morphemes
Smallest meaning pieces
Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in a language.
The word "unhappiness" contains three morphemes: *un-* (negation), *happy* (the root), and *-ness* (making it a noun).
Some morphemes stand alone as words; others exist only as prefixes, suffixes, or other bound elements.
Linguists distinguish morphemes from phonemes, which are units of sound without inherent meaning.
Minimal distinctive sound unit
- graphemeMinimal written symbol unit
- lexemeFundamental dictionary unit
- morphChange form gradually
- rootUnderground absorbing structure
stem · base · affix · prefix · suffix · infix · transfix · clitic
Joining units into wholes
- concatenationJoining items end-to-end
- segmentationDivision into sections
- analysisMethodical study of parts
- decompositionBreakdown into simpler parts
parsing · boundary · hierarchy · formation · composition
Word form alteration
- derivationSource or origin tracing
- compoundingElements merging progressively
- affixationBinding morphemes to stems
- prefixationAdding to word starts
suffixation · reduplication · ablaut · umlaut · fusion
Study of linguistic meaning
Relating to word-form changes
- derivationalCreating words via affixes
- grammaticalFollowing language rules
- lexicalOf or relating to words
- productiveGenerating useful output
unproductive · paradigm · conjugation · declension · agreement · tense · aspect · mood
phoneme
Minimal distinctive sound unit
root · stem · base · affix · prefix · suffix · infix · transfix · clitic · bound
agglutination
Joining units into wholes
- concatenationJoining items end-to-end
- segmentationDivision into sections
- analysisMethodical study of parts
decomposition · parsing · boundary · hierarchy · formation · composition
inflection
Word form alteration
- derivationSource or origin tracing
- compoundingElements merging progressively
- affixationBinding morphemes to stems
prefixation · suffixation · reduplication · ablaut · umlaut · fusion
semantics
Study of linguistic meaning
signified · content · polysemy · portmanteau
inflectional
Relating to word-form changes
- derivationalCreating words via affixes
- grammaticalFollowing language rules
- lexicalOf or relating to words
productive · unproductive · paradigm · conjugation · declension · agreement · tense · aspect · mood · case
- Sanskrit grammarPanini, nominative, accusative, sutra, dative
- vocabularyword, words, new words, term, terms
- etymologyword origins, word history, word origin, etymon, root words
- linguisticslinguistics, phoneme, phonemes, lexeme, nouns
- sign languageAmerican Sign Language, British Sign Language, fingerspelling, ASL, handshape
- word studyword origins, word roots, word meaning, word meanings, word formation