English Grammar 2018-19 1

MORPHOLOGY - EXERCISES
Note: all the sentences in the exercises are from Bryson, Bill. 1990. Mother Tongue. The
English Language. Hardmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Exercise 1
Divide the following sentence into words and morphemes. Count how many different words
and how many different morphemes appear.
One of the greatest mysteries of prehistory is how people in widely separated places suddenly
and spontaneously developed the capacity for language at roughly the same time.

Exercise 2
In the following sentences, divide all the words into morphemes by putting hyphens between
them. Then identify each morpheme as lexical or grammatical, and each morph as bound or
free.
1. We tend to slur those things more familiar to us, particularly place names.
2. So how many of these words do we know?
3. In many places English is widely resented as a symbol of colonialism.
4. Two events gave a boost to the adoption of surnames in England.
5. There is little evidence to suggest that people are refusing to learn English.

Exercise 3
Do a morphemic and morphological analysis of the following words. If there is a
morphophoneme, indicate which allomorph appears: bloody, knives, knot, men, steaks,
talking, took.

Exercise 4
Determine which plural allomorph would be the adequate one for each of the following nouns
(s, z or ɪz):
flask magnet bottle verb ditch
envelope ledge tree cross heaven
cliff bush cloth prize mitt

Exercise 5
Determine which past allomorph would be the adequate one for each of the following verbs
(t, d or ɪd):
rob travel Escape attend rest
copy cough Iron crack flash
drag pledge Fold trot glimmer
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Exercise 6
Determine whether the following morphophonemes are phonologically or morphologically
conditioned. In both cases indicate the environment: a) plural as expressed in the words tooth,
dash & fish; b) the negative prefix {in-}, as in inadequate, impossible, irrelevant, illiterate; c)
the article a/an {a} ə - ən.

Exercise 7
Analyze the following words into morphs using the model given below:
Prefix(es) Root Suffix(es)
inequality in- equal -ity

1. predictability 11. malpractice

2. courageous 12. industrialist
3. uncomfortably 13. transplant
4. overworked 14. kilometrical
5. antiglobalisation 15. planetary
6. bookish 16. hypertalented
7. supermarket 17. intravenous
8. passionately 18. childlike
9. undrinkable 19. Americanism
10. constructive 20. rhomboid

Exercise 8
Examine the final –er in each of the following words. In which words does it represent a
morpheme? If it is a morpheme, identify it.

redder enter letter feather driver teacher healer

Exercise 9
Determine if the underlined affixes belong to derivation or inflection. If they belong to
inflection, identify which morpheme they represent.
1. a) I saw a beautiful drawing.
b) She is drawing.
2. a) She colours all the letters.
b) The dress has four colours.
3. a) That’s clearly a quoted sentence.
b) She quoted his words.
4. a) She has bottles all over the place.
b) She bottles water.
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Exercise 10
Divide the following words into their constituent morphemes by placing a plus sign (+)
between the morphemes, and indicate for each morph whether it’s bound or free. Remember
that morphemes are represented between curly brackets.
1. go-between
2. dislodge
3. hoodlum
4. revocable
5. disyllabic
6. interplanetary
7. prestige
8. unmindful

Exercise 11
a) Divide the following word forms up into morphs.
b) Say whether each morph is free (F) or bound (B).
c) Classify the affixes into prefixes (P) and suffixes (S), and say whether they are derivational
(D) or inflectional (I).
Word forms Morphs Free/Bound Affixes
1. play play F -
2. replay re-play B/F DP
3. plays play-s F/B IS
4. market
5. supermarket
6. province
7. happy
8. unhappy
9. happiness
10. unhappiness
11. drive
12. driver
13. drivers
14. writes
15. overwrite
16. grace
17. graceful
18. graceless
19. large
20. enlarge
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Exercise 12
Divide the following words into morphs, and then identify the following: root, derivational
suffix, inflectional suffix and prefix.

child question gradually

children questioner gradualness
childish questionable graduate
childhood questioning graduation
house questioningly calm
houses rich calmly
housing richer calmness
sad richness becalmed
sadness Enrich short
sadder Teach shorter
saddest teaches pack
book teaching packing
bookish teacher packs
danger teachers unpack
dangerous grade unpacked
endanger gradual package

Exercise 13
A number of morphemes in the following passage are in bold type and underlined. For each,
say whether it’s bound or free; if bound, whether it’s an inflectional, a derivational affix or a
root; if free, whether it’s lexical or grammatical.

Generally, polysemy happens because one word sprouts a variety of meanings, but
sometimes it is the other way round - similar but quite separate words evolve identical
spellings. Boil in the sense of heating a pan of water and boil in the sense of an irruption
of the skin are two unrelated words that simply happen to be spelled the same way.