In morphology, what term describes the base form to which affixes attach?

• A. stem/root
• B. prefix
• C. suffix
• D. inflection

Answer: (A)

In morphology, affixes attach to the stem. The stem is the base form that carries the core meaning and to which prefixes (at the front) or suffixes (at the end) are added to create related words or new grammatical forms. The root is the most basic lexical unit, and in many cases the stem is the root, but the term that describes the form receiving affixes is stem (often treated interchangeably with root in simple cases). Prefix and suffix are types of affixes, not the base form. Inflection refers to the process or result of changing a word’s form, not the base they attach to.