In linguistics, what is the smallest unit of meaning?

The smallest unit of meaning in linguistics is a morpheme. A morpheme is the most basic element of language that carries semantic content. It can be a word itself or a part of a word, such as prefixes, suffixes, or roots that contribute meaning. For instance, in the word "unhappiness," the morphemes are "un-" (meaning "not"), "happy" (the root meaning), and "-ness" (indicating a state or condition).

Understanding morphemes is crucial because they help in the analysis of how words are formed and how meaning is constructed in language. This concept underlies various linguistic theories and practices, including morphology, which studies the structure and formation of words.

In contrast, the other choices represent different linguistic concepts. A grapheme refers to the smallest unit of a writing system, such as letters and punctuation, whereas a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech that can distinguish meaning, but it does not carry meaning by itself. Additionally, a morph is a representation of a morpheme in a specific form; however, it does not itself denote meaning independently. Thus, morphemes are uniquely positioned as the fundamental building blocks of meaning in linguistic analysis.