Лекции по лексикологии английского языка. Гусева Г.В. - 23 стр.

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III. Classification of Morphemes

By the degree of their independence morphemes are classified into free and

bound. Free morphemes may occur alone and coincide with word-forms or

immutable words: at, by, water- (water, watery). Bound morphemes occur only in

combination with other morphemes: dis- (dislike), -y (watery). Most roots are free

but some are bound: cran- (cranberry). Affixes are always bound. Some

morphemes occupy an intermediate position between free and bound:

1. semi-affixes: -man (postman), half- (half-eaten);

2. combining forms: tele- (television), graph (autograph);

By their frequency morphemes are classified into recurrent and unique.

Recurrent morphemes are found in a number of words: sing-ing = sing- (singer,

sing-song) + -ing (walking, drawing). Unique morphemes are found only in a

given word: pock (pocket).

By their activity in the language affixes are subduvided into productive and

non-productive. Productive affixes are used to build new words: -ism (escapism), -

ize (nationalize). Non-productive affixes do not build new words: -th (growth), -

ous (monotonous).

By their position in the word affixes are subdivided into prefixes and

suffixes. A prefix stands before the root and modifies its lexical meaning: kind –

unkind. In some cases it changes the word‘s grammatical or lexico-grammatical

meaning: sleep (noun) – asleep (stative). A suffix follows the root, modifying its

lexical meaning and changing the word‘s grammatical or lexico-grammatical

meaning: appear (verb) – appearance (noun). The suffix renders a very general

meaning and is often fused with the root semantically.