UNIT ONE

MORPHEMES

1. DEFINITION – CHARACTERISTICS
What is a morpheme?
• ‘A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language.’
[Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 183]
• ‘A morpheme is a short segment of language that meets three criteria:
c It is a word or part of a word that has meaning.
d It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without violation of
its meaning or without meaningless remainders.
e It recurs in different verbal environments with a relatively stable meaning.’
[Stageberg, 1965: 85]
Ex.1: The English word unkind consists of two morphemes: the base kind
the lexical meaning of which is ‘friendly and thoughtful to others’ and the
prefix un– the lexical meaning of which is ‘not’; the English word talks
consists of two morphemes: the base talk the lexical meaning of which is ‘say
something’ and the suffix –s, which has no lexical meaning and which is used
to show that the verb talks is in the third person singular present-tense form.
In other words, we can recognize a morpheme by either its lexical or its
grammatical meaning.
Ex.2: Straight is an English adjective meaning ‘without a bend or curve’. By
dividing straight, we get smaller meaningful units of trait /tre1t/, rate
/re1t/and ate/e1t/; but their meanings violate the meaning of straight. We
also get the meaningless remainders: /s–/, /st–/ and /str–/. Therefore, straight
must be considered a morpheme, the smallest meaningful unit in English.
Ex.3: Bright means ‘light’, and brighten means ‘make light’. This leads us to
conclude that –en means ‘make’. We also know that –en recurs with a stable
meaning in words like cheapen, darken, deepen, soften, stiffen, etc. Therefore,
–en must be considered a morpheme.
2. HOW TO DISTINGUISH MORPHEMES FROM PHONEMES, SYLLABLES
AND WORDS?
2.1. MORPHEMES vs. PHONEMES
A morpheme differs from a phoneme in that the former has meaning
whereas the latter does not. Although phonemes have no meaning, they have
distinctive features that help to distinguish meaning.

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 Ex.1: The initial consonant of bitch is [− aspirated] while that of pitch is
[+ aspirated].
Ex.2: The vowel of pin is [+ close] and thus [− open] while that of pan is
[+ open] and thus [− close].
A morpheme may consist of only a single phoneme like the /–z/ in goes. But
the phoneme /z/ and this morpheme are by no means identical. The phoneme
/z/ occurs many times where it has nothing to do with this morpheme. For
example, zoo /zu:/ and rose /r6υz/ both contain /z/ but the /z/ here has nothing to
do with the morpheme realized as /–z/ in goes.
Morphemes are generally short sequences of phonemes: the morpheme {of}
consists of two phonemes — / 4 / and / v /.
Most English morphemes are intermediate in size between {of} and
{strange} and consist of about two to six phonemes.
2.2. MORPHEMES vs. SYLLABLES
A morpheme happens to be identical to a syllable, e.g. the morpheme
{strange} and the syllable /stre1nd2/; and so are many English morphemes.
However, any matches between morphemes and syllables are fortuitous. Many
poly-syllabic words are mono-morphemic.
E.g. lion /’laI6n/: two syllables – one morpheme
crocodile /’kr4k6da1l/: three syllables – one morpheme
Connecticut /k6’net1k6t/: four syllables – one morpheme
On the contrary, both /g6υ/ and /–z/ in goes /g6υz/ are morphemes, though
altogether they are but a single syllable. That is, goes is mono-syllabic but
poly-morphemic.
Briefly, in some cases a morpheme may consist of one syllable or several
whole syllables. In other cases, it is only part of a syllable. In fact, to form a
morpheme, some phonemes are usually combined together without any regard
to their status as syllables.
In English, a morpheme is not identical with a syllable. The syllable is a
phonological unit whereas the morpheme is the basic unit in morphology.
2.3. MORPHEMES vs. WORDS
Words are made up of morphemes. In other words, morphemes are the
constituents of words.
A word may be composed of one or more morphemes:
One morpheme: boy, desire

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 Two morphemes: boy + –ish, desir(e) + –able
Three morphemes: boy + –ish + –ness, desir(e) + –abil + –ity
Four morphemes: gentle + man + –li + –ness
un– + desir(e) + –abil– + –ity
More than four morphemes: un– + gentle + man + –li + –ness
anti– + dis– + establish + –ment + –ari + –an + –ism
3. CLASSIFICATION OF MORPHEMES
It is always found that morphemes can be grouped into certain classes, each
with a characteristic distribution. There are two basic classes of morphemes:
free morphemes and bound morphemes. Affixes are almost always bound
whereas bases can be either free or bound.
3.1. BOUND MORPHEMES vs. FREE MORPHEMES
3.1.1. FREE MORPHEMES
• A free morpheme is ‘one that can be uttered alone with meaning’.
[Stageberg, 1965: 87]
• A free morpheme ‘can be used on its own’.
[Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 31]
• Free morphemes ‘may stand alone as words in their own right, as well as
enter into the structure of other words’.
[Jackson, 1980: 53]
E.g. Drink is a free morpheme which occurs as a word on its own and as a
free base in drinkable, undrinkable, drinking-water, drinking-fountain, etc.

3.1.2. BOUND MORPHEMES

• A bound morpheme ‘cannot be uttered alone with meaning. It is always
annexed to one or more morphemes to form a word’.
[Stageberg, 1965: 87]
• A bound morpheme ‘is never used alone but must be used with another
morpheme’.
[Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 31]
• Bound morphemes ‘may occur only if they combine with another
morpheme’.
[Jackson, 1980: 53]
E.g. the English suffix –ing /–17/ must be used after a verb form: writing,
living, driving, etc.

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 3.2. BASES (or ROOTS) vs. AFFIXES
3.2.1. A BASE (also called A ROOT) is ‘that morpheme in a word that has
the principal meaning’ [Stageberg, 1965: 87-88]. It is the central morpheme,
the basic part of a word. There are two kinds of bases:
A FREE BASE is a base ‘which may be a word on its own right once the other
morphemes have been stripped away’ [Jackson, 1980: 53].
E.g. break in unbreakable, act in deactivated, friend in friendship, etc.
A BOUND BASE is a base (i.e. it is the basic part of a word and has the
principal meaning) which can never occur on its own but can only be joined to
other bound morphemes.
E.g. The bound base of audience, audible, audition, auditory, auditorium,
etc. is audi–; that of suicide, patricide, matricide, infanticide, etc. is –cide; and
that of suspender, pendant, pendulum, etc. is –pend or pend–.
3.2.2. AN AFFIX is a morpheme (usually a bound morpheme) ‘that occurs
before or behind a base’ [Stageberg, 1965: 87].
[Link]. Classified according to their POSITION in words, affixes have
three main subclasses:
• PREFIXES ‘occur before a base’ [Stageberg, 1965: 91] as in import,
prefix, reconsider, unkind, understate, over-react, etc.
• SUFFIXES ‘occur after a base’ [Stageberg, 1965: 92] as in shrinkage,
noisy, quickly, nails, dreamed, mouse-like, etc.
• INFIXES are inserted within words, e.g. the infix –um–in Tagalog,
which shows that a verb is in the past tense: sulat (to write) Æ
sumulat (wrote).
Affixes may be added directly to bases or to constructions consisting of a
base plus one or more (either free or bound) morphemes. Thus we have:
work + –s = works
worker + –s = workers
workshop + –s = workshops
[Link]. Classified according to their FUNCTION in words, affixes have
two main subclasses:
• INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES, ‘which are always suffixes in English, perform
a grammatical function; they are representatives of grammatical categories’.
[Jackson, 1980: 53]
The only eight inflectional suffixes in English are:

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 c the noun plural morpheme {–S1}: book–s, apple–s, box–es, etc.
d the noun possessive morpheme {–S2}: man–‘s, girl–‘s, students–‘,
Alice–‘s, etc.
e the verb third person singular present tense morpheme {–S3}: walk–s,
find–s, mix–es, etc.
f the verb present participle morpheme {–ing1}: play–ing, typ(e)–ing,
dig(g)–ing, etc.
g the verb past simple morpheme {–D1}: flow–ed, work–ed, creat(e)–ed,
drank, broke, thought, show–ed, etc.
h the verb past participle morpheme{–D2}: flow–ed, work–ed, creat(e)–ed,
drunk, broken, thought, show–n, etc.
i the adjective or adverb comparative morpheme {–er1}: small–er, saf(e)–er,
thinn–er, long–er, fast–er, hard–er, etc.
j the adjective or adverb superlative morpheme {–est1}: small–est, saf(e)–
est, thinn–est, long–est, fast–est, hard–est, etc.
• DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES, ‘which may be prefixes or suffixes in English,
have a lexical function; they create new words out of existing words or
morphemes by their addition’.
[Jackson, 1980: 53]
Derivational affixes may be of two kinds:
c Class-changing derivational affixes change the word class of the word to
which they are attached: –al added to nation makes an adjective out of a
noun.
d Class-maintaining derivational affixes do not change the word class of
the word to which they are attached. Derivational prefixes are usually
class-maintaining: re–mark, dis–enthrone, un–refined, etc.
There is not usually more than one prefix in a word in English and from
what was said in the previous paragraphs, it is clear that English prefixes are
always derivational. There is never more than one inflectional suffix in
English words and it always comes last. A number of derivational suffixes may,
however, occur. Derivational suffixes need not close off a word; that is, after a
derivational suffix one can sometimes add another derivational suffix and can
frequently add an inflectional suffix. The relative order of morphemes in the
English word is, then, as follows:

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 derivational prefix – base – derivational suffix(es) – inflectional suffix

Generally speaking, bases are central and affixes are peripheral. In

English, affixes are almost always bound morphemes and bases are nearly
always free.

4. VARIATIONS OF MORPHEMES — ALLOMORPHS

4.1. DEFINITION:
An allomorph is ‘any of the different forms of a morpheme’.
[Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 9]
E.g. In English, the inflectional noun plural morpheme {–S1} is often shown
in writing by adding –(e)s to the end of a singular noun, e.g. cat /k`t/ → cats
/k`ts/. Sometimes this morpheme is pronounced /–z/, e.g. dog /d49/ → dogs
/d49z/, and sometimes it is pronounced /–Iz/, e.g. box /b4ks / → box /’b4ks1z/.
It is believed that /–s/, /–z/, /–Iz/ are three allomorphs of the inflectional noun
plural morpheme {–S1} because:
c They are in complementary distribution:
/–s / occurs only after the voiceless consonants /p, t, k, f, θ/;
/–Iz / occurs only after the sibilant consonants /s, Z, ∫, 2, t∫, d2/;
/–z/ occurs after voiced sounds, including all vowels and voiced
consonants except /z/, /2/, and /d2/.
d They all have the same meaning, either lexical or grammatical:
/–s/, /–z/, /–Iz/ all refer to ‘plurality’ and all mean ‘more than one’.
Thus, an allomorph can also be defined as a variant of a morpheme which
occurs in a certain definable environment. And a morpheme is a group of two
or more allomorphs which conform to certain, usually rather clearly definable,
criteria of distribution and meaning. The concept of morphemes and
allomorphs is one of the most basic in descriptive linguistics. Its importance
both as a tool and as an insight into the operation of language can hardly be
underestimated.
4.2. SELECTION OF ALLOMORPHS:
The three allomorphs /–z/, /–s/ and /–Iz/ of the inflectional noun plural
morpheme {–S1} are phonologically conditioned since each can occur only when
a certain clearly defined condition occurs. In this case, the conditioning factor
is the phonetic nature of their preceding phoneme: /–s/ occurs only after the
voiceless consonants /p, t, k, f, θ/; /–Iz/ occurs only after the groove fricatives and

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affricates /s, z, ∫, 2, t∫, d2/; and /–z/ occurs only after voiced sounds, except the
three voiced sibilants /z, 2, d2/:
cat /k`t/ + –s /–s/ → cats /k`ts/
voiceless
dog /d49/ + –s /–z/ → dogs /d49z/
voiced
box /b4ks/ + –es /–1z / → box /’b4ks1z/

sibilant
We may, therefore, say that /–s/, /–Iz/, and /–z/ are three phonologically
conditioned allomorphs of the inflectional noun plural morpheme {–S1}. This
means that, if we understand the facts of distribution, we can accurately
predict which of the three will occur in any place where any one of them could
occur.
The selection of allomorphs may also be morphologically conditioned. In
this case, the selection is determined by the specific morpheme or morphemes
forming the context, rather than by any phonologic feature: the plural of ox
/4ks/ is oxen /‘4ks6n/; /–6n/ is a morphologically conditioned allomorph of
the inflectional noun plural morpheme {–S1} which is used with this stem /4ks/:
ox /4ks/ + –en /−6n/ → oxen /‘4ks6n/

sibilant
If a morpheme has numerous allomorphs, as many do, it is awkward to
have a list of all of them every time the morpheme is mentioned. Instead, it is
desirable to have a single symbol to indicate a morpheme, comprehending all
the variant forms in which it can appear. For this purpose we use braces {}.
The braces {} indicate a morphemic representative in which one arbitrarily
selected symbol is used to represent each morpheme and comprehend all its
allomorphs. It does not directly give any information about pronunciation. For
instance, {–S1} can be used to refer to the inflectional noun plural morpheme
and all of its allomorphs.
4.3. TYPES OF ALLOMORPHS
c ADDITIVE ALLOMORPHS:
To signify some difference in meaning, something is added to a word. For
example, the past tense form of most English verbs is formed by adding the

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suffix –ed which can be pronounced as either /–t/, or /–d/ or /–Id/: ask + –ed
/a:sk/ + /–t/, liv(e) + –ed /lIv/ + /–d/, need + –ed /ni:d/ + /–Id/.
d REPLACIVE ALLOMORPHS:
To signify some difference in meaning, a sound is used to replace another
sound in a word. For example, the /1/ in drink is replaced by the /æ/ in drank
to signal the simple past. This is symbolized as follows:
/dr`7k/ = /dr17k/ + / 1 → ` /.
e SUBTRACTIVE ALLOMORPHS:
To signify some difference in meaning, something is deleted from a word.
For example, the letter a is deleted from zopa to signal that this Russian noun
is in the plural form of the possessive case.
f SUPPLETIVE ALLOMORPHS:
To signify some difference in meaning, there is a complete change in the
shape of a word.
For example, go + the suppletive allomorph of {–D1} = went;
be + the suppletive allomorph of {–S3} = is;
bad + the suppletive allomorph of {–er1} = worse;
good + the suppletive allomorph of {–est1} = best.
g THE ZERO ALLOMORPH:
There is no change in the shape of a word though some difference in
meaning is identified. For example, the past tense form of hurt is formed by
adding the zero allomorph of {–D1} to this word.

EXERCISES
A. THE EXERCISES OF MORPHEMES
EXERCISE 1: Identify the number of the morphemes in each of the given
words. Complete the table given below.

1 play 1 11 keeper
2 replay 2 (re– and play) 12 able
3 date 13 unable
4 antedate 14 mahogany 1
5 hygiene 15 rain
6 weak 16 rainy

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