Foreign Languages Teacher Training Faculty

Theory and Practice of Intercultural Communication

Department

Lecture 2
Introduction to Word-Structure Morphemes: the
Smallest Units of Meaning.

M.A., lecturer Pentina Yevgeniya Olegovna

As the object of morphology is the structure, classification and combinability
of words, let’s define what the word is. There exist many definitions of the
term word and none of them is generally accepted.
The word is the smallest naming unit.
According to Maslov: The word is the minimal unit possessing a certain
looseness (in reference to the place in a sequence – Away he ran. He ran away.
Away ran he.).
According to Ivanova: The word is the smallest unit of language capable of
syntactic functioning and the biggest unit of morphology.
Linguists point out as most characteristic features of words their isolatability (a
word may become a sentence: Boys! Where? Certainly.), uninterruptibility (a
word is not easily interrupted by a parenthetical expression as a sequence of
words may be: compare – black – that is bluish-black birds where bluish-
black cannot be inserted in the middle of the compound blackbird), a certain
looseness in reference to the place in a sequence.
Words are divided into morphemes. A morpheme is one of the central
notions of grammatical theory. Definition of a morpheme is not an easy
matter, and it has been attempted many times by different scholars.
morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit
Morphology
Morphology is the study of the structure and form of words in language or a
language, including inflection, derivation, and the formation of compounds.
At the basic level, words are made of "morphemes." These are the smallest
units of meaning: roots and affixes (prefixes and suffixes). Native speakers
recognize the morphemes as grammatically significant or meaningful. For
example, "schoolyard" is made of "school" + "yard", "makes" is made of
"make" + a grammatical suffix "-s", and "unhappiness" is made of "happy"
with a prefix "un-" and a suffix "-ness".
We also know how words are structured, that, for example, in English, words
are composed of bare roots like witch, or roots with suffixes like witch-es or
words with prefixes like dis-en-chant or words with prefixes and suffixes
like dis-en-chant-ment, and furthermore they know that these parts of words
must occur in a certain order.

Speakers can distinguish between acceptable

and unacceptable forms, that is, they accept
lover but reject *erlove, for example, then
this is part of our grammatical knowledge,
represented in our mental grammars.
 What are Morphemes?
A "morpheme" is a short segment of language that meets three basic criteria:
1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.
2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful segments without changing its meaning or
leaving a meaningless remainder.
3. It has relatively the same stable meaning in different verbal environments.

The central technique used in the identification of morphemes is

based on the notion of distribution, that is the total set of contexts
in which a particular linguistic form occurs.
A root is the irreducible core of a word, with absolutely nothing
else attached to it. It is the part that must always be present.
An affix is a morpheme that only occurs when attached to some
other morpheme or morphemes such as a root or stem or base.
A prefix is an affix attached before a root, stem or base.
A suffix is an affix attached after a root, stem or base.
An infix is an affix inserted inside the root itself.
Practice time
Do the morphemic analysis of the word “inseparable”

“inseparable” is treated as a three-

morpheme word consisting of the
root ―-separ-, the prefix ―in- and
the lexical suffix ―-able.
Morphemic analysis is the process of identifying the individual units of meaning,
called morphemes, within a word.

Morphemes can be prefixes, suffixes, or root words, and they

each have their own meaning. Language acquisition often begins
with a study of root words, or morphemes, that form a base of a
word. These root words usually carry the majority of the word's
meaning. Then, prefixes are morphemes that attach to the
beginning of words, and suffixes are morphemes that attach to the
end of words. Teaching students these individual units of words
and how to combine them is the basis of linguistics that will
continue to get more complex as students continually grow and
develop.
Bases and Affixes
A base is the part of the word that carries its principal meaning. Often it
can be a free morpheme, such as {bright}, but it can also be bound. Most
bases that are bound morphemes come in words of foreign origin. For
example, the {sent} in consent and dissent has nothing to do with
"sending"; it comes from the Latin word sentire "to feel".
A word must contain one base and may contain one or more other bound
morphemes called affixes. An affix is a generic term for a bound
morpheme that is not a base. If it occurs before the base it is called
a prefix. If it occurs after the base, it is called a suffix. There is also a type
of affix called an infix, which actually goes in the middle of the base.
These are very rare in English, but two important examples are the vowel
changes in man/men an run/ran. Clearly these vowel changes represent
plural and past tense morphemes.
 Practice time

Divide the following morphemes into free and bound sets

ation, under, cover, nation, dis, pre, post, skill, ous, beauty, ible,
infra, full, ing, help, fy
How many morphemes are in the word “introduction”?

the word "introduction" consists

of four morphemes:
"in-", "tro-", "duc-", and "-tion“

The prefix "in-" means "not" or "inside", "tro"

is the stem that means "to turn", "duc" is
another stem meaning "to lead or bring", and
the suffix "-tion" indicates a noun, often used
to form abstract nouns from verbs.
 Simple, Complex, and Compound Words
A simple word consists of a single free morpheme: like slay, flea, long, or spirit.
Complex words consist of either two bound morphemes
(matricide, televise, exclude, cosmonaut), or a bound morpheme and a free morpheme
(lioness, telephone, eraser, pyromania). Compound words consist of two free morphemes.
Compound words bear a strong resemblance to grammatical constructions consisting of more
than one separate word. In fact, they often imply concepts that can be expressed by
grammatical constructions:

1.subject + verb earthquake (when the earth quakes)

2.verb + object killjoy (someone who kills joy)
3.verb + adverbial downpour (when something pours down)
4.subject + adjective high chair (a chair that is high)
Morphology is important for FLT
Morphology is important because it allows learners to
understand the structure of words and how they are formed. A
strong foundation in morphemic analysis can help students with
the study of language acquisition and language change.
Morphemic analysis can even be useful for educators
specifically in fields such as linguistics, vocabulary
development, and language processing.
As students and teachers understand more about morphemic
analysis, they can then improve upon other vital skills for
learning.
As students understand individual words
better, they can then make more sense of the
combinations of words into sentences, which
then grows into reading comprehension.
Morphemes are the individual bricks that
build the structures all content areas need for
students to understand the content and
communicate their ideas
 Free and Bound Morphemes
There are two types of morphemes- free morphemes and bound morphemes.
Free morphemes can stand alone with a specific meaning, for example: eat, date, weak.
Bound morphemes cannot stand alone with meaning. Morphemes are comprised of two
separate classes called (a) bases (or roots) and (b) affixes.
A "base," or "root" is a morpheme in a word that gives the word its principle meaning. An
example of a "free base" morpheme is woman in the word womanly. An example of a
"bound base" morpheme is -sent in the word dissent.

Affixes
An "affix" is a bound morpheme that occurs before or after a base. An affix that comes
before a base is called a "prefix." Some examples of prefixes are ante-, pre-, un-, and dis-,
as in the following words:
antedate prehistoric unhealthy disregard
An affix that comes after a base is called a "suffix." Some examples of suffixes are -ly, -er, -
ism, and -ness, as in the following words:
happily gardener capitalism kindness
An affix can be either derivational or inflectional.
"Derivational affixes" serve to alter the meaning of a word by building on a base.
In the examples of words with prefixes and suffixes above, the addition of the
prefix un- to healthy alters the meaning of healthy. The resulting word means "not healthy."
The addition of the suffix -er to garden changes the meaning of garden, which is a place
where plants, flowers, etc., grow, to a word that refers to 'a person who tends a garden.' It
should be noted that all prefixes in English are derivational. However, suffixes may be either
derivational or inflectional.
Inflectional Affixes
There are only eight "inflectional affixes" in English, and these are all suffixes. English has the
following inflectional suffixes, which serve a variety of grammatical functions when added to
specific types of words.

-s noun plural -'s noun possessive

-s verb present tense third person singular -ing verb present participle/gerund
-ed verb simple past tense -en verb past perfect participle
-er adjective comparative -est adjective superlative
Tips for Successfully Incorporating Morphemic Analysis into Your FL Practice
1.Start with the basics: begin by focusing on some of the more common base words,
prefixes, and suffixes. A solid understanding of the basics of how word structure and
morphemes work together is the foundation needed for further understanding of the English
language.
2.Use flashcards and visuals: make direct instruction of morphemic analysis fun and
engaging by using flashcards or other visual aids to represent the smallest units. Flashcards
or sticky notes can make word forming more interactive for students.
3.Keep a morphemic analysis journal: morphemic analysis journals can be beneficial for any
age of learning, as each level continues to build new vocabulary and create more proficient
readers. This can help keep track of new words as they are encountered, making it easier to
review and refer back to them.
4.Use authentic materials: while morphemic analysis does certainly need direct instruction,
incorporating authentic materials children and adults are likely to interact with in a real-
world setting can help extend the analytical thought beyond the classroom. Incorporating
news articles, books, and even films can be used to increase morphemic analysis skills.
5.Practice, practice, practice: regular, routine practice of a structural analysis concept like
morphology is vital to ensure understanding.