Morphology

Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words

A morpheme/ is the smallest meaningful form in a
language whereas a word is the smallest meaningful free form
in a language. In other words, a morpheme can be free or bound
while a word must be free. Moreover, a morpheme has a constant
shape and meaning (cf. lian2 zi3 lotus seeds vs. lian2 zi
curtains)

E.g. books pens men hit eat
E.g. M: / C: we one / first

Four grammatical levels: (1) morpheme/ (the smallest),
(2) word, (3) phrase/, (4) sentence (the largest)


1
Morpheme
Substitution is often used to test whether X (a character or
a syllable) is a morpheme or not

1 word = 1 morpheme = two syllables

E.g. roses (cf. curry, trumpets)
| ?
? |

E.g.
| ? corals
? |

2
Morpheme
1 word = 1 morpheme = 2 syllables

E.g. camels
| ?
? |

1 word = 2 morphemes = 2 syllables

E.g. camels hair (cf. coffee C:
| camels hump dark coffee light
| cats hair coffee color* a
cup of coffee)

3