What is the definition of a morpheme?

What is the definition of a morpheme?

• A. The smallest unit of sound in a language
• B. The smallest meaningful unit of language
• C. A complete sentence in a language
• D. The structure of a word

Answer: (B)

The definition of a morpheme is indeed the smallest meaningful unit of language. Morphemes are the building blocks of words and can be either free or bound. A free morpheme can stand alone as a word, such as "book" or "run," while a bound morpheme cannot stand alone and must be attached to a free morpheme, such as the prefixes "un-" in "undo" or suffixes like "-ed" in "booked." Understanding morphemes is essential in linguistics because they help to form words and convey meaning. Other options point to different linguistic concepts: the smallest unit of sound in a language refers to phonemes; a complete sentence is a syntactical structure that consists of multiple words and phrases; the structure of a word relates to morphology but does not capture the essence of a morpheme as the smallest unit of meaning.

The definition of a morpheme is indeed the smallest meaningful unit of language. Morphemes are the building blocks of words and can be either free or bound. A free morpheme can stand alone as a word, such as "book" or "run," while a bound morpheme cannot stand alone and must be attached to a free morpheme, such as the prefixes "un-" in "undo" or suffixes like "-ed" in "booked." Understanding morphemes is essential in linguistics because they help to form words and convey meaning.

Other options point to different linguistic concepts: the smallest unit of sound in a language refers to phonemes; a complete sentence is a syntactical structure that consists of multiple words and phrases; the structure of a word relates to morphology but does not capture the essence of a morpheme as the smallest unit of meaning.