1. Morpheme, Morphological
Analysis and Morphemic Analysis

2. Morpheme
O’Grady :
Morpheme is the smallest unit of language that carries
information about meaning or function.
Brinton :
• The morpheme refers to either a class of forms or an abstraction
from the concrete forms of language.
• A morpheme is internally indivisible, it cannot be further
subdivided or analyzed into smaller meaningful unit.
• It is also externally transportable; it has positional mobility or
free distribution, occurring in various context.
•Morphemes are represented which curly brace { } using capital
letters for lexemes or descriptive designations for types of
morphemes.

3. Free and Bound Morpheme
Free morpheme
• A morpheme that can be a word by itself
Bound morpheme
• A morpheme that must be attached to another element
House is a free morpheme since it can stand alone, plural –s,
on the other hand is bound morpheme.

4. Morph
• A free morph may stand alone as a word, while a
bound morph may not; it must always be attached to
another morph.
• A free morph is always a root. That is, carries the
principal lexical or grammatical meaning.
• Morph is the concrete realization of a morpheme, or the
actual segment of a word.
• Morphs are represented by ford forms or phonetic
forms. We say that a morpheme is “realized” as a morph.

5. Free and Bound Morph
• Roots are also occasionally bound morphs. These are
called bound morphs.
• Bound roots are often foreign borrowings that were free
in the source language, but not free in English.
• Example; in the following sets of words, we would all
intutively identify the root –vert, -mit, -or –ceive (in part
because it occurs in a number of words, as do the
prefixes):
▫ -vert : convert, revert, subvert, pervert
▫ -mit : transmit, commit, remit, admit, omit, submit
▫ -ceive : conceive, perceive, receive, deceive

6. The Productive Inflections of Modern English
Plural number
Possessive case
-s
-s
Present (nonpast) tense,
3rd p sg
Past tense
Past participle
Present participle
-s
-ed
-ed
-ing
Comparative degree
Superlative degree
-er
-est
Noun
Verb
Adjective
We can thus analyze words in two different ways : in morphological analysis,
words are analyzed into morphs following formal divisions, while in morphemic
analysis, words are analyzed into morphemes, recognizing the abstract units of
meaning present.

7. Noun
Morphological Analysis Morphemic analysis
Teachers 3 morphs teach/er/s 3 morphemes { TEACH } + {-er}
+ {pl}
Authors 2 morphs author/s 2 morphemes { AUTHOR } +
{pl}
Mice 1 morphs mice 2 morphemes { MOUSE } + {pl}
Fish 1 morph fish 2 morphemes { FISH } + {pl}
Man’s 2 morphs man/s 2 morphemes { MAN } + {poss}
Men’s 2 morphs men/s 3 morphemes { MAN } + {pl} +
{poss}

8. A noun such as sheep raises a difficulty for
morphemic analysis, since it is either singular
or plural.
{ sheep } + {pl}
{ sheep } + {sg}

9. Adjective
Supl : superlative
Compr : comperalative
Morphological Analysis Morphemic analysis
Smaller 2 morphs small/er 2 morphemes { SMALL } + { compr }
Smallest 2 morphs small/est 2 morphemes { SMALL } + { supl }
Better 1 morph better 2 morphemes { GOOD } + { compr }
Best 1 morph best 2 morphemes { GOOD } + { supl }

10. Verb
Pstprt : past participle
Prsprt : present participle
Morphological Analysis Morphemic analysis
Worked 2 morphs work/ed 2 morphemes { WORK } + {past}
2 morphemes { WORK } + {pstprt}
Wrote 1 morphs wrote 2 morphemes { WRITE } + {past}
2 morphemes { WRITE } + {pstprt}
Working 2 morphs work/ing 2 morphemes { WORK } + {prsprt}
3 morphemes { WORK } + {gerund}
+ {sg}
Written 1 morph written 2 morphemes { WRITE } + {pstprt}

11. *to analyze –ing verbal forms not only as present
participle, but also as “gerunds” , or verbal nouns. Since
gerunds are functioning as nouns , they may sometime
be pluralized
1. Swimming is good exercise.
2.Their feelings were that the judge was unfair.
Morphological Analysis Morphemic analysis
Swimming 2 morphs swimm/ing 3 morphemes { SWIM } + {gerund}
+ {sg}
Morphological Analysis Morphemic analysis
Feelings 3 morphs feel/ing/s 3 morphemes { FEEL } + {gerund}
+ {pl}

12. Pronoun
Morphological
Analysis
Morphemic analysis
We 1 moph we 3 morphemes {1st p} + {pl} +
{nomn}
Him 1 morph him {3rd p} + {sg} + {obj}
Its 2 morphs it/s { 3rdp } + {sg} + {poss}

13. Allomorphs
• The variant forms of a morpheme are called its
allomorphs.
• Another example of allomorphic variations is found
in the pronunciation of the plural morpheme-s in
the following words
▫ Cats
▫ Dogs
▫ Judges
• Whereas the plural is pronounced as /s/ in the first
case, it is realized as /z/ in the second, and as /iz/
(or perhaps /əz/.