Root morpheme
Root Morphemes primary lexical unit of a word, and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Root Morphemes carry the most significant aspects of a words semantic content. Content words in nearly all languages* represent root morphemes. Roots can be both Free morphemes or Bound morphemes. Root morphemes are essential for Affixation and Compounds.
Example:
- run is the root of running
- dog is the root of dogs
- child is the root of children
- mouse is the root of mice
- rupt is the root of interupt
* with the exception of typologically isolating languages like Chinese
see also Morphology, Morphological typology
Referenced By
Affixation | Bound morpheme | Morphology (linguistics) | Morphology in linguistics
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