**Morphology** is part of linguistics. It looks at the way words are put together using small pieces called **morphemes**. A morpheme is the smallest part of a word that has meaning. Different languages have different morphemes and have different rules for how morphemes are combined.

Free and bound morphemes
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Words are the smallest pieces of a sentence. Some words only have one morpheme. For example the English words *thank,* *dog,* and *slow* are all words made up of only one morpheme. A morpheme that can stand alone as a word is called a *free morpheme*.

Words can also be made up of more than one morpheme. English speakers know that one can add the plural(more than one) morpheme, *-s,* to the end of *dog,* and create the word *dogs*. The new word combines the meanings of the two morphemes, so the meaning of the new word, *dogs* is *more than one dog.* *Dog* is a free morpheme, but the plural morpheme *-s* is not. It must attach to a word (no native English speaker would use *-s* as a stand alone word). Morphemes which must be attached to a word are called *bound morphemes*. Morphemes attached to the front of a word are called *prefixes*. Those attached to the end are called *suffixes*. Some morphemes can attach in the middle of a word and are called *infixes*. (example?)

Inflectional and derivational morphemes
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There are two types of bound morphemes: derivational and inflectional. Inflectional morphemes give a listener or reader information about how the word is used in a sentence. English does not have a lot of inflectional morphemes. An example of an inflectional morpheme in English is the *-ed* suffix for verbs. This morpheme at the end of a verb lets the speaker know that the action happened in the past. Another example is the *-s* suffix for nouns to show that there is more than one of the noun.

Derivational morphemes change the part of speech or somehow change the basic meaning of the word they attach to. Most bound morphemes in English are derivational.

Examples
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*English Word: "unthankful"*

Morphemes:

| "un-" | "thank" | "-ful" |
| --- | --- | --- |
| derivational bound morpheme | free morpheme | derivational bound morpheme |
| makes the word it attaches to have the opposite meaning | a verb that means: "to tell (someone) that you are grateful for something that he or she has done or given" | must attach to a noun, changes the word it attaches to into an adjective. |

*English Word: "songwriter"*

Morphemes:

| "song" | "write" | "-er" |
| --- | --- | --- |
| free morpheme | free morpheme | derivational bound morpheme |
| a noun that means: "a short piece of music with words that are sung" | a verb that means: "to form letters or numbers on a surface with a pen, pencil, etc." | must attach to a verb, changes the word it attaches to into a noun with the meaning "one who does (verb)" |

*English Word: "modernized"*

Morphemes:

| "modern" | "-ize" | "-ed" |
| --- | --- | --- |
| free morpheme | derivational bound morpheme | inflectional bound morpheme |
| adjective meaning "of or relating to the present time or the recent past"  | must attach to an adjective, changes the word it attaches to into a verb with the meaning "to make something (adjective)" | must attach to a verb, shows that the verb is in past tense |

Sources
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1. ↑  "Free Morphemes and Bound Morphemes | VLearn".
2. ↑  "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-02-16. Retrieved 2015-04-11.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. ↑  Priyanto, Agus D. (24 November 2008). "Introduction to General Linguistics: Derivational Vs. Inflectional Morpheme".
4. ↑  "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2015-04-11.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. ↑  "Definition of THANK". *www.merriam-webster.com*.
6. ↑  "Definition of SONG". *www.merriam-webster.com*.
7. ↑  "Definition of WRITE". *www.merriam-webster.com*.
8. ↑  "Definition of MODERN". *www.merriam-webster.com*.