How does Language Work?
If you have something you want to communicate to another person, you can use language to do so. But language is built up of many interacting components, all of which had to work seamlessly if it is going to work at all. This module will not be exploring all of these components, but it might be worth here introducing you to some of the elements which are worth knowing about.
Morphemes: The Smallest Unit of Grammar
For example, the word ‘cat’. What does the word itself communicate? It communicates the sense of an object – a small furry mammal. It is a single word – the smallest component of language grammar. As such, it is a morpheme.
Because a morpheme is the smallest unit of grammar, it is not identified in terms of context. For example,
take the word ‘unladylike’. It is a single word, but it is comprised of three