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According to Delahunty and Garvey (2010), Morphemes are the smallest forms in a
language that have meanings or grammatical functions. Morphemes can be either free or bound.
Free morphemes are lexemes that can occur on their own without being attached to any other
morpheme. For example, words like dog, chair can have meanings independently; they are also
called the root. Bound morphemes are word parts that always need to be attached to other root
words to create meanings. Bound morphemes are usually affixes, mostly prefixes and suffixes
but can sometimes be infixes. Those of which are not presented in the form of affixes are called
cranberry morphemes. Cranberry morphemes are a type of bound morphemes that cannot be
assigned a meaning nor a grammatical function, but nonetheless serves to distinguish one word
from the other. (Aronoff, 1976) For example, the bound morpheme -ceive originally from Latin
meaning to seize something can be found in words like receive, conceive, etc. A word can have
one or more bound morphemes. For example, the word walks contains one free morpheme walk
and one bound morpheme -s; The word surprisingly contains three morphemes, one free
morpheme surprise, which can occur on its own; and two bound morphemes -ing and -ly that
need to be attached to the root morpheme surprise to function as a signal of the inflection of a
noun surprise from adjective surprising to adverb surprisingly.
Furthermore, bound morphemes can be divided into two categories, inflectional
morphemes and derivational morphemes. Derivational morphemes are word parts that changes
the meaning or part of speech when they are attached to a root. For example, if a bound
morpheme -ment is attached to the root govern, it changes the part of speech from a verb govern
to a noun government. Inflectional morphemes are word parts that do not change the meaning or
the part of speech when they are attached to a root. For example, the plural mark -s does not
change the meaning or class when it is attached to the root dog and changing it into dogs, it only
signals the plural form of the root. Thus, the inflectional morphemes are implemented to signal
syntactical relationships in sentence constructions, the derivational morphemes are utilized to
Inflectional Morphemes
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create new words related to the root words meanings. However, the notions of these two
categories are very often confused especially by ESL learners.
Therefore, in this morphology research paper, I will elaborate the definition,
classifications, and functions, of the morphological, phonological and semantic conditioning of
the inflectional morphemes in the English language in order to distinguish the utilization
especially in the aspect of the different entries in dictionary compilations as well as to raise
awareness for the fact of certain compounded development of inflectional morphemes and
derivational morphemes.
Inflectional Morphemes
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noun ends in the letter s, the genitive marker will present without {-s} but only as an
apostrophe {-} due to the phonological environment.
4) Regular past tense of verbs: {-ed}
This inflectional morpheme conjugates regular verbs to indicate the past time
frame. For example, John walked to school today.
5) Past participle marker of verbs: {-ed, -en}
Usually, this inflectional morpheme is utilized with have or passive be in the
present perfect, past perfect and future perfect tenses. For example, The seat was
taken./She has finished all the homework.
6) Comparative of short adjectives and adverbs: {-er}
A comparative is a form that expresses the greater or lesser degree. A short
adjective or adverb, in this case, is typically considered as adjective or adverb that
consists two or less syllables. That is to say, the comparative form of most of the short
adjectives or adverbs will be root+-er. For example, big/bigger, narrow/narrower. Note
that if a one-syllable adjective or adverb ends in the letter e, the comparative form only
need to add the {-s}. For example, nice/nicer. Moreover, if it ends in the letter y, the
comparative allomorph will present as {-ier}. For example, greasy/greasier.
7) Superlative of short adjectives and adverbs: {-est}
Superlative indicates the highest level. As mentioned above, if an adjective or
adverb consist two or less syllables, in most cases, the superlative form will be root+-est.
For example, bright/brightest, clever/cleverest. Note that if a one-syllable adjective or
adverb ends in the letter e, the superlative form only need to add the {-st}. For example,
nice/nicest. Moreover, if it ends in the letter y, the superlative allomorph will present as
{-iest}. For example, happy/happiest.
8) Progressive marker of verbs: {-ing}
This inflectional morpheme indicates the present continuous time frame of a verb.
For example, study/studying. Note that if a verb ends in the letter e, the progressive form
requires the verb to drop the e in order to attach the inflectional morpheme due to
phonological content. For example, leave/leaving.
Inflectional Morphemes
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Inflectional Morphemes
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Inflectional Morphemes
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while it categorized carefully and carefulness under the careful entry but it also categorized
carelessly and carelessness under the entry of careless. Moreover, in the English-Chinese
Dictionary (1995) categorized modernly and modernness under the modern entry, while listing
modernity, modernize and modernization as different entries separately. It also categorized
happy, happiness and happily as different entries, whilst putting keenly and keenness under the
keen entry. These chaotic categorizations significantly indicate the arbitrariness and
inconsistency of dictionary compilations. In my opinion, due to the fact that a derivational
morpheme changes the meaning and part of speech of a root word that it is attached to, the root
word and the new vocabulary created by the addition of derivational morpheme should be
categorized under different entries. Accordingly, because an inflectional morpheme does not
change the meaning or the part of speech of a root word when the morpheme is attached to the
root, the root word and the new vocabulary created by the addition of an inflectional morpheme
to a root word should be categorized under the same entry.
It is very important to note that the development of both inflectional morphemes and
derivational morphemes are not just single-streamed, separated traces, instead, they sometimes
develop in a mixed way. In other words, inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes are
interchangeable and closely related. This depends on the addition of inflectional morphemes to
derivational morphemes. For example, if the noun computer is attached to a derivational
morpheme {-ize}, it becomes the derivational morpheme computerize; but if we attach an
inflectional morpheme {-ing}, the derivational morpheme will become the inflectional
morpheme computerizing. Or, if the verb mark is attached to an inflectional morpheme {-ed}, it
becomes an inflectional morpheme marked; we can also add a derivational morpheme {-ness} to
change marked into a derivational morpheme markedness. From here we can see that the
development of both inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes are mixed and
complicated, it changes pertinently according to the content.
Conclusion
Although the inflectional morphemes in the modern English language only exist in eight
forms, they can be influenced and be developed in many different ways. These confusing notions
may level up the difficulty of the language acquisition process of ESL leaners. Hence, it is
necessary for ESL teachers to thoroughly understand the definition, classification and utilizations
Inflectional Morphemes
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References:
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Delahunty, G. P, and Garvey, J. J. (May 21, 2010). The English language: From Sound to Sense.
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Jackson, H., and Amvela E. Z. (2000) Words, Meaning and Vocabulary: An Introduction to
Modern English Lexicology. A&C Black.
Lin, C. (1997). An Introduction to English Lecicology. Wuhan University Press.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. (1978). Longman Group limited.
Lu, G. (1995). The English Chinese Dictionary. Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
Matthews, P. H. (1991). Morphology. Cambridge University Press.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., and Svartivk, J. (May 1, 1985). A Comprehensive
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Sinclair, J. (1991). Collins COBUILD Essential English Dictionary. William Collins Sons & Co
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