Morpheme

Translations

morfema | morphème | Morphem

Article

A m. is defined as the minimal structural endolinguistic unit of morphology. As such, it is the smallest linguistic unit carrying a meaning (Matthews 1974, 11-12), or, in an equivalent fashion if one refers to the theory of sign by F. De Saussure, the minimal linguistic sign.

In the context of the study of ancient languages, the correct identification of morphemes is crucial when dealing with contact hypotheses, as the different types of morphemes - those carrying grammatical content and those carrying lexical semantics - behave differently with respect to borrowability hierarchy, in that lexical morphemes are more easily borrowed than grammatical ones.

Example

For examples of morphemes that were borrowed in contact situations in the Anatolian and peri-Anatolian area, see morphological interference.

References

Matthews, P. 1974. Morphology, An Introduction. London.