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Morphemes - Week 3 Notes

The document discusses different types of morphemes: - Free morphemes can stand alone as independent words, while bound morphemes cannot stand alone and must be attached to other morphemes. - Lexical morphemes supply meaning to words, while functional morphemes modify meaning but do not convey meaning on their own. - Derivational morphemes change the part of speech of a word, while inflectional morphemes indicate grammatical functions like number, tense, and case.

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Kaeyshna Jannifer
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165 views

Morphemes - Week 3 Notes

The document discusses different types of morphemes: - Free morphemes can stand alone as independent words, while bound morphemes cannot stand alone and must be attached to other morphemes. - Lexical morphemes supply meaning to words, while functional morphemes modify meaning but do not convey meaning on their own. - Derivational morphemes change the part of speech of a word, while inflectional morphemes indicate grammatical functions like number, tense, and case.

Uploaded by

Kaeyshna Jannifer
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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*5 years and below publications with the most recent versions is the one to follow*

*check out academic journals – indexed are the ones with credentials (there’s low and high indexes,
doesn’t matter as long as it is). Use the reference number from the DOY part of the journal online and
the uni offers access to it free*

Word Structure-

 Morpheme
 Free morpheme
 Bound Morpheme
 Contractible morpheme

*Morpheme is generally concerned with the function (grammatical function)

Free vs Bound Morpheme

Free Morpheme

 Words with a complete meaning, can stand alone as an independent (girl, boy, mother etc..)

Bound Morpheme

 Lexical items (basic grammar components - nouns/verbs/pronouns/preposition/infinitives)that


can’t stand alone, must be connected to another morpheme. Adding suffixes or prefixes
(unimagined, distrust)
 Operates in the connection processes by means of derivation, inflection & compounding.

Lexical Morphemes

- 11 lexical items in total (based on our references, it’s different) – Brown lists 11

Functional Morphemes

- Is a morpheme which simply modifies the meaning of the word rather than supplying meaning.
If it’s left on it’s won, doesn’t convey meaning. Solidifies grammar (encodes grammar meaning)
- Common ones includes conjunctions, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns and articles (also
considered lexical morphemes), considers supplementary, to complete a word.
- E.g.: In the sentence "My cat is sleeping over there on the pillow," functional morphemes
include my, over, there, on, and the. If these words were taken out of the sentence, a reader
or listener would still be able to understand the idea that there's a cat sleeping on a pillow.
Left alone, however, these words would never be able to deliver this message.
Bound Morphemes

- Inflection & Derivation


- Inflection -> morphological processes that function effectively in a sentence without changing
the base morpheme i.e. inflectional suffixes
- Derivation -> concerned with the way morphemes connect to lexical forms as affixes (word that
can’t stand on its own but when bound with another, creates/provides meaning). Affixes is
distinguished between two i.e. suffixes & prefixes & infixes

Derivational Morphemes

- Changes part of speech of the word when added to the free morpheme but there are some
execeptions.
- E.g. derivational suffix – derives an adjective from a verb, implying a ability with a passive
relation with its stem

“Suffix –er derives a noun from a verb, indicating a human agent or an inanimate
instrument: Speaker, Baker”

Inflectional Morphemes (read up and write notes for this section)


- Indicate aspects of a grammatical function of the word

8 inflectional Morphemes *table needs to be copied and pasted*

Contractible Morphemes
- Everything that expands or shortens is under this. Auxiliary modals can be contracted in informal
style of language e.g. will not – won’t / shall not – shan’t / would not – wouldn’t / I will – I’ll /
They had – They’d
- Used informally in conversation and not in official or formal reports
- Uncontractible copula and contractible copula
o Uncontractible - a linking verb that's not a contraction but also doesn't have a meaning
on its own (Elly van Gelderen, author of "The Linguistic Cycle.") / a copula verb links the
subject to the rest of the sentence, but it doesn't describe action like traditional verbs.
E.g. – Endings like "s" or "ing," and prefixes such as "re" and "pre
o Contractible - a linking verb that is paired with a contraction, but that isn't an action. In
this case, there might also be another verb in the sentence that does suggest action.
“Brown's theory of language acquisition.

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