Lesson 2: Types of Morphemes

Types of Morphemes
• There are two types of morphemes:

-ful
help

-ness

helpfulness

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 Types of Morphemes
• Type 1: Free Morphemes can be uttered alone with
meaning.
• Examples of free morphemes:
eat, open, tour, school, girl, examine, teach, courage
• They are usually the core part which usually sit
anywhere within a word.
• A free morpheme can accept other elements either
before or after it.
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Exercise 1: Identify the free morphemes
in the following words.
1. kissed 6. goodness
2. freedom 7. talkative
3. stronger 8. teacher
4. follow 9. actor
5. awe
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Exercise 1: Identify the free morphemes
in the following words.
1. kissed
2. freedom
3. stronger
4. follow
5. awe
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Exercise 1: Identify the free morphemes
in the following words.
6. goodness
7. talkative
8. teacher
9. actor

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 Types of Morphemes
• Type 2: Bound morphemes cannot be uttered alone
with meaning.
• These are always annexed to one or more morphemes
to form a word.
• Examples of bound morphemes:
preview, played, activity, supervise, antedate, replay,
manly, keeper, unable, government, rainy, cheapest,
inactive, impossible, inter-, -vene
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 Types of Morphemes
• Compare
a. perform-ance rend-ition
seek-er applic-ant
• The words in column a. are similar in meaning to their
counterparts in b.
• In column a. the words contain a free morpheme.
• In column b. both the morphemes are bound.

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Exercise 2: Underline the bound
morphemes. It is possible for a word to
consist entirely of bound morphemes.
1. speaker 6. biomass 11. misleads
2. kingdom 7. intervene 12. previewer
3. petrodollar 8. remake 13. shortened
4. idolise 9. dreamed 14. unhappier
5. selective 10. undo 15. fearlessly
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Exercise 2: Underline the bound
morphemes. It is possible for a word to
consist entirely of bound morphemes.
1. speaker
2. kingdom
3. petrodollar
4. idolise
5. selective
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Exercise 2: Underline the bound
morphemes. It is possible for a word to
consist entirely of bound morphemes.
6. biomass
7. inter vene
8. remake
9. dreamed
10. undo
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Exercise 2: Underline the bound
morphemes. It is possible for a word to
consist entirely of bound morphemes.
11. misleads
12. previewer
13. shorten ed
14. unhappier
15. fearless ly
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Exercise 3: Count the number of
morphemes in each word and underline the
bound morphemes (if there are any).
1. running 6. assertion 11. seaward
2. blindness 7. corner 12. wastage
3. stapler 8. dislocation 13. poetic
4. bargain 9. ladylike 14. waiter
5. undeniable 10. purposeful
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1. running 2
2. blindness 2
3. stapler 2
4. bargain 1

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5. undeniable3
6. assertion 2
7. corner 1
8. dislocation3
9. ladylike 2
10. purposeful 2
11. seaward 2
12. wastage 2
13. poetic 2
14. waiter
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 Free Morphemes
• Free morphemes fall into two categories:
1) Lexical Morphemes: set of ordinary nouns,
adjectives, & verbs which carry the ‘content’ of the
message conveyed.
• Examples: boy, man, house, tiger, sad, long, yellow,
gentle, sincere, open, look, follow, break, desire
• They are an ‘open’ class of words as we can add new
lexical morphemes to the language.
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 Free Morphemes
2) Functional Morphemes: set of functional words
such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles, &
pronouns.
• Examples: and, but, when, because, on, near, above,
in, the, that, it
• They are a ‘closed’ class of words as we almost never
add new functional morphemes to the language.

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Exercise 4: Identify each of the underlined
words as a lexical or functional morpheme.

Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.
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Exercise 4: Identify each of the underlined
words as a lexical or functional morpheme.
Row L
your F
boat L
Gently L
down F
the F
stream L
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Exercise 4: Identify each of the underlined
words as a lexical or functional morpheme.
Merrily L
Life L
is L
but F
aF
dream L
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 Bound Morphemes
Bound morphemes fall into two categories:
1) Inflectional Bound Morphemes:
• These are defined as grammatical indicators or
markers.
• These cannot generate or create new words nor can
they affect the class of a word.

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 Bound Morphemes
• Inflectional Bound Morphemes play three grammatical roles in
English:
i- They indicate tense which affects verbs.
Examples: come + s (3rd person singular marker), write + ing
(continuous tense marker), walk + ed (past tense marker), take + en
(past participle marker)
ii- They indicate number – plurality or possessiveness which deal
with nouns.
Examples: boy + s (plural marker), Jim + ’s (possessive marker)
iii- They indicate comparison which affects adjectives.
Examples: fast + er (comparative form marker), fast + est (superlative
form marker)
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Exercise 5: What are the inflectional
morphemes in the following phrases?
a. the singer’s songs
b. it’s raining
c. the newest style
d. the cow jumped over the moon

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Exercise 5: What are the inflectional
morphemes in the following phrases?
a. the singer’s songs
b. it’s raining
c. the newest style
d. the cow jumped over the moon

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 Bound Morphemes
2) Derivational Bound Morphemes:
• These can generate or create new words by either
changing the class of word or forming new words.
• This transformation does not, however, affect the
lexical meaning of the base forms of the free
morpheme.
• It makes words of a different grammatical category
from the stem.

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 Bound Morphemes
• Examples of Derivational Bound Morphemes:
A. Nouns from verbs:
-age: breakage, -al: revival, -ation: exploration, -ment:
government, -ee: payee, -ant: informant
B. Adjectives from nouns:
-ful: careful, -less: fruitless, -n: Nigerian, -able: lovable, -
ly: friendly, -ous: desirous
C. Nouns from Adjectives:
-ity: rapidity, -ness: kindness, -ce: fragrance
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 Bound Morphemes
• Examples of Derivational Bound Morphemes:
D. Verbs from Adjectives:
-en: weaken, -ise/ize: liquidise, -fy: solidify
E. Adjectives from Verbs:
-able: washable, -ive: digestive, -tory: satisfactory

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 Bound Morphemes
• Whenever there is a derivational suffix and an
inflectional suffix attached to the same word, they
always appear in that order.
• Example: the derivational -er attaches to teach, then
the inflectional -s is added to yield teachers.

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Exercise 6: What are the inflectional
and derivational morphemes in the
following words?
1. speaker 6. biomass 11. misleads
2. kingdom 7. intervene 12. previewer
3. petrodollar 8. remake 13. shortened
4. idolise 9. dreamed 14. unhappier
5. selective 10. undo 15. fearlessly
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Exercise 6: What are the inflectional
and derivational morphemes in the
following words?
1. speaker
2. kingdom
3. petrodollar
4. idolise
5. selective
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Exercise 6: What are the inflectional
and derivational morphemes in the
following words?
6. biomass
7. inter-vene
8. remake
9. dreamed
10. undo
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Exercise 6: What are the inflectional
and derivational morphemes in the
following words?
11. misleads
12. previewer
13. shortened
14. unhappier
15. fearless-ly
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 Categories of Morphemes

Lexical
Free
Functional
Morphemes
Derivational
Bound
Inflectional

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Homework assignment I
Divide the following words into morphemes. Which of
the morphemes are free and which are bound? Are
the bound morphemes inflectional or derivational?
1) tigers 7) wholesome 13) reader
2) speakers 8) fearsome 14) redder
3) untimely 9) consumed 15) radish
4) uniquely 10) consumption 16) redness
5) decorating 11) leucocyte 17) lens
6) decentralising 12) erythrocyte
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18) legs
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Homework assignment I
Divide the following words into morphemes. Which of
the morphemes are free and which are bound? Are
the bound morphemes inflectional or derivational?
1) tiger-s
2) speak-er-s
3) un-time-ly
4) unique-ly
5) decorat-ing
6) de-centr-al-is-ing
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Homework assignment I
Divide the following words into morphemes. Which of
the morphemes are free and which are bound? Are
the bound morphemes inflectional or derivational?
7) whole-some
8) fear-some
9) con-sume-ed
10) con-sump-tion
11) leuco-cyte
12) erythro-cyte
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Homework assignment I
Divide the following words into morphemes. Which of
the morphemes are free and which are bound? Are
the bound morphemes inflectional or derivational?
13) read-er
14) red-er
15) radish
16) red-ness
17) lens
18) leg-s
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Homework assignment II
Break each of the following words up into its
constituent morphemes, then list at least one other
word that contains each morpheme.
Example: morphemic morph- : amorphous
-em- : phoneme, academy -ic : tonic, sonic, academic
1) monologue 4) television
2) predispose 5) supervene
3) phonology 6) bibliophile
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Homework assignment II
Break each of the following words up into its
constituent morphemes, then list at least one other
word that contains each morpheme.
1) mono-logue monopoly - dialogue
2) pre-dispose predetermine - disposable
3) phono-ology telephone - morphology

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Homework assignment II
Break each of the following words up into its
constituent morphemes, then list at least one other
word that contains each morpheme.
4) tele-vision telepathy – visionary
5) super-vene supersonic - intervene
6) biblio-phile bibliography - Anglophile

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The topic of our coming lecture

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