Morphemes Classification of Morphemes

of Morphemes

Greek morphe — 'form' + -erne.
The Greek suffix -erne

has been adopted by linguists to denote the smallest unit (cf. phoneme, sememe).

but not independently. Morphemes may have different phonetic shapes

is represented by the phonetic shapes:
[pli:z-] in please, pleasing;

[ple3-] in pleasure;
[plez-] in pleasant.

the words remake, glassful, disorder the root-morphemes -make, glass- and

-order are understood as the lexical centres of the words

carry only grammatical meaning and are thus relevant only for

the formation of word-forms, whereas affixes are relevant for building various types of stems'.

modifying its meaning (pronounce — mis-pronounce, safe — un-safe).

root and forming a new derivative in a different part

of speech or a different word class (cf. -en, -y, -less heart-en, heart-y,heart-less).

the stem or a word form. For example, the root-morpheme

friend- of the noun friendship is naturally qualified as a free morpheme because it coincides with one of the forms of the word friend.

a word. Affixes are bound morphemes for they always make

part of a word. For example, the suffixes -ness, -ship, -ize in the words darkness, friendship, to activize, the prefixes im-, dis-, de- in the words impolite, to demobilize.

a morphemic sequence both as an affix and as a

free morpheme. For example, the morphemes well and half on the one hand occur as free morphemes that coincide with the stem and the word-form in the utterances to sleep well, half an hour, on the other hand well and half occur as bound morphemes in the words well-known, half-done.