Difficulties in Morphemic Analysis

A research proposal submitted to the department of English. College

of languages at the University of Salahaddin-Erbil in fulfillment of
the requirement for the degree of bachelor in English literature.

Prepared by:
Dlsoz Aziz Salih

Supervised by:
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………
Abstract …………………………………………………………................…
Section one: Introduction……………………………………
1.1problems of the research……………………………………
1.2 Aim and importance of the research………………………
1.3 Methodology……………………………………
1.4 Scope of the research……………………………………
1.5 Research questions. ……………………………………
Section two: Theoretical Background ……………………………
2.1 What are morphemes ? ……………………………………
2.2. Types of morphemes and their fundamental characteristics…
2.2.1. free morphemes……………………………………
2.2.1.1 Lexical or content free morphemes…………………
2.2.1.2. Functional free morphemes…………………………
2.2.2 Bound morphemes……………………………………
2.2.2.1 Inflectional bound morphemes…………………………
2.2.2.2 Derivational bound morphemes. …………………………
2.3 Importance of morphemic analysis………………………
2.4 Difficulties in Morphemic
analysis……………………………………
conclusion …………………………………
References……………………………………
Abstract:
Morphemic analysis, a fundamental aspect of linguistic study, faces
numerous challenges warranting exploration. This research delves into the
intricacies of morphemic analysis, aiming to uncover its complexities and
importance in understanding language structures. The methodology
involves a comprehensive review of theoretical frameworks, focusing on
the definition of morphemes, their types, and the significance of morphemic
analysis. The scope encompasses a detailed examination of free and
bound morphemes, including inflectional and derivational categories.
Through this investigation, the research aims to elucidate the role of
morphemes in language structure and communication. The findings
contribute to a deeper understanding of linguistic phenomena and highlight
the necessity of basic research in deciphering language complexities. The
conclusions drawn from this research provide insights into the challenges
of morphemic analysis and underscore the importance of continued
exploration in this field. Recommendations for future research directions
are proposed, emphasizing the need for further investigation into
morphemic analysis to enhance our comprehension of language structures.

Section one
Introduction
1.1 The problem of the research
Morphemes are small units of meaning, they can be prefixes, suffixes, or roots.
Through morphemic analysis, which is the process of identifying the
individual units of meaning, we can understand and analyze vocabulary and
language as a whole, however there are difficulties facing this analysis among
which are the difficulty to differentiate the types of morphemes because some
morphemes may become free and bound at the same time. Another difficulty
would be obsolescence, in which morphemes may slowly fade away into
disuse.In addition the meaning of morphemes sometimes are elusive and
unstable. which makes it difficult to properly understand them.

1.2 Aims and Importance of the research

The purpose of this research is to study and demonstrate the significance of
morphemes in language, as well as to discuss and describe them and their
function. The main focus is on the demonstrating the origins of morphemes
and their functions in words and sentences. We will demonstrate what they
can discover about the challenges associated with realizing morphemes,
specifically their types or analyses. And also, for those who are interested in
learning more about the English language in depth, this research is extremely
important. It is crucial for students studying morphology to understand the
subject matter, or morphology in general, regarding morphemes specifically.
Furthermore, it might be crucial for those fourth-year students who wish to
learn more about morphemes and words. Furthermore, it will be crucial for
researchers in the future.

1.3 Methodology
This research relies on a descriptive method aiming to point out and collect
data to provide an accurate portrayal or detailed account of difficulties in
morphemic analysis . It aims to observe morphemes and their types in English
language also analysing them . The data of this research will be analysed
according to existing records , books , different perspectives and cites .

1.4 The scope of the research

The identification and description of morphemes are the only subjects
covered in this study. It also discusses the locations, functions, and
appearances of morphemes in words and sentences. Additionally, it is limited
to the morpheme description categories while also emphasizing the issues or
challenges that students could encounter in English language.

1.5 Research questions.

1.What specific challenges do language learners and speakers encounter

in morphemic analysis?

2.How does understanding difficulties in morphemic analysis contribute to

our comprehension of language structures?
3. How do different types of morphemes (e.g., free, bound, inflectional,
derivational)
impact morphemic analysis?

Section two
 Theoretical Background
2.1 What are morphemes ?
Richard Nordquist in his article titled as Definitions and Examples of
Morphemes in English 2020 states that In English grammar and morphology,
a morpheme is a meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word such as dog,
or a word element, such as the - s at the end of dogs, that can't be divided into
smaller meaningful parts .( P.1)

“word forms" can have various components. one is able to acknowledge

that word forms in English like talks talker talked and talking have to have
one the remaining four elements, -s, -er, -ed, and - ing, and the element talk.
Each of these components. A morpheme is defined as "a minimal unit of
meaning or grammatical purpose.” referred to as morphemes.Gr ammatical
function units include forms used to denote the plural or past tense, for
example . Thus the word "renewed" .comprises three meaning units: one
minim al unit (new), one minimal unit (re = "again"), and one gr ammatical
funct on (-ed past tense). The term "tourist" has two units of grammatical
function (plural of - s) plus units of meaning (tour and -ist). Also a relativity
look at the word "unforgettable". Its meaning is evident. and generally
acknowledged , however the term consists of three distinct parts, ho ever the
term consists of three distinct parts, and it is the final and comprehensive
meaning of the word is derived from the combination of these three parts."U
n-" and "forget" and "-able" are the three components that make up
"unforgettable"."Forget" is a verb in actuality since it describes an action. This
verb becomes an adjective ("forgettable") when the suffix "able" is added,
indicating that the subject or event it describes is readily forgotten. The
adjective's meaning is reversed when "UN~" is added at the beginning: The
newly coined adjective "unforgettable" denotes the inability to forget
someone. or something similar. Remove one of these parts, and the word
either takes on a different meaning or has no meaning at all. Each of the three
parts in "unforgettable" is a unit of meaning as known as morphemes. while
some words only have one morpheme numours other words in both English
and other languages.
It is really clear in a terms such as "unforgettable" which has three
morphemes, "forgettable" has two morphemes , and the word "forget" is one
morpheme. So, when more than half a century ago thousands of people
crooned the popular Nat King Cole song "Unfor- gettable". they were repeating
a word with three morphemes that they knew what it meant. flawlessly,
even though they might not have known all that the word had genuinely a
verb, as it denotes an action. Adding "able" to three different units that these
entities were referred to as morphemes.
Furthermore, Nunes and peter Bryant declares in the book Improving
literacy by teaching morphemes that “people do have some awareness of
morphemes, this awareness tends to be hazy and incomplete”. (2006, p.1.2)
Despite their talk, minority of people have might have the abilities to
recognize if a word is really a combination of morphemes but generally people
do not know .just like Stageberge in his book entitled as An introductory
English Grammar that A morpheme is a brief linguistic unit that satisfies
three requirements:
1. It is a meaningful word or portion of a meaningful word.
2. Its meaning cannot be altered by breaking it up into smaller, more
manageable parts. without unnecessary reminders.
3. It recurs in differing verbal environments with a relatively stable
meaning.(p.83 , 1981).

As Satgeberg gives more detail about the meaning of the word straight
/stret/. First of all, it is a word that is recognized by people and can be found
in any dictionary. Secondly, dividing it would mean losing its meaning. As an
illustration, For example,by dividing (straight) / stret/, get the smaller
meaningful forms of trait / tret/, rate /ret/, and ate /et/, but the meanings of
these violate the meaning of (straight).Moreover, the meaningless remainders
of /s-/, /st-/, and /str-/ can be obtained by dividing it in this manner. Third,
with a meaning that is comparatively stable, (straight) recurs in settings like a
(straight line), a (straight edge), and a (straighten). Consequently (straight)
satisfies all morpheme requirements. As a second example which is a
comparison of the morpheme (bright) light) with the word (brighten) make
light). In sound the only difference between the two words is the added /-en/
of (brighten), and in meaning the difference is the added sense of "make" in
(brighten). This leads us to conclude that /-en/ means "make." Thus one can
see that /-en/ is a part of a word that has meaning. However it cannot be
broken down into more manageable , significant chunks and that it repeats
with a constant meaning in terms such as repeats with a constant meaning in
terms such as " deepen " " soften" stiffen" and "cheapen " .It is therefore
obvious that /-en/ must be considered a morpheme. (An introductory English
grammar –p.87 1981).It means that the meaning of the words will change
when we use different morphemes. As we mentioned the bound morpheme (-
en).
2.2 Types of morphemes
"Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning of a language. They are
commonly classified as either free morphemes, which can occur as
separate words or bound morphemes, which can't stand alone as words".
(Nordquist Definition and Examples of morphemes in english
p.1 2020 )
There is a broad distinction between two types of morphemes, there
are: Free morphemes and bound morphemes.

2.2.1 Free morphemes

Free morphemes are morphemes or word components that can stand

alone as whole sentences, such as (new) and (tour). It is also known as a
free-standing morpheme or an unbound morpheme. The group of
independent English word forms, such as the most basic nouns, adjectives,
and verbs, might be considered the free morphemes. The opposite of a
bound morpheme is a free morpheme .

English words frequently only contain one free morpheme. For

instance, each word in the phrase ( I need to go now, but you can stay) is a
separate morpheme. In other words, none of the nine words in that
sentence can be broken down into smaller, equally meaningful units. There
are two main forms of free morphemes: lexical or content free morphemes
and function morphemes or words.

2.2.1.1 Lexical or content free morphemes

 Two groups can be distinguished from free morphemes. The first
category consists of common nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that
students believe to be the main components of the messages they
express. As an example,the words (woman, man, home, tiger, melancholy,
lengthy, yellow, authentic, open, look, and follow, and break) are examples
of lexical morphemes, which are free morphemes. They are regarded as a
(open) class of words since it is relatively simple to introduce new lexical
morphemes into the language. As their name suggests, content words
carry the majority of a sentence's content.

2.2.1.2 Functional free morphemes

Free morphemes also include functional morphemes.The terms and,
but, when, for, close, above, in, the, that, it, and them are a
fewexamples.The majority of the functional terms in the language, such as
conjunctions,pronouns, articles, and prepositions.The term "closed class" is
used to describe them. phrases. given that there are rarely any new
functional morphemes added to the vocabulary. Most function words offer
some kind of grammatical assistance.function,possessing minimal
intrinsic significance .As Weisler and Milkie states that in the book Theory
of Language ,1999 that "One circumstance in which the distinction between
function words and content words is useful is when one is inclined to keep
wordiness to a minimum; for example, when drafting a telegram,where
every word costs money. In such a circumstance, one tends to leave
out most of the function words (like to, that, and, there, some, and but),
concentrating instead on content words to convey the gist of the message."
(p.3)
2.2.2 Bound morphemes
 Another kind of morpheme is the bound morpheme. These are the
forms, such as re-, -ist, -ed, and - s, that ordinarily cannot stand alone and
are joined to another form. Therefore, all affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in
English are bound morphemes as opposed to free morphemes.
A new word or at least a new form of an existing word is produced when
a bound morpheme is joined to a free morpheme, as when the prefix (re-)
is added to the verb (start), represented by word fragments known as
morphs in both writing and speech.
The English language has hundreds of bound morphemes, which gives
rise to practically endless options for extending unbound morphemes that
are generally known as words by joining these pieces to already existing
words.

2.2.2.1 Derivational bound morphemes

There are two categories that can be used to categorize the collection of
affixes that make up the category of bound morphemes. Word derivation is
used to describe one type. The derivational morphemes are those.
These bound morphemes are combined with the stem to form new words
or words belonging to a different grammatical category.
For instance, the adjective excellent becomes the noun goodness when
the derivational morpheme -ness is added. By adding the derivational
morphemes - ful or -less, the noun care can be transformed into the
adjectives careful or careless. a derivational morpheme is a set of letters
that are added to the beginning (prefix) or end (suffix) of a root or base
word to produce a new term or a different version of an already existing
word in grammar.
 Derivational morphemes therefore include prefixes like re-, pre-, ex-,
mis-, co-, and un- as well as suffixes like the -ish in foolish, the -ly in fast,
and the - ment in payment. The grammatical category or part of speech of
the root word to which a derivational morpheme is introduced is frequently
altered. For instance, changing the (e) to a (er) at the end of the verb
merge transforms it into a noun (merger), whereas adding (ful) to the noun
beauty transforms it into an adjective (beautiful).also ricahrd nordquist in
another article entitled as what are derivational morphemes ? that "the form
of a word that results from adding a derivational morpheme is known as a
derived word or a derivative" (p.1)

2.2.2.2 Inflectional bound morphemes

Inflectional morphemes, also known as inflections, belong to the second

category of bound morphemes. They serve to emphasize certain aspects of a
word's grammatical role rather than forming entirely new words in the
language.
Inflectional morphemes are employed to indicate a word's gender, past
tense status, comparative form, and possessive form. Only eight
inflectional morphemes, all suffixes, exist in English. As shown here:
1. Jim's two sisters are really different.
2. One likes to have fun and is always laughing.
3.The other liked to read as a child and has always taken things
seriously.
4. One is the loudest person in the house and the other is quieter than a
mouse.
 Both inflections (-'s, -s) are used to indicate possessive and plural
nouns respectively on nouns in the first sentence. Keep in mind that the (-
's) used here is a possessive inflection rather than the -'s used to
abbreviate the words is or has (for example, she's singing, it happened
again). Verbs can take on one of four inflections: -s (3rd person singular,
present tense), -ing (present participle), -ed (past tense), and -en (infinitive)
(past participle). Adjectives can be inflected in two different ways:
-er (comparative) and -est (superlative).
Noun + -'s, -s
Verb + -s, -ing, -ed, -en
Adjective + -er, -est

These inflectional morphemes have some diversity in form, as was

already mentioned. For instance, the (past participle) is frequently -ed,
while the possessive might occasionally be seen as the plural form -s'
(those lads' bags) (they have finished). Inflectional morphemes do not alter
a word's fundamental meaning or grammatical category, in contrast to
derivational morphemes. Nouns remain nouns, adjectives remain
adjectives, and verbs remain verbs. For instance, the noun carrot still
qualifies as a noun even after adding a (-s) to indicate plurality. Free
morphemes, which are words that can't be broken down into smaller
component pieces and retain meaning, occasionally have derivational
morphemes added to them. The majority of English words with only one
syllable are free morphemes. For instance, each word in the sentence: (I hit
the man on his head) each of the words is a free morpheme that cannot be
broken down into smaller parts. We might add a derivational morpheme to
the sentence to clarify its meaning. The reader can now tell which area of
the (man's head) was struck by prefixing the word (head) with (fore) In
order to construct several meanings, leaners can also add multiple
derivational morphemes to a root word or an inflectional morpheme.
In order to produce several meanings, learners can also add several
derivational morphemes to a root word or an inflectional morpheme. For
instance: the verb (transform) is made up of the root word (form) and a
derivational morpheme, the prefix (trans), by adding the derivational
morpheme (ation) as a suffix, (transform) becomes the noun
(transformation). But you don't have to stop there, you can create the
adjective (transformation) by adding another derivational morpheme suffix
(al) after (ation).
When free morphemes are used with bound morphemes attached, the
basic word forms are technically known as stems.

For example :
-undressed
un- dress -ed
prefix stem suffix
bound free bound

-carelessness
Care -less -ness
stem suffix suffix
free bound bound
 Puguh Trilestari implies that "this type of description is a partial
simplification of the morphological facts of English. There are a number of
English words in which the element treated as the stem is not, in fact, a
free morpheme. In words such as receive, reduce and repeat, we can
identify the bound morpheme re- at the beginning, but the elements -ceive,
- duce and -peat are not separate word forms and hence cannot be free
morphemes. These types of forms are sometimes described as (bound
stems)".(Reaserch in English and Applied Linguistics vol 1, p.386 )

2.3 Importance of morphemic analysis

Why is morphemic analysis important?
Knowledge of morphology helps students acquire meaning of derived
and inflected words, which in turn promotes reading comprehension. In
teaching morphemes the student is made aware of semantic connections
between words and consistent spellings in word families.
Morphemes are important for phonics in vocabulary and
comprehension,as well as in reading and spelling. Therefore, it broadens
one's vocabulary and enhances comprehension. When students
encounters a new word, they break it down into its component parts to
determine the meaning of each one and arrive at a more accurate definition
than they would have otherwise. This process is known as morphemic
analysis. It makes it possible to understand some components of a new
word by dissecting the word's structure using morphemes. Language
analysis and broad issue solving both employ morphological analysis.
Morphology makes it easier for teachers to communicate with students in
many academic subjects, assisting students in understanding issues and
finding solutions. The meanings and structures of words are revealed by
teaching morphemes. Possessing a keen awareness is really beneficial.

2.4 Difficulties in Morphemic analysis

In every level of linguistics we have difficulties, some of them are

serious that can not be answered, some others can be answered.
The first difficulty in morphemic analysis is that: because native
speakers have a unique or individual stock of morphemes identical to their
individual stock of vocabulary, morphemic analysis can be challenging. As
a result, each native speaker can understand and consider words in
accordance with his unique collection of morphemes.
Stageberge illustrates this issue more (I will be using the letters X, Y
and Z to refer to three different native speakers who are different in
thinking, ways of interpretation and in their stock of morphemes).
For example the word (automobile) as an example,
While X may perceive it as a single morpheme that simply means (car),
Y may perceive it to contain two morphemes (auto) which means (self) and
(mobile) which means (moving) similar to the words (autograph) or
(mobilize), While X may believe the word (chronometer) has two
morphemes (chrono) which implies (time) and (meter) which denotes
(measure) similar to (chronology) and (photometer), Y may alternatively
think of it as having one morpheme, which, in his opinion, means a fancy
watch. The differences of interpretation and thinking of X and Y are due to
their individual stock of morphemes.
The second issue with morphemic analysis is that although native
speakers may be familiar with a particular morpheme, their level of
awareness of its use in various words varies.For instance, words like
singer, worker, actor, teacher, writer, etc. come to mind for both X and Y
when asked about the meaning of the agentive suffix /-or/, which can be
written as (-er, -or, and ar). According to X, these words are made up of a
lexical morpheme and the derivational suffix /-er/. The fact that terms like
professor, cracker, voucher, and tumbler likewise include two morphemes-
lexical and derivational morphemes-is also something he realizes. Y, on the
other hand, believes that terms like (worker, actor, and teacher) likewise
consist of two morphemes, although she has a sneaking suspicion that
there is an agentive suffix in the word professor. The derivational suffix in
terms like voucher, cracker, and tumbler may also entirely escape Y's
attention. Hence, we can argue that X and Y are different from one another
in terms of how conscious they are of the agentive suffix (-er). this indicates
that X is conscious of the agentive suffix and its use in various terms,
whereas Y just vaguely perceives it in words like (professor) and
completely ignores it in words like (cracker) and (tumbler).
The third difficulty which requires a linguistically knowledgeable person
to recognize, is the group of nose, noseful, nosey, nasal, nuzzle, nozzle,
nostril, and nasturtium. Z, which represents the linguistically knowledgeable
person, would be able to see that the root (nose) occurs all these words. X
and Y will exhibit many differences in their awareness degree. Thus, we
conclude that the stock of morphemes of X is not similar to that of Y or Z"
[An introductory English grammar 1981). Also Rice kern in Morpheme
order and Semantic scope 2000 cites that " another problem in morphemic
analysis is called obsolescence. Since language changes permanently, old
morphemes die out and new ones emerge through the passage of time. If a
morpheme vanishes and another morpheme evolves in the same function,
the new morpheme will conquer the occurrence of the old one" .
The fourth difficulty is about nouns that are composed of a base
morpheme and the suffix (-some), such as (problematic, lonesome, and
cuddlesome). These words' two morphemes continue to be used and are
not extinct. Hence, they are simple to identify by morphemic analysis.
Words like (winsome) for instance, derive from the Old English word
(wynn), which means (joy) or (pleasure). The word is recognized as
(monomorphemic) and no longer has the basis (wynn). "Another example
of (obsolescence) is with the word (ungainly) which means (not gainly).
This word raises the question, what does (gainly) mean? If one look it up in
contemporary dictionaries, like Merriam Webster or Oxford dictionary, he
will find that such a word is not in common use and is labeled (archaic) or
(dialectal)". (Merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gainly) and
(oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gainly). So, the pertinent question or the
difficulty is: does (ungainly) have one, two, or even three morphemes?
The fifth difficulty with morphemic analysis is that, like morphemes,
metaphors also disappear as a function of linguistic change. Take the
morpheme (prehend) which means (seize) as an example. Words like
(apprehend) which means (to arrest or seize) and (prehensile) which
means (to be capable of seizing) retain the meaning of the morpheme.
However in the word (comprehend) the metaphor, which means (seize
mentally) appears to be dead. So, comprehend now means (understand)
(not seize mentally). The questions raised in this issue are, does the word
(comprehend) still have the morpheme (prehend) or not? And Is it a word of
one or two morphemes?
 Another example is with the word (bankrupt) meaning in this example
(bench broken) which comprises of two morphemes (bank and -rupt), The
meaning of the morpheme (bank) in this context is (a bench), which is now
thought to be archaic. Words like (rupture) and (interrupt) still utilize the
other morpheme, (-rupt).
Nevertheless, since the original metaphor of a (bank) as a (bench) is no
longer valid, the meaning of (bank) and (-rupt) does not add up to the
current definition of (bankrupt). So, it poses a difficulty asks, how many
morphemes does the word (bankrupt) have? One or two
"Additive meanings, which is the sixth problem is a problem in itself.
Meaning is very elusive, and when morphemes combine in a word, their
meanings lend to be unstable and evanescent, they may even disappear
altogether. Consider, for example, the morpheme pose (place). In (pose a
question) the meaning is clear, and it is probably retained in (interpose)
(place between). But in (suppose) and (repose) the meaning appears to
have evaporated. Between these extremes are words like (compose,
depose, impose, propose, and transpose) in which the sense of pose
seems to acquire special nuances in combination. Which of all these
words, then, may be said to contain the morpheme (pose)(place)? Such
are some of the problems in morphemic analysis that have plagued
linguists." (Stageberg 1981).
Productivity, is the seventh difficulty some morphological rules are
productive, i.e., they can be used freely to form new words from the list of
free and bound morpheme. For instance, the suffix (-able) is generally
added to verbs to form adjectives with the meaning of the verb and the
meaning of the suffix (-able) which means (able to be) as in (changeable),
but to examine words like (peaceable). The morpheme (un-) in the meaning
of not is combined with adjectives like (free, afraid) to form negatives of
these adjectives as in (unfree, unafraid) what is noted is that the morpheme
(un-) is (unlike -able) i.e., does not change the grammatical category of the
stem it attaches to. Moreover, (un-) can be added to derive adjectives that
have been created by morphological rules as in (unbelievable).
Also false analysis is a general problem in morphemic analysis, which
is the eighth difficulty The words like (sizeable) for instance, simply end
with (-able) but it would be false analysis to claim that these words contain
the productive suffix (-able). These words simply happen to end in a
sequence spelled (-able) and they bear only an accidental resemblance to
words with the real suffix (-able). (Akmjian.2001)
Bound base Morpheme, which is the ninth difficulty Another classic
problem of morphological analysis is the case of a complex word with a
recognizable suffix or prefix attached to a base that is not an existing word
of the language as in words like feasible, or malleable where the suffix (-
able) has regular meaning (be able) but to break these words down, they
will have no existence in the dictionary.

Conclusion