What do all these morphology terms mean?

Morphology instruction involves teaching students about parts of words and their meaning. The word ‘morphology’ means ‘the study of the form of words.’ It involves learning about morphemes such as prefixes and suffixes and how these are added to words or roots to change meaning.

The technical vocabulary used to describe different kinds of morphemes can sometimes cause confusion for teachers and make morphology instruction appear more daunting than it needs to be. Some of the more common terminology is explained below…

Base word: A base word is a word that can stand alone and carry meaning on its own. It can be used as the base for creating new, more complex words when prefixes and suffixes are added. For example, the base word ‘move’ carries meaning on its own but can also have prefixes and suffixes added to alter meaning e.g. moves, moved, removed, unmoved.

Root: A root also forms the base for the addition of prefixes and suffixes but unlike a base word, a root cannot stand alone to carry meaning on its own in English. The most common roots are of Latin or Greek origin. The Latin root ‘port’ which means ‘to carry’ can have multiple prefixes and suffixes added to form words e.g. report, reported, deport, deportment, transport, transported. Similarly, the Greek root ‘bio’, meaning ’life’, can combine with other morphemes to make biology, biosphere, biography.

Free morpheme: A free morpheme stands alone as a word in its own right and carries meaning on its own. For example, the words ‘cat’, ‘sit’, ‘smile’, ‘cry’ are all free morphemes.

Bound morpheme: A bound morpheme has to be attached to another morpheme or morphemes to carry meaning. For example, the morpheme ‘-ly’ doesn’t carry meaning on its own but when added to the word ‘quick’ it carries meaning to make an adverb, to tell us the manner in which something has been done.

Derivational morpheme: A derivational morpheme can be either a prefix or a suffix and changes the meaning or grammatical form of a word. For example, when you add the prefix ‘un-‘ to the word ‘happy’, you change the meaning to the opposite of ‘happy’. When you add the suffix ‘-ness’ to the word ‘thoughtful’, you change the part of speech from an adjective to a noun.

Inflectional morpheme: An inflectional morpheme changes grammar but does not change meaning when added to a word. For example, adding ‘-ed’ to the word ‘jump’ changes grammar to show past tense but doesn’t change the meaning of the word. Similarly, adding ‘-s’ to the word ‘dog’, changes grammar to show number but doesn’t change the meaning of the word ‘dog’.

While it is good for teachers to have an awareness and understanding of these morphological terms, keeping in mind that morphology instruction is essentially about parts of their words and their meanings enables teachers to just get started with instruction in this important area and keeps things simple as their own understanding increases.