Back to: ENGLISH LANGUAGE SS2
Have you ever wondered how words are built, and how some words can join together to form brand new ones?
That’s the work of morphology and compound words! Morphology teaches us how words are formed from smaller units of meaning called morphemes, while compound words show us how two words can come together to create a completely different meaning. In this lesson, you’ll discover how words grow and work in English
Morphology
Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies the structure of words and how they are formed using morphemes—the smallest units of meaning in a language.
Types of Morphemes:
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Free morpheme | Can stand alone as a full word | book, kind |
| Bound morpheme | Cannot stand alone, must attach | un-, -ness |
Word Formation Processes in Morphology:
- Prefixation – Adding prefixes to words
e.g., un + happy = unhappy - Suffixation – Adding suffixes to words
e.g., teach + er = teacher - Inflection – Changing tense or number
e.g., walk → walked, dog → dogs - Derivation – Changing word class
e.g., happy → happiness (adjective to noun)
Compound Words
Compound words are new words formed when two or more words are joined together to express a single idea.
Types of Compound Words:
| Type | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Closed compounds | Written as one word | toothpaste, classroom |
| Hyphenated compounds | Written with a hyphen | sister-in-law, check-in |
| Open compounds | Written as separate words but function as one | high school, post office |
The meaning of a compound word is usually different or more specific than the meaning of the individual words.
Class Activity
Instruction: Identify whether the following are examples of morphology or compound words:
- Happiness
- Policeman
- Repaint
- Full moon
- Blacksmith
(Answers: 1 – Morphology, 2 – Compound, 3 – Morphology, 4 – Compound, 5 – Compound)
Evaluation
- What is morphology?
- Differentiate between free and bound morphemes with examples.
- What are compound words?
- Mention and explain three types of compound words.
- Form two compound words using each of these words: “school”, “mother”, “hand”.
In summary, Morphology helps us understand how words are built, and how we can add to them to form new ones. Compound words, on the other hand, teach us how two or more words can come together to form a completely new idea. As you read and write, always pay attention to how words are put together—you’ll discover that English is like a fun puzzle, and you now have the tools to solve it!