How many morphemes are there in pencil sharpeners?

<b>Forum for the discussion of Applied Linguistics </b>

Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2

Post Reply
briank
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:14 pm

How many morphemes are there in pencil sharpeners?

Post by briank » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:25 pm

Hello all
I was wondering if anyone could help me with these questions please.

How many morphemes are there in pencil sharpeners?
Is it 3 ? {pencil} + {sharpener}+{-s} or is it 5 - with pencil + sharp+ en + er + s ?

How about sleep walking? 3 Yes?
Understanding {understand}+{ing} 2 Yes?

Thank you so much
BK

lucy lace
Posts: 38
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:56 am

Post by lucy lace » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:51 pm

According to the rules in my Linguistics 101 textbook, pencil sharpener has five morphemes, because the -en suffix is a unit of meaning, to enhance the quality of, as in to 'lighten' or 'darken' a photograph.

Understanding, according to what I understand from my book, has two: understand is a complete unit of meaning and cannot be broken into 'under' and 'stand', plus the -ing.

Post Reply