1.4 Linguistic signs: Morphemes and lexemes.

What is a Morpheme?

Often defined as the smallest linguistics pieces with grammatical function.

A morpheme may consist of a word, such as hand, or a meaningful piece of a word, such as the –ed of looked, that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts.

The morphemes combine a form (the way they sound) and the meaning (what they mean).

Morphemes can be compared to pieces of Lego than can be used again and again as building blocks to form different word.

Example: The noun buyer consists of two morphemes, buy and –er. The verbal morpheme is called a free or lexical morpheme, because can occur as a word by itself. Is an affix (hence a bound morpheme that cannot function as a word on its own) It requires another morpheme to appear before it in a word.

Now, in the word Reconsideration: Re-/ consider /-ation Simple stem A stem is a base unit in which another morphological piece is attached. It can be simple, made up of only one part ,or complex , itself made up of more than one piece.

Now, in the word Reconsideration: Re-/ consider /-ation Simple stem We also can call consider as the root. A root is like a stem in constituting the core of the word in which other pieces attach, but the term refers only to morphologically simple units.

Now, in the word Reconsideration: Re-/ consider /-ation Affixes Affixes means that they are attached to the stem. Affixes that go before the stem are prefixed.

Now, in the word Reconsideration: Re-/ consider /-ation Prefix Affixes means that they are attached to the stem. Affixes that go before the stem are prefixes.

Now, in the word Reconsideration: Re-/ consider /-ation Prefix A prefix is a letter added to the beginning of a word that change the meaning of the word.

He are some common prefixes and their meanings: dis- im- non- un- in- re- fore- pre- mis- with- Not Not, reverse Not, without Again Before Not, wrong, or wrongly From, against

Activity Time! In the Assessments section you will find an activity for create new words adding a prefix . Due date on August 29, 2011.

Now, in the word Reconsideration: Re-/ consider /-ation Suffix A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word that changes the meaning of the word.

He are some common suffixes and their meanings: -less -ish -ous -en -hood -ward -ness -ment without The qualities of Full of To make State of being In the direction Quality of being A means of being

He are some common suffixes and their meanings: -ist -tion -ful -al -able, -ible -ly, -y -or, -er -like One skilled in Art of Full of Pertaining to Able to be Like, pertaining to Person having to do with Be like

Another examples: unhappiness Un- prefix Happy- root Ness- suffix Inputs In- prefix Put - root s- suffix (in this case indicates plural)

Activity Time! In the Assessments section you will find an activity for create new words adding a suffix . Due date on August 29, 2011. In the same document, you’ll see a practice activity for identify morphemes of the words. Due date on August 30, 2011.

What is a Lexeme?

A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of words that are different forms of the same word.

Lexemes may serve as the root of more complex words.

For example, the forms pockling, pockle and pockled are different representations of the lexeme POCKLE.

They all share a core meaning although they are spelled and pronounced differently.

As an easy way to identify them, the lexemes are the vocabulary items that are listed in the dictionary.

To difference between Morpheme and Lexeme Their maniacal little dog attempted to bite the mailman. The grammatical morphemes have been underlined, while the rest of the words are all lexemes.

Activity Time! In the Assessments section you will find an activity to identify lexemes. Due date on August 30, 2011.

Word Creation

There are three ways to create words. Composition: word formation that creates compound words. It’s when we have one or two words and we join them to create a new one. Examples: Sailboat, baseball, ice cream, air –condition, etc.

Examples: slowness, drinkable, re-write. There are three ways to create words. Derivation: Is take an existent word and we apply diversity (size, gender, etc.) Prefix Derivation Suffix Examples: slowness, drinkable, re-write.

There are three ways to create words. Portmanteau words: When we have a compound word but in this case, the word has a contraction. Example: Spanglish, telethon, Wikipedia.

Activity Time ! In the same document you will find a practice activity for compound words. Is really easy. Due date on August 31, 2011.

Final Activity ! In the Assessments section you will find a document in which you’ll practice all learned about morphemes and lexemes. Good Luck !  Due date on September 5, 2011.

Sources Aronoff, M. & Fudeman, K. (2011) What is Morphology? Second Edition United Kingdom: Wiley – Blackwell Booji, G. (2005) The grammar of words USA: Oxford University Press.     Katamba, F. (1993) Morphology USA: St Martin’s Pres Inc