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A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. [1] Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this is the distinction, respectively, between free and bound morphemes.
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In morpheme-based morphology, word forms are analyzed as arrangements of morphemes. A morpheme is defined as the minimal meaningful unit of a language. In a word such as independently, the morphemes are said to be in-, de-, pend, -ent, and -ly; pend is the (bound) root and the other morphemes are, in this case, derivational affixes.
Many English affixes may only be attached directly to morphemes with particular parts of speech: do + -able + -ity = doability; but not do + -ity + -able = *doityable; The suffix -ity produces a noun from an adjective, and -able creates adjectives from verbs. [1]
Most roots in English are free morphemes (e.g. examin-in examination, which can occur in isolation: examine), but others are bound (e.g. bio-in biology). Words like chairman that contain two free morphemes (chair and man) are referred to as compound words. [7]
The isolation form of a morpheme is the form in which that morpheme appears in isolation (when it is not subject to the effects of any other morpheme). In the case of a bound morpheme, such as the English past tense ending "-ed", it is generally not possible to identify an isolation form since such a morpheme does not occur in isolation.
The English-Language Arts section included grammar and vocabulary questions, and also asked the examinee to write an essay. The math section assessed students on geometry, algebra, and pre-algebra. Testers had three and a half hours to complete the exam and were free to divide their time as they wished between the two sections.
The plural morpheme for regular nouns in English is typically realized by adding an -s or -es to the end of the noun. However, the plural morpheme actually has three different allomorphs: [-s], [-z], and [-əz]. The specific pronunciation that a plural morpheme takes on is determined by the following morphological rules: [2]