1. Morphology The Nature of Morpheme

2. Word can be devided into segment of sound. Book can be devided / , ,  /. Word into phoneme, or word into syllable Morpheme VS syllable –Morpheme (smallest grammatical meaning) –Syllable (grouping of sound because of articulation)

3. The word SOFA pronouced /   /. The word BALLON pronounced /   : / (The words above contain two syllables ) The word CAMERA pronounced /    / The word HOOLIGAN pronounced /  :  / (the words have three syllables) All the words above only have one morpheme. On the other hand the word BOOKS /  / has one syllable and two morphemes.

4. When we devide word into morpheme, we focus on string of sound and syllable in phonological level. Consider the phonological form /sa  t/ 1. sight site cite 2. rightwritewrightrite The words above have the same sound which is called homophone. Homophone is the form which sound the same but differ in meaning.

5. The same string of sounds may cumulatively represent several morphemes. The –s ending in English verbs walks signals three morphemes, namely third person, present tenseand singular number. Another example –Last week I cut the grass – I put the scissor in the dressing table yesterday –Last night they shut the factory down The past tense morpheme represented by -ed is called zero allomorph