Morphology

Morphology is the branch of linguistic and one of the major components of

grammar that studies word structures, especially in terms of morphemes.
Morphology is the science of language that containt about the intricacies of word
and the process of its formation.
Morphemes : is a combination of sounds that have a meaning. And can also be
defined as the smallest meaningful unit of sound of a language.
A morpheme does not necessarily have to be a word.
Examples :
One morpheme :
-

Function
Comfort

Two morphemes :
-

function + al = functional
Comfort + able = comfortable

Three morphemes :
-

function + al + ly = functioanally
Comfortable + able + ly = comfortably

Four morphemes :
-

Dis + advantage + ous + ly = disadvantageously

Dis + approve + ing + ly = disapprovingly

More than four :

-

Un + constitute + ion + al + ly = unconstitutionally

Un + convent + ion + al + ly + ty = unconventionallyty

Morphemes are commonly classified into free morphemes which can occur as
separate words. And bound morphemes which cannot stand alone as words.

Free and bound morpheme

Free morpheme : a morpheme that can stand alone as a word without

another morpheme. It does not need anything attached to it to make a
word.
e.g : CAT, BALL, FLOWER

Bound morpheme : a sound or combination of sounds that cannot stand

alone as a word.

e.g : CATS the S in CATS is a bound morpheme, and it does not have any
meaning without the free morpheme CAT. Other examples are ed, -ing.
ly
Free and Bound morpheme consists of several elements, they are :
- Prefixes and Suffix
Prefixes are added to beginning of an existing word in order to create a
new word with a different meaning.
e.g :
prefix
UnDisPreBi-

word
Happy
Like
View
sexual

New word
unhappy
Dislike
Previe
Bisexual

Suffixes are added to the end of an existing word.

e.g :
suffix
-ish
-er
-less
-able
-ist
-ly

word
child
Work
Taste
Like
Type
Spectacular

New word
Childish
Worker
Tasteless
Likeable
Typist
Spectacularly

Infix is a morpheme that are inserted in the middle of a morpheme.

e.g :

Circumfix is a morpheme that is placed around another morpheme.

Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginning of words;
suffixes, that are attached at the end.
e.g :
prefixes
Un-

word
apologize

suffixes
-able

UnUnDis-

aspirate
fortunate
advantage

-ed
-ly
-ous

Dis-

affect

-ion

New word
Unapologizeabl
e
Unaspirated
Unfortunately
Disadvantageo
us
Disaffection