It also depends a bit on what you call a “morpheme”, of course. “goes” is uniquely present tense, third person singular. So does that mean it is 4 morphemes for a single syllable? (the verb root plus the latter three).

It is said to be a mental faculty that enables children to learn the grammar of a language and this innate knowledge is called Universal Grammar. Despite the evidence for a naturalistic approach to language, behaviourist B.F. Skinner claims that language is learnt and not innate.

Morphology is the study of words. Morphemes are the minimal units of words that have a meaning and cannot be subdivided further. An example of a free morpheme is “bad”, and an example of a bound morpheme is “ly.” It is bound because although it has meaning, it cannot stand alone.

Grammatical morphemes are those bits of linguistic sound which mark the grammatical categories of language (Tense, Number, Gender, Aspect), each of which has one or more functions (Past, Present, Future are functions of Tense; Singular and Plural are functions of Number).

It consequently subsumes such concepts as the root (radix), all possible affixes, (suffixes, prefixes), endings which are exponents of syntactic relationships, and the like”. However, in both cases, a root is a morpheme (and a proper name is a root).

LEXICAL morphemes are only one type of morpheme. Also known as SEMANTIC morpheme (semantic=meaning), these morphemes are the basic units of the word that DO carry a meaning on its own. Using the same example, the lexical morpheme of the word unkindness would be the morpheme “KIND”.

In lexicography, a lexical item (or lexical unit / LU, lexical entry) is a single word, a part of a word, or a chain of words (catena) that forms the basic elements of a language’s lexicon (≈ vocabulary). Examples are cat, traffic light, take care of, by the way, and it’s raining cats and dogs.

Answer. It has three morphemes: the prefix in, the base word just, and the suffix ice. Taken together, they form the whole word, which fits into the syntax of a sentence and the semantics and pragmatics of understanding.

Add the morphemes from each phrase and divide by the total number of phrases. In this example, you have 12 morphemes and four phrases. Since 12 divided by four is three, three is the average length of utterance. Compare the child’s average length of utterance with data for his age level.

Morphemes are a stretch of sound and meaning together. A Simple Word has only one morpheme, or only one division that has meaning. Syllables are divisions that are based on pronunciation, not on meaning. Morphemes are divisions that are based on meaning.

Syllables are closed when they end in a consonant and open when they end in a vowel. They are uncovered when they begin with a vowel and covered when they begin with a consonant. In the word ruchka (“handle”), morphemes for example, there are two syllables (ru-chka) but three morphemes (ruch-k-a).

They are totally different things. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning, while a syllable is a unit of sound with a nucleus that can bear stress, tone, or something else. Often morphemes consist of syllables, but not necessarily.

1 syllable

2 syllables

two morphemes