Answer: morphemes that can occur unattached in a language
Free Morpheme
11.77 -0.22 (-1.83%)
at Tue Sep 14 2021 4:00PM EDT - U.S. markets open in 4 hours 14 minutes
Nasdaq Real Time Price
A free morpheme is a morpheme (or word element) that can stand alone as a word. It is also called an unbound morpheme or a free-standing morpheme. A free morpheme is the opposite of a bound morpheme a word element that cannot stand alone as a word.
Free morphemes are considered to be base words in linguistics. Base words that can stand alone (such as "book") are known as free bases while bound bases (including Latin roots like "ject") are not individual words in English.
Free Morphemes and Bound Morphemes Morphemes that can stand alone to function as words are called free morphemes. They comprise simple words (i.e. words made up of one free morpheme) and compound words (i.e. words made up of two free morphemes).
A bound morpheme cannot stand alone as an English word. It includes many prefixes and suffixes like -ity in cordiality. A free morpheme can stand alone: cordial and both halves of over-take and code-book. When two free morphemes combine like codebook it gives a compound word.
See more videos for Free Morph...