UC 00902:

MEANING
IN COMMUNICATION
CONTEXT

LESSON 3:
Meaning and Morpheme
WHAT IS MORPHEME ?

Morphology, which deals with
morphemes (the minimal units of
linguistic form and meaning), and how
they make up words
Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit
in a language
It can be a phoneme, affix or word/lexicon
It is not equal to the syllable (sukukata)

WHAT IS MORPHEME ?

What is the relationship between
words and morphemes?
It's a hierarchical one: a word is made
up of one or more morphemes. Most
commonly, these morphemes are
strung together, or concatenated, in a
line

BASE MORPHEME & AFFIX

base: a morpheme that gives a word its
meaning. The base morpheme cat gives the
word cats its meaning: a particular type of
animal.
affix: a morpheme that comes at the beginning
(prefix) or the ending (suffix) of a base
morpheme. Note: An affix usually is a
morpheme that cannot stand alone.
eg: -ful, -ly, -ity, -ness. A few exceptions are
able, like, and less.
BASE MORPHEME & AFFIX
prefix: an affix that comes before a
base morpheme. The in in the word
inspect is a prefix.
suffix: an affix that comes after a base
morpheme. The s in cats is a suffix
BASE MORPHEME & AFFIX

Suffixes can also be used to tell the part of
speech of a word. The following examples show
the parts of speech indicated by the suffixes in
the chart.
Nouns: -ance, -ful, -ity, -ment, -ness, -tion
Verb: -ate
Adjectives: -able, -ful, -less, -ly
Adverb: -ly
TYPES OF MORPHEMES?

Bound Morphemes cannot occur on their own,
e.g. de- in detoxify, -tion in creation, -s in
dogs, cran- in cranberry.
Free Morphemes can occur as separate words,
e.g. car, yes.
INFLECTIONAL MORPHEME

Inflectional morpheme can only be a suffix
An inflectional morpheme creates a change in
the function of the word.
eg: The s in cats plural;
the d in invited past tense.

INFLECTIONAL MORPHEME

The seven inflectional morphemes in English and their
meanings:
-s (plural)
-s (possessive) noun inflections
-s ( 3rd-person singular)
-ed ( past tense)
-en (past participle) verb inflections
-ing ( present participle)
er (comparative)
-est (superlative) adjective & adverb inflections







DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME

Derivational morpheme can be prefix or suffix.
Derivational morpheme changes the meaning of
the word or the part of speech or both. It creates
new words. eg. un- added to invited not;
-less added to useless without.
Here are more meaning of derivational
morphemes in English:


Prefix Meaning
ad- to, toward
circum- around, about
com- with, together
de- away from, off
dis- away, apart
ex- from, out
in- not
in- in, into
inter- between
mis- wrong
post- after
re- back, again
sub- beneath, under
trans- across
un- not
Suffix Meaning
-able (-ible) capable of being
-ance (-ence) the act of
-ate making or applying
-ful full of
-ity the state of being
-less without
-ly in a certain way
-ment the result of being
-ness the state of being
-tion (-ion, -sion) the act of or the state of being
ALLOMORPH, HOMONYM & HOMOPHONE
allomorphs: different phonetic forms or variations of a
morpheme.
eg: The final morphemes in the following words are
pronounced differently, but they all indicate plurality: dogs,
cats, and horses.
homonyms: morphemes that are spelled the same but
have different meanings.
eg: bear (an animal) and bear (to carry),
plain (simple) and plain ( a level area of land).
homophones: morphemes that sound alike but have
different meanings and spellings.
eg: bear, bare; plain, plane; cite, sight, site.
JOURNAL 3

a) Identify and label the parts of the following words
as: bound or free, derivational or inflectional, and
base or affix. Indicate the number of morphemes in
each word.
1. postgraduate
2. citizen
3. potatoes
4. inescapable
5. driven
6. largest
7. misfortune
8. unlikely

JOURNAL 3

b) Identify and label the parts of the following words
as: bound or free, derivational or inflectional, and
base or affix. Indicate the number of morphemes in
each word.
1. kedatangan
2. disukai
3. gangguan
4. memasuki
5. terlupa
6. mendahulukan
7. terbang
8. anaknya

JOURNAL 3

C)What is the meaning of the prefixes in Malay?
Berikan makna imbuhan awalan berikut:






Imbuhan Awalan Makna
ke-
di-
se-
meN-
ber-
ter-
per-
JOURNAL 3

D)What is the meaning of the suffixes in Malay?
Berikan makna imbuhan akhiran berikut:






Imbuhan Akhiran Makna
-kan
-an
-i
-nya
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fromkin, Victoria, and Robert Rodman. An
Introduction to Language. 5th ed. Fort Worth:
Harcourt Brace Joanovich College Publishers,
1993.
Kolln, Martha, and Robert Funk. Understanding
English Grammar. 5th ed.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.
Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook for
Writers. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford
Books of St. Martin's Press, 1991.
Bauer, Mary Beth, et al., Grammar and
Composition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1982.