FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

What is a morpheme?

1. Smallest unit of sound

2. Smallest unit of meaning

3. Study of speech sounds

4. Grammatical structure

The correct answer is: Smallest unit of meaning

A morpheme is indeed defined as the smallest unit of meaning in a language. It can be a whole word or a part of a word, such as a prefix or suffix. Morphemes contribute to the overall meaning and can convey specific information, such as tense, number, or negation. For example, in the word "unhappiness," the morphemes are "un-" (a prefix indicating negation), "happy" (the root word), and "-ness" (a suffix that turns an adjective into a noun). In contrast, options related to sound, such as the smallest unit of sound or the study of speech sounds, refer to phonemes, which are distinct from morphemes. The concept of grammatical structure pertains to the rules that govern how sentences are formed, which also differs from the definition of a morpheme. Therefore, the correct understanding of a morpheme highlights its role in meaning rather than sound or grammar.