Morphemic analysis and its basic units.

There are two levels of morphological analysis: morphemic and derivational.

Morphemic analysis is the segmentation of a word into morphemes, their number and types.

e.g. en/courage – en/courage/ment (2 morphemes – 3 morphemes)

The aim of morpheme analysis is segmentation of a word into morphemes, the defining of the number and type of these morphemes.

The basis unit of the morphemic analysis is the morpheme.

Morpheme is the smallest indivisible two-facet language unit which means an association of a certain meaning with a certain sound-form.

Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of the language but its meaning is generalized: rewrite (re - denotes reversal of an action)

The procedure of morphemic analysis generally employed for the purposes of segmenting words into the constituent morphemes is the method of I m m e d i a t e and U l t i -

m a t e C o n s t i t u e n t s .

This method deals with analysis of word-structure on the morphemic level.

It consists of breaking a word into the constituent morphemes – Immediate (ICs) and Ultimate Constituents (UCs).

We cut out the morpheme without which the word exists.

Each IC at the next stage of analysis is

in turn broken into two smaller meaningful elements. The analysis is completed

when we arrive at constituents incapable of further division, i.e.

morphemes.

Ultimate constituent is part of a word which can not be futher divided.

Immediate Constituent is part of the word which can be further divided.

The procedure of segmenting a word into its Ultimate Constituent

morphemes, may be conveniently presented with the help of a box-like

diagram.

Classification of morphemes

Morphemes may be classified:

a) from the

semantic point of view,

b) from the structural point of

view.

a) Semantically morphemes fall into two classes: r o o t -

m o r p h e m e s and n o n - r o o t or a f f i x a t i o n a l m o r -

p h e m e s . Roots and affixes make two distinct classes of morphemes

due to the different roles they play in word-structure

b) Structurally morphemes fall into three types: f r e e morp

h e m e s , b o u n d m o r p h e m e s , s e m i - f r e e ( s e m i -

b o u n d ) m o r p h e m e s .

A f r e e m o r p h e m e is defined as one that coincides with the

stem 2 or a word-form. A great many root-morphemes are free morphemes,

for example, the root-morpheme friend — of the noun friendship is naturally

qualified as a free morpheme because it coincides with one of the

forms of the noun friend.

A b o u n d m o r p h e m e occurs only as a constituent part of a

word. Affixes are, naturally, bound morphemes, for they always make part

of a word, e.g. the suffixes -ness, -ship, -ise (-ize), etc., the prefixes un-,

Semi-bound ( s e m i - f r e e ) m o r p h e m e s 1 are morphemes that

can function in a morphemic sequence both as an affix and as a free morpheme.

For example, the morpheme well and half on the one hand occur

as free morphemes that coincide with the stem and the word-form in utterances

like sleep well, half an hour,” on the other hand they occur as

bound morphemes in words like well-known, half-eaten, half-done.

Result of morphemic analysis : monomorphic and polymorphic words