This document discusses morphology and morphemes. It defines morphology as the study of word structure and formation. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language. There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes, which can stand alone as words, and bound morphemes, which must be attached to other morphemes or words. Free morphemes are further divided into lexical morphemes, which have their own meanings, and functional morphemes, which have grammatical functions. Bound morphemes include affixes and are divided into derivational morphemes, which can change a word's meaning or class, and inflectional morphemes, which indicate grammatical functions without

1. UNIT 2
MORPHOLOGY
By: Hamza Ali & Nur-Aldin Aboujilah 1

2. - Morphology and Morpheme
- Types of Morphemes
Free Morpheme Bound Morpheme
- Morphological Description
Hamza&Nur-Aldin 2

3. Morphology: The study of structure of
the words and word formation.
Morpheme: The smallest meaningful
unit in the grammar of a language.
Types of Morphemes:
A. Free Morpheme:
1. lexical 2. functional
morpheme
B. Bound Morpheme:
1. derivational 2. inflectional
Hamza&Nur-Aldin 3

4. A. Free Morpheme
The type of morpheme that can stand
alone as words by themselves.
Example: friend boy tree
 Free morphemes have two categories:
1. Lexical Morpheme
 A morpheme which has a complete lexical
meaning all on its own (lexicon means a list of
word)
 Referred also as OPEN CLASS because we
can add morphemes to these words.
 These are nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Example: girl (n.) jump (v.) red (adj.)
Hamza&Nur-Aldin 4

5. 2. Functional Morpheme
• Words that do not have clear meaning but has
grammatical functions.
• These are conjunctions, prepositions, articles,
auxiliaries and pronouns.
• Referred also as CLOSED CLASS because it
cannot be added to other morphemes.
Example: he - she - we - but - nor - and
B. Bound Morpheme
These are AFFIXES that must be attached to the
word.
AFFIXES:
a) Prefix - unclean
b) Infix - nowadays
c) Suffix - adjustment
Hamza&Nur-Aldin 5

6. Bound morphemes have also two
categories:
1. Derivational morpheme
 They are combined with root word or
main word known as stem. They change
either the semantic meaning of a word or
change part of speech of the affected
word.
Example of Class Changing:
pay (v.) - payment (n.)
pay (v.) - payer (n.)
Example of Class Maintaining:
pink (adj.) - pinkish
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7.  Root words are the basic part of word that
carries meaning.
 Stem is when a root morpheme is combined
with affix morpheme.
Example:
root: teach + affix: -er stem:
teacher
2. Inflectional Morpheme
Morphemes that are used to indicate
aspects of the grammatical function of a
word.
Example: boy’s - boys
cleaned - cleaning - cleans
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8. Morphological Description
The difference between Inflectional and
Derivational Morpheme is:
 Inflectional morpheme never change the
grammatical category of the word.
Example: old (adj.) - older
(adj.)
 While Derivational Morpheme can
change the grammatical category of a
word.
Example: play (v.) - player (n.)
Hamza&Nur-Aldin 8

9. THANK YOU
Yun-Pi Yuan 9