📋 Contents of This Page
- Unit Introduction & Why It Matters
- What Is a Morpheme? How Is It Different from a Phoneme?
- Allomorph – Variants of the Same Morpheme
- Free vs. Bound Morphemes
- Inflectional vs. Derivational Morphemes
- Affixation – Prefixes, Suffixes, Infixes
- Other Word Formation Processes
- General Principles of Lexicography
- Morphophonemic Changes
- Problems of Morphological Analysis
- Exam Orientation & Important Questions
- Common Student Mistakes
- Quick Revision
- Practice MCQs (20 Questions)
What Is This Unit About?
If Phonology is about sounds, Morphology is about words — specifically, about the internal structure of words. It asks: How are words built? What are their smallest meaningful parts?
Think of a word like a building. The bricks that make it up are called morphemes. The word "unhappiness" is built from THREE bricks: un- + happy + -ness. Each brick adds a layer of meaning. Morphology is the science of understanding these bricks and how they combine.
✅ What You Will Learn
- What morphemes are and how to find them
- How morphemes differ from phonemes
- Free vs Bound morphemes
- Inflectional vs Derivational morphemes
- All major word formation processes
- Morphophonemic changes
- Lexicography basics
- Problems of morphological analysis
🎯 Exam Relevance
- Q3 in QP (15 marks) — fully from this unit
- Q5(i): Two examples of zero morpheme
- Affixation, bound/free, morphophonemics — all asked
- Most conceptual unit — needs clear definitions + examples
- Indian-English word formation examples score well
What Is a Morpheme? How Is It Different from a Phoneme?
The key test for a morpheme is: Does dividing it further still give meaningful units? If yes, both parts are morphemes. If no, you've reached the smallest meaningful unit.
"unbreakable" = 3 morphemes
| Word | Morphemes | Count | Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|
| cat | cat | 1 | Single free morpheme — cannot be divided |
| cats | cat + -s | 2 | Root + plural morpheme |
| teacher | teach + -er | 2 | Verb root + agent suffix |
| unhappy | un- + happy | 2 | Negative prefix + adjective root |
| unhappiness | un- + happy + -ness | 3 | Prefix + root + noun-forming suffix |
| teachers | teach + -er + -s | 3 | Root + agent + plural |
| books | book + -s | 2 | Root + plural morpheme |
| walked | walk + -ed | 2 | Root + past tense morpheme |
| internationally | inter- + nation + -al + -ly | 4 | Prefix + root + adj. suffix + adv. suffix |
| Aspect | Phoneme | Morpheme |
|---|---|---|
| Branch | Phonology | Morphology |
| Definition | Smallest unit of SOUND that changes meaning | Smallest unit of MEANING (or grammatical function) |
| Carries meaning? | No — /p/ by itself means nothing | Yes — "un-" means NOT, "-s" means plural |
| Can stand alone? | No — phonemes combine to form morphemes | Some can (free morphemes), some cannot (bound) |
| Level of analysis | Sound level | Word/meaning level |
| Example | /k/, /æ/, /t/ — three phonemes in "cat" | "cat" — one morpheme |
| Number in English | ~44 phonemes | Tens of thousands of morphemes |
| Notation | / / for phonemes, [ ] for phones | { } for morphemes or written as words |
Allomorph – Variants of the Same Morpheme
The plural morpheme has ONE meaning (more than one) but THREE different pronunciations depending on the sound before it. These three pronunciations are allomorphs:
| Allomorph | Phonetic Context | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| /s/ | After voiceless consonants (/p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/) | cats /kæts/, books /bʊks/, cups /kʌps/, months /mʌnθs/ |
| /z/ | After voiced consonants and vowels | dogs /dɒgz/, beds /bedz/, cars /kɑːz/, boys /bɔɪz/ |
| /ɪz/ | After sibilants (/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/) | buses /bʌsɪz/, roses /rəʊzɪz/, churches /tʃɜːtʃɪz/ |
/d/ after voiced consonants and vowels: jogged /dʒɒgd/, loved /lʌvd/, played /pleɪd/
/ɪd/ after /t/ or /d/: wanted /wɒntɪd/, needed /niːdɪd/, painted /peɪntɪd/
Negative prefix {in-}: in-credible, im-possible (/m/ before bilabials), il-legal (/l/ before /l/), ir-regular (/r/ before /r/) — all allomorphs of the same prefix.
Free vs. Bound Morphemes
🔓 Free Morphemes
- Can stand ALONE as a word
- Do not need other morphemes to be meaningful
- Two types: Lexical (content) & Functional (grammar)
- Examples: cat, run, happy, book, the, and, of, in
- Lexical free morphemes carry main meaning
- Functional free morphemes show grammatical relationships
🔗 Bound Morphemes
- CANNOT stand alone — always attached to another morpheme
- Also called affixes (prefixes, suffixes, infixes)
- Two types: Inflectional & Derivational
- Examples: -s, -ed, -ing, -er, un-, re-, -ness, -tion
- Always attached to a root/base
- Cranberry morphemes: unique bound morphemes in no other context (e.g., "cran-" in cranberry)
A cranberry morpheme (also called a unique morpheme) is a bound morpheme that appears in only one word and has no clear independent meaning. It is bound but cannot be analysed as a normal prefix/suffix.
| Word | Cranberry Morpheme | Identifiable Part |
|---|---|---|
| cranberry | cran- | -berry is known; cran- has no independent meaning |
| twilight | twi- | -light is known; twi- means nothing alone |
| lukewarm | luke- | -warm is known; luke- is unique to this word |
| dissemble | dis- ? | Cannot be cleanly separated from root |
| Base Form | Grammatical Form | Zero Morpheme Function | Other Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| sheep | sheep (plural) | ∅ = plural | deer, fish, series, species |
| cut | cut (past tense) | ∅ = past tense | put, let, hit, burst, hurt |
| must | must (no 3rd person -s) | ∅ = 3rd person singular | modal verbs: can, will, shall |
2. cut → cut (past tense identical to present — zero past tense morpheme ∅)
Other acceptable answers: deer → deer, put → put, let → let, fish → fish
Inflectional vs. Derivational Morphemes
Both are types of bound morphemes. The key difference: inflectional morphemes change the grammatical form of a word; derivational morphemes change the meaning or word class.
| Aspect | Inflectional Morphemes | Derivational Morphemes |
|---|---|---|
| Function | Show grammatical relationships (tense, number, person, case) | Create new words with new meanings or word classes |
| Change word class? | No — "cat" and "cats" are both nouns | Yes (often) — "teach" (verb) → "teacher" (noun) |
| Change meaning? | Only grammatically — not lexical meaning | Yes — significant meaning change |
| Number in English | Only 8 inflectional morphemes | Hundreds of derivational morphemes |
| Position | Always at the END (suffixes only) | Can be prefixes OR suffixes |
| Productivity | Very productive — applies to most words | Variable — not all roots take all derivational affixes |
| Examples | -s, -es, -ed, -ing, -er, -est, -'s, -en | -ness, -tion, -er (agent), un-, re-, -al, -ly, -ful |
The 8 Inflectional Morphemes of English
| Morpheme | Function | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| -s / -es | Plural noun | cat→cats, box→boxes |
| 's | Possessive noun | John's, the dog's |
| -s | 3rd person singular present tense | he runs, she eats |
| -ed | Past tense | walked, jumped |
| -en / -ed | Past participle | broken, walked |
| -ing | Present participle / gerund | walking, running |
| -er | Comparative adjective | taller, bigger |
| -est | Superlative adjective | tallest, biggest |
Common Derivational Morphemes
| Morpheme | Type | Function | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ness | Suffix | Adj → Noun | happy→happiness, dark→darkness |
| -tion/-sion | Suffix | Verb → Noun | create→creation, decide→decision |
| -er/-or | Suffix | Verb → Agent Noun | teach→teacher, act→actor |
| -ful | Suffix | Noun → Adj | hope→hopeful, care→careful |
| -less | Suffix | Noun → Adj | hope→hopeless, care→careless |
| -ly | Suffix | Adj → Adverb | quick→quickly, slow→slowly |
| -ise/-ize | Suffix | Noun/Adj → Verb | modern→modernise, real→realise |
| -al/-ial | Suffix | Noun → Adj | nation→national, accident→accidental |
| un- | Prefix | Negation / Reversal | unhappy, undo, unlock |
| re- | Prefix | Again / Back | rewrite, return, remake |
| pre- | Prefix | Before | preview, prehistoric, pre-school |
| dis- | Prefix | Opposite | disagree, dishonest, disappear |
| mis- | Prefix | Wrongly | mislead, misunderstand, misspell |
| over- | Prefix | Too much | overwork, overestimate, overflow |
Affixation – Prefixes, Suffixes & Infixes
🔴 PREFIX
Added before the root.
unhappy
rewrite
preview
disagree
mislead
overwork
submarine
antisocial
🟢 SUFFIX
Added after the root.
teacher
happiness
creation
quickly
hopeful
careless
modernise
national
🟡 INFIX
Inserted inside the root.
Rare in English. More common in Filipino (Tagalog), Sanskrit.
Filipino: sumulat (sulat + -um-)
Engish (expressive): abso-bloody-lutely
teach (Verb) + -er → teacher (Noun)
happy (Adj) + -ness → happiness (Noun)
nation (Noun) + -al → national (Adjective)
quick (Adj) + -ly → quickly (Adverb)
Common Prefixes and Their Meanings
| Prefix | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| un- | not, reversal | unhappy, undo, unpack, unlock |
| re- | again, back | rewrite, return, rebuild, reopen |
| pre- | before | preview, prehistoric, premature |
| post- | after | postwar, postgraduate, postpone |
| dis- | not, opposite | disagree, disappear, dishonest |
| mis- | wrongly | mislead, mispronounce, misguide |
| over- | too much, above | overwork, overlook, overcome |
| under- | too little, below | underestimate, undermine, underpay |
| inter- | between, among | international, interchange, interact |
| anti- | against | antiwar, antibacterial, antisocial |
| bi- | two | bilingual, bicycle, biannual |
| mono- | one | monolingual, monologue, monotone |
Other Word Formation Processes
Besides affixation, English builds new words through many other fascinating processes. All of these are examinable.
Initialism / Abbreviation: Each letter is pronounced — BBC /biː biː siː/, USA /juː es eɪ/, PhD
Most linguists consider both as types of abbreviation-based word formation, but acronym specifically = pronounced as a word.
Compounding: lunchbox, autorickshaw, photostat
Acronyms: ISRO, UPSC, BCCI
Borrowing into English from Indian languages: yoga, avatar, karma, guru, pundit, pyjama, thug, bungalow, jungle, shampoo, loot, cheetah
General Principles of Lexicography
1. Selection of Entries
Lexicographers decide which words to include based on frequency, importance, and usage evidence (from corpora — large collections of real language data).
2. Defining Words
Definitions must be accurate (capture the exact meaning), clear (understood by the target user), economical (not too lengthy), and discriminating (distinguish from similar words).
3. Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Approach
Modern dictionaries are descriptive — they record language as it is actually used, not how it "should" be used. They include slang, neologisms, and informal usage.
4. Treatment of Polysemy & Homonymy
Polysemy: One word with multiple related meanings (e.g., "bank" = riverbank AND financial bank — both listed under one entry because they're etymologically related).
Homonymy: Two different words that happen to have the same spelling/pronunciation (e.g., "bat" = cricket bat vs flying bat — listed as separate entries).
5. Corpus-Based Lexicography
Modern dictionaries (Oxford, Cambridge, Longman) use corpora — billions of words of real text — to find actual usage patterns, frequency, and collocations. This makes definitions accurate and up-to-date.
6. Ordering and Arrangement
Words are typically arranged alphabetically. Each entry includes: headword, pronunciation, word class, definition(s), example sentences, etymology, and sometimes synonyms/antonyms.
Morphophonemic Changes
When morphemes are added to roots, the combination sometimes causes phonological changes for easier pronunciation. This is the intersection of Morphology and Phonology. We have already seen one major example — allomorphs of the plural morpheme (/s/, /z/, /ɪz/). Here are more systematic changes:
Assimilation — The "in-" prefix allomorphs
The negative prefix {in-} assimilates to the following consonant: in- + possible → impossible (/n/ → /m/ before bilabials); in- + legal → illegal (/n/ → /l/ before /l/); in- + regular → irregular (/n/ → /r/ before /r/)
Vowel Change (Ablaut) — Irregular past tense
Some verbs form the past tense by changing the root vowel rather than adding -ed: sing → sang, run → ran, write → wrote, break → broke, drive → drove, take → took, grow → grew
Consonant Alternation (Voicing Change)
Some nouns change a voiceless consonant to voiced when forming plural or verb: leaf → leaves (f→v), life → lives, knife → knives, wife → wives, house (n) /haʊs/ → house (v) /haʊz/
Stress Shift + Vowel Reduction
When derivational suffixes are added, stress may shift, causing vowel reduction in unstressed syllables: 'photograph → pho'tography (stress shifts, vowels reduce); 'democrat → de'mocracy; 'telephone → te'lephony
Phonological Conditioning vs. Morphological Conditioning
Phonological conditioning: The allomorph is determined by surrounding SOUNDS (e.g., /s/ vs /z/ for plural — determined by whether preceding consonant is voiced or voiceless).
Morphological conditioning: The allomorph is determined by the morpheme class or specific word (e.g., ox→oxen, child→children — not predictable from sound alone)
Problems of Morphological Analysis
Identifying and counting morphemes seems straightforward, but real language throws up many tricky cases. Here are the main problems:
The Problem of Portmanteau Morphemes
A single form fuses two morphemes inseparably. Example: French "du" = "de" + "le" (of + the). In English: "worse" expresses BOTH comparative AND the root meaning of "bad" — it cannot be neatly separated into root + comparative morpheme.
The Problem of Suppletion
Some morphological relationships use completely different roots instead of affixes. Example: go → went (NOT go+ed); be → was/were/am/is/are; good → better → best. These are called suppletive forms — same morpheme, completely different phonological shape.
The Problem of Cranberry Morphemes
Some bound morphemes appear in only one word and have no analysable meaning: "cran-" in cranberry, "twi-" in twilight. They are bound but resist normal morphological analysis.
The Problem of Zero Morphemes
How do we prove that a morpheme exists if it has no phonological form? sheep → sheep (plural) — the plural is marked by ∅, but we only know this by comparing with other plurals. Zero morphemes are theoretically inferred, not observed.
The Problem of Allomorphic Irregularity
Some morphemes have highly irregular allomorphs not predictable by any phonological rule: child → children (not childs); ox → oxen; mouse → mice; man → men. These are morphologically conditioned and must be memorised, not derived.
The Boundary Between Derivation and Compounding
Some words look like compounds but behave like derivations: "greenhouse" vs "green house." Also, when does an affix become a separate word? (e.g., "-able" is now used independently in informal speech: "is this plan do-able?")
University QP Analysis — Unit 3 Questions
→ Define morpheme (smallest meaningful unit) → Examples: cat/cats/teacher/unhappy → Define phoneme (smallest meaning-CHANGING SOUND unit) → Key difference table (5 points) → Conclude: phonemes make up morphemes, morphemes make up words
→ Define (changes in form of a morpheme due to phonological context) → Example 1: plural allomorphs /s/,/z/,/ɪz/ → Example 2: {in-} prefix → im-/il-/ir- (assimilation) → Example 3: leaf→leaves (voicing) → Phonological vs morphological conditioning
→ Define both clearly → Table comparison (5–6 points) → Free: content (cat, run) and functional (the, and) types → Bound: inflectional (-s, -ed) and derivational (un-, -ness) types → Cranberry morpheme as a special case → Examples from Indian languages
→ Define affixation → Three types: prefix, suffix, infix → Most productive process in English → Prefix examples (10+) → Suffix examples (10+) → Infix note (rare in English) → Affixation and word class change → Derivational vs inflectional affixation
Other valid: deer → deer, put → put, let → let, fish → fish (when countable plural)
2. What is an allomorph? Explain with the plural morpheme example.
3. Describe any five word formation processes with examples each.
4. What is back-formation? Give examples.
5. What is the difference between clipping and blending? Illustrate.
Mistakes Students Commonly Make
Confusing Morpheme with Syllable
A syllable is a unit of PRONUNCIATION (based on vowels). A morpheme is a unit of MEANING. "Butter" = 2 syllables (but-ter) but 1 morpheme (cannot be split into meaningful parts). "Teachers" = 2 syllables (teach-ers) AND 3 morphemes (teach + -er + -s). They are completely different levels of analysis.
Saying "-er" in "teacher" and "-er" in "taller" are the same morpheme
They look identical but are DIFFERENT morphemes. "-er" in "teacher" = DERIVATIONAL suffix (verb→noun, agent). "-er" in "taller" = INFLECTIONAL suffix (comparative). Always identify the function, not just the form.
Writing "zero morpheme = no change" without explaining WHY
Students say "sheep has zero morpheme" and stop. You must explain: the PLURAL function IS present (it's a grammatical form), but it is realised by a zero morpheme (∅) — an absence of phonological marking. Contrast with regular plurals to make the point clear.
Confusing Back-formation with Clipping
Both shorten words, but differently. Clipping: "examination → exam" — just removes syllables, word class doesn't change (both nouns). Back-formation: "editor → edit" — removes what looks like a suffix AND changes the word class (noun→verb). Back-formation creates a new word of a DIFFERENT class.
Listing "conversion" as affixation
Conversion (zero derivation) involves NO morphological change — no affix is added. "Water" (noun) → "to water" (verb) is conversion, not affixation. Students sometimes assume every word-class change involves an affix — this is wrong. Conversion is precisely the process where word class changes WITHOUT any affix.
Confusing Morphophonemic Change with Simple Spelling Change
When "leaf" becomes "leaves," students often say "f is changed to v for spelling." Wrong — this is a PHONOLOGICAL change (the actual sound changes from /f/ to /v/) triggered by the morphological process of pluralisation. It is a morphophonemic alternation.
One-Page Summary
What Is a Morpheme?
- Smallest meaningful unit
- unhappy = un+happy (2 morphemes)
- teachers = teach+er+s (3)
- Phoneme = sound unit; Morpheme = meaning unit
Allomorph
- Variant form of same morpheme
- Plural: /s/ cats, /z/ dogs, /ɪz/ buses
- Past: /t/ walked, /d/ jogged, /ɪd/ wanted
- in-/im-/il-/ir- = allomorphs of {in-}
Free vs Bound
- Free = stands alone (cat, run, the)
- Bound = needs other morpheme (-s, un-)
- Lexical free = content words
- Functional free = grammar words
Inflectional (only 8)
- -s (plural), -'s (possessive)
- -ed (past), -en (past participle)
- -ing (progressive)
- -er (comparative), -est (superlative)
- No word class change
Derivational
- Creates new words
- Often changes word class
- -ness, -tion, -er(agent), -ly, -ful
- un-, re-, dis-, pre-, mis-
- Hundreds of these in English
Word Formation
- Affixation — un+happy
- Compounding — blackboard
- Blending — smog, brunch
- Clipping — exam, lab, fridge
- Acronym — NASA, LASER
- Back-formation — editor→edit
Zero Morpheme (Q5i)
- sheep → sheep (plural ∅)
- cut → cut (past tense ∅)
- deer → deer
- put → put, let → let
- Morpheme present but phonologically empty
Morphophonemic Changes
- Form of morpheme changes by phonology
- Assimilation: in→im/il/ir
- Voicing: leaf→leaves
- Ablaut: sing→sang
- Stress shift: ˈphoto → phoˈtography
Word formation CABBRE: Compounding, Affixation, Blending, Back-formation, Reduplication, Eponymy — plus Clipping, Acronym, Conversion.
Free/Bound test: "Can it stand alone as a word?" YES = Free. NO = Bound.
Practice MCQs — Unit 3: Morphology
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