Below are explanations for the two Inflectional Morpheme Samples:

Inflectional Morphemes from The Brothers Karamazov

It came to pass that, settling permanently in Paris he, too, forgot the child, especially when the Revolution of February broke out, making an impression on his mind that he remembered all the rest of his life.

As the interactive exercise instructs, the first step is to highlight any words with possible derivational morphemes:

It came to pass that, settling permanently in Paris he, too, forgot the child, especially when the Revolution of February broke out, making an impression on his mind that he remembered all the rest of his life.

There appear to be three words that contain inflectional suffixes:

1. SETTLING: -ing - verb present participle inflection
2. MAKING: -ing - verb present participle inflection
3. REMEMBERED: -ed - verb past tense inflection

Challenge Sample from The Brothers Karamazov

While he was wearying every one with his tears and complaints, and turning his house into a sink of debauchery, a faithful servant of the family, Grigory, took the three-year-old Mitya into his care.

Again, the first step is to highlight any words with possible inflectional morphemes:

While he was wearying every one with his tears and complaints, and turning his house into a sink of debauchery, a faithful servant of the family, Grigory, took the three-year-old Mitya into his care.

For this sample, there appear to be four words that contain inflectional suffixes:

1. WEARYING: -ing - verb present participle inflection
2. TEARS: -s - noun plural inflection
3. COMPLAINTS: -s - noun plural inflection
4. TURNING: -ing - verb present participle inflection

Tips to Keep in Mind

When reviewing for inflectional morphemes, the most difficult analyses will be between past tense (-ed) and past participle (-ed). As we will discuss in much greater detail in Section 5 (Main Verb Phrase Formula and Non-Finite Verb Phrases), it is usually a past tense inflection when the verb acts as the main verb of a clause (and follows a subject), but is a past participle when it follows HAVE or BE in the Main Verb Phrase, or serves as a modifier. But this is more advanced analyses that we will discuss more in future sections.

If you have questions about these sample analyses, please contact your instructor or start a conversation in your work group.