Dr. Johanna Rubba
English Department
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
Updated 4/14/11

Morphology Exercises

1) For the following words, identify all roots (base words).

2) Isolate the affixes in each of these words and state whether each is prefix or suffix

1-depose de- prefix	5-action -ion suffix
2-readily -ly suffix	6-repackage re- prefix -age suffix
3-active -ive suffix	7-unchanged un- prefix -ed suffix
4-behead be- prefix	8-forcefully -ful suffix -ly suffix






3) Identify the component morpheme(s) of each word. How many morphemes does each word contain? If there are affixes, what are the meanings or functions of the affixes? For words with affixes, give examples of two other words that have the same affix.


a) stupidity - 2: stupid -ity -ity: creates a noun from an adjective; names the quality designated by the noun. Examples: clarity, profanity	f) paper - 1	k) misbehaved - 3: mis-behave-(e)d mis- : to do something incorrectly Examples: misfire, misunderstand -ed: past action Examples: fired, needed
b) unreliable - 3:  un- rely -able un- : negation of the root meaning Examples: unhappy, unfair -able: can undergo an action Examples: washable, understandable	g) sleeping - 2: sleep -ing -ing: marks the present participle of a verb; also changes a verb to a gerund (noun form) Examples of present participle: is running, was eating Examples of gerund: running is fun; knitting is easy	l) management - 2: manage -ment -ment: creates a noun from a verb Examples: payment, statement
c) classroom - 2: class room Both are roots; this is a compound word	h) disinfectant - 3: dis- infect -ant (infect may be considered in-fect) dis- : reverse an action or undo a state Examples: disassemble, disengage in- : put or go inside Examples: inject, invade -ant: agent/cause of an action Examples: fumigant, applicant	m) painters - 3:  paint -er -s -er: person or thing that carries out the action named by the root Examples: writer, scanner
d) ugly - 1	i) magazine - 1	n) deforms - 3: de- form -s de- : remove something or reverse an action Examples: debug, decentralize
e) unfairly - 3: un- fair -ly un-: see b) -ly: changes adjective to adverb Examples: mainly, superbly	j) sandwich - 1	o) husbands - 2: husband -s -s: plural (more than one) Examples: books, candles


4) All of these words have the same suffix, -ify. This suffix creates verbs with the meaning "to give something the quality named by the root." There is something different about the roots of the second column. What is it? To find the answer, take off the suffix of all ten words and see what's left. Note: adding this suffix to a word that ends in 'e' requires removing the 'e.' Note that that makes no difference in the pronunciation.



Column 1	Column 2
classify	specify
solidify	identify
personify	mollify
purify	deify
falsify	ratify

Answer:  Removing the affixes from classify, solidify, personify, purify, and falsify leaves a root that can stand alone as a free morpheme: class, solid, person, pure, and false. However, removing the affixes from the words in column two leaves a root that cannot stand alone: spec, ident, moll, de, and rat are not freestanding words. The words in column 2 have bound roots.

 

* These exercises are adapted or taken from The structure of English, by Thomas E. Murray, 1995.

4) ANALYZABILITY PROBLEM

A.  All of the following words end in 'er'.  Is 'er' a morpheme in all of the words? Is it the same morpheme in all of the words? Provide proof of your answers. To do a morphological proof, you must (1) point out which elements of the word you believe to be morphemes; (2) prove their morphemehood: first, give the meaning of each morpheme you find in the word and, second, for bound morphemes, give at least two more examples of words that contain the same bound morpheme with the same meaning.

Words:
taller, river, shorter, farmer, either, smarter, caller, painter, finger, sweeter, other, never, teacher, cover


B. Do the same, using the following words, which all end in 'en' :
Words:
soften, broken, taken, even, whiten, often, eaten, sudden, widen, harden, open, deepen, oven



* This exercise was adapted from Anatomy of English by Dorothy Sedley.