What is a Lexeme in Linguistics?
What is a lexeme primarily defined as in linguistics?
a) A word with multiple meanings and word classes.
b) A form of a word that can belong to multiple word classes.
c) The underlying form of a word that can only belong to one word class.
d) A word that has irregular grammatical forms.
Final answer:
Final answer:
In linguistics, a lexeme is the underlying form of a word that can only belong to one word class (Option C)
Explanation:
When discussing language and linguistics, lexemes represent the abstract units of meaning, which can encompass multiple word forms. For instance, the words 'run', 'runs', 'running', and 'ran' are all different forms but belong to the same lexeme 'run'. A lexeme is associated with a single word class (noun, verb, adjective, etc.), hence, it can't belong to multiple word classes.
Let's use an additional example: the lexeme 'book'. It can be utilized as a noun, as in 'I read a book', or as a verb, 'I need to book a ticket'. While these are different uses, they still belong to a single lexeme.
Thus, the correct option is C.