Chapter 3
1 - These different forms occur owing to different sound environment. These minimal meaningful units are known as morphemes.
In other words, the morpheme is "the amallest functioning unit in the composition of words"
In other words, the morpheme is "the amallest functioning unit in the composition of words"
2 - Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units known as morphs. They are actual spoken , minimal carriers of meaning. The morpheme is to the morph what a phoneme is to a phone.
3 - These morphemes coincide with words as they can stand by themselves and function freely in a sentence. Words of this kind are called monomorphemic words.
4 - Some morphemes, however, are realized by more than one morph according to their positionin a word. Such alternative morphs are known as allomorphs.
5 - There are cases where the allomorphs of the plural morpheme are realized by the change of an internal vowel or by zero morph.
6 - Free Morphemes which are independent of other morphemes are considered to be free. These morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences. They are identical with root words, as each of them consists of a single free root, we might as well say that free morphemes are free roots.
7 - Bound Morphemes which cannot occur as separate words are bound. They are so named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words. Bound morphemes are chiefly found in derived words.
8 - Bound morphemes include two types: bound root and affix.
Bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a free root. Unlike a tree root, it is a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words.
In English, bound roots are either Latin or Greek. Although they are limited in number, their productive power is amazing.
Bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a free root. Unlike a tree root, it is a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words.
In English, bound roots are either Latin or Greek. Although they are limited in number, their productive power is amazing.
Affixes are forms that are attached to words or word elements to modify meaning or function. According to the functions of affixes, we can put them into two groups; inflectional and derivational affixes.
Affixes attached to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional, thus known as inflectional morphemes. The number of inflectional affixes is small and stable.
Derivational affixes. As the term indicates, derivational affixes are affixes added to other morphemes to create new words. Derivational affixes can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes come before the ward and the suffixes after the word.
9 - A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analysed without total loss of identity. The root, whether free or bound, generally carries the main component of meaning in a word. Root is that part of a wordform that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed.
10 - A stem may consist of a single root morpheme as in iron or of two root morphemes as in a compound like handcuff. It can be a root morpheme plus one or more affixational morphemes as in mouthful.
A stem can be defined as a form to which affixes of any kind can be added
