Structure of words. Grammatically relevant types of morphemes.

The smallest meaningful units of grammar are called morphemes. Morphemes are commonly classified into free (those which can occur as separate words) and bound. A word consisting of a single (free) morpheme is monomorphemic, its opposite is polymorphemic.

According to their meaning and function morphemes are subdivided into lexical (roots),-lexico-grammatical (word-building affixes) and grammatical (form-building affixes, or inflexions).

Morphemes are abstract units, represented in speech by morphs. Most morphemes are realized by single morphs: unselfish. Some morphemes may be manifested by more than one morph according to their position. Such alternative morphs, or positional variants of a morpheme are called allomorphs: cats, [s], dogs [z], foxes [iz].

Morphemic variants are identified in the text on the basis of their cooccurence with other morphs, or their environment. The total of environments constitutes the distribution.

There may be three types of morphemic distribution: contrastive, non-contrastive, complementary. Morphs are in contrastive distribution if their position is the same and their meanings are different: charming - charmed. Morphs are in non-contrastive distribution if their position is the same and their meanings are the same: learned - learnt. Such morphs constitute free variants of the same morpheme. Morphs are in complementary distribution if their positions are different and their meanings are the same: speaks - teaches. Such morphs are allomorphs of the same morpheme.

Grammatical meanings may be expressed by the absence of the morpheme: book - books. The meaning of plurality is expressed by the morpheme -s. The meaning of singularity is expressed by the absence of the morpheme. Such meaningful absence of the morpheme is called zero-morpheme.

The function of the morpheme may be performed by a separate word. In the opposition work - will work the meaning of the future is expressed by the word will. Will is a contradictory unit. Formally it is a word, functionally it is a morpheme. As it has the features of a word and a morpheme, it is called a word morpheme. Word-morphemes may be called semi-bound morphemes.

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Grammatical meaning and grammatical form. Means of form-building. Synthetic and analytical forms.	\|	Grammatical categories. Method of opposition (A.I. Smirnitsky).

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