MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN

FEDERATION
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE KYRGYZ
REPUBLIC
KYRGYZ–RUSSIAN SLAVIC UNIVERSITY
NAMED AFTER THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA B.N. ELTSIN
HUMANITIES FACULTY
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT

Theoretical grammar
(Course paper)
Word-forming and inflectional morphemes

Written by Isaeva E.
Student of HLP-1-20(A)
Checked by: Shubina O. Yu.

Bishkek 2022
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Content:
Introduction...............................................................................................................3
Chapter 1. Theoretical basis of the study of morphemes..........................................5
1.1 Concept of morphemes.....................................................................................5
1.2 Processes of word-formation and inflection...................................................14
1.3 The main word-forming morphemes of the English language.......................16
1.4 The main inflectional morphemes of the English language...........................19
Chapter 2. The processes of word-forming and inflectional morphemes based on
textual examples......................................................................................................22
Conclusion...............................................................................................................28
Bibliography............................................................................................................29
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Introduction
The vocabulary of the English language, like any other, is in a state of
continuous change. One of the regularities of the development of the vocabulary of
a language is its replenishment with new words. This replenishment occurs through
the formation of new words – word formation and word modification. Do not
forget that the development of the language is carried out constantly and is carried
out at all levels: the sound system undergoes various changes, the morphological
composition of the word changes, words and phrases undergo semantic changes.
And the most noticeable and tangible changes occur in the vocabulary of the
language. Thus, the processes of word formation and inflection are important in the
formation of the vocabulary of the language. Modern English is characterized by a
great ability to form most new vocabulary units. The overwhelming majority of
neoplasms are created by means of those word-forming methods and means that a
particular language has. The main ways of word formation in modern English are
affixation, conversion and word composition. However, not all of them are used to
the same extent, and the specific weight of each method in the word-formation
process is not the same. Since gradually the vocabulary of the English language is
replenished by converting and changing existing words. In this regard, the study of
the ongoing processes is relevant.
The topic of my course work is "Word formation and inflections based on
the material of English texts".
The aim of this course work is to analyze the functioning of word-forming
and inflectional morphemes. To achieve this aim, the objectives can be determined
as following:
1) to give concept of morphemes;
2) to study the processes of word formation and inflection in general;
3) to consider the main word-forming morphemes of the English
language;
4) to consider the main inflectional morphemes of the English language;
 4

5) to analyze the processes of word-forming and inflectional morphemes

based on textual examples.
The object of this work is word-formation and inflectional morphemes.
The subject of this course paper is the morphology of the English language.
The structure of the work consists of an introduction, the main part including
theoretical and practical chapters, conclusion and bibliography.
In the first chapter we consider: the definition of a morpheme, processes of
word-formation and inflection, the main word-forming and inflectional
morphemes.
In the second chapter we analyze word-forming and inflectional morphemes
in «Blackberry winter» by Sarah Jio, «The Winter People» by Jennifer McMahon
and «The Bronte story» by Tim Vicary.
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Chapter 1. Theoretical basis of the study of morphemes

1.1 Concept of morphemes

Morphemes are often defined as the smallest linguistic pieces with a
grammatical function – and their identification and study help linguists investigate
words, their structure and formation. A morpheme can be one word (cat, line) or its
meaningful piece (-s in toys, -ing in swimming). It cannot be divided into smaller
meaningful parts.
The smallest meaningful constituents of words that can be identified are
called morphemes. In nuts, both the suffix -s and the stem nut represent a
morpheme. Other examples of words consisting of two morphemes would be
break-ing, hope-less, re-write, cheeseboard; words consisting of three morphemes
are re-writ-ing, hope-less-ness, ear-plugs; and so on. Thus, morphology could
alternatively be defined as the study of the combination of morphemes to yield
words [1, 3-4].
Key unit of morphology is the morpheme. Similar to word, it is a concept
with no generally accepted definition. Starts with the definition by Jan Baudouin
de Courtenay, who was the first to introduce the term morpheme. What is central
in this definition is that it is the smallest unit with a meaning. Baudouin de
Courtenay used morpheme as an umbrella term to cover more specific terms such
as root, prefix or suffix. Leonard Bloomfield defines morpheme in relation to other
elements of language. His definition emphasizes the formal aspect of the
morpheme. Based on his definition we continue dividing complex words until the
point when no part is similar to any other in phonetic shape and meaning. For
instance, government cannot be considered a morpheme because govern is found
in governable, governing, etc. and -ment in agreement, procurement, etc. The
elements govern and -ment, however, are simple forms that do not resemble any
other forms.
 6

The definition by Charles F. Hockett is the one you can easily recognize as it
is often used in textbooks of linguistics. Vilém Mathesius, a Czech linguist and
representative of the Prague School of linguistics, defines morpheme as the
smallest linguistic sign in its Saussurean understanding. The morpheme is a
bilateral unit with a form and meaning. The form is also sometimes labelled as
formeme and the meaning as sememe.
In Hockett’s sense, a morpheme is an abstract unit and its spoken or written
realisation is called a morph. Sometimes it happens that there are several variants
or realizations of one morpheme, e.g. the past tense morpheme in English -ed is
realized in three spoken forms, as d in played, t in worked, and ɪd in wanted. They
are allomorphs of the past tense morpheme. These allomorphs are in
complementary distribution, which means that only one is used in any particular
context. The selection is not random, as it is governed by corresponding rules e.g.
the past tense allomorph t is used after voiceless consonants.
We ended the discussion of definitions of morpheme with pointing to its
sign nature. However, this is a much-debated issue in morphological theory. A
majority of linguists strongly argue for treating the morpheme as a linguistic sign,
but others treat morphemes only as units of form. Words such as receive can be
analysed into morphemes, because its components re- and -ceive occur in several
words, e.g. refer, perceive. For Halle and Aronoff, this is enough to make items
such as -ceive morphemes, even if they do not have a specific meaning. Halle
analyses, for instance, believe as be- and -lieve, total as tot- and -al, i.e. as
consisting of formal units without any meaning on their own. For Aronoff, the
relevant unit of morphology is the word, rather than the morpheme. Words are
complete bilateral signs. For linguists who assume that morphemes are bilateral
signs, -ceive is not a morpheme. The sign nature of morpheme suggests that we
ideally expect a one-to-one relationship between the form and meaning. For
example:
She drinks two espressos every day [4, 14].
 7

One morpheme -s represents cumulatively three grammatical meanings,

third person, singular number, and present tense. It is not possible to separate the
element expressing only one of these grammatical functions, all three are packed
into one form. This is called cumulative exponence. An alternative term used to
refer to cases where a single morph represents several grammatical functions is
portmanteau morph.
The opposite is illustrated in:
She is drinking coffee [4, 16].
Where the present continuous is expressed by several elements: a full verb
plus the present participle ending plus a corresponding form of be. Several formal
elements combine to express a single meaning. This is called extended exponence.
Depending on the concept of morpheme, extended exponence would have to be
treated as a morpheme consisting of discontinuous elements.
Morpheme is the smallest indivisible unit in a word. It is a word building
block. It cannot be segmented further into smaller meaningful units. A morpheme
can be a word. Example free morphemes like door, car, house, etc. Morpheme
therefore is the smallest indivisible unit of semantic content or grammatical
functions with which words are made up. By definition a morpheme cannot be
decomposed into smaller units which are either meaningful by themselves or mark
a grammatical function like singular or plural number in the noun. Additionally, he
defines morpheme as the smallest difference in the shape of a word that correlates
with the smallest difference in word or sentence meaning or grammatical structure.
A morpheme may be represented by a single sound, for example, the
morpheme -y meaning ‘characterized by’ or ‘full of’: moody, stuffy, or by a single
syllable, such as –less in meaningless and fearless. There are morphemes that
consist of more than one syllable: mother, helicopter, -inter in international or
interstate, --multi in multicultural or multimillionaire. Words that consist of only
one morpheme are called simple or simplex words. Words that are made up of
more than one morpheme are called complex:
One morpheme kid
 8

smile
two morphemes talk + ing
break + able
elevate + tion
three morphemes re + new + able
desire + able + ity
four morphemes true + th + ful + ly
un + event + ful + ness
more than four un + gentle + man + li + ness
anti + dis + establish + ment + ari + an + ism
However, the distinction between simple and complex words is not always
plain sailing. In a word like solips-ism –ism is a suffix, even though there is no
base word solips in English. The word ‘writer’ is complex; however, there are
words ending in –er (father, order, etc.) that are simple. In order to clarify the case,
there must be a certain pattern of correspondence between form and meaning.
Writer, speaker, and player are deverbal nouns; they have a base word that is a
verb:
write + er = writer
speak + er = speaker
play + er = player
‘Father’ and ‘order’ do not have a base word, and that is the reason they are
simple.
However, the morpheme –er can represent two meanings: ‘one who does’ in
words like teacher (one who teaches), singer (one who sings); ‘more’, the
comparative form of adjectives, bigger, higher, stronger. Thus, two different
morphemes may be pronounced identically. The identical form represents two
morphemes because of the different meanings. That explains the morpheme as a
sound plus a meaning unit concept [8, 39-48].
When talking about the structure of a word, the following propositions are
applicable:
 9

a. Every word is composed exhaustively of morphemes.

b. Morphemes are arranged into a hierarchical structure within the form [3,
14].
Morphological analysis typically consists of the identification of parts of
words, or, more technically, constituents of words. We can say that the word nuts
consist of two constituents: the element nut and the element s. In accordance with a
widespread typographical convention, we will often separate word constituents by
a hyphen: nuts. It is often suggested that morphological analysis primarily consists
in breaking up words into their parts and establishing the rules that govern the
cooccurrence of these parts.
The smallest meaningful constituents of words that can be identified are
called morphemes. In nuts, both the suffix -s and the stem nut represent a
morpheme. Other examples of words consisting of two morphemes would be
break-ing, hope-less, re-write, cheeseboard; words consisting of three morphemes
are re-writ-ing, hope-less-ness, ear-plugs; and so on. Thus, morphology could
alternatively be defined as the study of the combination of morphemes to yield
words.

Classification of morphemes

Morphemes

Free Bound Semi-Free

Lexical Derivational

Functional Inflectional
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Morphemes can be free or bound. If a morpheme is free, it can stand on its

own, it is a complete word. Nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs are lexical
morphemes; conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs are
functional. If a morpheme is bound, it must be attached to a free morpheme. A
word will typically consist of a single free morpheme, sometimes referred to as the
base, root, or stem, and one or several bound morphemes.
Examples:
internationalization
The morpheme ‘nation’ is free as it can stand alone as a word. Then there
are several bound morphemes, -al, inter-, -ize, and –ation.
The example also demonstrates how morphemes change the meaning and
the grammatical category of the word. This is one of the ways to create new words,
called derivation, and it will be explained in more detail in the next paragraph.

Here are some more examples of free and bound morphemes:

kind (free) –ly (bound) moist (free) –ure (bound)

co–(bound) work (free) –er (bound)

Bound morphemes can be divided into two types: inflectional and

derivational. Derivational morphemes make new words by adding concrete
meanings to old words. Inflectional morphemes make different grammatical forms
of the same word.
Bound elements are also referred to as affixes. If an affix occurs before the
root, it is called prefix. Affixes following the root are called suffixes. There are
also cases known as infixes – when an affix is inserted within a stem. The
existence of infixes challenges the traditional notion of a morpheme as an
indivisible unit. Circumfixes are affixes that come in two parts. One attaches to the
front of the word, and the other to the back. Circumfixes are controversial because
 11

it is possible to analyze them as consisting of a prefix and a suffix that apply to a

stem simultaneously [8, 3-11].
Traditionally, there are two types of morphemes
1) Free Morphemes
These have a tendency of standing alone and they are of two categories.
a) Lexical Morphemes
These do carry most of the semantic content of the utterance. E.g. nouns,
verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
b) Functional Morphemes
These do signal grammatical information in a sentence. They also perform a
logical function. E.g. articles, conjunctions, pronouns, demonstratives, prepositions
etc.
2) Bound Morphemes
Bound morphemes in nature cannot stand alone. They must be attached to
root, stem or bases. In most cases bound morphemes are affixes (prefixes, infixes,
and suffixes)
There are affixes that can change the word class of a particular word
together with its meaning. These are termed as derivational affixes, e.g. work+er =
worker.
There are affixes that do not change the word class, but they simply encode
different grammatical functions like tense, number etc. These are called
inflectional morphemes, e.g. tall+er = taller.
The morphological system of language exposes its possessions through the
morphemic structure of words. It follows from this that morphology as component
of grammatical theory faces the two segmental the morpheme and the word.
Nevertheless, as we have already pointed out, the morpheme is not identified under
other circumstances than part of the the functions of the morpheme are effected
particular as the corresponding part functions of the word as a whole. For instance,
the formation of the verbal past tense is built up by means of the dental
grammatical suffix: train-ed [-d]; publish-ed [-t]; meditat-ed [-id]. But the past
 12

tense as a certain kind of grammatical meaning is expressed not by the dental

morpheme in isolation, on the other hand by the verb taken in the corresponding
form (realised by its morphemic composition); the dental suffix is instantly related
to the stem of the verb and together with the stem constitutes the temporal
correlation in the paradigmatic system of verbal categories so in studying the
morpheme we actual study the word in the necessary details or us composition and
functions [7, 238-241].
The morphological system of language reveals its properties through the
morphemic structure of words. It follows from this that morphology as part of
grammatical theory faces the two segmental units: the morpheme and the word.
But the morpheme is not identified otherwise than part of the word; the functions
of the morpheme are affected only as the corresponding constituent functions of
the word as a whole [2, 17].
Experts defined morphology differently but still have a similar of its big
picture. Carstairs-McCarthy states that morphology is the area of grammar
concerned with the structure of words and with relationships between words
involving the morphemes that compose them. While Yule mentions that
morphology is a study of basic forms in a language. Considering definitions from
the experts we can conclude that morphology is the study of structures of words in
a language. (4, 10)
Morphology is the study of word formation – how words are built up from
smaller pieces. Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words.1
Somewhat paradoxically, morphology is both the oldest and one of the youngest
subdisciplines of grammar [16, 18].
Morphological analysis typically consists of the identification of parts of
words, or, more technically, constituents of words. We can say that the word nuts
consist of two constituents: the element nut and the element s. In accordance with a
widespread typographical convention, we will often separate word constituents by
a hyphen: nut-s. It is often suggested that morphological analysis primarily consists
in breaking up words into their parts and establishing the rules that govern the co-
 13

occurrence of these parts. The smallest meaningful constituents of words that can
be identified are called morphemes. In nut-s, both -s and nut are morphemes. Other
examples of words consisting of two morphemes would be breaking, hope-less, re-
write, cheese-board; words consisting of three morphemes are re-writ-ing, hope-
less-ness, ear-plug-s; and so on. Saw can occur on its own as a word; it does not
have to be attached to another morpheme. It is a free morpheme. However, none of
the other morphemes listed just above is free. Each must be affixed to some other
unit; each can only occur as a part of a word. Morphemes that must be attached as
word parts are said to be bound. Besides being bound or free, morphemes can also
be classified as root, derivational, or inflectional. A root morpheme is the basic
form to which other morphemes are attached. It provides the basic meaning of the
word. The morpheme saw is the root of sawers. Derivational morphemes are added
to forms to create separate words: -er is a derivational suffix whose addition turns a
verb into a noun, usually meaning the person or thing that performs the action
denoted by the verb. For example, paint + er creates painter, one of whose
meanings is “someone who paints.” Inflectional morphemes do not create separate
words. They merely modify the word in which they occur in order to indicate
grammatical properties such as plurality, as the -s of magazines does, or past tense,
as the ed of babecued does. The English plural morpheme -s can be expressed by
three different but clearly related phonemic forms. These three have in common
not only their meaning, but also the fact that each contains an alveolar fricative
phoneme. The forms are in complementary distribution, because each occurs
where the others cannot, and it is possible to predict just where each occurs: z after
sibilants, z after voiced segments, and s everywhere else. Given the semantic and
phonological similarities between the three forms and the fact that they are in
complementary distribution, it is reasonable to view them as contextual
pronunciation variants of a single entity. In parallel with phonology, we will refer
to the entity of which the three are variant representations as a morpheme, and the
variant forms of a given morpheme as its allomorphs. When we wish to refer to a
minimal grammatical form merely as a form, we will use the term morph. In the
 14

grammar and morphology of the English language, a morpheme is a linguistic unit

that has a certain meaning, which cannot be divided into smaller parts so that they
still retain meaning. It consists of a word, for example, dog, or parts of it, like -s at
the end of dogs [10, 8-15].
The development of a language is largely due to the development of its
word-formation system, the formation of new word-formation models of words,
changes in existing ones, an increase or decrease in their productivity, and many
other factors of the word-formation process. The creation of new words is carried
out primarily as a reflection in the language of the needs of society in the
expression of new concepts that constantly arise as a result of the development of
science, technology, culture, social relations, etc. Establishing trends in the
development of word-formation processes in the language, improving the theory
and practice of lexicography, etc. they have always been the most important
problems of lexicology. New words, as well as new meanings of words, appear
when there is a need to name new objects or express a slightly different attitude to
already known objects or to characterize them in some other way. New words are
created from existing elements of the language, words, bases, word-forming
affixes, according to existing models as a result of the action of the usual ways of
word formation [11, 149-156].

1.2 Processes of word-formation and inflection

Word-formation is the formation of new words or derivatives from single-
root words and the resulting formal-semantic relationship between the derivative
and its producing word. Word formation refers to different ways of production
from these bases and roots of other words with a special lexical meaning; such are
for the Russian language in adjectives diminutive and magnifying forms, in nouns
collective, magnifying, diminutive, in verbs prefixal forms, where, in addition to
the type, the lexical meaning also changes. According to Efremova T.F. word
formation is the formation of words from other words with the help of certain
operations implying meaningful and formal changes in the characteristics of the
 15

word. A word obtained as a result of the word formation process is called derived
or motivated. The original word is called producing, or motivating. Word
formation as a language process is also called derivation, and its results are called
derivatives. The term word formation in modern linguistics is ambiguous. On the
one hand, word formation is a branch of linguistics that studies the processes of
formation of new words, as well as the structure of derived words, each of which is
included in the corresponding word–formation models. On the other hand, it is the
formation of new words by combining root and affix morphemes with each other
or in an unaffixed way according to certain models existing in the language. The
main tasks of word formation as a branch of linguistics are as follows: to establish
whether a word is derived in a modern language; determine from what and with
what this derivative word is formed.
In modern English, the following main types of word formation operate
independently or in combination with each other: conversion, affixation,
compression, basic structure, abbreviation, deaffixation, separation of meaning.
Compression and physique were discussed above. Separation of meaning (more
precisely: separation of the derived meaning of a polysemous word) is the
separation of a word in one of the meanings into an independent dictionary unit.
The separation of the value occurs when the semantic connection between the
derivative and the original values disappears. For example, the noun ton (formerly
spelled tun) is a separate meaning of the word tun big barrel. The separation of
meaning is a special phenomenon, similar to other ways of word formation only in
the final result: just as with the other methods, when the meaning is separated, a
new vocabulary unit is formed. Neoplasms should include not only those words
that have already been registered by dictionaries of neologisms and lists of new
words, but also potential words, i.e. such neoplasms that are not reproduced by
speakers, but are created in the process of speech from the material available in the
vocabulary of the language, according to existing patterns in the language. These
formations are understandable to all users of the language, although they are not
yet included in the vocabulary as ready-made units of the language. In the future, if
 16

such words are created successfully and if there is a public need for such words,
they are picked up by other speakers, reproduced in numerous acts of conversion,
and thus become real linguistic units.
Inflection is the formation of word forms of the same lexeme that have
different grammatical meanings. Morphemes that carry out inflection are called
inflections. Special cases of inflection are declension by cases, conjugation by
persons, change by gender, tenses and other grammatical categories. A set of word
forms of one lexeme form a word-changing paradigm. Inflection is opposed to
word formation. Inflection covers those cases when these are forms of the same
word, i.e. when the lexical meaning remains the same, but the relational meaning
changes; such are the forms of gender, number, case and degree of comparison for
the Russian language for adjectives; the forms of case and number for nouns; the
forms of person, number, type, mood for verbs, of time, and in the past tense of
gender and number. The inflection of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals is
called declension, the inflection of verbs is called conjugation. Usually in
languages there are classes of immutable words, to which the concept of inflection
does not apply. In Russian, this class includes prepositions, conjunctions, particles,
etc. According to Zemskaya E.A., inflection is also defined in another way - as a
mechanism that ensures the expression of grammatical meanings in words of a
language. This mechanism consists, firstly, of an inventory of suffixes and other
grammatical means, secondly, of the rules of their combination (this may include,
for example, information that time is not expressed in the imperative mood of the
verb) and, thirdly, of all possible rules for connecting these grammatical signs with
the basics. In a narrow sense, inflection includes only morphological grammatical
means (i.e. suffixes, prefixes, etc.). In this case, both lexical and grammatical
meaning is expressed within one word. In a broad sense, inflection includes, in
addition, service words and particles. Grammatical categories that are expressed by
means of inflection are called inflectional; those categories that use word formation
are called word-formative. For example, inflectional categories of the Russian
language are case, gender, person, tense, etc., and word-formative ones are
 17

diminutive forms of nouns and adjectives, the name of a figure, various ways of
acting, etc.

1.3 The main word-forming morphemes of the English language

Word formation is one of the most important and most productive ways to
replenish the vocabulary of a language, which is implemented on the principle of
changing the morphological composition of an already existing lexical basis or by
switching the basis to another paradigm of inflection.
Prefixes as a way of word formation in English. A prefix is the part of a
word that comes before the root. Prefixes are most often used to change the
meaning of a word and less often — to change a part of speech. We identify a large
group of prefixes whose function is to change the meaning of a word to the
opposite:
 un-: unpack, unhappy;
 im-: impossible;
 in-: insecure;
 il-: illegal;
 ir-: irregular;
 dis-: disagree;
 mis-: misunderstanding.
When using the prefixes im-, in-, il -, ir-, you need to choose which one fits
the word you want to change.
 Im- stands only before the consonants b, p, m
 Il- stands only before the letter l
 Ir- stands only before r
In all other cases, choose the prefix in-. In- stands before vowels, with the
exception of i or u, or consonants. You may also come across a case when a word
begins with in, but this is not a negative prefix, but a part of the word. For
example, insist.
 18

Prefixes with a different prefix meaning: nouns:

 Anti-: anti-rasist, anti-war;
 Auto-: autobiography, automobile;
 Mid-: midnight, midday;
 Post-: post-war, post-election;
 Super-: super-hero, supermodel.
Prefixes with a different prefix meaning: verbs:
 De-: decontaminate, demotivate;
 Over-: overcook, overrate;
 Under-: undermine, underestimate;
 Re-: reconsider, rewrite;
 En-, em-: embark, encourage.
The prefix em- is written before the sounds b, p, m. In other cases, write en-.
Prefixes with a different prefix meaning: adjectives:
 Extra-: extraterrestrial, extraordinary;
 Inter-: interactive, international.
Suffixes as a way of word formation in English. Suffix stands after the root
before the ending — it's easy to determine which part of speech the word belongs
to. Word formation of nouns in English using a suffix. Noun suffixes can be
divided into two groups: suffixes of the subject of activity and suffixes of abstract
nouns.
Subject of activity:
 -er, -or: writer, director;
 -an, -ian: magician, Australian;
 -ist: capitalist, socialist;
 -ant, -ent: migrant, student;
 -ee: referee, employee;
 -ess: princess, waitress.
Abstract nouns:
 19

 -ity: activity, severity;

 -ance, -ence, -ancy, -ency: reliance, insistence;
 -ion, -tion, -sion: promotion, deviation, admission;
 -ism: racism, anarchism;
 -hood: childhood, neighborhood;
 -dom: fandom, kingdom;
 -ment: disappointment, parliament;
 -ness: greatness, happiness.
Word formation of adjectives in English using a suffix:
 -able, -ible: drinkable, flexible;
 -ful: helpful, useful;
 -en: wooden, broken;
 -ive: active, passive;
 -less: homeless, hopeless;
 -ous: famous, nervous;
 -y: cloudy, rainy.
How verbs are formed:
 -ate: complicate, irritate;
 -ify, -fy: clarify, identify;
 -ise, -ize: realise, industrialize;
 -en: harden, shorten.
How adverbs are formed:
 -ly: calmly, easily;
 -wise: clockwise, edgewise;
 -ward(s): upwards, homeward.
 20

1.4 The main inflectional morphemes of the English language

As for inflectional morphemes, in the English language, as a rule, there can
be particular single non-zero (positively expressed) inflectional morpheme in a
word at the corresponding time. The exclusion to this principle is, firstly, the
morpheme of the possessive case -s, which in general has a peculiar position in the
English language system. This morpheme can proceed from the plural morpheme,
as for example in oxen's, children's, etc. Secondly, the exclusion to this concept are
all the called noncontinuous morphemes implicit analytical verb forms, which will
be discussed below. With these exceptions, inflectional morphemes in English
cannot be combined with each other within a single word, unless they are null
morphemes.
Inflectional morphemes change what a word does in terms of grammar, but
does not create a new word. For example, the word skip has many forms: skip
(base form), skipping (present progressive), skipped (past tense). The inflectional
morphemes -ing and -ed are added to the base word skip, to indicate the tense of
the word. If a word has an inflectional morpheme, it is still the same word, with a
few suffixes added. So, if you looked up skip in the dictionary, then only the base
word skip would get its own entry into the dictionary. Skipping and skipped are
listed under skip, as they are inflections of the base word. Skipping and skipped do
not get their own dictionary entry.
Inflectional morphemes in English include the bound morphemes -s (or -es);
's (or s'); -ed; -en; -er; -est; and -ing. These suffixes may even do double- or triple-
duty. For example, - s can note possession (in conjunction with an apostrophe in
the proper place), can make count nouns plural, or can put a verb in the third-
person singular tense. The suffix -ed can make past participles or past-tense verbs.
 Plural: Bikes, Cars, Trucks, Lions, Monkeys, Buses, Matches, Classes
 Possessive: Boy’s, Girl’s, Man’s, Mark’s, Robert’s, Samantha’s,
Teacher’s, Officer’s
 Tense: cooked, played, marked, waited, watched, roasted, grilled;
sang, drank, drove
 21

 Comparison: Faster, Slower, Quicker, Taller, Higher, Shorter,

Smaller, Weaker, Stronger, Sharper, Bigger
 Superlative: Fastest, Slowest, Quickest, Tallest, Highest, Shortest,
Smallest, Biggest, Weakest, Strongest, Sharpest

The conclusion of the first Chapter

In this chapter, we have explored the basic concepts of morphemes and the
processes of word-formation and inflectional morphemes. Examples of several
morphemes were given. We learned that morphemes is the smallest meaningful
constituents of words that can be identified. Morphemes can be free or bound. If a
morpheme is free, it can stand on its own, it is a complete word. Nouns, adjectives,
verbs and adverbs are lexical morphemes; conjunctions, prepositions, articles,
pronouns, and auxiliary verbs are functional. If a morpheme is bound, it must be
attached to a free morpheme. A word will typically consist of a single free
morpheme, sometimes referred to as the base, root, or stem, and one or several
bound morphemes. Word-formation is the formation of new words or derivatives
from single-root words and the resulting formal-semantic relationship between the
derivative and its producing word. As for inflectional morphemes, in the English
language, as a rule, there can be particular single non-zero (positively expressed)
inflectional morpheme in a word at the corresponding time. The exclusion to this
principle is, firstly, the morpheme of the possessive case -s, which in general has a
peculiar position in the English language system.
 22

Chapter 2. The processes of word-forming and inflectional morphemes based

on textual examples
In the previous chapter we examined the theoretical basis of morphemes. In
this chapter, we are going to analyze word-forming and inflectional morphemes
using the example of texts. First let's start with «Blackberry winter» written by
Sarah Jio.
(1) I glanced outside the second-story window, and listened as the wind
whistled and howled [22, 4].

Glanced: inflectional morpheme, past tense, glance+d.

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article)

Listened: inflectional morpheme, past tense, listen+ed.

Whistled: inflectional morpheme, past tense, whistle+d.

Howled: inflectional morpheme, past tense, howl+ed.

 23

(2) An icy wind seeped through the floorboards and I shivered, pulling my
gray wool sweater tighter around myself [22, 6].

Seeped: inflectional morpheme, past tense, seep+ed.

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article)

Shivered: inflectional morpheme, past tense, shiver+ed.

Pulling: inflectional morpheme, continuous tense, pull+ing.

Tighter: inflectional morpheme, comparison, tight+er.

(3) But just then, an unexpected sight spelled me from my worries

momentarily [22, 16].

Unexpected: word-forming morpheme, un- is a prefix that change the

meaning of the word expected.

Spelled: inflectional morpheme, past tense, spell+ed.

Worries: word-forming morpheme, worry is a verb, worries is a noun.

Momentarily: word-forming morpheme, -ily.

(4) The knocking persisted, louder now, angrier [22, 36].

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article).

Knocking: word-forming morpheme, -ing change the verb to the participle.

Persisted: inflectional morpheme, past tense, persist+ed.

Louder: inflectional morpheme, comparison, loud+er.

Angrier: inflectional morpheme, comparison, angry+er.

(5) I unlatched the door reluctantly [22, 45].

Unlatched: word-forming morpheme, un- is a prefix that change the

meaning of the word expected.
 24

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article).

Reluctantly: prefix re- is word-forming morpheme.

(6) The outputs of the meeting surprised the workers [22, 51].

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article).

Output-s: inflectional ending –s (singular to plural).

Of: free morpheme, functional (preposition).

Meet-ing: derivational suffix –ing (verb to noun).

Surpris-ed: inflectional suffix –ed (present to past).

Work-er-s: derivational suffix –er and inflectional suffix –s (verb to noun,

singular to plural).

The next book that we used for our analyze «The Winter People» by
Jennifer McMahon.

(7) It is the happiest day of our lives [23, 8].

It: free morpheme, lexical (pronoun).

Is: free morpheme, functional (auxiliary verb).

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article).

Happi-est: bound, inflectional (happy + superlative).

Day: free morpheme, lexical (noun).

Of: free morpheme, functional (preposition).

Our: free morpheme, lexical (pronoun).

Live-s: suffix -s, bound, inflectional (life + plural).

(8) The idea was unexpectedly satisfying [23, 11].

 25

It: free morpheme, lexical (pronoun).

Idea: free morpheme, lexical (noun).

Was: bound, inflectional (be + past).

Un-expect-ed-ly: prefix –un, derivational, meaning ‘not’; expect – root

word; suffix -ed, inflectional; suffix –ly, derivational, adjective to adverb.

Satisfy-ing: suffix –ing, inflectional, present participle.

(9) The policeman reopened the investigation [23, 18].

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article).

Police-man: endocentric compound, police + man.

Re-open-ed: prefix re-, derivational, meaning ‘do something again’; open –

root word; suffix -ed, inflectional.

Investigat-ion: investigate – root word; suffix –ion, derivational, verb to

noun.

(10) My coworker misinterpreted director’s words [23, 26].

My: inflectional, possessive (I – my).

Co-work-er: prefix co- meaning ‘with’; work – root word; suffix –er,
derivational, verb to noun (‘person doing a specific action’).

Mis-interpret-ed: prefix mis- meaning ‘wrongly’; interpret – root word;

suffix –ed, inflectional.

Director’s: director – root word, ‘s – possessive.

Words: word – root word, suffix –s – plural.

(11) His stern face was all but covered by a gray, unkempt beard [23, 33].

Was: bound, inflectional (be + past).

Covered: inflectional morpheme, past tense, cover+ed.

 26

Unkempt: word-forming morpheme, prefix un-, meaning not.

(12) Only ruddy, pockmarked cheeks and dark, unkind eyes shone through
[23, 18].

Cheeks: inflectional morpheme, plural, cheek+s.

Unkind: word-forming morpheme, prefix un- change the meaning.

Eyes: inflectional morphemes, plural, eye+s.

Shone: inflectional morpheme, past tense, shine to shone.

(13) It pounded violently, but I stood up anyway [23, 39].

It: free morpheme, lexical (pronoun).

Violently: -ly word-forming morpheme.

Stood: inflectional morpheme, past tense, stand.

(14) I pulled my notebook from my bag, scanning my notes [23, 42].

Pulled: inflectional morpheme, past tense, pull+ed.

Scanning: -ing inflectional morpheme.

Notes: inflectional morpheme, plural, note+s.

(15) I sat there for a long time, thinking about the child I’d never know,
milestones I’d never see [23, 58].

Sat: inflectional morpheme, past tense, sit.

Thinking: -ing inflectional morpheme.

Milestones: inflectional morpheme, plural form, milestone+s.

Had: inflectional morpheme, past tense, have.

The next book that we used for our analyze «The Bronte story» by Tim
Vicary.
 27

(16) The wind had blown some dead leaves through the door into the
church, and I watched them dancing in the sunlight near the grave [23,
71].

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article).

Had: inflectional morpheme, past tense, have.

Leaves: -s inflectional morpheme, tense.

Watched: inflectional morpheme, past tense, watch+ed.

Dancing: -ing inflectional morpheme.

(17) I walked through the graveyard to the church this afternoon [23, 67].

Walked: inflectional morpheme, past tense, walk+ed.

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article).

(18) I stood in the church, and looked at the summer flowers I had put on
their grave [23, 74].

Stood: inflectional morpheme, past tense, stand.

The: free morpheme, functional (definite article).

Looked: inflectional morpheme, past tense, look+ed.

Flowers: inflectional morpheme, plural form, flower+s.

Had: inflectional morpheme, past tense, have.

Charlotte’s friend, Mrs Gaskell, is writing a book about her.

Charlotte’s: ‘s – possessive, inflectional morpheme.

Writing: -ing – inflectional morpheme.

 28

(19) They grew stronger, and there was a bright light in their eyes [23,
81].

Grew: inflectional morpheme, past tense, grow.

Was: bound, inflectional (be + past).

Eyes: inflectional morpheme, plural form, eye+s.

(20) My coworker misinterpreted director’s words [23, 83].

My: inflectional, possessive (I – my).

Co-work-er: word-forming morpheme, prefix co- meaning ‘with’; work –

root word; suffix –er, derivational, verb to noun (‘person doing a specific action’).

Mis-interpret-ed: word-forming morpheme, prefix mis- meaning ‘wrongly’;

interpret – root word; suffix –ed, inflectional.

Director’s: inflectional morpheme, director – root word, ‘s – possessive.

Words: inflectional morpheme, word – root word, suffix -s – plural.

The conclusion of the second chapter

In this chapter, we have given examples from the literature. We searched for
sentences containing word-forming and inflectional morphemes and analyzed
them. Using examples, we can confirm that there are more inflectional morphemes
than word-forming ones.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we should say that in our work we have proved the topicality
of the course paper and achieved the aim and the objectives of the research.
In the first chapter, we have analyzed different definitions of a morpheme,
processes of word-forming morphemes and inflectional morphemes, also the main
word-forming and inflectional morphemes.
 29

We learned that morphemes are the smallest meaningful constituents of

words that can be identified. Morphemes can be free or bound. If a morpheme is
free, it can stand on its own, it is a complete word. Nouns, adjectives, verbs and
adverbs are lexical morphemes; conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns, and
auxiliary verbs are functional. If a morpheme is bound, it must be attached to a free
morpheme. A word will typically consist of a single free morpheme, sometimes
referred to as the base, root, or stem, and one or several bound morphemes. Word-
formation is the formation of new words or derivatives from single-root words and
the resulting formal-semantic relationship between the derivative and its producing
word. As for inflectional morphemes, in the English language, as a rule, there can
be particular single non-zero (positively expressed) inflectional morpheme in a
word at the corresponding time. The exclusion to this principle is, firstly, the
morpheme of the possessive case -s, which in general has a peculiar position in the
English language system.

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