.::Still Morpheme::.

• morpheme: a combination of sounds that have a meaning.  A morpheme does not necessarily have to be a word.  Example:  the word cats has two morphemes. Cat is a morpheme, and s is a morpheme.  Every morpheme is either a base or an affix.  An affix can be either a prefix or a suffix.  Cat is the base morpheme, and s is a suffix.
• affix: a morpheme that comes at the beginning (prefix) or the ending (suffix) of a base morpheme.  Note: An affix usually is a morpheme that cannot stand alone.  Examples: -ful, -ly, -ity, -ness. A few exceptions are able, like, and less.
• base: a morpheme that gives a word its meaning.  The base morpheme cat gives the word cats its meaning: a particular type of animal.
• prefix: an affix that comes before a base morpheme.  The in in the word inspect is a prefix.
• suffix: an affix that comes after a base morpheme.  The s in cats is a suffix.
• free morpheme: a morpheme that can stand alone as a word without another morpheme.  It does not need anything attached to it to make a word. Cat is a free morpheme.
• bound morpheme: a sound or a combination of sounds that cannot stand alone as a word.  The s in cats is a bound morpheme, and it does not have any meaning without the free morpheme cat.
• inflectional morpheme: this morpheme can only be a suffix.  The s in cats is an inflectional morpheme.  An  inflectional morpheme creates a change in the function of the word. Example: the d in invited indicates past tense. English has only seven inflectional morphemes:  -s (plural) and -s (possessive) are noun inflections; -s ( 3rd-person singular), -ed ( past tense), -en (past participle), and -ing ( present participle) are verb inflections;  -er (comparative) and -est (superlative) are adjective and adverb inflections.
• derivational morpheme: this type of morpheme changes the meaning of the word or the part of speech or both.  Derivational morphemes often create new words.  Example: the prefix and derivational morpheme un added to invited changes the meaning of the word.
• allomorphs: different phonetic forms or variations of a morpheme.  Example: The final morphemes in the following words are pronounced differently, but they all indicate plurality: dogs, cats, and horses.
• homonyms: morphemes that are spelled the same but have different meanings.  Examples:  bear (an animal) and bear (to carry),  plain (simple) and plain ( a level area of land).
• homophones: morphemes that sound alike but have different meanings and spellings.  Examples: bear, bare; plain, plane; cite, sight, site.

Fifteen Common Prefixes

The following tables and tip are adopted from Grammar and Composition by Mary Beth Bauer, et al.  

Prefix	Meaning
ad-	to, toward
circum-	around, about
com-	with, together
de-	away from, off
dis-	away, apart
ex-	from, out
in-	not
in-	in, into
inter-	between
mis-	wrong
post-	after
re-	back, again
sub-	beneath, under
trans-	across
un-	not

 

Ten Common Suffixes

 

Suffix	Meaning
-able (-ible)	capable of being
-ance (-ence)	the act of
-ate	making or applying
-ful	full of
-ity	the state of being
-less	without
-ly	in a certain way
-ment	the result of being
-ness	the state of being
-tion (-ion, -sion)	the act of or the state of being

 

Tip

Suffixes can also be used to tell the part of speech of a word.  The following examples show the parts of speech indicated by the suffixes in the chart. Nouns:  -ance, -ful, -ity, -ment, -ness, -tion Verb:  -ate Adjectives:  -able, -ful, -less, -ly Adverb:  -ly