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Morphology and Syntax Linguistics

Morphology and syntax are subdisciplines of linguistics that study the structure of words and sentences, respectively. Morphology examines how words are formed by combining morphemes, which are the smallest meaningful units of language. There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes that can stand alone as words, and bound morphemes that cannot. Syntax studies the rules that govern sentence structure, such as word order and agreement between parts. The main difference between morphology and syntax is that morphology analyzes word formation while syntax analyzes sentence formation.

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Célia ZENNOUCHE
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106 views

Morphology and Syntax Linguistics

Morphology and syntax are subdisciplines of linguistics that study the structure of words and sentences, respectively. Morphology examines how words are formed by combining morphemes, which are the smallest meaningful units of language. There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes that can stand alone as words, and bound morphemes that cannot. Syntax studies the rules that govern sentence structure, such as word order and agreement between parts. The main difference between morphology and syntax is that morphology analyzes word formation while syntax analyzes sentence formation.

Uploaded by

Célia ZENNOUCHE
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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University of Algiers II Department of English

Morphology and Syntax


Linguistics is the study of language and its structure. Morphology and syntax are two major
subdisciplines in the field of linguistics. Other subdisciplines of linguistics include phonetics,
phonology, semantics, and pragmatics. Syntax is the study of the formation of sentences and
morphology is the study of the formation of words. The final aim of both these fields is to
study how meaning is produced in language. The main difference between morphology and
syntax is that morphology studies how words are formed whereas syntax studies how
sentences are formed.  

I-Morphology:
Morphology is another important subdiscipline of linguistics. Morphology studies the
structure of words. It specifically examines how words are formed by putting
together morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest grammatical and meaningful unit of a
language. Different languages have different morphemes and different rules about the
formation of words.
Types of Morphemes:
Morphemes can be divided into two basic categories called free morphemes and bound
morphemes. A free morpheme is a meaningful unit that can stand alone as a word. In other
words, it is a word made up of only one morpheme. For example;
mat, trust, slow, cat, old, fast, bring, man
A bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand alone; it is always bound to another
morpheme.  Thus, a bound morpheme has no meaning on its own. For example;
slowly, talked, unthankful, blackish
Bound morphemes attached to the front of a word are called prefixes (distaste, untrue, etc.)
and bound morphemes attached to the back of a word are called suffixes (valuable,
etc.).Bound Morphemes can be divided further into two categories
called derivational and inflectional morphemes. Derivational morphemes are morphemes
that are added to the base form of a word to create a new word. 

 Example 1:Able ⇒ Ability (adjective)  → (noun) Send ⇒ Sender (verb)→ (noun)

Example 2: Use⇒ Misuse Stable ⇒ Unstable

(Meaning is totally changed.)

As seen from these examples, adding a derivational morpheme will change either the meaning
or the class of the word.

Inflectional morphemes are a type of bound morphemes that do not cause a change in the
meaning or word class: they serve as grammatical markers and indicate some grammatical
information about a word.
Laughed –Past Tense
cats  – Plural
Swimming – Progressive

II- Syntax:
Syntax is a discipline of linguistics that studies the structure of sentence. Syntax is the study
of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in any language. It
pays attention to components such as word order, agreement, and the hierarchical structure of
language. The meaning of any sentence in any language depends on the syntax.
For example, the sentences in the English language often formed by following a subject with
a verb and the direct object. It is the positions of these words that convey the subject-
object relationship. Look at the following sentences.
The cat ate the mouse.
The mouse ate the cat.
These two sentences convey two different meanings although they contain the exact same
words. It is the word order of the sentences that affect the meaning of these two sentences.The
parts of a language are divided into different syntactic categories. Most sentences can be
divided into two sections called subject and predicate. These two parts are also made of
different words. Syntactical classes of words are known as parts of speech.

S= Sentence, NP= Noun Phrase, VP= Verb Phrase, D= Determiner, N= Noun, V= Verb

IC Analysis: Immediate Constituents Analysis


III-Difference Between Morphology and Syntax:

Definition 
Morphology: Morphology studies the structure of words.
Syntax: Syntax studies the structure of sentences.
Smallest Unit
Morphology: Morphemes are the smallest units in morphology.
Syntax: Words are the smallest unit in syntax.
Content
Morphology: Morphology studies how words are formed.
Syntax: Syntax  studies the word order and agreement

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