ALT Blog Post Making Meaning With Morphemes Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in language. Every word we use is built from one or more morphemes. A robust knowledge of these word parts and their meanings helps students unlock a deeper understanding of complex vocabulary words. What are the different types of morphemes? Free Morphemes Free morphemes can stand alone as full words. For example, the word “water” contains only one morpheme. Bound Morphemes Bound morphemes cannot stand alone as words. This category includes affixes and routes.

ALT Free Morphemes Free morphemes can stand alone as full words. For example, the word “water” contains only one morpheme. The morpheme “water” can stand on its own, or it can be combined with other morphemes to make words such as “watered” or “watering.” Free morphemes can further be divided into: Content Words Content words are words that communicate meaning, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Function Words Function words serve a primarily grammatical role, and their meaning is often less transparent. They include conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, articles, and auxiliary verbs.

ALT Bound Morphemes Bound morphemes cannot stand alone as words. This category includes: Affixes Affixes are bound morphemes that are attached to either the beginning of a word (prefixes) or the end of a word (suffixes). There are two types of affixes in the English language: derivational affixes and inflectional affixes. Roots Roots are bound morphemes that hold the core meaning of a word. Many English-language roots are derived from Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon vocabulary. For example, the words “telephone,” “symphony,” and “phonograph” all contain the Greek root “phon,” which means sound or voice.

ALT Affixes (continued) Affixes are bound morphemes that are attached to either the beginning of a word (prefixes) or the end of a word (suffixes). There are two types of affixes in the English language: Derivational Affixes Derivational affixes affect the meaning of a word. They can also change a word’s part of speech — for example, changing an adjective to a verb (“modern” to “modernize”) or a verb to a noun (“teach” to “teacher”). Derivational affixes can be prefixes, such as “pre-,” “re-,” and “ultra,” or suffixes, such as “iness,” “ly,” and “tion.” Inflectional Affixes Inflectional affixes change the grammatical function of a word. There are only eight inflectional affixes, all of which are suffixes: -’s (possessive) -s (plural) -s (third-person singular) -ed (past tense) -ing (progressive) -en (past participle) -er (comparative) -est (superlative)