3.3   Classifying Morphemes

    Morphemes vary in function. Accordingly, we can classify morphemes into several general categories: free versus bound, derivational versus inflectional, and lexical versus grammatical. However, their boundaries are not as clear-cut as they appear to be due to some overlapping(重叠). For the sake of discussion, we shall define each type in terms of its characteristics.

 

1. Free versus Bound Morphemes(自由词素与粘着词素)

    This is the easiest and most preferred classification in morphological studies, discussed in Hatch and Brown (1995), Crystal (1985), Fromkin and Rodman (1983), Bauer (1983), Bolinger and Sears (1981) and Matthews (2000). Morphemes which are independent of other morphemes are free. These morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences. They are identical with (与……完全相同) words, for example, man, earth, wind, car and anger.

      Morphemes which cannot occur as separate words are bound. They are so named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words or to perform a particular grammatical function. Bound morphemes are chiefly found in derived words (派生词). Let us take recollection, idealistic and ex-prisoner for example. Each of the three words comprises three morphemes: recollection (re- collect-ion) , idealistic (ideal-ist-ic) , ex-prisoner (ex- prison -er). Of the nine morphemes, collect, ideal and prison can stand by themselves and thus are free morphemes. All the rest re-, -ion , -ist, -ic, ex-and -er are bound as none of them are freestanding units.

      Free morphemes are all roots, which are capable of being used as words or as word-building elements to form new words like collect, ideal, prison , whereas bound morphemes consist of either roots or affixes, most of which can be used to create new words like -dict- , -ced- (接近；去), re-, -ion, -ist, -ic and ex-(前). But there are a few affixes which can only indicate such grammatical concepts as tense, aspect, number and case, for example, the -ing in watching, -er in easier, -s in books, and -ed in worked.

     The English language possesses a multitude of (大量的) words made up of merely bound morphemes, e. g. antecedent, which can be broken down into ante-, -ced- and -ent. Among them, -ced- is a root meaning 'approach, go to', ante-, a prefix meaning 'before' and -ent, a noun suffix meaning 'a person, a thing', thus the whole word antecedent meaning 'something that goes before'(前例；前事；先行词；祖先). These examples show clearly that bound morphemes include two types: bound root (See Root, Stem, Base) and affix.

 

    2. Derivational versus Inflectional Morphemes

    Morphemes wich are used to derive new words are known as derivational morphemes (派生词素) because when these morphemes are conjoined, new words are derived. In English, derivatives and compounds are all formed by such morphemes. For example, a + mor + ai, clear + ance, Life + Like and homo + gen + eous are results of such morphological processes.

    Inflectional morphemes(屈折词素), in contrast, indicate the syntactic relationships between words and function as grammatical markers. Inflectional morphemes are confined to suffixes. There is the regular plural suffix -s (-es) which is added to nouns such as machines, fridges, desks, radios and potatoes; the same forms can be added to verbs to indicate the simple present for the third person singular such as likes, works and goes; the form -'s is used to denote the possessive case of nouns such as the children ' s library, the man ' s role and the mother-in-law' s complaints; the suffixes -er, -est are usually attached to simple adjectives or adverbs to show their comparative or superlative degrees like happier—happiest, harder—hardest. Apart from these, there is the past tense marker -ed and progressive marker -ing added to verbs. 

3. Content versus Grammatical Morphemes

    On a semantic and syntactic basis, morphemes can fall into content and grammatical morphemes. Content morphemes are lexical morphemes which are used as we see above to derive new words, so also known as derivational morphemes. These morphemes, whether free or bound, have a lexical content, hence the name. Grammatical morphemes, on the other hand, function primarily as grammatical markers. They encompass both inflectional affixes and free morphemes such as in, and, do, have, they, -while, -where, but and that, which are traditionally called functional words.