Dr. Johanna Rubba
English Department
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
Last updated 10/20/08

Practice: Morphological Analysis

Analyze each of the items below morphologically. Determine

(a) how many morphemes each item contains (1 or more than 1);
(b) if there is more than one morpheme, which are free and which bound;
(c) if there is more than one morpheme, which are derivational and which inflectional (use elimination: if there is an affix and it is not in the list of inflectional morphemes, then it's derivational);
(d) if there is more than one morpheme, which one is the root; and what are the remaining morphemes: prefixes or suffixes;
(e) whether the words are simple, compound, or complex
and finally,
(f) if there are inflectional suffixes, are they regular or irregular?

Remember: One or both of the words that make up a compound word may be complex. Such items count as both compound and complex words.

Warning: Don't let variations in spelling disturb you too much. Sometimes adding suffixes changes the way the base word or suffix is spelled.

1 re-established
2 spaghetti
3 apologize
4 statements
5 snowboarding
6 nationality
7 security blanket
8 preregistration
9 relationship
10 ethnic
11 apology
12 American
13 antennae
14 bolder
15 ethnology
16 apologetic
17 gradually
18 kindnesses
19 microwave
20 wavelength
 
 

 answer key