Morpheme

A morpheme is the smallest unit of language that carries meaning. It cannot be broken down further without losing its semantic value. Morphemes can be free, meaning they can stand alone as words (e.g., 'cat,' 'happy'), or bound, meaning they must be attached to another morpheme (e.g., prefixes like 'un-' or suffixes like '-ing'). They are fundamental building blocks of words, revealing the morphological structure of a language. Identifying morphemes helps analyze word formation, understand meaning shifts, and classify word types. The study of morphemes is crucial for fields like linguistics, computational linguistics and speech therapy.

Morpheme meaning with examples

• The word 'unbreakable' is composed of three morphemes: 'un-' (meaning not), 'break' (the root, conveying the action), and '-able' (forming an adjective, meaning able to be). Analyzing these morphemes reveals that something unbreakable cannot be broken. This breakdown allows for a deeper understanding of the compound word's complex meaning.
• Consider the word 'dogs'. It contains two morphemes: 'dog' (the noun, denoting the animal) and '-s' (the plural marker). The addition of the bound morpheme '-s' changes the meaning from a single dog to multiple dogs, demonstrating the morphological effect of a morpheme.
• The word 'rewrite' is another example. It comprises the prefix 're-' (again or anew) and the root 'write'. Breaking it down into these two morphemes clarifies that it means to write again or to write something a second time. It shows how affixes change the meaning of the root word.
• In the sentence 'walking quickly', we can distinguish two morphemes in 'walking': the root 'walk' and the suffix '-ing' (present continuous marker). This segmentation highlights the grammatical information provided by the suffix.
• The word 'friendliness' contains three morphemes: 'friend' (the root noun), '-ly' (forming an adjective), and '-ness' (forming an abstract noun). It shows the derivation of the adjective from a noun and again, transforming into an abstract noun, highlighting derivational processes.