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How many morphemes does the word "dost" (Shakespeare) have? How many morphemes does the word "thy" have? How many morphemes does the word "thou" have? Are "and", "if", "of", "a", "but", and "in" considered morphemes?

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Welcome to EL&U! In the future, please make sure to ask only one question per post. – simchona♦ Oct 12 '11 at 2:40

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Two. "Do" is a root word. "st" is a suffix, like 's' or 'es'.

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The interesting question is whether "do" (as in "I do") contains one or two morphemes. Some analyses would give it a null inflection morpheme, to be parallel with "dost". The infinitive "do" would not contain this. – Colin Fine Oct 12 '11 at 9:46
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Similar to my point about 'thy'. – Barrie England Oct 12 '11 at 11:44
Cool point, too. Thanks for the reading, Barrie. I'm here to learn, and you're helping me to do so. :) – Wolfpack'08 Oct 12 '11 at 14:29
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Thy is a reduced form of thine, which is the genitive of thou. It could therefore be argued that thine, at least, consists of two morphemes, thou and its inflectional ending. Whether such an analysis extends to thy would no doubt serve to keep grammarians amused on many a long winter evening.

And, if, of, a, but and in are all morphemes.

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