Types of Morphemes | Definition and Examples

Last updated on September 21st, 2024 at 10:50 pm

What is Morpheme?

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful and syntactical or grammatical unit of a language that cannot be divided without changing its actual meaning. For instance, the word ‘love’ is a morpheme; but if you eliminate any character such as ‘e’ then it will be meaningless or lose the actual meaning of love.

Now we can say a morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit of a language by which meaningful words are formed. However, this is how we may define ‘what a morpheme’ in linguistics.

Types of Morphemes

Now let’s move on to the types of Morphemes in linguistics. The morphemes are of two main types. They are:

1. Free Morphemes
2. Bound Morphemes

1. Free Morphemes

A morpheme that has a particular meaning and can be formed independently is called a free morpheme. For example, free, get, human, song, love, happy, sad, may, much, but, or, some, above, when, etc.

All of the words have individual meanings and are free morphemes. Free morphemes can be categorized into two sub-types. They are:

• Lexical morphemes
• Grammatical and functional morphemes

Lexical Morphemes

The lexical morphemes are those morphemes that are large in number and independently meaningful. The lexical morphemes include nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

These free morphemes are called lexical morphemes—for example, dog, good, honest, boy, girl, woman, excellent, etc.

Grammatical or Functional Morphemes

The grammatical or functional morphemes are those morphemes that consist of functional words in a language, such as prepositions, conjunctions determiners, and pronouns. For example, and, but, or, above, on, into, after, that, the, etc.

2. Bound Morphemes

A morpheme that doesn’t have any independent meaning and can be formed with the help of free morphemes is called a bound morpheme.

For example; less, ness, pre, un, en, ceive, ment. Bound morphemes can be categorized into two sub-classes. They are:

• Bound roots
• Affixes

Bound Roots

Bound roots are those Bound morphemes that have lexical meaning when they are included in other bound morphemes to form the content words. For example, -ceive, -tain, perceive, deceive, retain, contain, etc.

Affixes

Affixes are bound morphemes that naturally attach different types of words and are used to change the meaning or function of those words.

For example,  -ment in payment, enjoyment, entertainment en- in enlighten, enhance, enlarge, ‘s in Joseph’s, Lora’s -ing reading, sleeping, singing, etc.

Affixes can be categorized into five sub-classes according to their position in the word and function in a phrase or sentence. They are:

• Prefixes
• Infixes
• Suffixes
• Derivational
• Inflectional

Prefixes

Prefixes are bound morphemes included at the beginning of different types of words—for example, in-, un-, sub- incomplete, injustice, unable, uneducated, subway, etc.

Infixes

Infixes are those bound morphemes included within the words. There are no infixes that exist in the English language.

Suffixes

Suffixes are those bound morphemes included at the end of different types of words. For example; -able, -less, -ness, -en, available, careless, happiness, shortening, etc.

Derivational Affixes

Derivational morphemes make new words by changing their meaning or different grammatical categories. In other words, derivational morphemes form new words with a meaning and category distinct through the addition of affixes.

Thus, the derivational morphemes ‘-ness’ changes the adjective ‘kindness’, and the noun ‘care’ becomes the adjective careless.

This is how derivational morphemes make new words by changing their meaning or grammatical category. Derivational morphemes can be categorized into two sub-classes. They are:

1. Class-maintaining derivational morphemes
2. Class-changing derivational morphemes

1. Class-Maintaining Derivational Morphemes

Class-maintaining derivational morphemes are usually produced in a derived form of the same class as the root, and they don’t change the course of the parts of speech. For example; -ship -hood, relationship, leadership, livelihood, manhood, etc.

2. Class-Changing Derivational Morphemes

In contrast to Class-maintaining derivational morphemes, Class-changing derivational morphemes usually produce a derived form of the other class from the root—for example, -er, -ish, -al, teacher, boyish, national, etc.

Inflectional Affixes

Inflectional morphemes are not used to produce new words; instead, they indicate the aspects of the grammar function of the word.

For instance, inflectional morphemes indicate whether a word is singular or plural, past tense or not, and comparative or possessive forms. English has eight Inflectional morphemes, all of which are suffixes.

English Inflectional morphemes affix:

Nouns:

• Plural (-s): The courses.
• Possessive: Jack‘s courses.

Verbs:

3rd person singular number non-past (-s):

• Jack teaches English well.
• He reaches the place on time.

Possessive (-ing):

• He is writing.
• She is singing.

Past participle (-en/ed):

• He has written the book.
• He worked

Adjectives:

• Comparative: (-er): John is happier than before.
• Superlative: (-est): He is the tallest person in the class.

Final Thoughts

Morphemes are vital parts of linguistics. That’s why we need to understand the two main types of morphemes; free morphemes and bound morphemes. A free morpheme can stand alone as a word while a bound morpheme can’t, rather a bound morpheme needs the assistance of a free morpheme to convey the meaning.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a morpheme?

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. It can be a word on its own (like “cat”) or a part of a word (like “un-” in “unhappy”). Morphemes help us understand how words are formed and what they mean.

What are the two main types of morphemes?

The two main types are free morphemes and bound morphemes. Free morphemes can stand alone as complete words (e.g., “book,” “run”), while bound morphemes cannot stand alone and must attach to a free morpheme (e.g., “un-” in “undo” or “-ing” in “running”).

Can a morpheme be more than one syllable?

Yes, morphemes can be one syllable or more. For example, “unhappiness” has three morphemes: “un-” (one syllable), “happy” (two syllables), and “-ness” (one syllable). The key is that each morpheme carries meaning.

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Have a look at these useful links:

• What is Psycholinguistics?
• Difference between Phonetics and Phonology
• Characteristics of language
• Definition of language by scholars
• Definition of Syntax in Linguistics

Azizul Hakim

Azizul Hakim is the founder & CEO of englishfinders.com. He is a passionate writer, English instructor, and content creator. He has completed his graduation and post-graduation in English language and literature.