Morphemes
Morpheme Meaning
Unit of language that can't be broken down into smaller parts that have meaning but it can be broken down into smaller units that do not have independent meaning and it holds meaning on its own.
Examples
Mouth Morphemes
MOUTH MOVEMENT / DESCRIPTION / EXAMPLE:
CHA / big (height, length, size) / MOTHER WANT COFFEE LARGE
TH / clumsy, lousy
Puffed Cheeks / very fat, long ago, many / POINT JAPAN SUMO WRESTLER WOW FAT
Clenched teeth / very many, huge, smart, sexual climax, dark, dangerous / BELT (DARK) BROWN
Tongue out & down / not-yet, ugh, accident, lousy, erratic, hungry, exaggerate / TEACHER NOT-YET COME CLASS
STA-STA / struggle, long process
Pursed lips / work hard, read carefully, sorry, hearing person, persevere, secret
Pursed lips with twiggled nose / characteristic, the way it is
Puckered up lips (mmm) / write, drive, read, curious, medium-sized, comfortable / POINT SOFA COMFORTABLE
Puckered up lips with “AWFUL” sign / interesting, wow
FOR-FOR / what for, why, how come / I SIT TTY YOU COME BOTHER FOR FOR?
PAH / finally, big success
POWOO (Pow-oo) / stricken, forget, boom
WATT / don’t want, want / MY WIFE DON’T-WANT EAT FISH
SOO tired, cold, dirty, delicious, good riddance, curious, close call
SOW / very cold, very tired, very hard, very embarrassed
FISH / finish, stop it / MY HOMEWORK FINISH
PUTT / tend, give in
POW / explode, hit hard, trigger a gun, repress, hot temper
SHH / use exceedingly, make out, poke fun, wild time
MUM-MUM / win an unbroken series of games, nab many suspects
FK / skip work, ignore
PS-PS / fancy, chic
Bornert, Michele J. “Mouth Morphemes in ASL.” Deaf Expressions The Twisted Inner Workings of a Deaf Person's Mind., Blogspot, 28 Feb. 2014, deafexpressions.blogspot.com/2014/02/mouth-morphemes-in-asl.html.
Bound Morpheme Meaning
Morpheme that has no meaning on its own but, when attached to another morpheme, has meaning.
Examples
The letter "S" is an example of a bound morpheme when attached to a word like CAT. CAT+S= plural of cat but if the "S" is removed then it has no meaning on its own.
Free Morpheme Meaning
Morpheme that has meaning on its own.