What is the Difference Between Word and Morpheme?

The main difference between a word and a morpheme is that a word is a complete, meaningful unit of language, while a morpheme is the smallest part of a word that has grammatical function or meaning. Here are some key differences between words and morphemes:

• Standing Alone: A word can stand alone and be used to form sentences, while a morpheme may or may not be able to stand alone.
• Meaning: A word always conveys a meaning, but a morpheme may not always convey a meaning.
• Structure: A morpheme is composed of even more basic units called morphemes, while a word is a separate meaningful unit.

Some morphemes are free, meaning they can appear in isolation and are also considered words (e.g., chair, dog, bird, table, computer). Other morphemes are bound and cannot stand alone, such as suffixes (e.g., -ed, -ing, -s) and prefixes (e.g., un-, re-, dis-). In summary, words are complete meaningful units of language, while morphemes are the smallest parts of words that have grammatical function or meaning.

Comparative Table: Word vs Morpheme

Here is a table comparing the differences between a word and a morpheme:

In summary, a word is a complete meaningful element of language, while a morpheme is the smallest meaningful part of a word. Words can stand alone and convey a meaning, whereas morphemes may not be able to stand alone.