The Acadia TESOL Certificate Program

2008/2009

Practice and Discussion for Morphology

Practice 1 - Unbinding the Roots

Below are a list of bound roots. Add a prefix to each root to form an
existing English word:

__________ *descript

__________ *cognito

__________ *beknownst

__________ *peccable

__________ *promptu

__________ *plussed

__________ *dominatable / domitable

__________ *nomer
(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.104)
Practice 2 - Separating Morphemes

Divide the following words by placing + between their separate

morphemes. (Some of these words may be monomorphemic and therefore
indivisible.)

1. retroactive

2. befriended

3. televise

4. margin

5. endearment

6. psychology

7. unpalatable

8. holiday

9. grandmother

10. morphemic

11. mistreatment

12. disactivation

13. saltpeter

14 . airsickness

(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.99)

Practice 3 - Derivational or Inflectional?

Write the one proper description from the list under B for the italicized part
of each word in A:

A 1. free root

a. terrorized 2. bound root

b. uncivilized 3. inflectional suffix

c. terrorize 4. derivational suffix

d. lukewarm 5. inflectional prefix

e. impossible 6. derivational prefix

7. inflectional infix
8. derivational infix

(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.99)

Practice 4 - Rats and Mice

In English, plural forms such as mice appear to be treated in a different way

from plurals such as rats. If you tell people that a place is infested with
mice or rats, they will accept the compounds mice-infested and rat-
infested, but not *rats-infested.

Can you think of a way to state a rule that would accommodate all the
examples given here? (The asterisk* designates an unacceptable form.)

teethmarks the feet-cruncher lice-infested a people-mover

clawmarks the finger-cruncher roach-infested a dog-mover

*clawsmarks *the fingers-cruncher *roaches-infested *a dogs-mover
(Yule, 2006, p.71)

Practice 5 - Lexical and Functional Morphemes

Look at these 3 sentences. Identify the number of lexical (L) and functional
(F) morphemes in each sentence:

1. Jim’s two sisters are really different.

L ___ F ___

2. One likes to have fun and is always laughing.

L ___ F ___

3. The other liked to read as a child and has always taken things seriously.

L ___ F ___
(Yule, 2006, p.65)

Practice 6 - How Did They Come Up With Them?

Below are listed some words followed by incorrect definitions taken from
Ansel Greene’s Pullet Surprises.

stalemate “husband or wife no longer

interested”
effusive “able to be merged”
tenet “a group of ten singers”
dermatology “a study of derms”
ingenious “not very smart”
finesse “a female fish”

**Refer to other words or

morphemes to explain why the
students made these guesses.**
(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.103)

Practice 7 - Vocabulary In Context

Match each underlined word in the text with one of the definitions on the right, as shown in
the first example. (Note: N = noun, V = verb, Adv = adverb)

Word Definition

1. droog friend (N)

2. ____________ God (N)

3. ____________ a drug* (N)

____________

____________

4. ____________ thing (N)

5. ____________ quickly (Adv)

6. ____________ mind (N)

7. ____________ place (N)

8. ____________ milk (N)

9. ____________ to produce (V)

10. ___________ to drink (V)

11. ___________ brain (N)

(Farmer & Demers, 2001, pp.3-4)

Practice 8 - Which Word Formation Process?

Identify the process being used in the

formation of the following words:

1. laser, scuba, UNESCO

2. argyle, sandwich, levis

3. doorknob, footprint, necktie

4. gym, plane, gas, ad

5. alcohol, piano, tycoon

6. chunnel, brunch, motel

7. hawk, edit, act

8. systematic, adorable, unfreakinreal

9. paper, bottle, dirty