Word structure

A morpheme is the smallest indivisible two facet language unit which implies an association of a given meaning with a given sound form. Unlike words, morphemes cannot function independently (they occur in speech only as parts of words).

Morphemes have certain semantic peculiarities they're devoid of grammatical meaning. Concrete lexical meaning is found only in root morphemes. Lexical meaning of affixes is of a generalized character.

Lexical meaning in morphemes may be analyzed in connotational and denotational components. The connotational aspect of meaning may be found both in root morphemes and affixational morphemes (Ex. deary, dearie, booklet- diminutive meaning; derogatory and positive evaluation: womanish, womanly; or stylistic reference - chlorine - this suffix is mainly used in scientific style).

The part of speech meaning is characteristic of affixal morphemes; moreover, some suffixal morphemes are devoid of any part of meaning but part of speech meaning.

Morphemes possess specific meaning (of their own). They are:

A). Differential meaning - is the semantic component which serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical morphemes (Ex. bookshelf, bookcounter, bookcase; cranberry, blackberry). Doesn't have lexical meaning

B). Distributional meaning - is the meaning of the order and arrangement of morphemes that make up the word (Ex. worker, but never erwork, heartless, but never less heart).

Classification of Morphemes

1. Semantically morphemes may be classified into

a) root morphemes

The root morpheme is the lexical nucleus of a word. It has an individual lexical meaning and it may possess all other types of meaning characteristic of morphemes, except the part of speech meaning. The root morpheme is isolated as the morpheme common to a set of words making up a wordcluster (like -dislike - liking).

b) non-root morphemes.

Non-root morphemes include inflexions that have only grammatical meaning and are relevant only for the formation of grammatical forms, and affixational morphemes (affixes). Affixes are relevant (important) for building a stem which is the part of a word which remains unchanged throughout its paradigm. Affixes - subdivided into prefixes and suffixes. A prefix precedes the root morpheme, while the suffix follows it. Affixes possess generalized lexical meaning, part of speech meaning, differential and distributional meanings.

2. Structurally, morphemes fall into:

a) free morphemes

A free morpheme coincides with the stem. Many root morphemes are free (Ex. heart - hearts; hearty- heartier- the heartiest)

b) bound morphemes

A bound morpheme occurs only as a constituent part of a word (Ex. cordial). Bound morphemes are characteristic of borrowed words (Ex/ tolerable, arrogance).

c) semi-free or semi-bound morphemes.

Semi-free (bound) morphemes can function both as affixes and free morphemes (Ex. ill-bread, ill-timed => " ill" is semi-bound). The status of the meanings of such morphemes is difficult to define: " to feel ill"; but " ill-bred" - seem to be losing their semantic and structural identity with corresponding free morphemes (like dis-, mis-, un- etc.). Self-discipline, self-assurance...

There are cases, however, that are difficult to define:

A.: telescope, telegraph - morphemes of Greek and Latin origin. They are devoid of lexical-grammatical meaning and that's why we call them bound morphemes.

В.: Morpheme " man" in " Englishman", " seaman" etc. They are decreasing semantic value of the morpheme " man" led some linguists to believe that " man" is now denoting an agent and is synonymous to the siffix -er. But most linguists still regard the morpheme " man" as the last component to a semi-free morpheme.