Introduction to Morphology and Syntax
Key concepts, definitions, and relationships between the two main sub‑fields of grammar.
1. What Is Morphology?
| Aspect |
Description |
| Definition |
Study of the internal structure of words and how they are formed. |
| Goal |
Explain how smaller units (morphemes) combine to create meaningful words. |
| Core Questions |
- What are the smallest meaning‑bearing units?
- How do words change form to express grammatical information?
- What rules govern word‑formation?
|
| Main Units |
Morpheme – the minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function. |
| Types of Morphemes |
- Free morphemes – can stand alone (e.g., book, run).
- Bound morphemes – must attach to another morpheme (e.g., ‑s, un‑, -ness).
|
| Sub‑categories |
- Derivational morphemes – create new lexical items (happy → happiness, teach → teacher).
- Inflectional morphemes – modify a word’s grammatical features without changing its lexical category (cat → cats, walk → walked).
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| Word‑Formation Processes |
- Affixation – prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix.
- Compounding – joining two free morphemes (toothbrush).
- Conversion (zero‑derivation) – changing category without an overt morpheme (to google).
- Reduplication – repeating a form for grammatical or semantic effect (poco a poco).
- Blending, clipping, borrowing – lexical innovations.
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1.1 Example: English Noun Plural
| Base word |
Plural morpheme |
Result |
Rule (simplified) |
| cat |
‑s |
cats |
Add ‑s after most nouns. |
| dog |
‑s |
dogs |
Same rule. |
| bus |
‑es |
buses |
Add ‑es after sibilants. |
| child |
‑ren |
children |
Irregular suppletion. |
| mouse |
‑ice |
mice |
Suppletion (vowel change). |
2. What Is Syntax?
| Aspect |
Description |
| Definition |
Study of how words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. |
| Goal |
Identify the rules that determine permissible word order and hierarchical structure. |
| Core Questions |
- What are the permissible arrangements of constituents?
- How do syntactic relations (subject, object, etc.) get expressed?
- What constraints limit sentence formation?
|
| Key Concepts |
- Constituent – a group of words that functions as a unit (e.g., noun phrase, verb phrase).
- Phrase structure rule – formal description of how constituents are built.
- Dependency – the relation between a head and its dependents.
- Syntactic categories – parts of speech (N, V, Adj, Adv, etc.) and functional categories (T, C, D, etc
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