Oregon Educator Licensure Assessments (ORELA) Practice Exam

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What does the term "morpheme" refer to in linguistics?

A unit of a language that cannot be further divided
A method of word formation
Patterns of stress and intonation
A type of syllable pattern

The correct answer is: A unit of a language that cannot be further divided

The term "morpheme" in linguistics refers to the smallest meaningful unit of a language that cannot be further divided. Morphemes include both individual words and affixes (such as prefixes and suffixes) that contribute to the meaning of a word. For example, in the word "unhappiness," there are three morphemes: "un-" (a prefix meaning 'not'), "happy" (the base word), and "-ness" (a suffix indicating a state or quality). This concept highlights the role of morphemes in constructing meaning within languages and demonstrates their importance in both semantic and grammatical contexts. The other options do not accurately capture the definition of a morpheme; they reference different aspects of linguistics, such as methods of forming words, patterns of speech, or syllable structures.