How many morphemes are in the word

Morphology is the study of words, word formation, and the relationship between words. In Morphology, we look at morphemes — the smallest lexical items of meaning. Studying morphemes helps us to understand the meaning, structure, and etymology (history) of words.

Inflectional affixes only modify the meaning of words instead of changing them. This means they modify the words by making them plural, comparative or superlative, or by changing the verb tense.

Word class	Modification reason	Suffixes
To modify nouns	Plural & possessive forms	-s (or -es), -‘s (or s’)
To modify adjectives	Comparative & superlative forms	-er, -est
To modify verbs	3rd person singular, past tense, present & past participles	-s, -ed, -ing, -en

In English, regular verbs use the past tense morpheme -ed; this shows us that the verb happened in the past. The pronunciation of this morpheme changes its sound according to the last consonant of the verb but always keeps its past tense function. This is an example of an allomorph.

Recommended textbook solutions

Morphology is the study of words and their parts. Morphemes, like prefixes, suffixes and base words, are defined as the smallest meaningful units of meaning. Morphemes are important for phonics in both reading and spelling, as well as in vocabulary and comprehension.

Why use morphology

Teaching morphemes unlocks the structures and meanings within words. It is very useful to have a strong awareness of prefixes, suffixes and base words. These are often spelt the same across different words, even when the sound changes, and often have a consistent purpose and/or meaning.

Types of morphemes

Free vs. bound

Morphemes can be either single words (free morphemes) or parts of words (bound morphemes).

A free morpheme can stand alone as its own word

• gentle
• father
• licence
• picture
• gem

A bound morpheme only occurs as part of a word

• -s as in cat+s
• -ed as in crumb+ed
• un- as in un+happy
• mis- as in mis-fortune
• -er as in teach+er

In the example above: un+system+atic+al+ly, there is a root word (system) and bound morphemes that attach to the root (un-, -atic, -al, -ly)

system = root un-, -atic, -al, -ly = bound morphemes

If two free morphemes are joined together they create a compound word. These words are a great way to introduce morphology (the study of word parts) into the classroom.

For more details, see:
Compound words

Inflectional vs. d​​erivational

Morphemes can also be divided into inflectional or derivational morphemes.

Inflectional morphemes change what a word does in terms of grammar, but does not create a new word.

For example, the word <skip> has many forms: skip (base form), skipping (present progressive), skipped (past tense).

The inflectional morphemes -ing and -ed are added to the base word skip, to indicate the tense of the word.

If a word has an inflectional morpheme, it is still the same word, with a few suffixes added. So if you looked up <skip> in the dictionary, then only the base word <skip> would get its own entry into the dictionary. Skipping and skipped are listed under skip, as they are inflections of the base word. Skipping and skipped do not get their own dictionary entry.

Skip

Another example is <run>: run (base form), running (present progressive), ran (past tense). In this example the past tense marker changes the vowel of the word: run (rhymes with fun), to ran (rhymes with can). However, the inflectional morphemes -ing and past tense morpheme are added to the base word <run>, and are listed in the same dictionary entry.

Run

Derivational morphemes are different to inflectional morphemes, as they do derive/create a new word, which gets its own entry in the dictionary. Derivational morphemes help us to create new words out of base words.

For example, we can create new words from <act> by adding derivational prefixes (e.g. re- en-) and suffixes (e.g. -or).

Thus out of <act> we can get re+act = react en+act = enact act+or = actor.

Whenever a derivational morpheme is added, a new word (and dictionary entry) is derived/created.

For the <act> example, the following dictionary entries can be found:

Act

React

Enact

Actor

Teachers should highlight and encourage students to analyse both Inflectional and Derivational morphemes when focussing on phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension.

For more information, see: 

Prefixes, suffixes, and roots/bases

Many morphemes are very helpful for analysing unfamiliar words. Morphemes can be divided into prefixes, suffixes, and roots/bases.

• Prefixes are morphemes that attach to the front of a root/base word.
• Suffixes are morphemes that attach to the end of a root/base word, or to other suffixes (see example below)
• Roots/Base words are morphemes that form the base of a word, and usually carry its meaning.
  • Generally, base words are free morphemes, that can stand by themselves (e.g. cycle as in bicycle/cyclist, and form as in transform/formation).
  • Whereas root words are bound morphemes that cannot stand by themselves (e.g. -ject as in subject/reject, and -volve as in evolve/revolve).

Most morphemes can be divided into:

• Anglo-Saxon Morphemes (like re-, un-, and -ness);
• Latin Morphemes (like non-, ex-, -ion, and -ify); and
• Greek Morphemes (like micro, photo, graph).

It is useful to highlight how words can be broken down into morphemes (and which each of these mean) and how they can be built up again).

For example, the word <unreliability> may be unfamiliar to students when they first encounter it.

If <unreliability> is broken into its morphemes, students can deduce or infer the meaning.

So it is helpful for both reading and spelling to provide opportunities to analyse words, and become familiar with common morphemes, including their meaning and function.

Compound words

Compound words (or compounds) are created by joining free morphemes together. Remember that a free morpheme is a morpheme that can stand along as its own word (unlike bound morphemes — e.g. -ly, -ed, re-, pre-). Compounds are a fun and accessible way to introduce the idea that words can have multiple parts (morphemes). Teachers can highlight that these compound words are made up of two separate words joined together to make a new word. For example dog + house = doghouse

Examples

Example activities of highlighting morphemes for phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension

There are numerous ways to highlight morphemes for the purpose of phonics, vocabulary and comprehension activities and lessons.

Highlighting the morphology of words is useful for explaining phonics patterns (graphemes) and spelling rules, as well as discovering the meanings of unfamiliar words, and demonstrating how words are linked together. Highlighting and analysing morphemes is also useful, therefore, for providing comprehension strategies.

Examples of how to embed morphological awareness into literacy activities can include:

• Sorting words by base/root words (word families), or by prefixes or suffixes
• Word Detective — Students break longer words down into their prefixes, suffixes, and base words
• e.g. Find the morphemes in multi-morphemic words like: dissatisfied unstoppable ridiculously hydrophobic metamorphosis oxygenate fortifications
• Word Builder — students are given base words and prefixes/suffixes and see how many words they can build, and what meaning they might have:
• Prefixes: un- de- pre- re- co- con-
  Base Words: play help flex bend blue sad sat
  Suffixes: -ful -ly -less -able/-ible -ing -ion -y -ish -ness -ment
• Etymology investigation — students are given multi-morphemic words from texts they have been reading and are asked to research the origins (etymology) of the word. Teachers could use words like progressive, circumspect, revocation, and students could find out the morphemes within each word, their etymology, meanings, and use.

​

Free Morphemes and Bound Morphemes

Morphemes that can stand alone to function as words are called free morphemes. They comprise simple words (i.e. words made up of one free morpheme) and compound words (i.e. words made up of two free morphemes).

Examples:

Simple words: the, run, on, well

Compound words: keyboard, greenhouse, bloodshed, smartphone

Morphemes that can only be attached to another part of a word (cannot stand alone) are called bound morphemes.

Examples:

pre-, dis-, in-, un-, -ful, -able, -ment, -ly, -ise

pre

test,

dis

content,

in

tolerable,

re

ceive

Complex words are words that are made up of both free morpheme(s) and bound morpheme(s), or two or more bound morphemes.

Roll your mouse over the words below to see how many morphemes are there and whether they are free morphemes or bound morphemes.

againstagainst	imperativeimperative	realize realize	submitsubmit
assignmentassign+ment	FacebookFace+book	uncommonun+common	misinterpretmis+interpret
disqualifieddis+qualify+ed	encountereden+counter+ed	geographygeo+graph+y	irresistibleir+resist+ible

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According
to the number of morphemes words are classified into monomorphic
and polymorphic.

Monomorphic
or
root-words consist of only one root-morpheme, e.g., small,
dog, make, give, etc.
All polymorphic
words according to the number of root-morphemes are classified into
two subgroups: monoradical or root words and polyradical words, i.e.,
words which consist of two or more roots.

Monoradical
words fall into two subtypes: 1) radical-suffixal
words, i.e., words that consist of one root-morpheme and one or more
suffixal morphemes, e.g., acceptable,
acceptability, blackish; 2)
radical-prefixal
words, i.e., words that consist of one root-morpheme and a prefixal
morpheme, e.g. outdo,
rearrange, unbutton; and
3) prefixo-radical-suffixal,
i.e., words which consist of one root, a prefixal and suffixal
morphemes, e.g., disagreeable,
misinterpretation.

Polyradical
words
fall into two subtypes: 1) polyradical words which consist of two or
more roots with no affixational morphemes, e.g., book-stand,
eye-ball,
lamp-shade; and
2) words which contain at least two roots and one or more
affixational morphemes, e.g., safety-pin,
wedding-pie, class-
consciousness,
light-mindedness, pen-holder.

1. Derivational and morphemic levels of analysis

The
morphemic
analysis
of words only defines the constituent morphemes, determining their
types and their meaning but does not reveal the hierarchy of the
morphemes comprising the word.

Morphemes
are arranged according to certain rules, the arrangement differing in
various types of words and particular groups within the same types.
The pattern of morpheme arrangement underlies the classification of
words into different types and enables one to understand how new
words appear in the language. These relations within the word and the
interrelations between different types and classes of words are known
as derivative
or word- formation relations.

The
analysis of derivative relations aims at establishing a correlation
between different types and the structural patterns words are built
on. The basic unit at the derivational level is the stem.The stem is
defined as that part of the word which remains unchanged throughout
its paradigm, thus the stem which appears in the paradigm (to) ask (
), asks,
asked, asking is ask-; thestem
of the word singer (
), singer’s,
singers, singers’ is singer-. 

1. Morphemic
   word classification

1. Word
   formation in Modern English

Word
formation is a branch of science of the language which studies the
patterns on which a language forms new lexical items (new unities,
new words). Word formation is a process of forming words by
combining root
& affixal morphemes.

Different
types of word formation:

—
COMPOUNDING is joining together 2 or more stems.
Types: 1) without
a connecting element (headache, heartbreak); 2) with a vowel or
consonant as a linking element (speedometer, craftsman); 3) with a
preposition or conjunction as a linking element down-and-out
(опустошенный)
son-in-law.
— PREFIXATION Prefixes are such particles that can be
prefixed to full words. But are themselves not with independent
existence.
— SUFFIXATION A suffix is a derivative final element
which is or was productive in forming new words. It has semantic
value, but doesn’t occur as an independent speech use.
—
CONVERSION (zero derivation) A certain stem is used for the formation
of a categorically different word without a derivative element being
added.(Bag – to bag)
— BACK DERIVATION is deraving a new word,
which is morphologically simpler from a more complex word.  ( A
babysitter – to babysit     Television – to
televise)
— PHONETIC SYMBOLISM is using characteristic speech
sounds for name giving. Very often we imitate by the speech sounds
what we hear: (tinkle, splash, t).
— CLIPPING Consists in the
reduction of a word to one of its parts.     (
Mathematics – maths)
— BLENDING is blending part of two words to
form one word  ( Smoke + fog = smog)

1. Morphological
   structure of a word. Productive and non-productive ways of word
   formation.

Morphology
is the study of the structure and form of words in language or a
language, including inflection, derivation, and the formation of
compounds. At the basic level, words are made of «morphemes.»
These are the smallest units of meaning: roots and affixes (prefixes
and suffixes). Native speakers recognize the morphemes as
grammatically significant or meaningful. For example, «schoolyard»
is made of «school» + «yard», «makes»
is made of «make» + a grammatical suffix «-s»,
and «unhappiness» is made of «happy» with a
prefix «un-» and a suffix «-ness».

Inflection
occurs when a word has different forms but essentially the same
meaning, and there is only a grammatical difference between them: for
example, «make» and «makes». The «-s»
is an inflectional morpheme.

In
contrast, derivation makes a word with a clearly different meaning:
such as «unhappy» or «happiness», both from
«happy». The «un-» and «-ness» are
derivational morphemes. Normally a dictionary would list derived
words, but there is no need to list «makes» in a dictionary
as well as «make.»

Word-formation
is the process of creating new words from the material available in
the word-stock according to certain structural and semantic patterns
specific for the given language. There are different ways of
word-formation in Modern English. Some of them are highly-productive.
They are: affixation, conversion, substantivation, compounding,
shortening, formation of phrasal verbs. Others are semi-productive
(back-formation, blending, reduplication, lexicalization of the
plural of nouns, sound imitation) and non-productive ways of
word-building (sound interchange, change of stress).

Non-productive
ways of word-building Sound interchange (gradation) is the process in
which word belonging to different parts of speech may be
differentiated due to the sound interchange in the root, eg food (n)
:: feed (v), gold (n) :: gild (v), sing (v) :: song (n) .Change of
stress is mostly observed in verb-noun pairs, eg transport> to
transport and much more seldom in verb-adjective pairs, to prostrate>
prostrate. The difference in stress often appeared after the verb was
formed and was not therefore connected with the formation of the new
word.

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two morphemes

How many morphemes are in Unfortunately?

four morphemes

What is the root of the word unfortunately?

unfortunately (adv.) 1540s, “in an unfortunate manner, by ill-fortune,” from unfortunate + -ly (2).

How many Morphemes does the word removal have?

#	A Morpheme	B Meaning
5	ectomy	removal
6	ennial	year
7	epi	on
8	escent	growing

For example, running is two morphemes “run” and -ing.

Is I’m one or two Morphemes?

Each phonological word must have at least one stressed syllable, so I’m cannot consist of more than one phonological word. two morphosyntactic words: the full forms I and am are both free words, you could reverse the word order to am I in questions.

Is babies one or two Morphemes?

The word baby is comprised of two morphemes; the free base element and the diminutive suffix in this case .

Is didn’t a morpheme?

We will say that there is one morpheme for “not” and that it always shows up at the beginning of a verb and it always starts with n but it has two different forms nae- and ne-….Words and Parts of Words.

Meaning	I didn’t read it.
Unaccounted for	not

Do names count as Morphemes?

DO NOT count: 2 Compound words, reduplications, and proper names count as single words (e.g. fireman, choo-choo, Big Bird). 3 Irregular past tense verbs and irregular plurals count as one morpheme (e.g. took, went, mice, men).

How many morphemes are in everybody?

18 Cards in this Set

uhhhm, uhuh, um er, uh aha, etc.	placeholders = don’t count
anybody, somebody, everybody, everyone, anyone, someone,	indefinite pronouns = 1
a, the, an	articles = 1
plural ‘s, posessive ‘s 3rd pers sing -s, regular past -ed, present progressive -ing	Inflections = 1 morpheme

Does Oh count as a morpheme?

Words such as ”oh”, ”mmm”, and ”uh-huh” do not count as morphemes, but how about words such as ”okay” and ”hey”?

What are Morphemes and examples?

A morpheme is the smallest linguistic part of a word that can have a meaning. In other words, it is the smallest meaningful part of a word. Examples of morphemes would be the parts “un-“, “break”, and “-able” in the word “unbreakable”.

What are the three types of morphemes?

There are three ways of classifying morphemes:

• free vs. bound.
• root vs. affixation.
• lexical vs. grammatical.

What are the Derivational Morphemes?

In grammar, a derivational morpheme is an affix—a group of letters added before the beginning (prefix) or after the end (suffix)—of a root or base word to create a new word or a new form of an existing word.

How are Morphemes classified?

Morphemes are the smallest units in a language that have meaning. They can be classified as free morphemes, which can stand alone as words, or bound morphemes, which must be combined with another morpheme to form a complete word. Bound morphemes typically appear as affixes in the English language.

Do morphemes include inflectional endings?

Meaning and Examples of Inflectional Morphemes Dr. Inflectional morphemes in English include the bound morphemes -s (or -es); ‘s (or s’); -ed; -en; -er; -est; and -ing. These suffixes may even do double- or triple-duty.

What is the difference between word and morpheme?

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language. A morpheme is not necessarily the same as a word. The main difference between a morpheme and a word is that a morpheme sometimes does not stand alone, but a word, by definition, always stands alone.

How many morphemes are in Monster?

Answer. It has three morphemes: the prefix in, the base word just, and the suffix ice.

Is girlfriend a morpheme?

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaningful language. “Girl” is a morpheme, as is “skip.” “Girlfriend” has two morphemes, as does “skipper”. Some morphemes can be free (as in girl, skip, and type) whereas other morphemes are bound (as in huck, funct, and ept). A free morpheme has meaning, a bound morpheme does not.

How many morphemes are in thanks?

What means morpheme?

A “morpheme” is a short segment of language that meets three basic criteria: 1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning. 2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful segments without changing its meaning or leaving a meaningless remainder.

What is a full morpheme?

In English grammar and morphology, a morpheme is a meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word such as dog, or a word element, such as the -s at the end of dogs, that can’t be divided into smaller meaningful parts. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language.

What is bound morpheme and example?

Morphemes that can only be attached to another part of a word (cannot stand alone) are called bound morphemes. Examples: pre-, dis-, in-, un-, -ful, -able, -ment, -ly, -ise. pretest, discontent, intolerable, receive.

Are morphemes and syllables the same?

Morphemes are a stretch of sound and meaning together. Syllables are divisions that are based on pronunciation, not on meaning. Morphemes are divisions that are based on meaning.

Are closed syllables Morphemes?

Syllables are closed when they end in a consonant and open when they end in a vowel. They are uncovered when they begin with a vowel and covered when they begin with a consonant. In the word ruchka (“handle”), morphemes for example, there are two syllables (ru-chka) but three morphemes (ruch-k-a).

Are base words Morphemes?

Roots/Base words are morphemes that form the base of a word, and usually carry its meaning. Generally, base words are free morphemes, that can stand by themselves (e.g. cycle as in bicycle/cyclist, and form as in transform/formation).

How many syllables is jumped Morphemes?

Syllables in Jumped

How many syllables are in jumped:	1
Syllables counted programmatically:	N/A
Divide jumped into Syllables:	jumped
Total number Words:	1
Characters (all | no spaces | with spaces):	6 | 6 | 6 (Sequential spaces are not counted)

Is jumped a 2 syllable word?

Wondering why jumped is 1 syllable? Contact Us!

How many syllables is jumping?

2 syllables

How many syllables jump has?

1 syllable

What is a Morpheme?

Morphemes are what make up words. It is not always true that morphemes are words. Some single morphemes can be words, while other words have two or more morphemes within them. It is also incorrect to think of morphemes as syllables. Many words have two or more syllables but only one morpheme. “Banana”, “apple”, “papaya” and “nanny” are just a few examples. On the other hand, many words have two morphemes and only one syllable; examples include “cats”, “runs,” and “barked”.

The word “pins” contains two morphemes: “pin” and the plural suffix “-s.”

In so-called isolating languages, like Vietnamese, each word contains a single morpheme; in languages such as English, words often contain multiple morphemes.

Types of Morphemes:

Free morpheme:

A morpheme that can stand alone as a word without another morpheme. It does not need anything attached to it to make a word. “Cat” is a free morpheme.

Bound morpheme:

A sound or a combination of sounds that cannot stand alone as a word. The “s” in “cats” is a bound morpheme, and it does not have any meaning without the free morpheme “cat”.

Inflectional morpheme:

This morpheme is always a suffix. The “s” in “cats” is an inflectional morpheme. An inflectional morpheme creates a change in the function of the word. Example: the “d” in “invited” indicates past tense. English has only seven inflectional morphemes: “-s” (plural) and “-s” (possessive) are noun inflections; “-s” ( 3rd-person singular), “-ed” ( past tense), “-en” (past participle), and “-ing” ( present participle) are verb inflections; “-er” (comparative) and “-est” (superlative) are adjective and adverb inflections.

Derivational morpheme:

This type of morpheme changes the meaning of the word or the part of speech or both. Derivational morphemes often create new words. Example: the prefix and derivational morpheme “un” added to “invited” changes the meaning of the word.

Allomorphs:

Different phonetic forms or variations of a morpheme. Example: The final morphemes in the following words are pronounced differently, but they all indicate plurality: dogs, cats, and horses.

Base:

A morpheme that gives a word its meaning. The base morpheme “cat” gives the word “cats” its meaning.

Affix:

A morpheme that comes at the beginning (prefix) or the ending (suffix) of a base morpheme. Note: An affix usually is a morpheme that cannot stand alone. Examples: “-ful,” “-ly”, “-ity,” “-ness.” A few exceptions, namely “-able,” “-like” and “-less” can also stand alone as words.

Prefix:

An affix that comes before a base morpheme. “The ‘in’ in the word ‘inspect’ is a prefix.”

Examples of prefixes:

• Ab-: away from  (absent, abnormal)
• Ad-: to, toward  (advance, addition)
• After-: later, behind (aftermath, afterward)
• Anti-: against, opposed (antibiotic, antigravity)
• Auto-: self (automobile, autobiography)
• Bi-: two  (bicycle, biceps)
• Com, con, co-: with, together (commune, concrete)
• Contra- :  against (contradict, contrary)
• De-: downward, undo (deflate, defect)
• Dis-:  not (dislike, distrust)
• Extra-:  outside (extravagant, extraterrestrial)
• Im-:  not (impose, imply)
• In-:  into, not include, incurable)
• Inter-:  among (interact, international)
• Macro- :  large (macroeconomics, macrobiotics)
• Magni- :  great (magnify, magnificent)
• Mega-: huge (megaphone, megabucks)
• Micro-: small (microscope, microbe)
• Mis-: wrongly (mistake, mislead)
• Non-:  not (nonsense, nonviolent)
• Over-:  above, beyond (overflow, overdue)
• Post-:  after (postdate, postmark)
• Pre-:  before, prior to (preheat, prehistoric)
• Pro-:  in favor of (protect, probiotic, pro-survival)
• Re-:  again (repeat, revise)
• Sub-:  under, beneath (submarine, subject)
• Super-:  above, beyond superior (supernatural)
• Tele-:  far (telescope, telephone)

Suffix:

An affix that comes after a base morpheme. “The ‘s’ in ‘cats’ is a ”

Examples of suffixes: -ant: one who (assistant)

• -ar:  one who (liar)
• -arium: place for (aquarium) -ble: inclined to (gullible) -ent: one who (resident)
• -er: one who (teacher)
• -er: more (brighter)
• -ery, ry: (products pottery, bakery) -ess: one who [female] (actress)
• -est: most (hottest)
• -ful: full of (mouthful)
• -ing: [present tense] (smiling)
• -less: without (motherless) -ling: small (fledgling)
• -ly: every (weekly) -ly: (adverb) happily
• -ness: state of being (happiness) -ology: study of (biology)
• -ous: full of (wondrous)
• -s, es: more than one (boxes) -y: state of (sunny)

Homonyms:

Morphemes that are spelled the same but have different Examples: “bear” (an animal) and “bear” (to carry); “plain” (simple) and “plain” ( a level area of land).

Heteronym:

One of two or more words (not necessarily single morphemes) that have identical spellings but different meanings and pronunciations, such as “row” (a series of objects arranged in a line), pronounced (rō), and “row” (a fight), pronounced (rou).

Homophones:

Morphemes that sound alike but have different meanings and spellings. Examples: “bear” / “bare”, “plain” / “plane”, “cite” / “sight” / “site”.

Note: You will find more about Homonyms, Homophones, and Heteronyms in

Examples of morphemes in Words:

One morpheme:

• one syllable: boy
• two syllables: desire, lady, water
• three syllables: crocodile
• four syllables: salamander

Two morphemes:

• boy + ish
• desire + able

Three morphemes:

• boy + ish + ness
• desire + able + ity

Four morphemes:

• gentle + man + li + ness
• un + desire + able + ity

More than four morphemes:

• un + gentle + man + li + ness
• anti + dis + establish + ment + ari + an + ism

Definition and Examples of Morphemes in English

Updated on February 03, 2020

In English grammar and morphology, a morpheme is a meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word such as dog, or a word element, such as the -s at the end of dogs, that can’t be divided into smaller meaningful parts.

Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language. They are commonly classified as either free morphemes, which can occur as separate words or bound morphemes, which can’t stand alone as words.

Many words in English are made up of a single free morpheme. For example, each word in the following sentence is a distinct morpheme: «I need to go now, but you can stay.» Put another way, none of the nine words in that sentence can be divided into smaller parts that are also meaningful.

Etymology

From the French, by analogy with phoneme, from the Greek, «shape, form.»

Examples and Observations

• A prefix may be a morpheme:
  «What does it mean to pre-board? Do you get on before you get on?»
  —George Carlin
• Individual words may be morphemes:
  «They want to put you in a box, but nobody’s in a box. You’re not in a box.»
  —John Turturro
• Contracted word forms may be morphemes:
  «They want to put you in a box, but nobody‘s in a box. You‘re not in a box.»
  —John Turturro
• Morphs and Allomorphs
  «A word can be analyzed as consisting of one morpheme (sad) or two or more morphemes (unluckily; compare luck, lucky, unlucky), each morpheme usually expressing a distinct meaning. When a morpheme is represented by a segment, that segment is a morph. If a morpheme can be represented by more than one morph, the morphs are allomorphs of the same morpheme: the prefixes in- (insane), il- (illegible), im- (impossible), ir- (irregular) are allomorphs of the same negative morpheme.»
  —Sidney Greenbaum, The Oxford English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1996
• Morphemes as Meaningful Sequences of Sounds
  «A word cannot be divided into morphemes just by sounding out its syllables. Some morphemes, like apple, have more than one syllable; others, like -s, are less than a syllable. A morpheme is a form (a sequence of sounds) with a recognizable meaning. Knowing a word’s early history, or etymology, may be useful in dividing it into morphemes, but the decisive factor is the form-meaning link.
  «A morpheme may, however, have more than one pronunciation or spelling. For example, the regular noun plural ending has two spellings (-s and -es) and three pronunciations (an s-sound as in backs, a z-sound as in bags, and a vowel plus z-sound as in batches). Similarly, when the morpheme -ate is followed by -ion (as in activate-ion), the t of -ate combines with the i of -ion as the sound ‘sh’ (so we might spell the word ‘activashun’). Such allomorphic variation is typical of the morphemes of English, even though the spelling does not represent it.»
  —John Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language, 6th ed. Wadsworth, 2010
• Grammatical Tags
  «In addition to serving as resources in the creation of vocabulary, morphemes supply grammatical tags to words, helping us to identify on the basis of form the parts of speech of words in sentences we hear or read. For example, in the sentence Morphemes supply grammatical tags to words, the plural morpheme ending {-s} helps identify morphemes, tags, and words as nouns; the {-ical} ending underscores the adjectival relationship between grammatical and the following noun, tags, which it modifies.»
  —Thomas P. Klammer et al. Analyzing English Grammar. Pearson, 2007
• Language Acquisition
  «English-speaking children usually begin to produce two-morpheme words in their third year, and during that year the growth in their use of affixes is rapid and extremely impressive. This is the time, as Roger Brown showed, when children begin to use suffixes for possessive words (‘Adam’s ball’), for the plural (‘dogs’), for present progressive verbs (‘I walking’), for third-person singular present tense verbs (‘he walks’), and for past tense verbs, although not always with complete corectness (‘I brunged it here’) (Brown 1973). Notice that these new morphemes are all of them inflections. Children tend to learn derivational morphemes a little later and to continue to learn about them right through childhood . . ..»
  —Peter Bryant and Terezinha Nunes, «Morphemes and Literacy: A Starting Point.» Improving Literacy by Teaching Morphemes, ed. by T. Nunes and P. Bryant. Routledge, 2006

Pronunciation: MOR-feem