Which term describes a morpheme that cannot stand alone?

Which term describes a morpheme that cannot stand alone?

• A. Free morpheme
• B. Bound morpheme
• C. Independent morpheme
• D. Lexical morpheme

Answer: (B)

Think about how words are built from smaller pieces. A morpheme that cannot stand alone is bound; it needs a base word to attach to in order to convey meaning. Bound morphemes include prefixes like un- and suffixes like -ed, -s, or -ing. They add grammatical information such as negation, tense, or number, or help form new words, but by themselves they don’t form a complete word. For example, in talking about past actions, -ed attaches to a verb; for plural, -s attaches to a noun; for negation, un- attaches to an adjective. So the term for a morpheme that cannot stand alone is bound morpheme.

Think about how words are built from smaller pieces. A morpheme that cannot stand alone is bound; it needs a base word to attach to in order to convey meaning. Bound morphemes include prefixes like un- and suffixes like -ed, -s, or -ing. They add grammatical information such as negation, tense, or number, or help form new words, but by themselves they don’t form a complete word. For example, in talking about past actions, -ed attaches to a verb; for plural, -s attaches to a noun; for negation, un- attaches to an adjective. So the term for a morpheme that cannot stand alone is bound morpheme.