morphology — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A scientific study of form and structure, usually without regard to function. Especially: The study of the internal structure of morphemes (words and their semantic building blocks).

   Usage

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   Examples

   More examples (2)

   There are many ways to show that word structure is different from phrase and sentence structure. We will mention two here. First, free constituent order in syntax is common cross-linguistically; many languages lack fixed order of the kind that one finds in English. In morphology, on the other hand, order is always fixed. There is no such thing as free morpheme order. Even languages with wildly free word order, such as the Pama-Nyungan (Australian) language Warlpiri (Simpson 1991), have a fixed order of morphemes within the word. Second, syntactic and morphological patterns can differ within the same language. For example, note the difference in English in the positioning of head and complement between syntax and morphology.

   There are essentially two criteria: (1) adaptability to the derivational structures of the morphology and (2) consideration for what cognitive psychologists and cognitive linguists call “base-level categorization.”

2. A scientific study of form and structure, usually without regard to function. Especially: The study of the form and structure of animals and plants.

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   • Uncountable

3. A scientific study of form and structure, usually without regard to function. Especially: The study of the structure of rocks and landforms.

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   • Uncountable

4. A scientific study of form and structure, usually without regard to function. Especially: Mathematical morphology.

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5. The form and structure of something.

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   • Countable

6. A description of the form and structure of something.

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   • Countable

Noun

1. the branch of biology that deals with the structure of animals and plants

   Broader terms

   biologybiological science

2. studies of the rules for forming admissible words

   Broader terms

   grammar

3. the admissible arrangement of sounds in words

   Synonyms

   sound structuresyllable structureword structure

   Broader terms

   structure

4. the branch of geology that studies the characteristics and configuration and evolution of rocks and land forms

   Synonyms

   geomorphology

   Broader terms

   geophysicsgeophysical science