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American Literature
Morphemes
The word morpheme is used by linguists to name the smallest unit of meaning in a language. Morphemes are a sound or combination of sounds with meaning. Inflectional morphemes are used to show grammatical relationships ({-s} in baker’s). Derivational morphemes are used to create new words ({-er} in baker)
Prototypical English Inflectional Morphemes
| Morpheme Function |
Form |
Combined Form |
Resulting Word |
| Nouns | |||
| Plural | -s | book + -s | books |
| Possessive | -s | Barbara + -s | Barbara’s |
| Verbs | |||
| Present
tense (3rd-person singular) |
-s | walk + -s | walks |
| Past tense | -ed | walk
+ -ed eat + vowel change |
walked ate |
| Past participle | -en | walk
+ -ed eat + -en |
walked eaten |
| Present participle | -ing | walk + ing | walking |
| Adjectives | |||
| Comparative | -er | big + -er | bigger |
| Superlative | -est | big + -est | biggest |
