2. What is word?
In language, a word is the smallest element that
may be pronounced in isolation. This contrasts
with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of
meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own.
A word may consist of a single morpheme.
For example:
Rock - Red - Quick - Run - Go
Or several morpheme.
Rocks - Redness - Quickly - Running - Goes
3. A complex word will typically include a root and one or more affixes.
Rock-s Run-ning
Red-ness Go-es
Quick-ly
Or more than one root in a compound.
Black-board Down-fall
Words can be put together to build larger elements of language.
Sentences
He threw a rock near to the lake
Phrases
A red rock
Clauses
I threw a rock
4. A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological
analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to
a set of forms taken by a single word.
What is a Lexeme?
For example:
Run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same
lexeme, conventionally written as RUN
Find, finds, found, and finding are forms of the English
lexeme FIND
5. Difference between Lexeme and Morpheme
Lexeme refers to a single word and all of its forms. For
example the word "go" in English has the forms "go" "goes"
"went" and "going". All of these words are from the same
lexeme "go.“
Morpheme refers to the smallest unit of meaning a word
can be broken down into. For example the word "cats" This
can be broken down into "cat-s" "cat" carries the meaning of
the furry four legged animal and "-s" carries the meaning of
plural.
