Jose Carillo's English Forum
Joe Carillo's Desk => You Asked Me This Question => Topic started by: youngmentor on January 02, 2019, 09:00:04 AM
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Hi Sir Joe,
Something came up in my grey matter while studying morphology. I hope you'll be able to provide me with a better explanation on this.
I can't help but contemplate on the definition given to the concept "morphemes". Most of the references that I read define it as " the minimal units of words that have a meaning".
However, I feel like this definition only applies to free morphemes and disqualifies the bound morphemes. Let's take the word "loveLY" as an example.
The word "LOVE" is the free morpheme, and the meaning is clear. However, for the suffix "LY", which is an example of a free morpheme, I can't figure out exactly if this suffix indeed carries meaning on its own in order for it to be qualified in the definition of the concept "Morphemes".
May I know you thought on this, sir Joe?
Thanks and happy New year! =)
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Mike, I must admit that morphology as an aspect of the English language isn't a strong suit of mine. I therefore must beg off giving my thoughts regarding your question, which I honestly believe is best addressed to specialists on the subject.