What is a root?

Definition
	A root is the portion of a word that
	is common to a set of derived or inflected forms, if any, when all affixes are removed is not further analyzable into meaningful elements, being morphologically simple, and carries the principle portion of meaning of the words in which it functions.

Discussion
	If a root does not occur by itself in a meaningful way in a language, it is referred to as a bound morpheme.

Examples (English)
	Disestablish Establishment Establishments

Generic
	A root is a kind of
	What is a morpheme type?

See also
	What is a stem?

Sources
	Crystal 1985 268
	Hartmann and Stork 1972 199
	Pei and Gaynor 1954 187–188
	Mish 1990 1023
	Matthews 1991 64

Context for this page:

Concept module: root
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): R
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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