Functions of bound morphemes and free morphemes

Functions of bound morphemes and free morphemes

Lexical morphemes

Lexical morphemes are words such as ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs which carry the 'content' of the message we convey.

Examples:

car, red, high, chase, copy, swallow

Functional morphemes

Functional morphemes are functional words such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns.

Examples:

and, but, when, because, of, the, between.

Derivational morphemes

Derivational morphemes are morphemes that change the meaning or word class of a word.

Examples:

Negative: deactiviate, disconnect, inability, impossible, misunderstanding, unclassified

Size /degree: enlarge, underachieving, overestimated

Space /time: prerequisite, postgraduate, reuse

Change to adjective: manageable, faithful, anonymous

Change to noun: enjoyment, eagerness

Change to verb: privatise

Change to adverb: absolutely

Inflectional morphemes

Inflectional morphemes are morphemes that indicate grammatical changes. All inflectional morphemes are suffixes.

Examples:

Attached to verb: reads, reading, ended, taken

Attached to noun: Peter's, dogs

Attached to adjective: taller, tallest