Derivational

 morphology  exercises  
 
 
1.   Draw  a  tree  diagram  for  the  following  words  into  individual  morphemes.  Show  the  
order  in  which  each  word  was  derived.  
 
rehospitalization  
incomprehensibility    
unpreparedness  
disenfranchisement  
 
2.   Name  the  word  class  for  each  word  in  the  following  list  of  words.  
 
 
obese  ➔  obesity   holy  ➔  unholy   repel  ➔  repellent   London  ➔  Londoner  
select  ➔  selection   swim  ➔  swimmer   cure  ➔  curable   black  ➔  blacken  
real  ➔  realize   success  ➔   organize  ➔   clear  ➔  clearance  
successful   reorganize  
play  ➔  playful   special  ➔   member  ➔   accident  ➔  
specialty   membership   accidental  
 
obese     obesity     holy     unholy  
repel     repellent     London     Londoner  
select     selection     swim     swimmer  
cure     curable     black     blacken  
real     realize     success     successful  
organize     reorganize     clear     clearance  
play     playful     special     specialty  
member     membership     accident     accidental  
 
3.   In  the  following  compounds,  identify  which  morphological  processes  have  been  
applied:  inflection,  derivation  and/or  compounding.  BE  CAREFUL.  Sometimes  more  
than  one  morphological  process  is  involved  in  the  creation  of  a  word  form.  
Sometimes,  none  at  all  (a  root  from  by  itself).    
 
airheads   sampling   insider   elephant  
disgraceful   pleased   coffee  table   recycles  
hat  maker   indefatigable   reasserted   sweetcorn  
monster   washing  machine   dressmakers   unhappily