Editing Bound and free morphemes (section)

==Roots and affixes==

[[Affix]]es are bound by definition.<ref>Haspelmath (2021: §4)</ref> [[English language]] affixes are almost exclusively [[prefix]]es or [[suffix]]es: ''pre-'' in "precaution" and ''-ment'' in "shipment". Affixes may be [[inflectional]], indicating how a certain word relates to other words in a larger phrase, or [[derivation (linguistics)|derivational]], changing either the [[part of speech]] or the actual meaning of a word.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cs.indiana.edu/~gasser/L503/morphology.html|title=L503: Morphology|website=cs.indiana.edu|access-date=2019-12-10}}</ref>{{dead link|date=February 2025}} 

Most [[root (linguistics)|root]]s in English are free morphemes (e.g. ''examin-'' in ''examination'', which can occur in isolation: ''examine''), but others are bound (e.g. ''bio-'' in ''biology'').  Words like ''chairman'' that contain two free morphemes (''chair'' and ''man'') are referred to as [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] words.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.education.vic.gov.au:443/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/readingviewing/Pages/litfocuswordmorph.aspx|title=Word morphology|website=www.education.vic.gov.au|language=en|access-date=2019-12-10}}</ref>

[[Cranberry morpheme]]s are a special form of bound morpheme whose independent meaning has been displaced and serves only to distinguish one word from another, like in ''cranberry,'' in which the free morpheme ''berry'' is preceded by the bound morpheme ''cran-,'' meaning "crane" from the earlier name for the berry, "crane berry".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Concise Oxford English Dictionary of Linguistics (3 ed.)|last=Matthews|first=P.H.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2014|isbn=9780191753060}}</ref>

An empty morpheme is a special type of bound morpheme with no inherent meaning. Empty morphemes change the phonetics of a word but offer no semantic value to the word as a whole.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://languagelinguistics.com/2014/06/19/empty-morphemes-in-linguistics/|title=Empty Morphemes in Linguistics|last=Khullar|first=Payal|date=2014-06-19|website=LanguageLinguistics|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-04}}</ref>

Examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|+Factual
!Morpheme
!Morpheme Form
!Morpheme Meaning
|-
|fact-
|Free Morpheme
|An idea or concept, usually proven true with supporting evidence, that has been socially accepted.
|-
|'''-u-'''
|'''Bound Morpheme'''
|'''No meaning.   (Empty Morpheme)'''
|-
| -al
|Bound Morpheme
|A type of, pertaining to, related to, etc. Creates an adjective form of the noun it supplements.
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Sensual
!Morpheme
!Morpheme Form
!Morpheme Meaning
|-
|sens(e-ø)-
|Free Morpheme
|A body's perception of external stimulus.
|-
|'''-u-'''
|'''Bound Morpheme'''
|'''No meaning.   (Empty Morpheme)'''
|-
| -al
|Bound Morpheme
|A kind of, pertaining to, related to, etc. Creates an adjective form of the noun it supplements.
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Speedometer
!Morpheme
!Morpheme Form
!Morpheme Meaning
|-
|speed-
|Free Morpheme
|The rate which an object covers distance.
|-
|'''-o-'''
|'''Bound Morpheme'''
|'''No meaning.  (Empty Morpheme)'''
|-
| -meter
|Free Morpheme
|A measurement device.
|}
<br />