Jj is for Jottings 135.  Morphemes.

There was a brief definition of morphemes in the article on learning vocabulary.  Direct vocabulary instruction referred to using morphological knowledge to work out meanings of more complex words.  So it’s probably time to go more thoroughly into morphemes and how important they really are.  Knowledge of morphemes is important in phonics for both reading and spelling; and also in vocabulary and comprehension.  That’s a broad sweep across both language and literacy.

A BASIC DEFINITION.

Here is a repeat of the definition given in the earlier article: Morphemes are the minimal units of words that have a meaning and cannot be subdivided further.  An example of a free morpheme is “bad”, and an example of a bound morpheme is “ly.” It is bound because although it has meaning, it cannot stand alone.

So, morphology is the study of the internal structure of words.  The word “morphology” is Greek, and is made up of two parts: “morph”, meaning “shape, form”; “-ology”, which means “the study of something”.

TYPES OF MORPHEMES.

1. Free vs. Bound.

A morpheme can be either single words (free morphemes) or parts of words (bound morphemes).  Thus a word consists of one or more morphemes.

A free morpheme can stand alone as a single word.  Examples are:

picture

father

 gentle.

A bound morpheme exists as only part of a word.  Examples are:

-s as in dog+s;

-ed as in jump+ed;

 un- as in un+happy;

mis- as in mis+fortune;

-er as in sing+er.

2. Compound words.

When we join free morphemes together we make compound words.  Examples are sunshine, eyeball, birthday, rainbow.  Compound words make an easy introduction to the idea that words can have multiple parts.

3. Inflectional vs. Derivational.

Morphemes can also be divided into inflectional or derivational morphemes.

This sounds tricky, but it really isn’t.

Inflectional Morphemes change what a word does in terms of grammar, but do not create a word.  Let’s use the word jump as an example.

We have jump (base form); jumping (present progressive); jumped (past tense).  The inflectional morphemes -ing and -ed are added to the base word jump, to indicate the tense of the word.

If a word has an inflectional morpheme, it is still the same word, with a few possible suffixes added. So if you looked up jump in the dictionary, then only the base word jump would get its own entry into the dictionary. Jumping and jumped are listed under jump, as they are inflections of the base word. Jumping and jumped do not get their own dictionary entry.

With an irregular past tense, such as ran (past tense of run), the past tense marker is not -ed, as usual. Instead, the past tense marker is a change in the vowel from ‘u’ to ‘a’.  As always, English is a very complex language, and I’m jolly glad I didn’t have to learn it as a second language!

Derivational morphemes are different from inflectional morphemes, in that they do create (derive) a new word.  And this new word gets its own entry in the dictionary.  So derivational morphemes help us to create new words out of base words.

We will use the base word act as an example.  We can create new words from act by derivational prefixes ( eg. re-, en-) and suffixes (eg. –or).  Thus we have created three new words: re+act (react); en+act (enact); act-or (actor).  Each of these new words has its own dictionary entry.

4. Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots/Bases.

We can divide morphemes into prefixes, suffixes and roots/bases.

• Prefixes are morphemes that attach to the front of a root/base word.
• Suffixes are morphemes that attach to the end of a root/base word, or to other suffixes.
• Roots/Base words are morphemes that form the base of a word, and usually carry its meaning.
  • Generally, base words are free morphemes, which can stand by themselves (e.g. cycle as in bicycle/cyclist, and form as in transform/formation).
  • Whereas root words are bound morphemes that cannot stand by themselves (e.g. -ject as in subject/reject, and -volve as in evolve/revolve).

Most morphemes can be divided into:

• Anglo-Saxon (like re-, un-, -ness);
• Latin  (like non-, ex-, -ion, -ify);
• Greek  (like micro, photo, graph).

So morphemes can be very helpful for analysing unfamiliar words.  For more on root words and analysis, check out the article on children or feet: using the right root.

BREAKING WORDS INTO MORPHEMES.

It is useful to break words into morphemes and, if you know the meaning of the some or all of them, you can unlock the meanings of difficult words. Here is an example: unreliability (“unable to be relied upon or trusted”).

We have un+rely+able+ity.

Un is a prefix with a negative meaning or not.

Rely is the base word meaning “depend upon with full trust or confidence”.

Able is a suffix meaning “capable of”.

Ity is a suffix referring to quality or condition (although I couldn’t have told you that one off the top of my head).

So even if the word unreliability were unfamiliar, by knowing the meanings of prefixes and suffixes and some base words, you can often deduce the meanings.  And it’s fun being a word detective!

 

SUGGESTIONS FOR MORPHEME ACTIVITIES.

Analysing the morphology of words is useful for explaining phonics patterns (graphemes) and spelling rules.  This is in addition to discovering the meanings of unfamiliar words, as mentioned above.  It also shows us how words are linked together. Recognising and analysing morphemes is also useful, therefore, for providing comprehension strategies.  Activities can include:

• Sorting words by base or root words.
• Picking out prefixes and suffixes.
• Making new words by combining base words with one of a choice of several prefixes.
• Finding all the morphemes in multi-morphemic words (eg. unhappiness, indecisiveness, unstoppable, metamorphosis.)
• Give base words and prefixes/suffixes and see how many words students can build, and what meaning they might have.  For example: Prefixes: un- de- pre- re- co- con-
  Base Words: play help flex bend blue sad sat
  Suffixes: -ful -ly -less -able/-ible -ing -ion -y -ish -ness –ment

As you can see, although we don’t hear the words “morpheme” or “morphology” very often, we are using them every time we speak or write.  And knowing about morphemes and their meanings plays a very important part in reading, writing, spelling and language.

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