Name: Jennifer
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001
Country and Region: Utah, United States
Native Language: English
Student or Teacher: Student
Age or Grade: senior in college

Subject of Question: Morphology and mulberries

Question:

The morpheme "berry" is not only a free morpheme, but it can also be found
attached to other free morphemes, as in "blueberry," "strawberry," and
"gooseberry."  However, the morpheme "berry" can also be found in words such as
"mulberry," in which "berry" appears to be attached to a bound morpheme "mul-".
But the morpheme "mul-" is found nowhere except as part of the word "mulberry."
Also, "mul-" has no discernable meaning, unless it is to be given the ad hoc
definition of "purple" or "sweet" or somesuch.  Given all this, should
"mul-" be
considered an actual morpheme? Why or why not?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (a fine reference for etymology) the "mul-" in "mulberry" comes from the latin "mor-us", which means, oddly enough, "mulberry tree." The word is retained in the scientific name for mulberry tree, which is of the genus Morus. Thus "mul-" is indeed a morpheme, if an obscure one. You can look up the word in any dictionary that does etymology, like the Merriam-Webster service at http://www.yourdictionary.com .

Similarly, the "cran-" in "cranberry" comes from "crane", and never appears anywhere except "cranberry". In fact, the usual technical term for morphemes of this type, which only occur in frozen forms, is "cranberry morph".

The definition of a morpheme may vary depending on who is defining it and why. As in the case of "mulberry," many morphemes are not of recognizable modern English origin. The original form "more-berry" was composed of two free morphemes. Now that "more" has fallen out of use and become unrecognizable, "mulberry" has become an indivisible unit. Therefore it is perhaps proper to regard "mulberry" as a morpheme in its entirety, at least as far as modern English is concerned.

If we are going to analyze etymology, however, the question is how far do we go back? It is a simple exercise to discover the actual derivation of "mul-." What about "berry?" If we can trace it back far enough perhaps we can prove that it was originally composed of two morphemes "ber-" meaning 'round,' and "-ry" meaning 'fruit' (we can't, but just for the sake of argument...). Do we then say that "blueberry" has three morphemes?

The correct answer to the question "Is this a morpheme?" is always a consequence of where one decides to draw the lines.

-Chris Frost
For Ask a Linguistic Tutor

2/1/01