Scribd
Upload
15 views2 pages

Understanding Morphemes and Their Types

The document defines morphemes as the smallest units of meaning or form. It discusses two types of morphemes: free morphemes, which can stand alone as words, and bound morphemes, which are always attached to other morphemes. Free morphemes are further divided into lexical morphemes, which carry their own meaning, and functional morphemes, which build grammatical structure. Bound morphemes are either derivational, changing a word's meaning or category, or inflectional, indicating aspects like number, tense, or comparison without changing the category.

Uploaded by

Jimena Ferrario
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
15 views2 pages

Understanding Morphemes and Their Types

The document defines morphemes as the smallest units of meaning or form. It discusses two types of morphemes: free morphemes, which can stand alone as words, and bound morphemes, which are always attached to other morphemes. Free morphemes are further divided into lexical morphemes, which carry their own meaning, and functional morphemes, which build grammatical structure. Bound morphemes are either derivational, changing a word's meaning or category, or inflectional, indicating aspects like number, tense, or comparison without changing the category.

Uploaded by

Jimena Ferrario
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

MORPHEME The smallest

unit of meaning or form


1 FREE: they stand by themselves
1.1 LEXICAL
See also: PREFIXES

1.1.1 They carry meaning of their own


1.1.2 content/lexical words
1.1.3 They form an open class
nouns
adjectives
adverbs
main verbs

1.2 FUNCTIONAL
1.2.1 They built the grammatical structure of a language
1.2.2 form/functional words
1.2.3 a closed class
pronouns
aux. verbs
prepositions
conjunctions

2 BOUND: they are always attached to free


lexical morphemes
See also: LEXICAL

2.1 DERIVATIONAL
2.1.1 PREFIXES
See also: LEXICAL

Always change the meaning but not the grammatical category


2.1.2 SUFFIXES
Usually change the grammatical category of a word
Sometimes the change only the meaning
Exceptionally they do both change the meaning and the grammatical
category

2.2 INFLECTIONAL
2.2.1 SUFFIXES
Subtopic

2.2.2 Never change the grammatical category


2.2.3 Indicate special aspects of that word
past
plural
comparative
gender

You might also like