English Morphology and Syntax.

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BBI 3212        ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

MAY SEMESTER 2003

Assignment:

  1. Breakdown the following words into morphemes and classify each one.
  1. breakdown

-        It consists of two morphemes – break  +  down

-        Break is a verb .

-        Down is an adverb / preposition / verb/ adjective as well as a noun.

-        Breakdown (of a machine or vehicle) means to stop working because of a fault.

  1. cheese

-        It consists of one morpheme.  The word “cheese” exists as it is.  It is a noun.  

-        It is a type of food made from milk that can be either soft or hard and is usually white or yellow in colour.

  1. unbeknown
  • The word “unbeknown” consists of three morphemes.
  • Un is a prefix meaning not or negative.

-           be is also a prefix.

-           known is a verb.   ‘n’ is a suffix.  When ‘know’ is added with ‘n’,

it  becomes known which is the past pasticiple of the word ‘know’.

  • unbeknown is an adjective (to sb) without the person

mentioned knowing.

  1. fraction

It consists of one morpheme.

It is a noun which means a small part or amount of something.

1

  1. Identify the component morpheme (s) of each of the following words.  

How many morphemes does each word contain?

  1. stupidity
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-        It consists of two morphemes:  {stupid}  +  {ity}

  1. marketable

-        It consists of two morphemes:  {market}  +  {table}

     

  1. ugly

-        It consists of only one morpheme:  {ugly}

  1. competitiveness

-        It consists of three morphemes:  {complete}  +  {ive}  +  {ness}

  1. unfairly

-        It consists of three morphemes:  {un}  +  {fair}  +  {ly}

  1. sandwich

-        It consists of two morphemes:  {sand}  +  {wich}

-        NB:  The word “sandwich” came from the story ‘Earl of Sandwich’.

‘Wich’  probably denotes the name of a place.

 We may also quote some similar examples from Malaysia , for instance:

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