Morphology is the study of forms. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a word. In the word "reopened", there are 3 morphemes: "re" meaning again, "open" meaning the opposite of close, and "ed" being a grammatical suffix indicating past tense. Similarly, the word "tourists" contains 3 morphemes: "tour" meaning travel, "ist" meaning a person, and "s" indicating a plural form. Morphemes can be free, able to stand alone as a word carrying meaning, or bound, unable to stand alone and instead modifying the meaning of other morphemes by being added as a prefix or suffix.

1. Morphology

2. Morphology
• ‘‘Morphos’ is a Greek word meaning ‘form’
or ‘change’

3. Morphology
• ‘‘Morphos’ is a Greek word meaning ‘form’
or ‘change’
• ‘ology’ is a suffix in English meaning ‘study’

4. Morphology
• ‘‘Morphos’ is a Greek word meaning ‘form’
or ‘change’
• ‘ology’ is a suffix in English meaning ‘study’
=
The study of forms

5. What is a Morpheme?

6. What is a Morpheme?
‘A morpheme is the smallest unit
of meaning in a word.’
(Carter, 1998)

7. English word forms

8. English word forms
• talk

9. English word forms
• talk
• talks

10. English word forms
• talk
• talks
• talked

11. English word forms
•
•
•
•
talk
talks
talked
talking

12. English word forms
•
•
•
•
•
talk
talks
talked
talking
talker

13. The police reopened the investigation.
How many morphemes in reopened?

14. The police reopened the investigation.
How many morphemes in reopened?
re
open
ed

15. The police reopened the investigation.
How many morphemes in reopened?
(past)
meaning (again)
re
meaning (opp of close) grammar
open
= 3 morphemes
ed

16. The police reopened the investigation.
How many morphemes in reopened?
(past)
meaning (again)
re
meaning (opp of close) grammar
open
= 3 morphemes
What about tourists?
ed

17. The police reopened the investigation.
How many morphemes in reopened?
(past)
meaning (again)
re
meaning (opp of close) grammar
open
ed
= 3 morphemes
What about tourists?
tour
ist
s

18. The police reopened the investigation.
How many morphemes in reopened?
(past)
meaning (again)
re
meaning (opp of close) grammar
open
ed
= 3 morphemes
What about tourists?
meaning (travel)
meaning (person)
tour
ist
grammar (plural)
s
= 3 morphemes

19. Morpheme Types
Free Morphemes
Can stand on their own, carry meaning
e.g., cat, teach, sleep
Bound Morphemes
Cannot stand on their own, do not carry
meaning.
In English we can add bound morphemes
before and after free morphemes (i.e. prefixes
& suffixes).

20. CATS
“cat” is a free morpheme
“s” is a bound morpheme

21. Your turn!
• Identify the free and bound morphemes in these
words:
reopened
carelessness

22. Your turn!
• Identify the free and bound morphemes in these
words:
reopened
carelessness
re
bound
open
free
ed
bound

23. Your turn!
• Identify the free and bound morphemes in these
words:
reopened
carelessness
re
bound
care
free
open
free
less
bound
ed
bound
ness
bound

24. References
Carter, R, (1998) Vocabulary London:
Routledge