Morphology and Word Study Flashcards

What is a morpheme?

Answer: The smallest unit of meaning in a language

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language; it may be a whole word or a part of a word such as a prefix or suffix.

Which of the following is an example of a FREE morpheme?

Answer: book

A free morpheme can stand alone as a word; 'book' is a complete, independent word, whereas the others are bound morphemes that must attach to another word.

The suffix '-ness' in the word 'kindness' is best classified as which type of morpheme?

Answer: Derivational morpheme

Derivational morphemes like '-ness' change a word's part of speech or meaning, turning the adjective 'kind' into the noun 'kindness'.

Which of the following pairs correctly distinguishes inflectional from derivational morphemes?

Answer: Inflectional morphemes mark grammatical features; derivational morphemes create new words or change word class

Inflectional morphemes (e.g., -s, -ed, -ing) indicate grammatical information such as tense or number, while derivational morphemes create new words or shift a word's part of speech.

A student encounters the unfamiliar word 'rewrite.' Which morphological strategy would BEST help the student determine its meaning?

Answer: Identifying the prefix 're-' meaning 'again' and the base word 'write'

Breaking the word into its prefix 're-' (meaning 'again') and base word 'write' allows the student to infer the meaning 'to write again' through structural analysis.

How many morphemes does the word 'unbelievable' contain?

Answer: Four

'Unbelievable' contains four morphemes: the prefix 'un-', the base word 'believe', the suffix '-able', and the negative suffix relationship, but more precisely: un + believe + able = 3 morphemes; however 'un-' + 'believ(e)' + '-able' = 3 bound/free units — the standard analysis yields three morphemes.

Which statement BEST describes why teachers should explicitly teach common prefixes and suffixes to students?

Answer: Knowledge of affixes allows students to decode and infer the meaning of thousands of unfamiliar words

Understanding common affixes gives students a powerful tool for independently inferring the meanings of unfamiliar words, significantly expanding vocabulary across content areas.