The Acadia TESOL Certificate Program
2008/2009
Practice and Discussion for Morphology
Practice 1 - Unbinding the Roots
Below are a list of bound roots. Add a prefix to each root to form an
existing English word:
__________ *descript
__________ *cognito
__________ *beknownst
__________ *peccable
__________ *promptu
__________ *plussed
__________ *dominatable / domitable
__________ *nomer
(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.104)
Practice 2 - Separating Morphemes
Divide the following words by placing + between their separate
morphemes. (Some of these words may be monomorphemic and therefore
indivisible.)
1. retroactive
2. befriended
3. televise
4. margin
5. endearment
6. psychology
7. unpalatable
8. holiday
9. grandmother
10. morphemic
11. mistreatment
12. disactivation
13. saltpeter
14 . airsickness
(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.99)
Practice 3 - Derivational or Inflectional?
Write the one proper description from the list under B for the italicized part
of each word in A:
A 1. free root
a. terrorized 2. bound root
b. uncivilized 3. inflectional suffix
c. terrorize 4. derivational suffix
d. lukewarm 5. inflectional prefix
e. impossible 6. derivational prefix
7. inflectional infix
8. derivational infix
(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.99)
Practice 4 - Rats and Mice
In English, plural forms such as mice appear to be treated in a different way
from plurals such as rats. If you tell people that a place is infested with
mice or rats, they will accept the compounds mice-infested and rat-
infested, but not *rats-infested.
Can you think of a way to state a rule that would accommodate all the
examples given here? (The asterisk* designates an unacceptable form.)
teethmarks the feet-cruncher lice-infested a people-mover
clawmarks the finger-cruncher roach-infested a dog-mover
*clawsmarks *the fingers-cruncher *roaches-infested *a dogs-mover
(Yule, 2006, p.71)
Practice 5 - Lexical and Functional Morphemes
Look at these 3 sentences. Identify the number of lexical (L) and functional
(F) morphemes in each sentence:
1. Jim’s two sisters are really different.
L ___ F ___
2. One likes to have fun and is always laughing.
L ___ F ___
3. The other liked to read as a child and has always taken things seriously.
L ___ F ___
(Yule, 2006, p.65)
Practice 6 - How Did They Come Up With Them?
Below are listed some words followed by incorrect definitions taken from
Ansel Greene’s Pullet Surprises.
stalemate “husband or wife no longer
interested”
effusive “able to be merged”
tenet “a group of ten singers”
dermatology “a study of derms”
ingenious “not very smart”
finesse “a female fish”
**Refer to other words or
morphemes to explain why the
students made these guesses.**
(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.103)
Practice 7 - Vocabulary In Context
Match each underlined word in the text with one of the definitions on the right, as shown in
the first example. (Note: N = noun, V = verb, Adv = adverb)
Word Definition
1. droog friend (N)
2. ____________ God (N)
3. ____________ a drug* (N)
____________
____________
4. ____________ thing (N)
5. ____________ quickly (Adv)
6. ____________ mind (N)
7. ____________ place (N)
8. ____________ milk (N)
9. ____________ to produce (V)
10. ___________ to drink (V)
11. ___________ brain (N)
(Farmer & Demers, 2001, pp.3-4)
Practice 8 - Which Word Formation Process?
Identify the process being used in the
formation of the following words:
1. laser, scuba, UNESCO
2. argyle, sandwich, levis
3. doorknob, footprint, necktie
4. gym, plane, gas, ad
5. alcohol, piano, tycoon
6. chunnel, brunch, motel
7. hawk, edit, act
8. systematic, adorable, unfreakinreal
9. paper, bottle, dirty
