Analysing Morphemes

Lesson 7A

Analysing morphemes
You can do this in 2 ways By dividing it up with hyphens: e.g. truth-ful-ness By using a tree diagram
N A N

truth - ful - ness

Dividing with hyphens

Divide into base form + morphemes truth = one morpheme truthful = base form + bound morpheme truth-ful truthfulness = base form + bound + bound truth-ful-ness

Can you divide these words?

Colourful Happiness Unbelievable Teacher Monster Rattlesnake

Can you divide these words?

Colourful Happiness Unbelievable Teacher Monster Rattlesnake

colour-ful happi-ness un-believ-able teach-er monster rattle-snake

Constructing tree diagrams (1)

Divide the word into its constuent morphemes e.g. greed-i-ness Decide the root and its grammatical category : greed = noun (N) Decide the grammatical category of all the new words created by the other morphemes greedy = adjective (A) greediness = noun (N)

Constructing tree diagrams (2)

Write the divided word at the bottom of the page greed-i-ness

Write the grammatical category of the root and join it to the word:
N

greed
A N

Write the grammatical category of all the new words created by the other morphemes and join them up

greed-i

greed-i-ness

Now write the word and connect up all the categories. Can you label the boxes?

Well done!
Greed >

Greedy >

Greediness

Try this word - specification

Can you divide it up with hyphens? specif-ic-ation

specif- = specify = root

What are the grammatical categories ?

specif-ic-ation specify = Verb specific = Adjective specification = Noun

What will be the shape of the tree?

Well done! Now label it

Find the roots the following words

unwholesome whole rulership rule underdeveloped develop overachiever achieve operational operate indispensable dispense

Build the tree from the root

un-whole-some

whole

Add the next word that is created to the tree

whole + some this creates the new adjective wholesome

whole

some

Add the next word that is created to the tree

un + wholesome this creates the new adjective unwholesome

A
A A

un

whole-some

Draw tree diagrams for the following words

rul-er-ship under-develop-ed

over-achiev-er
operat-ion-al in-dispens-able

Analysing compounds

Compound nouns can be a single word with two base forms:

e.g.

windmill = wind + mill rattlesnake = rattle + snake

How do we analyse these ?

Drawing a tree of a 1-word compound is easy

Windmill = noun Wind = noun Mill = noun
N

wind-mill

black bird + black-bird

black bird is a noun phrase
NP

blackbird is a compound noun

N

black bird

black-bird

Analysing 2-word compounds

Compound nouns can also be made up of two words e.g. coffee table In this case you have to decide which word is the head and which word is the modifier

Where is the head in these compounds

coffee table swimming pool car park dish washer oven cleaner

table pool park washer cleaner

dish washer
dish washer washer wash -er wash = noun = noun = verb = bound morpheme = head What shape is the tree?

Notice the label of the head

Analyse and draw a tree

Coffee table Swimming pool Car park