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1Themorpheme赖惠珊，D班NO.12Themorphemeisthesmallestmeaningfullinguisticunitoflanguage,notdivisibleoranalyzableintosmallerforms.Morphemeisatwofacetlanguageunitwhichpossessesbothsoundandmeaning.Itisthereforedifferentfromaphoneme,whichonlyconveyssounddistinction.Allmorphemesconstitutethephysicalstructureofthewordrevitalized.Itshouldbeborneinmindthattheknowledgeoftheword’sphysicalstructurehelpsusdecodewordsandacquiretheirmorphologicalrelatedforms.ThemorphemewhichisderivedfromtheGreekwordmorphemeaning“form”,amorphememayberepresentedbyasinglesyllablesound,ormayalsoconsistofmorethanonesyllable.Therefore,amorphemeistheminimallinguisticunit---anarbitraryunionofasoundandameaningthatcannotbefurtheranalyzed.Thatistosay,amorpheme,thesmallestunitofmeaninginalanguage,maybeawordorapartofwordwhichhasmeaning;itcannotbedividedintosmallermeaningfulpartswithoutviolationoftheoriginalmeaning;anditmayrecurindifferentverbalenvironmentswitharelativelystablemeaning.Fromwhatweanalyzeabove,wecanconcludethatMorphemeisnotidenticalwithasyllable,sincethelatterhasnothingtodowithmeaning.A2morphememayberepresentedbyonesyllableorbytwoormoresyllables.Oftenthesyllabicstructureofawordanditsmorphemicstructuredonotcorrespond.Therelationshipbetweenthetwoclassificationsofmorphemesdiscussedabovemaybegraphicallyshowninthefollowingdiagram:freemorphemefreerootMorphemeboundrootboundmorphemeInflectionalaffixaffixderivationalaffixPrefixsuffix3AstohowtoclassifyEnglishmorphemes?Firstly,Morphemesmaycanbeclassifiedintotwotypes,namely,freemorphemesandboundmorphemes.Simplyput,freemorphemesmayoccuralone,thatis,theymayconstitutewordsbythemselvesandcanexistonitsownwithoutboundmorpheme.Afreemorphemeisaword,inthetraditionalsense.Forexample,man,faith,read,write,redarefreemorphemes.However,boundmorphemescannotbeusedbythemselves,butmustbecombinedwithothermorphemestoformwords.What’smore,Thecentralmorphemeinawordisoftenafreemorphemeandiscalledtheroot.Aroot,whetheritisfreeorbound,generallycarriesthemaincomponentofmeaninginawordandcannotbefurtheranalyzed.Takesomeexample,thewordsrevive,vitamin,vital,vivaciousvividallcontenttheLatinrootvit-orviv-means“life”orto“live”.Theperipheralmorphemesthatareattachedtotherootarealwaysboundmorphemesarecalledaffixes.Whenarootmorphemeiscombinedwithanaffix,itformsastem,whichmayormaynotbeaword.Affixesareboundmorphemes,becausetheyareusedonlywhenaddedtoothermorphemes.Affixesareclassifiedintoinflectionalor4derivationalones.Theformerarerelatedtowordformsonly,expressingthemeaningofplurality,tenseandcomparativeorsuperlativedegree.Inaddition,inflectionalaffixisnotusuallychangewordclassesandnotformnewwordswithnewlexicalmeaning.Aninflectionalmorphemecreatesachangeinthefunctionoftheword,anditmodifiesaword’stense,number,aspectsandsoon.Derivationalmorphemescanbeaddedtoawordtocreateanotherword.Thistypeofmorphemeschangesthemeaningofaworditisattachedandchangethewordclass.Derivationalaffixesaresubdividedintoprefixesandsuffixes,whicharerelatedtotheformationofnewwords.Bothofprefixesandsuffixesmaybegroupedaccordingtotheirlinguisticoriginwhichincludingnativeaffixesandforeignaffixesandtheirproductivity.NativeaffixesarethosethatexistedinEnglishintheOEperiodorwereformedfromOEwords,suchasun-,be-,out-,over-,-ness,-dom,-hood,-lyand-er.Roots,prefixesandsuffixesarethebuildingblockswithwhichwordsareformed.Onthemorphemiclevel,wordscanbeclassifiedintosimple,complexandcompoundwords,accordingtothenumberandtypeofmorphemestheyarecomposedof.Morphemesareimportantinthewordbuildingprocessbecausethetwomostcentralandproductiveword-formationprocesses,compoundingandaffixation,arerelatedtomorphemes:theformerisacombinationofthemorphemes,andthelater5istheadditionofboundmorphemestofreeones.Thesamemorphemehasvariantsof/s//z//iz/indifferentcontext.Allomorphsaretherealizationofaparticularmorphemeasconditionedbypositionoradjoiningsounds.Amorphememaytakevariousshapesorforms,dependingthecontextinwhichtheyoccur.InEnglish,theinflectionalpast-tensemorpheme-edispronouncedinthreedifferentways,dependingonthenatureofthesoundsthatprecedeit.Thispointistruewiththeinflectionalmorpheme-(e)softhebooks,pigs,horseswhichhasthesamemeaning“morethanone”,yetwiththreedifferentphoneticforms/s//z//iz/respectively.Inconclusion,Wordsarecomposedofmorphemes.Amorpheme,theminimalmeaningfulunitoftheEnglishlanguage,possessesbothsoundandmeaning,isanyofthevariantformsofmorphemes.