Morphology is the study of meaningful word parts and how we assemble them to make words
(morph = shape; logy = study of). These word parts are called morphemes.
There are two types of morphemes: free and bound.
Free morphemes are ones that can exist by themselves as independent words. For example, consider this sentence:
She took a test in her last class.
Each of the words in that sentence can stand alone and be meaningful. These words are fairly specific:
she = a female who can be identified
took = past tense of the verb "take"
a = indefinite article referring to a general noun
in = proposition indicating inside somewhere
her = possessive pronoun for the aforementioned female
The other words are polysemous in nature; that is, they each have more than one meaning (and possibly more than one part of speech designation). Possibilities include:
test = can be a noun meaning assessment or a verb meaning to take an assessment
last = can be an adjective meaning final or a verb meaning to keep existing
class = can be a noun meaning either a place of learning or a social standing
Regardless of the number of meanings, each word can still stand by itself.
Bound morphemes, on the other hand, cannot stand alone. They are units of meaning which must be attached to other morphemes. Consider this sentence:
She took pretests in her classes.
We have added morphemes to two words: pretests and classes.
pre- = prefix meaning before
-s (or -es) = suffix which can either make a noun plural (as with these words) or identify a verb as present tense third person
These morphemes were attached to free morphemes to create related words with somewhat different meanings. Many prefixes and suffixes, meaningful units, are bound morphemes. (There are some which are free: for example, both the prefix in- and the suffix -less can stand alone.)
Sometimes, though, words are made up of no free morphemes. Instead, they consist of several bound morphemes. Once again, consider a sentence:
She took a pretest in her biology class.
We now have the word biology. It consists of two bound morphemes, neither of which can stand alone.
bio- = root meaning life
-logy = suffix meaning study of
All English words consist of at least one morpheme which will be a root. Words may also have prefixes and/or suffixes attached to them.
(morph = shape; logy = study of). These word parts are called morphemes.
There are two types of morphemes: free and bound.
Free morphemes are ones that can exist by themselves as independent words. For example, consider this sentence:
She took a test in her last class.
Each of the words in that sentence can stand alone and be meaningful. These words are fairly specific:
she = a female who can be identified
took = past tense of the verb "take"
a = indefinite article referring to a general noun
in = proposition indicating inside somewhere
her = possessive pronoun for the aforementioned female
The other words are polysemous in nature; that is, they each have more than one meaning (and possibly more than one part of speech designation). Possibilities include:
test = can be a noun meaning assessment or a verb meaning to take an assessment
last = can be an adjective meaning final or a verb meaning to keep existing
class = can be a noun meaning either a place of learning or a social standing
Regardless of the number of meanings, each word can still stand by itself.
Bound morphemes, on the other hand, cannot stand alone. They are units of meaning which must be attached to other morphemes. Consider this sentence:
She took pretests in her classes.
We have added morphemes to two words: pretests and classes.
pre- = prefix meaning before
-s (or -es) = suffix which can either make a noun plural (as with these words) or identify a verb as present tense third person
These morphemes were attached to free morphemes to create related words with somewhat different meanings. Many prefixes and suffixes, meaningful units, are bound morphemes. (There are some which are free: for example, both the prefix in- and the suffix -less can stand alone.)
Sometimes, though, words are made up of no free morphemes. Instead, they consist of several bound morphemes. Once again, consider a sentence:
She took a pretest in her biology class.
We now have the word biology. It consists of two bound morphemes, neither of which can stand alone.
bio- = root meaning life
-logy = suffix meaning study of
All English words consist of at least one morpheme which will be a root. Words may also have prefixes and/or suffixes attached to them.