Free vs Bound Morphemes
What is a morpheme that can stand alone as a word?
A free morpheme.
What is a lexical morpheme?
A morpheme that carries meaning (content words like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and verbs)
What is an inflectional morpheme?
A morpheme that modifies a word´s tense, number, aspect, or comparison without changing its class or meaning.
What is a derivational morpheme?
A morpheme that creates a new word by changing meaning or word class.
Identify if “-ing” is derivational or inflectional.
Inflectional when marking progressive tense (e.g., “running”), but derivational when forming a noun (e.g., “building”).
What is a morpheme that must attach to another morpheme?
A bound morpheme.
What is a functional morpheme?
A morpheme that serves a grammatical function (prepositions, conjuctions, pronouns, and articles)
How many inflectional morphemes exist in English?
There are 8 inflectional morphemes in English.
How does a derivational morpheme change a word?
It can change the meaning or part of speech of a word (e.g., “happy” - “unhappy” or “teach”- "teacher")
Explain why “un-” in “unhappy” is derivational.
It changes the meaning of “happy” to its opposite, forming a new word.
Give me an example of a free morpheme.
Examples: cat, run happy...
Give an example of a lexical morpheme.
Beautiful, dog, run...
Give an example of an inflectional morpheme.
Examples: -s (plural), -ed (past tense), -ing (progressive), -er (comparative)
Give an example of a derivational morpheme.
Give an example of a derivational morpheme.
Give a word that contains both an inflectional and a derivational morpheme.
“Unhappier” (un- = derivational, -er - inflectional)
Give me an example of a bound morpheme.
Examples: -s, -ed, -ing, un-, re-
Give an example of a functional morpheme.
Examples: and, the, but, in, she, he...
What is the function of the -ed morpheme in "walked"?
It marks the past tense of the verb.
Why is “-ly” in “quickly” a derivational morpheme?
It changes “quick” (adjective) into “quickly” (adverb), modifying its word class.
Why is “-er” derivational in “teacher” but inflectional in “faster”?
”-er” in “teacher” changes “teach” (verb) to a noun, while in “faster” it only marks a comparative degree.
Explain the difference between free and bound morphemes.
Fee morphemes can stand alone (e.g., book) while bound morphemes must attach to another morphemes (e.g., -ed in walked)
Explain why "dog" is lexical and "the" is functional.
"Dog" is a noun that carries meaning (lexical), while "the" is an article that provides grammatical structure (functional).
Explain why "-s" in "cats" is inflectional?
It shows plurality but does not change the meaning or category of "cat".
Compare inflectional and derivational morphemes.
Inflectional morphemes change grammatical features (tense, number) but not meaning, while derivational morphemes create new words or change word class.
Create a word using at least one bound and one free morpheme.
Examples: “unhappiness” (un- and -ness - bound, happy - free), “rewrite” (re- - bound, write - free).