Morphemes
A lexeme may consist of just one meaningful part like these:
arm chair happy guitar lemon shoe
or of more than one meaningful part like these armchair unhappy guitarist lemonade shoehorn The technical term for a minimal meaningful part is morpheme.
Arm, chair, happy, guitar, lemon, shoe and horn are all morphemes; none of them can be divided into something smaller that is meaningful. They are free morphemes because they occur by themselves. The elements un-, -ist and -ade in unhappy, guitarist and lemonade respectively, are also morphemes; they are bound morphemes which are always attached to something else, as in these examples.
arm chair happy guitar lemon shoe
or of more than one meaningful part like these armchair unhappy guitarist lemonade shoehorn The technical term for a minimal meaningful part is morpheme.
Arm, chair, happy, guitar, lemon, shoe and horn are all morphemes; none of them can be divided into something smaller that is meaningful. They are free morphemes because they occur by themselves. The elements un-, -ist and -ade in unhappy, guitarist and lemonade respectively, are also morphemes; they are bound morphemes which are always attached to something else, as in these examples.
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