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Part of description as found in Reader's Digest Universal Dictionary
MOR-PHEME (MORFEEM) n. A linguistic unit of relatively stable meaning that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts, such as whole words like god, word-forming elements like -ly as found in godly, or grammatical inflections like the plural ending -s in gods. Morphemes may be abstract units, as when the -en in oxen, the -i in mice, and the -s in girls are all considered to be identical. [French morpheme, from Greek morphe, form (by analogy PHONEME).] - mor-phem-ic (mor-feemik) adj. - mor-phem-ic-al-ly adv.PHO-NEME (FON-EEM) n. Linguistics. Any of the classes of speech sounds in a given language or accent that can affect the meaning or distinguish words one from another. The initial consonant sounds in leaf and reef belong to different phonemas (l) and (r)respectively, since these words are distinct in meaning. [French phoneme, from Greek phonema, an utterance, from phonein; See phonetic.)
2 comments:
When I read the definition for Morpheme I didn't completely undertand what a Morpheme is. Perhaps I still do not. For this reason I went on to seek the definition of Phoneme, suggested by the dictionary.For me this is a juncture where I become a little frustrated.
It seems to interpret and grasp one 'word' succesfully, we must follow the endless crumbs that a dictionary feeds us. - and where does this end?
Instead. Arguably lazily, I will interpret these words from the analysis of my own cultural and sociological background, refering to 'Smart's' Morph and Salvador Dali's 'Metamorphosis Of Narcissus, "
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