ROOT
Thursday, November 8, 2007
		 ROOT = a (usually free) morpheme around      which words can be built up through the addition of affixes. The root usually      has a more-soecific meaning than the affixes that attach to it. Ex.: The root      'kind' can have affixes added to it to form 'kindly', 'kindness', 'kinder',      'kindest'. The root is the item you have left when you strip all other morphemes      off of a complex word. In the word dehumanizing, for example, if you      strip off all the affixes -- -ing, -ize, and de-, human is what      you have left. It cannot be divided further into meaningful parts. It is the      root of the word.
    
    
    
	
	  Labels: Morphology
