WORD STRUCTURE IN MODERN ENGLISH
The
morphological structure of a word. Morphemes. Types of morphemes.
Allomorphs.
Structural
types of words.
Principles
of morphemic analysis.
Derivational
level of analysis. Stems. Types of stems. Derivational types of
words.
There
are two levels of approach to the study of word-
structure:
the level of morphemic
analysis
and the level of derivational
or
word-formation analysis.
Word
is the principal and basic unit of the language system, the largest
on the morphologic and the smallest on the syntactic plane of
linguistic analysis.
It has
been universally acknowledged that a great many words have a
composite nature and are made up of morphemes, the basic units on the
morphemic level, which are defined as the smallest indivisible
two-facet language units.
The
term morpheme
is derived from Greek
morphe
“form ”+ -eme.
The Greek suffix –eme
has been adopted by linguistic to denote the smallest unit or the
minimum distinctive
feature.
The
morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of form. A form in these
cases a recurring discrete unit of speech. Morphemes occur in speech
only as constituent parts of words, not independently, although a
word may consist of single morpheme. Even a cursory examination of
the morphemic structure of English words reveals that they are
composed of morphemes of different types: root-morphemes and
affixational morphemes. Words that consist of a root and an affix are
called derived words or derivatives and are produced by the process
of word building known as affixation (or derivation).
The
root-morpheme is
the lexical nucleus of the word; it has a very general and abstract
lexical meaning common to a set of semantically related words
constituting one word-cluster, e.g. (to) teach,
teacher, teaching.
Besides the lexical meaning root-morphemes possess all other types of
meaning proper to morphemes except the part-of-speech meaning which
is not found in roots.
Affixational
morphemes
include inflectional affixes or inflections and derivational affixes.
Inflections
carry only grammatical meaning and are thus relevant only for the
formation of word-forms. Derivational
affixes
are relevant for building various types of words. They are lexically
always dependent on the root which they modify. They possess the same
types of meaning as found in roots, but unlike root-morphemes most of
them have the part-of-speech meaning which makes them structurally
the important part of the word as they condition the
lexico-grammatical class the word belongs to. Due to this component
of their meaning the derivational affixes are classified into affixes
building different parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives or
adverbs.
Roots
and derivational affixes are generally easily distinguished and the
difference between them is clearly felt as, e.g., in the words
helpless,
handy, blackness, Londoner, refill,
etc.: the root-morphemes help-,
hand-, black-, London-, fill-,
are understood as the lexical centers of the words, and –less,
-y, -ness, -er, re-
are
felt as morphemes dependent on these roots.
Distinction is also made of free and bound morphemes.
Free
morphemes coincide
with word-forms of independently functioning words. It is obvious
that free morphemes can be found only among roots, so the morpheme
boy-
in the word boy
is a free morpheme; in the word undesirable
there is only one free morpheme desire-;
the word pen-holder
has two free morphemes pen-
and hold-.
It follows that bound
morphemes are those
that do not coincide with separate word- forms, consequently all
derivational morphemes, such as –ness,
-able, -er are
bound. Root-morphemes may be both free and bound. The morphemes
theor-
in the words theory,
theoretical, or
horr-
in the words horror,
horrible, horrify; Angl- in
Anglo-Saxon; Afr-
in Afro-Asian
are all bound roots as there are no identical word-forms.
It
should also be noted that morphemes may have different phonemic
shapes. In the word-cluster please
,
pleasing
,
pleasure
,
pleasant
the phonemic shapes of the word stand in complementary distribution
or in alternation with each other. All the representations of the
given morpheme, that manifest alternation are called allomorphs/or
morphemic variants/ of that morpheme.
The
combining form allo- from Greek allos “other” is used in
linguistic terminology to denote elements of a group whose members
together consistute a structural unit of the language (allophones,
allomorphs). Thus, for example, -ion/
-tion/ -sion/ -ation
are the positional variants of the same suffix, they do not differ in
meaning or function but show a slight difference in sound form
depending on the final phoneme of the preceding stem. They are
considered as variants of one and the same morpheme and called its
allomorphs.
Allomorph
is defined as a positional variant of a morpheme occurring in a
specific environment and so characterized by complementary
description.
Complementary
distribution is
said to take place, when two linguistic variants cannot appear in the
same environment.
Different
morphemes are characterized by contrastive
distribution,
i.e. if they occur in the same environment they signal different
meanings. The suffixes –able
and –ed,
for instance, are different morphemes, not allomorphs, because
adjectives in –able
mean “ capable of beings”.
Allomorphs
will also occur among prefixes. Their form then depends on the
initials of the stem with which they will assimilate.
Two
or more sound forms of a stem existing under conditions of
complementary distribution may also be regarded as allomorphs, as,
for instance, in long a:
length n
Structural
types of words.
The
morphological analysis of word- structure on the morphemic level aims
at splitting the word into its constituent morphemes – the basic
units at this level of analysis – and at determining their number
and types. The four types (root words, derived words, compound,
shortenings) represent the main structural types of Modern English
words, and conversion, derivation and composition the most productive
ways of word building.
According
to the number of morphemes words can be classified into monomorphic
and polymorphic.
Monomorphic
or root-words
consist of only one root-morpheme, e.g. small,
dog, make, give,
etc. All polymorphic word fall into two subgroups:
derived words and
compound words
– according to the number of root-morphemes they have. Derived
words are composed of one root-morpheme and one or more derivational
morphemes, e.g. acceptable,
outdo,
disagreeable,
etc. Compound words are those which contain at least two
root-morphemes, the number of derivational morphemes being
insignificant. There can be both root- and derivational morphemes in
compounds as in pen-holder,
light-mindedness,
or only root-morphemes as in lamp-shade,
eye-ball, etc.
These
structural types are not of equal importance. The clue to the correct
understanding of their comparative value lies in a careful
consideration of: 1)the importance of each type in the existing
wordstock, and 2) their frequency value in actual speech. Frequency
is by far the most important factor. According to the available word
counts made in different parts of speech, we find that derived words
numerically constitute the largest class of words in the existing
wordstock; derived nouns comprise approximately 67% of the total
number, adjectives about 86%, whereas compound nouns make about 15%
and adjectives about 4%. Root words come to 18% in nouns, i.e. a
trifle more than the number of compound words; adjectives root words
come to approximately 12%.
But
we cannot fail to perceive that root-words occupy a predominant
place. In English, according to the recent frequency counts, about
60% of the total number of nouns and 62% of the total number of
adjectives in current use are root-words. Of the total number of
adjectives and nouns, derived words comprise about 38% and 37%
respectively while compound words comprise an insignificant 2% in
nouns and 0.2% in adjectives. Thus it is the root-words that
constitute the foundation and the backbone of the vocabulary and that
are of paramount importance in speech. It should also be mentioned
that root words are characterized by a high degree of collocability
and a complex variety of meanings in contrast with words of other
structural types whose semantic structures are much poorer. Root-
words also serve as parent forms for all types of derived and
compound words.
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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.
Morphemes: meaning
The word morphemes from the Greek morphḗ, meaning ‘shape, form‘. Morphemes are the smallest lexical items of meaning or grammatical function that a word can be broken down to. Morphemes are usually, but not always, words.
Look at the following examples of morphemes:
These words cannot be made shorter than they already are or they would stop being words or lose their meaning.
For example, ‘house’ cannot be split into ho- and -us’ as they are both meaningless.
However, not all morphemes are words.
For example, ‘s’ is not a word, but it is a morpheme; ‘s’ shows plurality and means ‘more than one’.
The word ‘books’ is made up of two morphemes: book + s.
Morphemes play a fundamental role in the structure and meaning of language, and understanding them can help us to better understand the words we use and the rules that govern their use.
How to identify a morpheme
You can identify morphemes by seeing if the word or letters in question meet the following criteria:
-
Morphemes must have meaning. E.g. the word ‘cat’ represents and small furry animal. The suffix ‘-s’ you might find at the end of the word ‘cat’ represents plurality.
- Morphemes cannot be divided into smaller parts without losing or changing their meaning. E.g. dividing the word ‘cat’ into ‘ca’ leaves us with a meaningless set of letters. The word ‘at’ is a morpheme in its own right.
Types of morphemes
There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes and bound morphemes.
Free morphemes
Free morphemes can stand alone and don’t need to be attached to any other morphemes to get their meaning. Most words are free morphemes, such as the above-mentioned words house, book, bed, light, world, people, and so on.
Bound morphemes
Bound morphemes, however, cannot stand alone. The most common example of bound morphemes are suffixes, such as —s, —er, —ing, and -est.
Let’s look at some examples of free and bound morphemes:
-
Tall
-
Tree
-
-er
-
-s
‘Tall’ and ‘Tree’ are free morphemes.
We understand what ‘tall’ and ‘tree’ mean; they don’t require extra add-ons. We can use them to create a simple sentence like ‘That tree is tall.’
On the other hand, ‘-er’ and ‘-s’ are bound morphemes. You won’t see them on their own because they are suffixes that add meaning to the words they are attached to.
Fig. 1 — These are the differences between free vs bound morphemes
So if we add ‘-er’ to ‘tall’ we get the comparative form ‘taller’, while ‘tree’ plus ‘-s’ becomes plural: ‘trees’.
Morphemes: structure
Morphemes are made up of two separate classes.
-
Bases (or roots)
-
Affixes
A morpheme’s base is the main root that gives the word its meaning.
On the other hand, an affix is a morpheme we can add that changes or modifies the meaning of the base.
‘Kind’ is the free base morpheme in the word ‘kindly’. (kind + -ly)
‘-less’ is a bound morpheme in the word ‘careless’. (Care + —less)
Morphemes: affixes
Affixes are bound morphemes that occur before or after a base word. They are made up of suffixes and prefixes.
Suffixes are attached to the end of the base or root word. Some of the most common suffixes include —er, -or, -ly, -ism, and -less.
Taller
Thinner
Comfortably
Absurdism
Ageism
Aimless
Fearless
Prefixes come before the base word. Typical prefixes include ante-, pre-, un-, and dis-.
Antedate
Prehistoric
Unkind
Disappear
Derivational affixes
Derivational affixes are used to change the meaning of a word by building on its base. For instance, by adding the prefix ‘un-‘ to the word ‘kind‘, we got a new word with a whole new meaning. In fact, ‘unkind‘ has the exact opposite meaning of ‘kind’!
Another example is adding the suffix ‘-or’ to the word ‘act’ to create ‘actor’. The word ‘act’ is a verb, whereas ‘actor’ is a noun.
Inflectional affixes
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.
books — books
short — shorter
quick — quickest
walk — walked
climb — climbing
There are many derivational affixes in English, but only eight inflectional affixes and these are all suffixes.
|
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 |
All prefixes in English are derivational. However, suffixes may be either derivational or inflectional.
Morphemes: categories
The free morphemes we looked at earlier (such as tree, book, and tall) fall into two categories:
- Lexical morphemes
- Functional morphemes
Reminder: Most words are free morphemes because they have meaning on their own, such as house, book, bed, light, world, people etc.
Lexical morphemes
Lexical morphemes are words that give us the main meaning of a sentence, text or conversation. These words can be nouns, adjectives and verbs. Examples of lexical morphemes include:
- house
- book
- tree
- panther
- loud
- quiet
- big
- orange
- blue
- open
- run
- talk
Because we can add new lexical morphemes to a language (new words get added to the dictionary each year!), they are considered an ‘open’ class of words.
Functional morphemes
Functional (or grammatical) morphemes are mostly words that have a functional purpose, such as linking or referencing lexical words. Functional morphemes include prepositions, conjunctions, articles and pronouns. Examples of functional morphemes include:
- and
- but
- when
- because
- on
- near
- above
- in
- the
- that
- it
- them.
We can rarely add new functional morphemes to the language, so we call this a ‘closed’ class of words.
Allomorphs
Allomorphs are a variant of morphemes. An allomorph is a unit of meaning that can change its sound and spelling but doesn’t change its meaning and function.
In English, the indefinite article morpheme has two allomorphs. Its two forms are ‘a’ and ‘an’. If the indefinite article precedes a word beginning with a constant sound it is ‘a’, and if it precedes a word beginning with a vowel sound, it is ‘an’.
Past Tense allomorphs
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.
Consider regular verbs ending in t or d, like ‘rent’ or ‘add’.
Now look at their past forms: ‘rented‘ and ‘added‘. Try pronouncing them. Notice how the —ed at the end changes to an /id/ sound (e.g. rent /ɪd/, add /ɪd/).
Now consider the past simple forms of want, rest, print, and plant. When we pronounce them, we get: wanted (want /ɪd/), rested (rest /ɪd/), printed (print /ɪd/), planted (plant /ɪd/).
Now look at other regular verbs ending in the following ‘voiceless’ phonemes: /p/, /k/, /s/, /h/, /ch/, /sh/, /f/, /x/. Try pronouncing the past form and notice how the allomorph ‘-ed’ at the end changes to a /t/ sound. For example, dropped, pressed, laughed, and washed.
Plural allomorphs
Typically we add ‘s’ or ‘es’ to most nouns in English when we want to create the plural form. The plural forms ‘s’ or ‘es’ remain the same and have the same function, but their sound changes depending on the form of the noun. The plural morpheme has three allomorphs: [s], [z], and [ɨz].
When a noun ends in a voiceless consonant (i.e. ch, f, k, p, s, sh, t, th), the plural allomorph is /s/.
Book becomes books (pronounced book/s/)
When a noun ends in a voiced phoneme (i.e. b, l, r, j, d, v, m, n, g, w, z, a, e, i, o, u) the plural form remains ‘s’ or ‘es’ but the allomorph sound changes to /z/.
Key becomes keys (pronounced key/z/)
Bee becomes bees (pronounced bee/z/)
When a noun ends in a sibilant (i.e. s, ss, z), the sound of the allomorph sound becomes /iz/.
Bus becomes buses (bus/iz/)
house becomes houses (hous/iz/)
A sibilant is a phonetic sound that makes a hissing sound, e.g. ‘s’ or ‘z’.
Zero (bound) morphemes
The zero bound morpheme has no phonetic form and is also referred to as an invisible affix, null morpheme, or ghost morpheme.
A zero morpheme is when a word changes its meaning but does not change its form.
In English, certain nouns and verbs do not change their appearance even when they change number or tense.
Sheep, deer, and fish, keep the same form whether they are used as singular or plural.
Some verbs like hit, cut, and cost remains the same in their present and past forms.
Morphemes — Key takeaways
- Morphemes are the smallest lexical unit of meaning. Most words are free morphemes, and most affixes are bound morphemes.
- There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes and bound morphemes.
- Free morphemes can stand alone, whereas bound morphemes must be attached to another morpheme to get their meaning.
- Morphemes are made up of two separate classes called bases (or roots) and affixes.
- Free morphemes fall into two categories; lexical and functional. Lexical morphemes are words that give us the main meaning of a sentence, and functional morphemes have a grammatical purpose.
What is Morpheme?
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful and syntactical or grammatical unit of a language that cannot be divided without changing its actual meaning. For instance, the word ‘love’ is a morpheme; but if you eliminate any character such as ‘e’ then it will be meaningless or lose the actual meaning of love.
Now we can say a morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit of a language by which meaningful words are formed. However, this is how we may define ‘what a morpheme’ in linguistics.
Types of Morphemes
The morphemes are of two types. They are:
- Free Morphemes
- Bound Morphemes
1. Free Morphemes
A morpheme that has a particular meaning and can be formed independently is called a free morpheme. For example, free, get, human, song, love, happy, sad, may, much, but, or, some, above, when, etc.
All of the words have individual meanings and are free morphemes. Free morphemes can be categorized into two sub-types. They are:
- Lexical morphemes
- Grammatical and functional morphemes
Lexical Morphemes
The lexical morphemes are those morphemes that are large in number and independently meaningful. The lexical morphemes include nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
These free morphemes are called lexical morphemes—for example, dog, good, honest, boy, girl, woman, excellent, etc.
Grammatical or Functional Morphemes
The grammatical or functional morphemes are those morphemes that consist of functional words in a language, such as prepositions, conjunctions determiners, and pronouns. For example, and, but, or, above, on, into, after, that, the, etc.
2. Bound Morphemes
A morpheme that doesn’t have any independent meaning and can be formed with the help of free morphemes is called a bound morpheme.
For example; less, ness, pre, un, en, ceive, ment. Bound morphemes can be categorized into two sub-classes. They are:
- Bound roots
- Affixes
Bound Roots
Bound roots are those Bound morphemes that have lexical meaning when they are included in other bound morphemes to form the content words. For example, -ceive, -tain, perceive, deceive, retain, contain, etc.
Affixes
Affixes are those bound morphemes that naturally attach different types of words and are used to change the meaning or function of those words.
For example, -ment in payment, enjoyment, entertainment en- in enlighten, enhance, enlarge, ‘s in Joseph’s, Lora’s -ing reading, sleeping, singing, etc.
Affixes can be categorized into five sub-classes according to their position in the word and function in a phrase or sentence. They are:
- Prefixes
- Infixes
- Suffixes
- Derivational
- Inflectional
Prefixes
Prefixes are bound morphemes included at the beginning of different types of words—for example in-, un-, sub- incomplete, injustice, unable, uneducated, subway, etc.
Infixes
Infixes are those bound morphemes included within the words. There are no infixes that exist in the English language.
Suffixes
Suffixes are those bound morphemes included at the end of different types of words. For example; -able, -less, -ness, -en, available, careless, happiness, shortening, etc.
Derivational Affixes
Derivational morphemes make new words by changing their meaning or different grammatical categories. In other words, derivational morphemes form new words with a meaning and category distinct through the addition of affixes.
Thus, the derivational morphemes ‘-ness’ changes the adjective of ‘kindness’, the noun ‘care’ becomes the adjective careless.
This is how derivational morphemes make new words by changing their meaning or grammatical category. Derivational morphemes can be categorized into two sub-classes. They are:
- Class-maintaining derivational morphemes
- Class-changing derivational morphemes
1. Class-Maintaining Derivational Morphemes
Class-maintaining derivational morphemes are usually produced in a derived form of the same class as the root, and they don’t change the course of the parts of speech. For example; -ship -hood, relationship, leadership, livelihood, manhood, etc.
2. Class-Changing Derivational Morphemes
In contrast to Class-maintaining derivational morphemes, Class-changing derivational morphemes usually produce a derived form of the other class from the root—for example, -er, -ish, -al, teacher, boyish, national, etc.
Inflectional Affixes
Inflectional morphemes are not used to produce new words; instead indicate the aspects of the grammar function of the word.
For instance, inflectional morphemes indicate whether a word is singular or plural, past tense or not, and comparative or possessive forms. English has eight Inflectional morphemes, all of which are suffixes.
English Inflectional morphemes affix:
Nouns:
- Plural (-s): The courses.
- Possessive: Jack‘s courses.
Verbs:
3rd person singular number non-past (-s):
- Jack teaches English well.
- He reaches the place on time.
Possessive (-ing):
- He is writing.
- She is singing.
Past participle (-en/ed):
- He has written the book.
- He worked
Adjectives:
- Comparative: (-er): John is happier than before.
- Superlative: (-est): He is the tallest person in the class.
After learning all the definitions, types, and examples, you have clearly seen morphemes and, more specifically, a morpheme in linguistics. After all, this is how we can define morphemes.
Morpheme Quiz
Have a look at these useful links:
- What is Psycholinguistics?
- Difference between Phonetics and Phonology
- Characteristics of language
- Definition of language by scholars
- Definition of Syntax in linguistics
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Azizul Hakim is the founder & CEO of englishfinders.com. He is a passionate writer, English instructor, and content creator. He has completed his graduation and post-graduation in English language and literature.
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. derivational
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
verb, skipped, skipping.
- to move in a light, springy manner by bounding forward with alternate hops on each foot. to pass from one point, thing, subject, etc.,
- to another, disregarding or omitting what intervenes: He skipped through the book quickly.
- to go away hastily and secretly; flee without notice.
From
Dictionary.com — 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
verb, ran, run, running.
- to go quickly by moving the legs more rapidly than at a walk and in such a manner that for an instant in each step all or both feet are off the ground.
- to move with haste; act quickly: Run upstairs and get the iodine.
- to depart quickly; take to flight; flee or escape: to run from danger.
From
Dictionary.com — 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
noun
- anything done, being done, or to be done; deed; performance: a heroic act.
- the process of doing: caught in the act.
- a formal decision, law, or the like, by a legislature, ruler, court, or other authority; decree or edict; statute; judgement, resolve, or award: an act of Parliament.
From
Dictionary.com — act
React
verb
- to act in response to an agent or influence: How did the audience react to the speech?
- to act reciprocally upon each other, as two things.
- to act in a reverse direction or manner, especially so as to return to a prior condition.
From
Dictionary.com — react
Enact
verb
- to make into an act or statute: Parliament has enacted a new tax law.
- to represent on or as on the stage; act the part of: to enact Hamlet.
From
Dictionary.com — enact
Actor
noun
- a person who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, television broadcasts, etc.
- a person who does something; participant.
From
Dictionary.com — 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
- lifetime
- basketball
- cannot
- fireworks
- inside
- upside
- footpath
- sunflower
- moonlight
- schoolhouse
- railroad
- skateboard
- meantime
- bypass
- sometimes
- airport
- butterflies
- grasshopper
- fireflies
- footprint
- something
- homemade
- backbone
- passport
- upstream
- spearmint
- earthquake
- backward
- football
- scapegoat
- eyeball
- afternoon
- sandstone
- meanwhile
- limestone
- keyboard
- seashore
- touchdown
- alongside
- subway
- toothpaste
- silversmith
- nearby
- raincheck
- blacksmith
- headquarters
- lukewarm
- underground
- horseback
- toothpick
- honeymoon
- bootstrap
- township
- dishwasher
- household
- weekend
- popcorn
- riverbank
- pickup
- bookcase
- babysitter
- saucepan
- bluefish
- hamburger
- honeydew
- thunderstorm
- spokesperson
- widespread
- hometown
- commonplace
- supermarket
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.