Morphemes

What is the primary focus of morphology in linguistics?

• The study of sentence structure
• The study of word forms and their formation
• The study of phonetics and sounds
• The study of language acquisition

Which of the following best describes a morpheme?

• A complete sentence
• A type of grammatical structure
• The basic element in the form of a linguistic message
• The smallest unit of sound in a language

Which of the following best describes the role of morphemes in linguistics?

• They are the rules governing word order.
• They represent the sounds of a language.
• They are the smallest units of meaning in a language.
• They are used to form sentences.

How can morphemes be classified?

• By their ability to stand alone or not
• By their length and complexity
• By their frequency of use in language
• By their phonetic characteristics

What is a key characteristic of free morphemes?

• They are always bound to other morphemes.
• They cannot stand alone as words.
• They can function independently as words.
• They are only found in compound words.

What is the primary function of inflectional morphemes?

• To form compound words
• To indicate grammatical relationships
• To change the meaning of a word
• To create new words

Which of the following is a bound morpheme?

• Un-
• Happy
• Dog
• Quickly

How many inflectional morphemes are there in English?

• Eight
• Ten
• Five
• Twelve

How do derivational morphemes differ from inflectional morphemes?

• Derivational morphemes are fewer in number than inflectional morphemes.
• Derivational morphemes are used for grammatical functions, while inflectional morphemes create new words.
• Derivational morphemes are always bound, while inflectional morphemes can be free.
• Derivational morphemes change the meaning or category of a word, while inflectional morphemes do not.

What typically occurs when a derivational morpheme is added to a base word?

• The word becomes a compound word.
• The base word remains unchanged.
• The grammatical function of the word is altered.
• A new word with a new meaning is derived.