Lex_010_Morpheme

THE MORPHEME

Outline:
I. Definition
II. Semantic classification of morphemes
III. Structural classification of morphemes
IV. Allomorphs

Key words: morpheme, semantic classification (root-morpheme, non-root /

affixational morpheme, unique / pseudo- / blocked root morpheme, derivational affix,
functional affix / inflectional morpheme / inflection), structural classification (free
morpheme, bound morpheme, semi-free / semi-bound morpheme, combining form /
completive), allomorph / morpheme variant (complementary distribution / alteration).

I. Definition
Morpheme is the smallest indivisible two-facet language unit. Morphemes, though
they are as a rule easily singled out in words, are not independent and are found only as
parts of the word. Morphemes can be classified: a) from the semantic point of view; b)
from the structural point of view.

II. Semantic classification of morphemes

Semantically morphemes fall into 1) root-morphemes and 2) non-root morphemes /
affixational morphemes.
1) The root-morpheme is the lexical nucleus of the word, it has an individual lexical
meaning shared by no other morpheme of the language. 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. The root-morpheme is common to a word-
cluster, e.g. the morpheme to teach–, in teacher, teaching or theor- in theory, theorist,
theoretical, etc.
Those root morphemes which never occur by themselves are called unique, pseudo-
or blocked root morphemes. E.g. theor- in theory, theorist, theoretical or Fri- in Friday, or
cran- in cranberry.
2) Non-root morphemes include functional affixes / inflectional morphemes /
inflections and derivational affixes.
Inflections carry only grammatical meaning and are thus relevant only for the
formation of word-forms, whereas affixes are relevant for building various types of stems
– the part of a word that remains unchanged throughout its paradigm. Lexicology is
concerned only with affixes.
Derivational affixes are classified into prefixes and suffixes: a prefix precedes the
root-morpheme, a suffix follows it.

III. Structural classification of morphemes

Structurally morphemes fall into three types: 1) free morphemes, 2) bound
morphemes, and 3) semi-free (semi-bound) morphemes.
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 Lex_010_Morpheme

1) Free morphemes coincide with word-forms of independently functioning words.

Free morphemes can be found only among roots, so the morpheme boy- in the boyhood or
the morpheme friend– in the noun friendship are free morphemes because they coincide
with the corresponding nouns boy and friend. In the word undesirable there is only one
free morpheme desire-; the word pen-holder has two free morphemes pen- and hold-,
fancy-dress-maker has three free morphemes.
2) Bound morphemes do not coincide with separate word-forms and occur only as a
constituent part of a word. All affixes are bound, such as derivational suffixes -ness, -able,
-ship, -er, -ize or prefixes un-, dis-, de- (as in readiness, enjoyable, kinship, teacher, to
activize; and unnatural, to displease, to decipher).
3) Semi-bound / semi-free morphemes can function both as an affix and as a free
morpheme. E.g., the morpheme well and half on the one hand occur as free morphemes
that coincide with the word-form in collocations like to sleep well, half an hour, but on the
other hand they occur as bound morphemes in words like well-known, half-eaten, or half-
done.
4) Root-morphemes may be both free and bound. All unique roots are 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; Fri- in Friday, or cran- in cranberry are
all bound roots as there are no identical word-forms.
5) A combining forms or completives are bound root-morphemes of a special kind.
Completives were borrowed from another language, mostly Greek or Latin. They
differ from all other borrowings because they occur in compounds and derivatives that did
not exist in the original language but were formed only in modern times (e.g. polyclinic,
stereophonic, television, etc.).
They should be distinguished from an affix because a) completives do not possess the
part-of-speech meaning typical of affixational morphemes; b) completives can occur as
one constituent of a word whose only other constituent is an affix (e.g. graphic, cyclic,
aerate, aerobatics, etc.); assuming that completives are affixes would lead to the
conclusion that words of this group contain no root-morpheme and are composed of a
suffix and a prefix which runs counter to the fundamental principle of word-structure; c)
an affix is characterized by its position to the stem, either before the stem (prefix) or after
the stem (suffix), whereas the same combining form may occur in both positions (e.g.
phonograph, microphone).

IV. Allomorphs
Morphemes may have different phonemic shapes. In the word-cluster please,
pleasing, pleasure / pleasant the root-morpheme is represented by phonemic shapes:
[pli:z] in please, pleasing, [pleZ] in pleasure, and [plez] in pleasant. In such cases the
phonemic shapes of the word stand in complementary distribution / in alternation with
each other. All the representations of a morpheme are called allomorphs / morpheme
variants. Thus [plez], [pli:z] and [pleZ] are allomorphs of the same morpheme. The word-
cluster duke, ducal, duchess, duchy or poor, poverty are also examples of allomorphs of
one morpheme.