What are single morphemes that cannot be further subdivided?

What are single morphemes that cannot be further subdivided?

• A. Roots
• B. Derived words
• C. Multi-word units
• D. Lexical field

Answer: (A)

Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in language. Some morphemes can stand alone as a word, others attach to a base. The ones that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful parts are roots. A root carries the core meaning of a word and serves as the anchor to which prefixes or suffixes attach to form new words. For example, in many words the root is the base like “book,” which can take an affix to become “books” without changing the root’s fundamental meaning. Derived forms add morphemes to a root, so they aren’t themselves indivisible units. Multi-word units and semantic groupings aren’t morphemes. So, the morpheme that cannot be subdivided is the root.

Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in language. Some morphemes can stand alone as a word, others attach to a base. The ones that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful parts are roots. A root carries the core meaning of a word and serves as the anchor to which prefixes or suffixes attach to form new words. For example, in many words the root is the base like “book,” which can take an affix to become “books” without changing the root’s fundamental meaning. Derived forms add morphemes to a root, so they aren’t themselves indivisible units. Multi-word units and semantic groupings aren’t morphemes. So, the morpheme that cannot be subdivided is the root.