What is Morphology?

TYPES OF MORPHEMES
1. Free Morpheme
Morphology is the branch of linguistics that 2. Bound Morpheme
studies the structure of words
-Morphology deals with the syntax of complex FREE MORPHEMES
words and parts of words, also called
morphemes, as well as with the semantics of -are those which can stand by themselves as
their lexical meaning. words of a language. They are divided into two
- The study of the internal structure of words, categories:
and of the rules by which words are formed 1. Lexical Morphemes
2. Functional Morphemes
The importance of studying morphology
A. Lexical Morphemes
Vocabulary: Knowledge of meaning of word - are content words/lexical words (nouns,
parts expands reader's vocabulary. verbs, adverbs, and adjectives)
Spelling: Morphemes are units that can be e.g. women, pizza, happy, pretty
predictably spelled. New lexical morphemes are added to the
Decoding: Readers who recognize morphemes language all the time. That is why they are
are able to read quickly and accurately. known as an “open” class of words.
Comprehension: Knowledge of morphemes
helps understand meaning from the text. B. Functional Morphemes
- or they can be function words/ grammatical
Morpheme is the smallest unit which has a
words (conjunctions, articles, pronouns, and
meaning or grammatical function what words
prepositions)
can be broken down into.
e.g. but, there, the, into, her
For example, “improvements”
No new functional words are added to the
‘improve’ is a morpheme
language. That is why they are known as a
‘ment’ is a morpheme
“closed” class of words.
‘s’ is a morpheme
BOUND MORPHEMES
NOTE that morphemes are not equal to
syllables: - Never stand alone and have to be
attached to some other morphemes.
e.g. “Cars” has 2 morphemes but only one
They are divided into two categories:
syllable.
1. Derivational Morphemes
The word “happen” has 2 syllables but only 1 2. Inflectional Morphemes
morpheme.
A. Derivational Morphemes
MORPHEME
- create new words by either changing the
Kinds of words according to morpheme meaning of or by changing the word class of
structure: the word.
e.g. happy->unhappy
 Simple words: with a single here are the meaning changed through adding
morpheme. the morpheme “un”
e.g. I, the, he, home.
 Compound words: with two root e.g. quick->quickness
words. here are the suffix changes both the meaning
e.g. mailbox, bookcase, doorstep. and the word class. Adj->noun
 Complex words: root word+ at least
one affix.
e.g. farmer, reread, rewriting
B. Inflectional Morphemes PARTS OF SPEECH
- do not change the meaning or word class of a 1. Principal
word, but instead give extra grammatical a. Noun
information about the word. b. Pronoun
e.g. dog->dogs c. Verb
2. Modifiers
swim->swimming
a. Adjective
Inflectional morphemes are required by b. Adverb
syntax. In other words, they indicate syntactic 3. Connectives
or semantic relations between different words. a. Preposition
b. Conjunction
e.g. Sara loves chocolate. 4. Independent
but, They love chocolate. a. Interjection
A. Noun
Inflectional morphemes are all suffixes in -is the name of a person, place, thing,
English and we have only eight. or idea.
Example: Many famous Americans
were born in poverty.
THE EIGHT INFLECTIONAL B. Pronoun
MORPHEMES -is a word used instead of a noun.
Example: I am going with you.
1-(-s) third person singular as in “She waits”
C. Verb
2- (-ed) past tense as in “She waited”
-is a word or group of words used to
3- (-ing) present continuous as in “She is
assert something about a person,
waiting”
place, thing, or idea.
4- (-en) past participle as in “She had eaten”
Example: Mary plays the piano well.
5- (-s) plural as in “Both books are on the
table” A word or group of words used to change
6- (-‘s) possessiveness as in “The girl’s book is or limit the meaning of another word is
on the table” called a modifier. Adjectives and adverbs
7- (-er) comparative adjectives as in “She was are modifiers.
faster”
8- (-est) superlative adjectives as in “She was D. Adjective
the fastest” -modifies the meaning of a noun or
pronoun.
Inflectional morphemes can be grounded into: Example: The horse is a domestic
animal.
 4 for verbs” -ed, -s, -ing, -en (worked, Examples: Speak distinctly.
works, working, driven) This problem is very difficult.
 2 for nouns: -s, -‘s, -s’ (boys, boy’s, We are driving too rapidly.
boys’)
A word that joins one word to another, or one
 2 for adjectives: -er, -est (smarter,
group of words to another, is called a
smartest) connective. Prepositions and conjunctions are
connectives.

E. Preposition
-shows a relationship between its
object and some word in the sentence.
Example: We are going to Cleveland
this summer.
 Examples:
F. Conjunction Mary's friend
- connects words or groups of words. my sister's mean boss
Example: Carl and John are visiting the girl's earth science books
us.
G. Interjection
- is an exclamatory sound used to
express some emotion.
Example: Look, that airplane is flying
upside down!
5. Word endings, like -ness, -ion,
Interjections are classed as independent -ment, often signal that a noun is coming.
elements since they have no grammatical Examples:
connection with the sentence. kindness
madness
NOUNS cooperation
A noun is a word that names a person, attention
place, thing, or idea. moment
Persons - Dan, teacher, child retirement
Places - Grand Canyon, city, Nevada, kitchen 6. Occasionally -ing words can be nouns.
Things - train, lamp, canary, year, bread Examples:
Ideas - grief, desire, democracy, speed, Swimming is great exercise.
bravery Before the opening of the new mall, shopping
was limited.
HINTS TO HELP YOU IDENTIFY
NOUNS: PROPER NOUNS AND COMMON
1. The, a, and an signal that a noun is coming. NOUNS
Sometimes the noun is the next word.
Sometimes it is a few words away. There are two types of nouns - common and
Examples: proper.
a book
a green storage box A common noun does not name a particular
an orange person, place, thing, or idea. These
an old wooden toy nouns are not capitalized. The following are
the old man common nouns:
the baby Persons: child, teacher, movie star, uncle
2. His, her, my, your, their, our, and its Places: town, meadows street, valley, gym
sometimes signal that a noun is coming. Things: book, airplane, scissors, typewriter,
Sometimes the noun is the next word. shed
Sometimes it is a few words away. Ideas: friendship, consideration, justice, anger
Examples:
his book A proper noun names a particular person,
their young child place, or thing. These nouns are
your orange capitalized. The following are proper nouns:
its paw Persons: Ms. Frankel, Neil Armstrong, Rita,
my red dress Aunt Gladys
her former neighbor Places: Kansas City, Idaho, Egypt, Australia
3. Sometimes students get confused when they Things: Eiffel Tower, Old Faithful, Jupiter
see two or three nouns in a row. In these cases,
only the last word serves as a noun. The other
words are describing that noun.
Examples:
the American student
the shoe box
the Vietnam War veterans
4. Possessive words, words that show
ownership, also signal that a noun is coming.
Sometimes the noun is the next word.
Sometimes it is a few words away.
 VERBS
PRONOUNS The verb is one of the foundation words of a
- A pronoun is a word used in sentence.
place of one or more than one noun. EVERY SENTENCE MUST CONTAIN A
It may stand for a person, place, thing, or VERB.
idea.
The verb gives the sentence meaning by
Personal Pronouns saying something about the subject. Notice the
I, me, my, mine verbs in these sentences:
you, your, yours Examples:
he, him, his I like homemade ice cream.
she, her, hers The Blakes drove through the Ozarks.
it, its Are alligators reptiles?
we, us, our, ours
they, them, their, theirs A verb is a word that expresses action or
Indefinite Pronouns otherwise helps to make a statement. There are
anybody, somebody, etc. three types of verbs: action, linking, and
each, few helping.
either, neither, some (1) An action verb is a verb that expresses
none, many mental or physical action.
someone, one, etc. Examples: The owls hooted all night.
Interrogative Pronouns Gloria played with the children.
who We studied our history at the library.
whom
what (2) A linking verb is a verb that does not
which show action but connects the subject with
whose another word. The most common linking
Demonstrative Pronouns verb is be. The following are some forms
this of the verb be:
that
these MEMORIZE THIS LIST
those is
Possessive Pronouns am
my, mine are
your, yours be
her, hers, his was
their, theirs, its being
our, ours were
been
Some of the pronouns in the personal Examples:
pronouns list can be combined with -self or - I am a photographer.
selves: He is sick.
Be careful not to cut yourself. We are early.
They will do it themselves. Those berries were delicious.

(3) A helping verb helps either an action

verb or a linking verb. A verb may consist
of one word or several words. If it
consists of more-than one word, it is
called a verb phrase. A verb phrase
contains either an action verb or a linking
verb with one or more helping verbs in
front of it.
Here is a list of words commonly used as
helping verbs.
MEMORIZE THIS LIST Words commonly used as prepositions:
am Has may shall
is Have might should about
Are Had must at
Was beyond
Were inside
Be Do can will out
Been Does could would toward
Being Did above
before
Sometimes the verb phrase is interrupted by by
another part of speech creating a split verb into
phrase. There are two types of split verb outside
phrases. under
1. Verb phrases are sometimes split by across
adverbs, such as not, never, ever, often, behind
rarely, always, only, just, really, and down
already. Since these words are never like
verbs, they are referred to as “never over
verbs”. underneath
Examples: Ken does not have a pen. after
Our dog has always been a loving pet. below
2. Verb phrases in questions are often during
interrupted or split by the subjects. near
Examples: past
Did you watch the play? up
Can Tom go with me? against
beneath
Notice that in most contractions there is a verb except
present, and sometimes a “never verb” may of
appear. The following are examples: through
upon
they've = they have along
we're = we are beside
hasn't = has not for
shouldn't = should not off
you're = you are throughout
I've = I have with
it's = it is or it has among
she's = she is or she has from
I'm = I am on
till
PREPOSITIONS within
- A preposition shows the relationship that around
exists between a noun or pronoun and some between
other word in the sentence. The preposition in
and the noun or pronoun become the onto
prepositional phrase. to
without
Exception: The preposition to when followed
by a verb, is called an infinitive and is not a
prepositional phrase. It might be helpful to
cross through an infinitive phrase so you don't
mislabel it.

Example of infinitive phrase:

I like to walk (to the beach.)
to walk = infinitive
to the beach = prepositional phrase