A Bound Morpheme has meaning only when it is attached to a Free Morpheme.
But if I put the "sss" sound on the end of the word "cat," as in "cats," the sound has meaning--more than one.
In this instance, the sound "sss" is a morpheme, or more specifically, it is a bound morpheme. It only has meaning when attached to a free morpheme.
Those who remember a time before television, will also remember bound morphemes as the old prefix/suffix game.
But that belies its true importance. A child must learn the bound morpheme structure and rules to communicate linguistically.
Let's look at six important communication functions that depend upon the use of bound morphemes.
1. Singular/Plural: Obviously, there are times when we want to talk about more than one. The bound morpheme that accomplishes this, as we discussed, is /s/, as in "cats".
NOTES: More information on Bound-Morphemes.