Types of Morphemes to Know for Intro to the Study of Language

Morphemes are the building blocks of language, shaping how we create and understand words. They come in two main types: free morphemes, which can stand alone, and bound morphemes, which must attach to others to convey meaning.

1. Free morphemes

   • Can stand alone as words (e.g., "cat," "run").
   • Do not require attachment to other morphemes to convey meaning.
   • Can be classified as either lexical or grammatical morphemes.

2. Bound morphemes

   • Cannot stand alone and must attach to other morphemes (e.g., "un-" in "undo").
   • Include prefixes, suffixes, and infixes.
   • Essential for modifying the meaning of free morphemes.

3. Lexical morphemes

   • Carry the core meaning of a word (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives).
   • Typically represent concrete concepts or objects.
   • Can be free morphemes (e.g., "dog") or bound morphemes (e.g., "ness" in "happiness").

4. Grammatical morphemes

   • Serve a grammatical function rather than carrying significant meaning (e.g., "the," "and").
   • Include articles, conjunctions, and prepositions.
   • Often help to indicate relationships between words in a sentence.

5. Derivational morphemes

   • Used to create new words by changing the meaning or part of speech (e.g., "happy" to "unhappy").
   • Can be either prefixes or suffixes.
   • Often change the lexical category of the base word (e.g., noun to verb).

6. Inflectional morphemes

   • Modify a word to express grammatical features such as tense, number, or case (e.g., "cats" for plural).
   • Do not change the word's part of speech.
   • Always suffixes in English (e.g., "-ed," "-s").

7. Root morphemes

   • The base part of a word that carries the primary meaning (e.g., "act" in "action").
   • Can be free or bound morphemes.
   • Often combined with affixes to form new words.

8. Affixes (prefixes, suffixes, infixes)

   • Morphemes added to a root to modify its meaning or grammatical function.
   • Prefixes are added to the beginning (e.g., "re-" in "redo").
   • Suffixes are added to the end (e.g., "-ing" in "running").
   • Infixes are inserted within a word (less common in English).

9. Cranberry morphemes

   • Unique morphemes that do not appear in other words (e.g., "cran" in "cranberry").
   • Often serve as a part of a compound or a specific term.
   • Highlight the complexity of word formation and etymology.

10. Zero morphemes

    • Represent a grammatical change without a physical morpheme (e.g., the plural of "sheep" remains "sheep").
    • Indicate that a word can have different grammatical forms without changing its spelling.
    • Illustrate the concept of absence in morphological analysis.