| morphology |
| Definition - The branch of grammar that studies the formation and structure of words, i.e. it is the study of how morphemes work. Notes: 1. As opposed to syntax, which is the study of the arrangement of groups of words such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. 2. There are two types: inflectional morphology, the study of inflections, and lexical morphology, the study of word formation. |
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Etymology - The word derives from the Greek morphe, form or shape + ology, study of. |
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Oxford English Dictionary - Its first citation in this sense is from 1869: "By the morphology of a language we mean the general laws of its grammatical structure." (Farrar Fam. Speech iv. 118) |
