Phonemes Vs. Morphemes II Free and Bound Morphemes

 

The words in our spoken languages can be broken down into smaller components known as phonemes (units of sound) and morphemes (units of meaning)

WHAT ARE PHONEMES?

Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound to make a meaningful difference to a word.

For examples, the sounds like /b/, /p/, /r/, /k/

• The word “CAT” is made of three phonemes:

1. /k/

2. /e/

3. /t/

• The word “DOG” is made of three phonemes:

1. /d/

2. /o/

3. /g/

WHAT ARE MORPHEMES?

Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of words.

There are two types of morphemes.

	FREE MORPHEMES	BOUND MORPHEMES
1	Morphemes which can stand on their own.	Morphemes which cannot be used independently in a sentence.
2	They have their own specific meanings.	They do have their own meanings.
3	Root words are called free morphemes.	Prefixes, suffixes etc. are called bound morphemes.
4	They are called free because they are in infinite number. New free morphemes can be added.	They are called bound because they are in fixed number. New bound morphemes cannot be added.
5	Examples: power, faith, teach, play, arrange etc.	Examples: “ful”, “ness”, “ed”, “re” etc.

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