EXERCISES ON MORPHOLOGY

EXERCISE 1: Identify the number of morphemes in these words.

List the morphemes:

Words Number of morphemes Bound Free

1 Replay 2 re- play
2 Play
3 Date
4 Antedate
5 Hygiene
6 Weak
7 Weaken
8 Man
9 Manly
10 Keep
11 Beautiful
12 Miniskirt
13 Rainy
14 Cheaply
15 Cheaper
16 Widen
17 Happiness
18 Development
19 Careful
20 Actor

EXERCISE 2: Write the meaning of the underlined morphemes, and give your own examples.

Morphemes Meanings Examples

1 Antedate In front of, before antecedent
2 Replay
3 Manly
4 Keeper
5 Unable
6 Cheapest
7 Inactive
8 Impossible
9 Malfunction
10 Actor

EXERCISE 3: Identify the bound morpheme(s) in each of the given words.

Words Bound morpheme(s) Words Bound morpheme(s)

1 Speaker -er 6 Intervene
2 Kingdom 7 Revise
3 Syllabic 8 Worked

1
4 Idolize 9 Undo
5 Selective 10 Careless
EXERCISE 4: Underline the bases in these words.
1 Womanly 6 Lighten 11 unlikely
2 Endear 7 Enlighten 12 prewar
3 Failure 8 Friendship 13 subway
4 Famous 9 Befriend 14 falsify
5 Infamous 10 Bostonian 15 unenlivened

EXERCISE 5: Identify the meaning of the bound base in the given sets of words

Bound base of the sets of the words Meaning

1 Audience, audible, audition and auditorium Hear
2 Suicide, patricide, matricide and infanticide
3 Oral, orate, oration, oracle, orator and oratory
4 Aquaplane, aquarium, aquatic and aquaduct
5 Mortuary, moribund, mortal, and immortal
6 Corporation, corporeal, corps and corpse
7 Tenable, tenant, tenure and tenacious
8 Pendulum, suspender, pendant and impending
9 Manuscript, manacle, manual and manicure
10 Eject, inject, reject and projectile
11 Portable, porter, portfolio and portage

EXERCISE 6: Classify the following words as derivational/inflectional morphemes.

His, books, Beth’s, walks, hoped, violated, does, bigger, desserts, media, speaker, toughest, midnight,
having, social, eaten, forms, insulted, government, furiously, exercising.

Derivational Inflectional

EXERCISE 7: Diagram these words to show the layers of structure

Unverbalized
Helpless embodiment
Reimbursements started
Refertilize insufferably
Lifelessness favorirism
Anticlerical itemized
Unlawful midafternoon
Preprofessional supernatural
2
Newspaperdom uncomfortable
Counterdeclaration engaging
Malconstruction misjudgement
Contradictory buildings

EXERCISE 8: Give the original words from which these clipped words were formed.

Words Originals Words Originals

1 Disco discotheque 9 Bus
2 Taxi 10 Van
3 Cab 11 Chute
4 Curio 12 Cute
5 Memo 13 Dorm
6 Fred 14 Flu
7 Al 15 Prof
8 Tom 16 Ad

EXERCISE 9: Pronounce these acronyms and give their originals.

Acronyms Originals Acronyms Originals

1 RV Recreational vehicle 9 Jeep
2 UNESCO 10 Laser
3 OK 11 FIFA
4 OPEC 12 BBC
5 TOEFL 13 MC
6 HOU 14 BC
7 WHO 15 TESL
8 UNICEF 16 IELTS

EXERCISE 10: Give the originals of these blends.

Blends Originals Blends Originals

1 Flunk Flinch + funk 7 Splatter
2 happenstance 8 Dumbfound
3 Stagflation 9 Medicare
4 Simulcast 10 Singlish
5 Telecast 11 Newsboy
6 Dandle 12 Brunch

EXERCISE 11: Give the blends that result from fusing these words

1 Gasoline + alcohol gasohol 4 Escalade + elevator

2 Transfer + resistor 5 Blare or blow + spurt
3 Automobile + omnibus 6 Smoke + fog

EXERCISE 12: The words in column 2 have been created from the corresponding words in column 1.
Indicate the word formation process responsible for the creation of each word in column 2.

3
1 Column 1 Column 2 Word formation process
2 Automation Automate Back-formation
3 Humid Humidifier
4 Love, seat Loveseat
5 Typographical error Typo
6 Aerobics, marathon Aerobathon
7 Act Deactivate
8 Perambulator Pram
9 Random access memory RAM
10 Megabyte Meg
11 Teleprinter exchange Telex
12 Information technology IT

EXERCISE 13: Give the original word(s) and identify the processes of word formation of the
following. Provide one example to illustrate each type of processes.

Word Original words Processes Your examples

1 WHO World Health Organization Acronymy
2 WTO
3 flu
4 brunch
5 disagree
6 Ice-cream

EXERCISE 14: Classify the italicized words as N (noun), V (verb), Adj (adjective), Adv (adverb), or
UW (uninflected word).

1 Minnie is fond of Siamese cats. N

2 The island was colonized by the Northmen.
3 One of her stockings is torn.
4 What punishment do you think should be administered?
5 Fritz always say the wrong thing.
6 Her room was in a state of chaos.
7 We’ll gladly refund your money.
8 The nurse puts a disinfectant on the cut.
9 Carl sleeps late mornings.
10 How peaceful the house seems today!
11 You should shorten that dress.
12 Sue likes to play golf on Sunday morning.
13 Only the dregs are left.
14 There will be a meeting at four tomorrow afternoon.
15 Which nation colonized Tierra del Fuego?
16 Every social class has its own snobbery.
17 May you be healthy and prosperous.
18 Be careful not to run aground.
19 She smiled cheerfully.
20 The quickest way is to use your pocket calculator.

4
21 We counted the tickets in haste.

EXERCISE 15: Choose the correct answer.

1. The study of the construction of words out of morphemes...
A. morphemes
B. morphology
2. Smallest linguistic unit that has meaning or grammatical function.
A. bound morpheme
B. free morpheme
C. morphemes
D. derivational morphemes
3. Free morphemes can stand alone as words.
A. True
B. False
4. Bound morphemes always attach to other morphemes, never existing as words themselves.
They always carry a grammatical function.
A. True
B. False
5. Morphemes that carry a semantic content as opposed to performing a grammatical
function...
A. Function morphemes
B. Content morphemes
6. An affix that attaches to the end of a stem; in English, suffixes may be inflectional or
derivational.
A. Prefix
B. Suffix
C. Affix
7. Bound morphemes that change the meaning or syntactic function of the words to which they
attach...
A. Prefix
B. Suffix
C. Affix
8. An affix that attaches to the beginning of a stem...
A. Prefix
B. Suffix
C. Affix
9. Morphemes that provide information about the grammatical relationships of words...
A. Content morphemes
B. Function morphemes
10. Morphemes that change the meaning or lexical category of the words to which they
attach...
A. Derivational morphemes
B. Inflectional morphemes
11. Morphemes that serve a purely grammatical function, never creating a new word but only a
different form of the same word...
A. Derivational morphemes

5
 B. Inflectional morphemes
12. Nondistinctive realizations of a particular morpheme that have the same function and are
phonetically similar...
A. phoneme
B. Allophone
C. Allomorph
D. alternate morpheme
13. -ed- He washed the car.
A. Inflectional morphemes
B. Derivational morphemes
14. -s- He walks to school.
A. Inflectional morphemes
B. Derivational morphemes
15. -tion- Radiation leaked out of the plant.
A. Inflectional morphemes
B. Derivational morphemes
16. -ing- She is studying everyday.
A. Inflectional morphemes
B. Derivational morphemes
17. -ly- Slowly, he ambled down the street.
A. Inflectional morphemes
B. Derivational morphemes
18. -al- They occur at the margin of a word, after any derivationalmorphemes.
A. Inflectional morphemes
B. Derivational morphemes
19. -est- That is the biggest fish I have ever seen.
A. Inflectional morphemes
B. Derivational morphemes
20. -th- I could feel the warmth of the fire.
A. Inflectional morphemes
B. Derivational morphemes

EXERCISE 16: Choose the correct answer.

1. -ize -: finalºfinalize is derivational because it changes the word...
A. verb ºnoun
B. nounºadjective
C. verbºadjective
D. nounºverb
E. adjectiveºnoun
F. adjectiveºverb
2. -ness - sadºsadness is derivational because it changes the word...
A. verb ºnoun
B. nounºadjective
C. verbºadjective
D. nounºverb
E. adjectiveºnoun
F. adjectiveºverb

6
3. -re- fundºrefund is derivational because it changes the word...
A. verb ºnoun
B. nounºadjective
C. verbºadjective
D. nounºverb
E. adjectiveºnoun
F. adjectiveºverb
4. -ive - describeºdescriptive is derivational because it changes the word...
A. verb ºnoun
B. nounºadjective
C. verbºadjective
D. nounºverb
E. adjectiveºnoun
F. adjectiveºverb
5. -en - gold is expensiveºthe golden years is derivational because it changes the word...
A. verb ºnoun
B. nounºadjective
C. verbºadjective
D. nounºverb
E. adjectiveºnoun
F. adjectiveºverb
6. -al- rationºrational is derivational because it changes the word...
A. verb ºnoun
B. nounºadjective
C. verbºadjective
D. nounºverb
E. adjectiveºnoun
F. adjectiveºverb
7. If you divide Americanize into its component morphemes, the root would be...
A. America
B. American
C. ameri-
D. merit
8. If you divide Computers into its component morphemes, the root would be...
A. computer
B. -s-
C. computers
D. compute
9. If you divide component into its component morphemes, the root would be...
A. compone
B. comp-
C. -nent
D. component
10. If you divide isolated into its component morphemes, the root would be...
A. isolation
B. isolate
C. isolated

7
 D. isola-
11. Which morpheme in the experiment's has an inflectional function?
A. -'s
B. -ment
C. -ex
D. -peri
12. Which morpheme in is dehumidifying has an inflectional function?
A. -de
B. -ify
C. -id
D. -ing
13. Which morpheme in has rationalized has an inflectional function?
A. ration
B. -al
C. -ize
D. -ed
14. Which morpheme in is swimming has an inflectional function?
A. swim
B. -ming
C. -ing
15. Which morpheme in "is being spiritualized" has an inflectional function?
A. spirit
B. -al
C. -ize
D. -ed
16. Indonesian: rumah
[rumah] house [rumahrumah] houses
[ibu] mother [ibuibu] mothers
[lalat] fly [lalatlalat] flies
-rumah, -ibu, lalat is...
A. derivational
B. inflectional
17. English -er
rideºrider
readºreader
jogºjogger
-er is...
A. derivational
B. inflectional
18. English -er
bigºbigger
tallºtaller
smallºsmaller
-er is ...
A. derivational
B. inflectional
19. Spanish amos--

8
 hablarºhablamos
to speakºwe speak
estarºestamos
to beºwe are
comprarºcompramos
to buyºwe buy
mirarºmiramos
to lookºwe look
-amos is...
A. derivational
B. inflectional
20. Russian -scik
[mebel] furniture [mebelscik] furniture maker
[beton] concrete [betonscik] concrete worker
-scik is...
A. derivational
B. inflectional