Morphology
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Just like phonology, native speakers of English have also learnt the rules of how words form. Morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning in the structure of language. They are added to ‘roots’ to form one complex word. Roots can be further classified into suffixes, prefixes or infixes according to where they appear.
Suffixes are after root, e.g. –ing in cooking. Prefixes are placed in front of the root, e.g. un- in uncooked. Infixes occur inside the root. E.g. –er Painters which is divided into 3 morphemes.
Suffixes are after root, e.g. –ing in cooking. Prefixes are placed in front of the root, e.g. un- in uncooked. Infixes occur inside the root. E.g. –er Painters which is divided into 3 morphemes.
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A speaker of English is able to recognise that ‘make’ and ‘makes’ are two different words. They demostrate the two kinds of morphemes: unbound-which are meaningful on their own and bound- which have meaning once combined with another morpheme. For example, the word ‘schoolyard’ has two unbound morphemes: school and yard which have meanings on their own. Whereas the word ‘morpheme’ has two bounded morphemes: morph and eme which on its own eme is not a word unless combined with morph to make morpheme.