Which term describes a morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word?

Which term describes a morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word?

• A. Allomorph
• B. Free Morpheme
• C. Bound Morpheme
• D. Morpheme

Answer: (C)

The concept here is distinguishing units of meaning by whether they can stand alone. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in language. Some of these units can stand by themselves as words—that’s a free morpheme. Others must attach to something else to convey meaning, and those are bound morphemes. The term that names a morpheme that cannot stand alone is bound morpheme. For example, the ending that marks plural, as in cats, adds meaning but cannot be used alone; it attaches to the root word. A different concept, allomorph, refers to variant pronunciations of the same morpheme (like the plural forms /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/), not to whether the morpheme can stand alone. The broader term morpheme just means any such unit, but it doesn’t specify the stand-alone property.

The concept here is distinguishing units of meaning by whether they can stand alone. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in language. Some of these units can stand by themselves as words—that’s a free morpheme. Others must attach to something else to convey meaning, and those are bound morphemes. The term that names a morpheme that cannot stand alone is bound morpheme. For example, the ending that marks plural, as in cats, adds meaning but cannot be used alone; it attaches to the root word. A different concept, allomorph, refers to variant pronunciations of the same morpheme (like the plural forms /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/), not to whether the morpheme can stand alone. The broader term morpheme just means any such unit, but it doesn’t specify the stand-alone property.