. autobiography
8. higher-education
9. pool party
10. partners’
11. fertilizer
12. flirtatiously
13. friendliest
14. up-to-date
15. personalities
16. pre-tax profits
17. touch sensitive
18. public speaking skills
19. devaluation
20. retroactive
21. covering
22. decoded
23. supernatural
24. disappearance
25. irregular
26. illiteracy
27. internationally
28. ultraviolet
29. Facebook accounts
30. single-use plastics
31. precautionary
32. postgraduates
33. depth
34. expressionism
35. purify
36. workability
37. affectionately
38. dramatize
39. self-pity
40. youth hotels
41. blood pressure
42. pocket money
43. global warming
44. non-English speakers
45. black sheep (plural)
46. penniless
47. gentlemanly
48. ungracious
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 49. verbalization
50. visibly
51. internet-stoning
52. desktops
53. destructive
54. polar bears
55. spicy
56. viral
57. human being
58. overrated
59. labor-saving
60. short-lived

Exercise 6: Identify the affixes in the following words. Decide if they are inflectional or derivational affixes.

Word Root(s) Derivational affix(es) Inflectional affix(es)

1. payment
2. Bill’s
3. fifth
4. deadliest
5. replay
6. beaten
7. worse
8. worsened
9. bosses’
10. player
11. roughest
12. spiteful
13. further
14. judgments
15. nobody
16. supernatural
17. broken (v)
18. broken (adj)
19. deepened
20. disobey
21. optionality
22. premature
23. seldom
24. quarterly
25. discover
26. width
27. favoritism
28. fragility
29. premade
30. whitening
31. oxen
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 32. misfortune
33. embodiment
34. kidnapper
35. reactionary
36. came
37. decontextualize
38. festival
39. banana
40. prettier
41. semicircle
42. deform
43. violinist’s
44. teeth
45. preseason
46. mistreat
47. subtitle
48. cranberries
49. fandom
50. gangsters

Exercise 7: Produce a formula for each affix. Provide two more words which follow the formula.

Affix Formula Words

0. –ly as in calmly, highly Adj + -ly  Adv
1. –ness As in friendliness, restlessness
2. re- As in reuse, redo
3. mis- As in misspell, mistrust
4. un- As in untie, undo
5. un- As in unhappy, unlucky
6. -hood As in brotherhood, childhood
7. -ment As in development, treatment
8. –er As in teacher, singer
9. –ful As in careful, eventful
10. –ee As in employee, trainee
11. –ize As in hospitalize, computerize
12. –ed As in interested, bored
13. –ic As in romantic, artistic
14. dis- As in disobey, dislike
15. –ant As in applicant, defendant
16. –ism As in sexism, racism
17. –able As in readable, understandable
18. –ous As in spacious, courageous
19. –ish As in childish, foolish
20. –al As in arrival, denial

Exercise 8: Analyze each of the following words, using a tree-diagram

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 1. disorganized 21. departure gates 41. universalized

2. inoffensive 22. within 42. another

3. wisdom teeth 23. identification card 43. firefighters

4. arrivals 24. mid-afternoon 44. Westernization

5. unfaithful 25. unlawful 45. falsify

6. expiry date 26. degradable 46. anti-fans’

7. deepened 27. embodiment 47. single-use plastics

8. lifelessness 28. ungrammatical 48. engagement rings

9. old-fashioned 29. fatalistic 49. prehistoric

10. misjudgments 30. malfunction 50. Buddhist

11. text-to-speech 31. heart attack 51. public speaking

12. pre-tax profits 32. worsening 52. open-minded

13. anti-war-movement 33. counterattacked 53. materialism

14. elements 34. supernatural 54. mother-in-law

15. notably 35. unemployment 55. academic writing

16. imprisonment 36. preschools 56. hopefully

17. expansionary 37. well-developed 57. fertilizer

18. secondhand 38. rechargeable 58. beggars

19. photocopier 39. touristic 59. greeting cards

20. world-famous 40. abnormality 60. agreement terms

Exercise 10: Identify the word formation process

Word formation process

1. return on investment è ROI
2. information, entertainment è infotainment
3. modulator, demodulator è Modem
4. love, seat è loveseat
5. international, police è Interpol
6. a comb è to comb
7. delicatessen è deli
8. Capt. Charles Cunningham Boycott è boycott
9. automation è automate
10. humid è humidifier
11. information, entertainment è infotainment
12. love, seat è loveseat
13. progress (n) è progress (v)

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14. typographical error è typo
15. aerobics, marathon è aerobathon
16. act è deactivate
17. curve, ball è curve ball
18. perambulator è Pram
19. (the) comb è comb (your hair)
20. beef, buffalo è Beefalo
21. random access memory è RAM
22. megabyte è Meg
23. teleprinter, exchanger è Telex
24. influenza è Flu
25. Goods and Services Tax è GST