1. According to their position in the word:

read	re+read	read+ing	Rereading
root	prefix + root	root + suffix	prefix + root + suffix

infix:   kilad (red) --> kumilad (be red)  

circumfix:   chokma (it is good) -->  ikchokmo  (it is not good)

lakna (it is yellow) --> iklakno (it is not yellow)

AFFIX TYPES:  prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix,

agglutination:  affixes don't change form when combined

simple fusion:  at least one of the morphemes changes form:

confuse -> confus+ion,  able -> abil+ity, explain -> explan+ation,  electric-> electric+ity,  long -> leng+th

symbolic fusion:  tooth -> teeth,  run -> ran,  take -> took, use (the noun) -> use (the verb)

2. Types of affixes:

Derivational affixes make new words by adding concrete meanings to old words: 

-er, -ess -hood, -ive, -ness, re-, un-

All English prefixes and most suffixes are derivational.  

Inflectional affixes make different grammatical forms of the same word.  English has only 8 productive inflections:

3 for verbs: -ed, -s, -ing	work+ed, work+s, work+ing
3 for nouns: -s, -'s -'s	boys, boy's, boys'
2 for adjectives:  -er, -est	smart+er, smart+est

There are several unproductive inflections too, like the plural -en in oxen, and the participial -en in given.

                                    stem + ending (inflectional suffix)

3. Classification according to whether morpheme = word

FREE	BOUND
most roots in English	most prefixes and suffixes
but: adept, inept (BOUND ROOT)	ism (free suffix) ex, pro, con (free prefixes)

4. Classifying words according to morpheme structure

Simple words- a single morpheme:  house, I, the, off, salamander

Complex words - root + at least 1 affix:  worker, reread, retelling

anti + dis + establish +ment + ari + an +ism

Compound words - 2 roots:  ashtray, mailbox, lazybones

CLASSIFICATION OF MORPHEMES

I. According to distribution.

↓ ↓ ↓

Contrastive complementary non-contrastive

II. According to traditional and descriptive

↓ ↓

“free” “bound”

III. On the basis of formal presentation

↓ ↓

“overt” “covert” or “zero”

IV. On the basis of segmental relation:

↓ ↓ ↓

Supra-segmental additives replacives.

MORPHEME

‘PAST TENSE’

↓ ↓ ↓

Allomorph allomorph allomorph

↓ ↓ ↓

Morph morph morph

[id] [d] [t]

Paint/ed clean/ed pack/ed

Mend/ed open/ed kick/ed

The morphemic composition of modern English words has a wide range of varieties; in the lexicon of everyday speech the preferable morphemic types of stems are root-stems (one-root stems or two-root stems) and one-affix stems. With grammatically changeable words, these stems take one grammatical suffix {two "open" grammatical suffixes are used only with some plural nouns in the possessive case, cf.: the children's toys, the oxen's yokes). Thus, the abstract complete morphemic model of the common English word is the following: prefix + root + lexical suffix+grammatical suffix.

The syntagmatic connections of the morphemes within the model form two types of hierarchical structure. The first is characterised by the original prefixal stem (e.g. prefabricated), the second is characterised by the original suffixal stem (e.g. inheritors). If we use the symbols St for stem, R for root, Pr for prefix, L for lexical suffix, Gr for grammatical suffix, and, be-sides, employ three graphical symbols of hierarchical grouping — braces, brackets, and parentheses, then the two morphemic word-structures can be presented as follows: W1 = {[Pr + (R + L)] +Gr}; W2 = {[(Pr + R) +L] + Gr} In the morphemic composition of more complicated words these model-types form different combinations.

 

Problems: It would nice if there were always a neat one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning, i.e. if each meaning always had its own individual form. Unfortunately, natural human language isn't like that. Now we'll take a look at some potentially tricky situations that can arise. As we consider these problems, the important thing to keep in mind is that a morpheme is a FORM + MEANING unit; both parts of the unit must be considered when we are trying to decide if we are dealing with one morpheme or two.