Which term describes a morpheme that marks grammatical information such as tense or number but does not change the base word's category?

Which term describes a morpheme that marks grammatical information such as tense or number but does not change the base word's category?

• A. Inflectional morphemes
• B. Derivational morphemes
• C. Free morphemes
• D. Bound morphemes

Answer: (A)

Inflectional morphemes are bound affixes that mark grammatical information such as tense or number without changing the base word’s category. They attach to a word to express features like plural in nouns (dogs), third-person singular in verbs (talks), past tense (walked), or present participle (walking). They don’t create new words or shift the part of speech; they merely add grammatical information to the existing word. This is different from derivational morphemes, which can change meaning and often shift the word’s class (for example, teach turning into teacher, or happy turning into happiness). It’s also why these affixes are described as inflectional: they fine-tune grammar, not word meaning or class. Bound morphemes, which include both inflectional and derivational types, cannot stand alone like free morphemes can (a free morpheme can be a whole word, such as dog or run).

Inflectional morphemes are bound affixes that mark grammatical information such as tense or number without changing the base word’s category. They attach to a word to express features like plural in nouns (dogs), third-person singular in verbs (talks), past tense (walked), or present participle (walking). They don’t create new words or shift the part of speech; they merely add grammatical information to the existing word.

This is different from derivational morphemes, which can change meaning and often shift the word’s class (for example, teach turning into teacher, or happy turning into happiness). It’s also why these affixes are described as inflectional: they fine-tune grammar, not word meaning or class. Bound morphemes, which include both inflectional and derivational types, cannot stand alone like free morphemes can (a free morpheme can be a whole word, such as dog or run).