§ 19. A morpheme usually has more than one meaning. This is the case, for instance, with both the lexical and the grammatical morpheme in the word runs. The morpheme run- has the following meanings: 1) "move with quick steps" (The boy runs fast); 2) "flow" (A tear runs ...); 3) "become" (to run dry), 4) "manage" (run a business); 5) "cause to move" (run a car), and many others. The meanings of the -s morpheme are as follows' 1) "present tense", 2) "indicative mood", 3) "third person", 4) "singular number", 5) "non-continuous aspect", and some others.
All the lexicalmeanings of the word runs, inherent in the morpheme tun-, unite this word with to run, running, will run, shall run, has run, had run, is running, was running, etc. into one group called a lexeme. l
All the grammaticalmeanings of the word runs, inherent in the morpheme -s, unite this word with walks, stands, sleeps, skates, lives and a great many other words into a group we shall call a grammeme 2.
The words of a lexeme or of a grammeme are united not only by the meanings of the corresponding morpheme, but
1 As already mentioned (§ 6), many grammarians use the term word
with regard to such a group
2 The term grammeme (gratneme), with a different meaning, was
used by Ê Pike in Language ò Relation to a Unified Theory of Human
Behavior (1954—1955) and Grammemic Theory in Reference to Restricted
Problems of Morpheme Classes (1957) In 1958 Pike replaced grammeme
with Bloomfield's term tagmeme
A Juilland (Outline of a General Theory of Structural Relations Mon-ton, 1961) uses the terms lexeme, grammeme for 'roots' and 'non-loots'.
See also 3. M Âîëîöêàÿ, Ò'Í Ìîëî÷íàÿ, Ò Ì Íèêîëàåâà. Îïûò îïèñàíèÿ ðóññêîãî ÿçûêà â åãî ïèñüìåííîé ôîðìå. Ì , 1964, where the term ãðàììåìà is used to denote an elementary morphological meaning (p. 35).
by its form too. Still the content is of greater importance, the form often differing considerably. The words runs and ran, for instance, have the same lexical meanings and belong therefore to the same lexeme in spite of the formal difference (but see § 11). Even more significant is an example like buy and bought. But most striking are cases like go and went, I and me, etc. (see later, § 28). Similar examples cap illustrate the formal variations of a grammatical morpheme uniting words into a grammeme: lived, walked, skated, slept, ran, went.
The number of words in an English lexeme may vary from one (must; milk; woolen; always) to several dozens (writes, wrote, will write, shall write, am writing, are writing, was writing, were writing, have written, has written, had written, is written, was written, etc.).
Note. The lexeme represented by write contains 94 words expressed by 64 forms, of these only 10 words have synthetic forms, five in number, Here they are:
1. write (infinitive, indicative, subjunctive, imperative)
2. writes
3. wrote (indicative, subjunctive)
4. writing (gerund, participle)
5. written
The number of words in a grammeme is usually very great, practically limitless. But occasionally a grammeme may contain one word only. For instance, the grammeme having the meanings of 'indicative mood', 'past tense', 'plural number', 'non-continuous aspect', and 'non-perfect order' (see § 212) contains but one word — were.
§ 20. From the previous paragraph it is clear that a word like runs containing a lexical and a grammatical morpheme is at the same time a member of a certain lexeme and of a certain grammeme. In a lexeme the lexical morpheme may be regarded as invariable (at least in content) and the grammatical morphemes as variables. In a grammeme, on the contrary, the grammatical morpheme is invariable and the lexical morphemes are variables. This can be seen from the following table.