Morpheme: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:15, 11 January 2008

A morpheme is the smallest meaning -bearing unit of language.

Examples

Kangaroo is one morpheme. Kangaroos is two morphemes, kangaroo and plural -s. The -s expresses the meaning 'many' or 'more than one' in this example.

Polysemy

Morpheme may also be used for 'grammatical morpheme', see morpheme (i.e. grammatical morpheme).

Synonym

moneme (Martinet)

Origin

The term morpheme was coined by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay in c. 1880. It is based on Greek morph- 'form' and the suffix -eme, on the analogy of the term phoneme. See Mugdan (1986) for detailed discussion.

Reference

Mugdan, Joachim. 1986. Was ist eigentlich ein Morphem?

Other languages

German Morphem Spanish morfema

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-A morpheme is the smallest unit of language that holds meaning.
+A '''morpheme''' is the smallest meaning -bearing unit of language.
-For example; 'kangaroo' is one morpheme.'Kangaroos' is two morphemes, 'kangaroo' and 'plural-s'. The s holds the meaning 'many' or 'more than one' in this example.
+===Examples===
+''Kangaroo'' is one morpheme. ''Kangaroos'' is two morphemes, ''kangaroo'' and plural ''-s''. The ''-s'' expresses the meaning 'many' or 'more than one' in this example.
+===Polysemy===
+''Morpheme'' may also be used for 'grammatical morpheme', see [[morpheme (i.e. grammatical morpheme)]].
+===Synonym===
+*[[moneme]] (Martinet)
+===Origin===
+The term ''morpheme'' was coined by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay in c. 1880. It is based on Greek ''morph-'' 'form' and the suffix -eme, on the analogy of the term ''phoneme''. See Mugdan (1986) for detailed discussion.
+===Reference===
+Mugdan, Joachim. 1986. Was ist eigentlich ein Morphem?
+===Other languages===
+German Morphem Spanish morfema
+{{dc}}
+[[Category:Morphology]]