A bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word. It must be attached to another morpheme ( either a free morpheme or another bound morpheme ) to form a complete word. In contrast, a free morpheme can stand alone as a word ( e. g. , cat, run, happy ) .
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Bound morphemes typically function as prefixes or suffixes, and they often change the meaning or grammatical function of the word they are attached to.
Types of Bound Morphemes:
There are two main types of bound morphemes:
Derivational Morphemes: These morphemes are used to create new words. They can change the word’s meaning, its part of speech ( e. g. , turning an adjective into a noun ) , or both.
Prefixes: Added to the beginning of a free morpheme.
un - ( meaning ‘not’ ) : unhappy ( happy un - )
re - ( meaning ‘again’ ) : redo ( do re - )
pre - ( meaning ‘before’ ) : preview ( view pre - )
dis - ( meaning ‘not’ or ‘opposite of’ ) : dislike ( like dis - )
Suffixes: Added to the end of a free morpheme.
- ness ( turns adjectives into nouns ) : happiness ( happy ness )
- able or - ible ( makes adjectives meaning ‘capable of being’ ) : readable ( read able ) , flexible ( flex ible )
- ly ( turns adjectives into adverbs ) : quickly ( quick ly )
- ify ( turns nouns/adjectives into verbs ) : simplify ( simple ify )
Inflectional Morphemes: These morphemes are used to indicate grammatical function and do not create new words, but rather modify existing words to fit grammatical rules. They are typically suffixes in English.
Plural - s: Indicates more than one noun ( e. g. , cats ( cat s ) )
Possessive 's: Indicates ownership ( e. g. , cat’s ( cat 's ) )
Third - person singular present - s: Used with verbs when the subject is third - person singular ( e. g. , runs ( run s ) )
Past tense - ed: Indicates an action that happened in the past ( e. g. , walked ( walk ed ) )
Past participle - ed or - en: Used in perfect tenses or passive voice ( e. g. , walked ( walk ed ) , eaten ( eat en ) )
Present participle - ing: Used in continuous tenses ( e. g. , walking ( walk ing ) )
Comparative - er: Used to compare two things ( e. g. , faster ( fast er ) )
Superlative - est: Used to compare three or more things ( e. g. , fastest ( fast est ) )
Examples illustrating bound morphemes:
Word: unbreakable
un - ( bound, derivational prefix )
break ( free morpheme, base word )
- able ( bound, derivational suffix )
The word unbreakable cannot be broken down into standalone words.
Word: computers
compute ( free morpheme, base word )
- er ( bound, derivational suffix, changes verb to noun )
- s ( bound, inflectional suffix, indicates plural )
Here, compute is the free morpheme. - er and - s are bound morphemes attached to it.
Word: happily
happy ( free morpheme, base word )
- ly ( bound, derivational suffix, changes adjective to adverb )
happily is formed from a free morpheme plus a bound morpheme.
Word: walked
walk ( free morpheme, base word )
- ed ( bound, inflectional suffix, indicates past tense )
