1. Morphemes:
* Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in a language. They can be words themselves (e.g., "cat," "run") or parts of words (e.g., "un-" in "unhappy," "-ing" in "running").
* Free morphemes can stand alone as words (e.g., "cat," "run").
* Bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes (e.g., "un-", "-ing", "-s").
2. Phonemes:
* Phonemes are the basic units of sound in a language. They are the smallest units of sound that can distinguish one word from another.
* For example, the words "cat" and "hat" differ only in the initial phoneme /k/ and /h/.
3. Syllables:
* Syllables are units of pronunciation that consist of a vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants.
* Words are made up of one or more syllables. For example, the word "cat" has one syllable, while the word "happy" has two syllables.
4. Graphemes:
* Graphemes are the letters or combinations of letters that represent phonemes in writing.
* For example, the grapheme "c" can represent the phoneme /k/ (as in "cat") or the phoneme /s/ (as in "cent").
5. Lexemes:
* Lexemes are the basic vocabulary items of a language. They are the abstract units that represent the meaning of a word, regardless of its grammatical form.
* For example, the word "run" has several forms, such as "runs," "ran," and "running," but they all represent the same lexeme.
Understanding these component parts helps us analyze and understand how words are structured and how their meaning is created.