Classification of morphemes

a) free morphemes - can stand alone as simple words

work, book, establish

or

- can combine with other morphemes as roots of

complex words

work + ed, book + s

work +er+s, un+ friend +ly

dis+ establish + ment+arian+ism+s

root - a free morpheme within a complex word

friend + li+ness, boy +hood

or

- a combination of free morphemes (in compounds)

girl+friend +s, play+boy +s

b) b ound morpheme – cannot stand alonebutalways attaches to other elements as an affix

Each complex word consists of one root and one or more affixes.

one affix - book+ s

many affixes - dis +establish+ ment + arian + ism + s

Affixes divide into prefixes (precede roots)and suffixes (follow roots)

Affixes could be inflectional or derivational:

1. Inflectional – express a restricted set of meanings (e.g. number with nouns, tense with verbs, degree with adjectives and adverbs) or have purely grammatical functions – (e.g. case ending with nouns, number ending with adjectives in Polish)

Inflectional affixes mark variants of the same word e.g.

boy, boy+ s,

work, work+ ed, work+ s, (is) work+ ing

2. Derivational + change one word to another one e.g.

work - work+ er,

govern - govern+ ment,

capital - capital+ ist, capital+ ism

hard - hard+ ly,

suppose - pre +suppose,

sex - sex+ ists, sex +ism

Four rules of affixation:

1. Prefixes are always derivational

2. Suffixes may be derivational or inflectional

3. Derivational suffixes always precede inflectional

4. The rightmost derivational suffix determines the word class of the word

e.g. establish (V)

[establish + ment ] (N)

[ establish + ment + a l ] (Adj)

[ establish + ment + al + ism ](N)

Morphemes

free bound

roots simple words affixes

prefixes suffixes

derivational derivational inflectional

Bound roots

re+ ceive, con + ceive, per + ceive, de+ ceive

re+ vert,con + vert, per + vert, di + vert (vertere ( latin )+turn)