Morpheme Definition, Examples, Types, Morpheme and Morphology, Free and Bound Morphemes Define Morph Dr. Vipul V. Kapoor, Associate Professor (MA, M.Phil, PhD)

1. MORPHEME
Definition &
Types
Dr. Vipul V. Kapoor

2. Branches of Linguistics
Linguistics is the science of studying
language.

3. What is Morphology?
Morphology is a branch of linguistics which
studies the forms and formation of words in a
language.
It studies the morphemes and their meanings
and functions in words.

4. What is Morpheme?
Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a word. This
smallest unit has its own semantic and grammatical
importance in a word.
A single word may be made of one or more than one
morphemes.
For example:
International
(Inter – Nation – Al)
It has three morphemes.

5. Types of Morphemes
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6. Free Morphemes
The morphemes which can be used as separate words
on their own are called free morphemes.
They can be independently used in sentences.
There are two types of Free Morphemes
1. Lexical or Open Class
2. Grammatical or Closed Class

7. Lexical or Open Class Morphemes
They can be nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.
They are called open class morphemes because we
may add new words in this category.
The can be nouns, verbs, adjectives.
For Example:
Pencil, Listen, Happy

8. Grammatical or Closed Class
The prepositions, auxiliaries, (both primary and
modal), conjunctions etc. are known as grammatical /
functional or closed class morphemes.
For Example:
Is, Are, Was
Can, May, Might
In, On, From
And, Or, But

9. Bound Morpheme (Closed Class)
The morphemes which cannot be used in the sentences on
their own are called Bound Morphemes. The are always
dependent.
There are two types of Bound Morphemes.
1. Derivational
2. Inflectional

10. Derivational Bound Morphemes
The prefixes and suffixes used in the words are
Derivational Bound Morphemes.
(inter, dis, re, al, ly, ion)
For Example:
1. Rewrite
(“Re” which is a prefix is a bound morpheme; “write” is a free morpheme.)
2. Teacher
(“er” which is a suffix is a bound morpheme; “teach” is a free morpheme)

11. Inflectional Bound Morpheme
The morphemes which are added at the end of the
root word to do pluralization and to indicate the tense
are Inflectional Morphemes. (‘s’, ‘es’, ‘ed’, ‘ing’)
For example:
Boy – Boys, Family - Families (pluralization)
Play – Played (indicates the tense)

12. Thank You