This module introduces several concepts that are basic to morphology. The different notions of word: the lexeme (abstract, dictionary word'), the word-form (concrete word) and the various word formation processes. It discusses about the various morphophonemic processes that take place when a morpheme is attached to a word and it alters the phonetic environment of other morphemes in that. Inflectional morphology describes the relationship between the word-forms in a lexeme's paradigm, and derivational morphology describes the relation between lexemes. Complex words can often be segmented into morphemes, which are called affixes when they are short and affixes can be firther divided based on their position in a word. They have an abstract meaning, and cannot stand alone, and roots when they are longer and have a more concrete meaning When two or more morphemes express the same meaning and occur in complementary distribution, they are often considered allomorphs.
INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - BASIC CONCEPTS IN MORPHOLOGY