In morphology, which option represents a bound morpheme?

• A. A free morpheme
• B. A bound morpheme
• C. A lexical morpheme
• D. A root morpheme

Answer: (B)

A bound morpheme cannot stand alone; it must attach to another morpheme to convey meaning or modify grammatical function. Think of suffixes like -s for plurals, -ed for past tense, or prefixes like un- that change a word’s meaning. These pieces don’t form a word by themselves and only have sense when attached to a host morpheme.

In contrast, a free morpheme can stand alone as a word, such as walk or cat. A lexical morpheme refers to content words that carry semantic content (nouns, verbs, adjectives) and is more about function than whether it’s bound or free. A root morpheme is the base part of a word that carries its core meaning; it can be free in many cases, or part of a larger word structure, but the property highlighted here is whether the morpheme can stand alone.

Since the defining trait being tested is whether the morpheme can stand alone, the correct description is the bound morpheme—the one that cannot stand alone and must attach to another morpheme.