Grammar: Word Level

Grammar can be analysed at two levels: word level (morphology) and sentence level (syntax). This lesson focuses on word-level grammar — the internal structure of words and the processes by which new words are formed. Understanding morphology enriches your analysis by revealing how individual words are constructed and how word formation contributes to meaning.

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Morphology: The Study of Word Structure

Morphology is the branch of linguistics concerned with the internal structure of words — how they are built from smaller meaningful units called morphemes.

Key Definition: Morpheme — the smallest unit of meaning in a language. A morpheme cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts. For example, "unhappiness" contains three morphemes: un- + happy + -ness.

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Free and Bound Morphemes

Morphemes are classified into two fundamental categories:

Type	Definition	Examples
Free morpheme	Can stand alone as an independent word	cat, run, happy, book, green
Bound morpheme	Cannot stand alone — must be attached to another morpheme	un-, -ness, -ed, -ing, -s, re-, dis-, -ly

Bound morphemes are further divided into prefixes (attached before the root) and suffixes (attached after the root).

Position	Type	Examples
Prefix	Bound morpheme added before the root	un-happy, re-write, dis-agree, pre-heat, mis-lead
Suffix	Bound morpheme added after the root	happi-ness, teach-er, quick-ly, walk-ed, walk-ing
Infix	Bound morpheme inserted into the root (rare in English)	Informal/taboo examples: "abso-bloomin-lutely"

Key Definition: Free morpheme — a morpheme that can stand alone as an independent word. Bound morpheme — a morpheme that must be attached to another morpheme; it cannot exist independently.

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Inflectional vs. Derivational Morphology

Bound morphemes serve two distinct functions:

Inflectional Morphemes

Inflectional morphemes modify a word's grammatical properties (such as tense, number, or degree) without changing its word class or core meaning.

English has a relatively small number of inflectional morphemes:

Inflection	Function	Example
-s / -es	Plural noun	cat → cats, box → boxes
-'s	Possessive	the dog**'s** bone
-s	Third person singular present tense verb	she walks, he runs
-ed	Past tense	walked, jumped
-ing	Present participle / continuous aspect	walking, running
-en	Past participle (irregular)	broken, taken
-er	Comparative adjective	taller, quicker
-est	Superlative adjective	tallest, quickest

Key Definition: Inflectional morpheme — a bound morpheme that changes the grammatical form of a word (e.g., tense, number, comparison) without changing its word class. English has only eight inflectional morphemes.

Derivational Morphemes

Derivational morphemes create new words, often changing the word class of the base:

Derivational morpheme	Base → Derived word	Word class change
un-	happy → unhappy	adjective → adjective (no change, but changes meaning)
-ness	happy → happiness	adjective → noun
-ful	beauty → beautiful	noun → adjective
-ly	quick → quickly	adjective → adverb
-ise/-ize	modern → modernise	adjective → verb
-ment	govern → government	verb → noun
-able	enjoy → enjoyable	verb → adjective
re-	write → rewrite	verb → verb (changes meaning)
dis-	agree → disagree	verb → verb (changes meaning)
-er/-or	teach → teacher	verb → noun (agent)

Key Definition: Derivational morpheme — a bound morpheme that creates a new word, often changing the word class of the base. For example, adding -ness to the adjective "kind" produces the noun "kindness."

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Word Formation Processes

New words enter English through a variety of processes. Understanding these processes is important for analysing language change and for recognising the creative ways in which speakers and writers manipulate language:

Compounding

Combining two or more free morphemes to create a new word:

Compound	Components	Word class
blackbird	black + bird	noun
greenhouse	green + house	noun
outrun	out + run	verb
well-known	well + known	adjective
website	web + site	noun

Note that the meaning of a compound is often not simply the sum of its parts — a "blackbird" is a specific species, not just any bird that is black.

Blending