MORPHOLOGY

Morphology is the part of grammar dealing with how words are structured (or the
study of form). A word is made up of one or more morphemes (the smallest units of
grammar).
Many morphemes can constitute words by themselves, e.g. dog, house, walk. These
are called stems. Other morphemes can only be used as parts of words, e.g. -ment, -s,
-est, -ly, -hood. These are called afixes.
tems are the ma!or parts of words" they can stand on their own. A#i$es, on the other
hand, are added before or after a stem, e.g. un-, -or, -less.
A#i$es added before a stem are called prefxes, e.g. un-, mis-. A#i$es added after a
stem are called sufixes, e.g. -or, -s, -ly.
u#i$es
There are two ma!or %inds of su#i$es& infectional sufixes and derivational
sufixes.
'erivational su#i$es& they help form new words, e.g. -ment, -ness, -ful, -ly, -hood,
-ance.
(n)ectional su#i$es& they act as grammatical mar%er, i.e. they give information about
number, gender, aspect, etc, e.g. -s, -ess, -ed, -est.
imple and comple$ words
ome words li%e there, teach and hard have a stem but no a#i$es. These are %nown as
simple words.
On the other hand, there are words containing two or more morphemes, e.g. fortun-
ate or un-fortun-ate. These are %nown as complex words.
*+*,-(* .& (dentify the morphemes in the following words.
T a b l e s , u n t i m e l y , r e s p e c t e d , e a s i e s t ,
u n d e r e s t i m a t e d , w r i t e r , h a m m e r ,
u n v e i l , c h i l d i s h n e s s , p r e v i e w ,
p l a c e m e n t , h o n e s t y .
*+*,-(* /& 0ow classify the morphemes into the following groups&
(ndependent or free (they can stand on their own).
'ependent or bound (they must be attached to another morpheme).
(n)ectional (they give grammatical information, mar%ing the role of the word in the
sentence).
'erivational (they form new words).
*+*,-(* 1& 2rite out the following list of words in si$ groups, based on their
su#i$es. 2hen you write out each word, insert a hyphen before the su#i$, apart from
the su#i$, what do the members of each group have in common3
0 a t i o n a l , o r g a n i 4 e , f r o n t a l ,
v a l u a b l e , u s u a l l y , c o m p u t e r ,
c r i t i c i 4 e , s p e c i a l i 4 e , p e r s o n a l ,
t e a c h e r , e $ t r e m e l y , d i r t y , r e a l l y ,
f u n n y , m a n a g e r , s u i t a b l e , l u c % y ,
r e a d a b l e .
*+*,-(* 5& (n the following sentences, which words are morphologically simple,
and which words are comple$3 To help you 6nd out, write out the sentences, placing
hyphens wherever an a#i$ ad!oins a stem&
( f h a l f t h e s t o r i e s o f d e c e p t i o n ,
f r a u d , t e r r o r i s t a s s o c i a t i o n s ,
b r i b e r y , e m b a r r a s s e d o r
c o m p r o m i s e e $ e c u t i v e s a n d
7 o v e r n m e n t b u c % p a s s i n g a r e t r u e ,
t h i s i s a s c a n d a l o f u n p r e c e d e n t e d
p r o p o r t i o n s .
, e a l i s t i c a l l y , t h i s w i l l h a v e t o b e
t h e r o u g h e s t , t o u g h e s t i n 8 u i r y
e v e r u n d e r t a % e n b y a 9 r i t i s h
7 o v e r n m e n t .
*+*,-(* :& 2rite out each of the words below, putting a hyphen between its
morphemes and underlining the stem. (e.g. dis-agree-d)
r e v i e w e d , b l a c % e n s , % i n d n e s s e s ,
u n t h i n % a b l e , o v e r t u r n i n g ,
p r o a c t i v e l y , m a g n e t i 4 i n g ,
d e s t a b i l i 4 e s , h e a l t h i e s t ,
i n t e r v i e w e e s .
*+*,-(* ;& 0ow distinguish between derivational and in)ectional su#i$es
(ignoring pre6$es). <ut a bo$ around derivational su#i$es and put a double line
underneath in)ectional su#i$es. ((gnore spelling variations, e.g. the replacement of y
by i in healthy = healthiest, or the loss of the 6nal >e in magnetize = magnetizing).
?ere is an e$ample for you&
mis - spell - - s in
*+*,-(* @& 9elow are some e$amples of derivational su#i$es in *nglish. Add two
more e$amples of *nglish words to illustrate each su#i$.
a) -or& actor, editor, doctor
b) -ee& employee, refugee, trustee
c) -ess& princess, actress, lioness
d) -ness& business, darkness, illness
e) -ity& reality, activity, sanity
f) -ion& action, production, region
g) -ment& government, argument, treatment
h) -hood& childhood, neighbourhood, likelihood
i) -i4e, -ise& realize, emphasize, recognize
j) -ify& justify, qualify, clarify
k) -en& threaten, weaken, strengthen
l) -ent& diferent, condent, current
m) -ive& efective, active, massive
n) -ous& various, famous, dangerous
o) -ful& successful, careful, beautiful
p) -less& careless, aimless, hopeless
q) -an, -ian& !merican, "hristian, human
r) -ist& communist, feminist, #ar$ist
ome of the words in a-r above contain bound stems as their stems, instead of stems
capable of standing alone as words (give or ta%e the odd ad!ustment of spelling).
2hich words have bound stems3 2rite out the words, inserting hyphens between
morphemes, and underlining the bound stem.
To help you, we give you the 6rst e$ample of a bound stem& doct-or. 0ote that doct is
not a word in *nglish > it comes from the Aatin word meaning Bteach%, which is also
re)ected in words li%e docile, doctrine, document.
*+*,-(* C& ome derivational su#i$es, such as >ly and >al, are ambiguous& they
can do two di#erent B!obsD according to the %ind of stem they are added to. 'ivide the
following list of words ending in >ly into two lists (A and 9), showing the two di#erent
functions that >ly can perform in di#erent words&
love-ly real-ly probab-ly certain-ly queen-ly friend-ly usual-ly
cost-ly clear-ly quick-ly
0ow here is a similar list of words ending in >al. 'ivide it into two lists (- and '),
separating the two di#erent functions&
natur-al tri-al approv-al with-draw-al roy-al norm-al re-mov-al
music-al region-al arriv-al
*+*,-(* E& <re6$es are less important in the grammatical structure of *nglish
words than su#i$es, so here we !ust give two e$amples of a number of common
pre6$es in *nglish. Add two other e$amples of each pre6$ from your %nowledge of
*nglish vocabulary.
a) dis-& discover, dismiss
b) co-& cooperate, codriver
c) e$-& e$port, e$clude
d) in-& include, involved
e) inter-& international, interview
f) ob-& object, observe
g) over-& overdone, overseas
h) pre-& preview, prepared
i) re-& return, rediscover
j) sub-& subject, submit
k) trans-& transport, transaction
l) un-& unlikely, unfair
*+*,-(* .F& The words in the following list are all comple$ words containing two
morphemes.
' i s a p p e a r , s t r a i g h t e n , b a t h r o o m ,
m i s m a t c h , i n t e r m a r r y , a c 8 u i t t a l ,
r e a l i s m , l i f e l o n g , b r o a d c a s t ,
b r i g h t e s t .
'ivide them into three lists&
a) 2ords containing pre6$ G stem, e.g. misGta%e
b) 2ords containing stem G su#i$, e.g. statGed
c) 2ords containing stem G stem, i.e. compound words, e.g. dayGlight.

(nsert a BGD between the two morphemes.