A morpheme is a meaningful linguistic, they are the smallest units of meaning in a language
CLASSIFICATION
Free Morpheme
It is a simple word, consisting of a morpheme e.g. Fly, eat, and date.
Bound Morpheme
They are morphemes that have to be linked to others to receive meaning. E.g. an affix is a bound morpheme, which means that it is exclusively attached to a free morpheme for meaning, prefixes, and suffixes are the most common example.
Prefixes
dis-
un-
pre-
trans-
bi-
Suffixes
-ly
-ness
-ish
-ity
-er
Adj
V
Help
Root
S
ful
Affix
Adv
Adv
In
Root
N
wards
Affix
Adv
N
Historical
Root
S
ly
Affix
It is a lexical unit composed of various parts capable of being articulated.
Don't depend on other words
Can be separated from other units
Can be changed of position
CLASSIFICATION
Simple words
Don't have an internal structure, they are independent (of a single morpheme) that cannot be divided.
Complex words
Have an internal structure (with two or more morphemes).
VERBS
Denote actions
E.g. Write, believe, dance, think
She thinks about poetry all day long
NOUNS
Denote entities
E.g. Cat, mouse, girl, John
John is a professor at the university
ADJECTIVES
Denote states
E.g. Beautiful, sleeveless, Ancient, Important
We saw ancient artifacts
ADVERBS
Denote manner
E.g. Softly, hard, roughly, well
She spoke softly
PREPOSITION
Denote location
E.g. In, on, at
I prefer to read in the library.
CONTENT WORDS
Lexical Morphemes
Words that denote concepts(Lexical)
Objects(nouns)
Actions(verbs/adverbs)
Attributes(adjectives)
Ideas(nouns)
Open class
Can add new words to the above classes
May change category (e.g. Google,google)
FOUNCTION WORDS
Grammatical Morphemes
Founction which specify grammatical relations & have little or no semantic content.
Conjunctions
Prepositions
Articles
Pronouns
Closed class
No addition of new words
Estimated only 300 words