II. MORPHEME
* the smallest unit of linguistic meaning.
* A single word may be composed of one or more morphemes.
Example: un+system+atic+al+ly ( the word unsystematically can be analyzed into
5 separate morphemes) A grammatical unit in which there is an arbitrary union
of a sound and a meaning that cannot be further analyzed.
* * Every word in every language is composed of one or more morphemes.
One morpheme boy (one syllable)
desire, lady, water (two syllables)
crocodile (three syllables)
salamander (four syllables), or more syllables
Two morpheme boy + ish
desire + able
Three morpheme boy + ish + ness
desire + able + ity
Four morpheme gentle + man + li + ness
un + desire + able + ity
More than four un + gentle + man + li + ness
anti + dis + establish + ment + ari + an + ism
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| Kinds of Morpheme |
1. Free Morphemes : Morphemes which can be used as a word on its own (without the need for further elements, i.e. affixes)
Example: girl, system, desire, hope, act, phone, happy..
2. Bound Morphemes: Morphemes which cannot occur on its own as an independent (or separate) word.
* Affixes (prefix, suffix, infix and circumfix) are all bound morphemes.
Prefixes
Suffixes
