MORPHEME

1.       The Definition of Morphemes

Morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning.  Morpheme is the smallest linguistic that has semantic meaning. In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes ( the smallest unit of sound ), and in written language morphemes are composed of grapheme.

The concept morpheme differs from the concept of word, as many morphemes can not stand as words on their own. A morpheme is free if it can stand alone, or bound if it can not stand alone, it is used exclusively alongside a free morpheme.

2.       AFFIXES

Affixes ( prefix, suffix, infix, and circumfixes) are bound morphemes.

1) Prefix

Prefix is bound morpheme which occurs only before other morphemes.

Prefixes : un, dis, re, en,im , il

Examples:        ~ un     : unable , untitle, unsatisfied

~ dis    : disagree                    

~ re      : replay, rewind, redo

~ en     : encourage, enrich      , enlarge

~ im     : improver, immature

~ il       : illitereture

2) Infix

Infix is bound morphemes which are inserted into other morphemes. English has a very limited set of infix.

3) Suffix

Suffix is bound morpheme which occur following other morpheme .

Suffixes : ion, er, st, cian, ment, ly, atic, ing, less, ness, est, ety, ity, dish.

Examples :  ~       : explanation , singer, artist, musician, development,     fortunately, systematic, playing,careless,sadness, smallest,safety,ability,childish

4) Circumfixes

Circumfix is morphemes which are attached to a root or stem morpheme initially and finally.

Examples :      

 ~ enlargement                           

en                            = prefix                     

large                        = root                         

ment                        = suffix                       

~ reformation

re                             = prefix

format                     = root

ion                           = suffix

~ incorrectly

in                             = prefix

correct                     = root

ly                             = suffix

3.  Type of Morphemes

1. Free Morphemes

Free morpheme is a morpheme that can stand alone and has meaning without attaching with other morpheme.

Examples : agree, forget, correct, free, system,etc.

2. Bound Morphemes

Bound morpheme is a morpheme that can not stand alone because to has meaning the morpheme must be attached by other morpheme.

Bound morphemes in general tend to be prefixes and suffixes.

Examples :                            ~ prefixes : un, dis, re

          ~ suffixes : ion, er, est,

          ~ infixes  and circumfixes

One Morpheme                    : require

Two morphemes                   : requirement

require (free morphemes) + ment (bound morpheme)

Three morphemes                 : disagreeable

dis (bound morpheme) + agree (free morpheme) + able(free morpheme)

3. Derivational Morphemes

Derivational morphemes can be added to a word to create ( derive ) another word. It changes the meaning or part of speech of a morpheme; it can also be prefixes or suffixes.

  a) Change of the syntactic category

A derivational suffixes usually applies to word of one syntactic category and changes them into words of another syntactic category.

Examples :      ~ Adjective to noun

Slow ( adjective ) + ness                   : slowness (noun)

                            ~ Adjective to verb

Modern ( adjective ) + ize                    : modernize (verb)

Dark ( adjective ) + en                         : darken (verb)

~ Noun to adjective

Recreation ( noun ) + al                        :recreational    (adjective)

~ Noun to verb

Terror ( noun ) + ize                             : terrorize (verb)

Glory ( noun ) + fy                               : glorify (verb)

~ Verb to adjective

Drink (verb) + able                               :drinkable (adjective)

~ Verb to noun

Write (verb) + er                                   : writer (noun)

b) No change of category

examples:

~ Noun to noun

Human (noun) + ity                              : humanity (noun)

Music (noun) + ian                               : musician (noun)

~ Verb to verb

Re + fill (verb)                                      : refill (verb)

Re + cover (verb)                                 recover (verb)

4. Inflectional morphemes

Inflectional can be overt with in the same language. In grammar, inflection is the modification of a word expresses different grammatical categories, such as tense, person, number, gender. Inflectional morphemes do not change the meaning part of speech of a morpheme. They just give additional, strictly grammatical information. In English, they are easy to spot because they are always suffixes, they are at the end of words.

There are 7 inflectional morphemes, they are:

a) Third person singular

Erik visits a museum

b) Past tense

Erik visited a museum yesterday

c) Past participle

Erik has visited museum twice

d) Progressive

Erik is visiting museum right now

e) Plural

Erik visited two museums yesterday

f) Comparative

Yuda’s house is smaller than Erik’s house

g) Superlative

Dwi is the youngest daughter in the family