MORPHEMES

Free Morphemes
Bound Morphemes

Prepared by:
HANIS SAFWAN ANUAR
MOHD JAILANI TON MOHAMAD
NURUL FARIEZZA AB.RAHIM
 What is a morpheme?

The smallest unit of linguistic meaning.

A single word may be composed of one or more
morphemes.

Example:
un+system+atic+al+ly
( the word unsystematically can be analyzed into 5
separate morphemes)

A grammatical unit in which there is an arbitrary union of

a sound and a meaning that cannot be further analyzed.
Every word in every language is composed of one or more morphemes.
One morpheme boy (one syllable)
desire, lady, water (two syllables)
crocodile (three syllables)
salamander (four syllables), or more syllables
Two morpheme boy + ish
desire + able
Three morpheme boy + ish + ness
desire + able + ity
Four morpheme gentle + man + li + ness
un + desire + able + ity
More than four un + gentle + man + li + ness
anti + dis + establish + ment + ari + an + ism
1. Free Morphemes :

Morphemes which can be used as a word on its own

(without the need for further elements, i.e. affixes)

Example: girl, system, desire, hope, act, phone, happy..

2. Bound Morphemes:
Morphemes which cannot occur on its own as an independent (or separate)
word.

•Affixes (prefix, suffix, infix and circumfix) are all bound morphemes.

Prefixes Suffixes Infixes Circumfixes

(discontinuous
morpheme)
Bound morphemes Bound morphemes Bound morphemes Bound morphemes
which occur only which occur which are inserted that are attached to a
before other following other into other root or
morphemes. morphemes. morphemes. stem morpheme both
Examples: Examples: Example: initially and finally.
un- -er fikas Example:
(uncover, undo) (singer, performer) "strong" chokma
dis- -ist fumikas "he is good"
(displeased, (typist, pianist) "to be strong" ik + chokm + o
disconnect), -ly (Bontoc Language) "he isn’t’ good"
pre- (predetermine, (manly, friendly) (Chickasaw
prejudge) Language)
3. Root vs. Stem
Root Stem
Non-affix lexical content morphemes that
cannot be analyzed into smaller parts When a root morpheme is combined with affix
(ex.) cran (as in cranberry), act, beauty, morphemes, it forms a stem.
system, etc.. Other affixes can be added to a stem to form
 Free Root Morpheme: run bottle, a more complex stem.
phone, etc.
 Bound Root Morpheme: receive, remit,
uncount, uncouth, nonchalant, etc.

Root believe (verb)

Stem believe + able (verb + suffix)
Word un + believe + able (prefix + verb + suffix)
Root system (noun)
Stem system + atic (noun + suffix)
Stem un + system + atic (prefix + noun + suffix)
Stem un + system + atic + al (prefix + noun + suffix + suffix)
Word un + system + atic + al + ly prefix + noun + suffix + suffix + suffix