What term refers to the smallest meaning-bearing units in a language?

What term refers to the smallest meaning-bearing units in a language?

• A. Morphemes
• B. Phonemes
• C. Tokens
• D. Rimes

Answer: (A)

Morphemes are the smallest meaning-bearing units in a language. They carry semantic content or grammatical function, so they’re the pieces that actually convey what a word means or how it functions in a sentence. For example, in the word cats, there are two morphemes: cat (the base meaning) and -s (the plural marker). In unhappiness, there are three morphemes: un- (a prefix), happy (the base word), and -ness (a suffix turning it into a noun). Phonemes are about sounds and don’t carry meaning by themselves, tokens are concrete instances of words in text, and rimes are parts of syllables, not units of meaning.

Morphemes are the smallest meaning-bearing units in a language. They carry semantic content or grammatical function, so they’re the pieces that actually convey what a word means or how it functions in a sentence. For example, in the word cats, there are two morphemes: cat (the base meaning) and -s (the plural marker). In unhappiness, there are three morphemes: un- (a prefix), happy (the base word), and -ness (a suffix turning it into a noun). Phonemes are about sounds and don’t carry meaning by themselves, tokens are concrete instances of words in text, and rimes are parts of syllables, not units of meaning.