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Difference Between Morphology and Syntax

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21 views

Difference Between Morphology and Syntax

Uploaded by

Raghad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Difference Between Morphology and Syntax

Morphology and syntax are an integral part of linguistics. They are subdivisions
of the study of languages and together with phonetics, semantics and phonology
contribute to the understanding of how a language is formed. Morphology deals
with the understanding of how words are formed while syntax is focused on the
way sentences are developed. Basically morphology is the study of the structure
of words, while Syntax studies the structure of sentences. Together these
disciplines help linguists understand how language works.

What is Morphology?

Morphology helps linguists understand the structure of words by putting together


morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest grammatical, meaningful part of
language. There are two different types of morphemes that form the basis of the
words they structure. They are known as a free morpheme and a bound
morpheme. A free morpheme is a single meaningful unit of a word that can stand
alone in the language.
For example:
cat, mat, trust, slow ….. these are all free morphemes and stand alone.
A bound morpheme cannot stand alone, it has no real meaning if it is on its own.
For example:
walked, (ed) can not stand alone or unpleasant (un) is not a stand alone
morpheme.
Bound morphemes that are part of the beginning of a word are known as prefixes
and at the end of a word they are known as suffixes. Bound morphemes can also
be grouped into into a further two categories.
Derivational – added to the base form of the word to create a new word. Look at
the word able and let it become ability. In this instance the adjective becomes a
noun. The word send as a verb morpheme becomes sender and a noun with the
addition of er. While stable to unstable changes the meaning of the word to
become the opposite meaning. In other words the meaning of the word is
completely changed by adding a derivational morpheme to a base word.
Inflectional – are additions to the base word that do not change the word, but
rather serve as grammatical indicators. They show grammatical information.
For example:
Laugh becomes the past tense by adding ed and changing the word to laughed.
Dog to dogs changes the word from singular to plural.
Swim to swimming changes the verb into a progressive verb.
All these examples show how morphology participates in the study of linguistics.

What part does morphology play in linguistics?


Morphology studies the smallest meaningful parts of words.
Morphology looks at the structure of words and how they are formed.
It is the way linguists analyze the root, stem, prefix and suffix basis of words.
Morphology looks at the internal workings of a word.
What is Syntax?

Syntax looks at sentences and how words perform in a sentence. Syntax looks at
the rules and process of building a sentence and it looks at the word order and
structure of a sentence. The meaning of a sentence in any language depends on
the syntax and order of the words. A very simple basic sentence in English is
made of a subject with a verb and a direct object.
For example:
The dog chased the cat. Change the word order to The cat chased the dog.
Now the word order has changed and so has the meaning of the sentence. Both
sentences have the same words, but the meaning is different. It is by studying the
proper order of words in phrases and sentences that the linguist gains a better
understanding of the language as a whole. Native speakers of the language will
intuitively know why a word sounds out of place or an incorrect tense has been
used. A native speaker of a language learns the language from birth and is
immersed in that language as the child grows and develops using this native
‘birth’ language.
Understanding how syntax works helps the linguist look at different categories of
the sentence from the simple subject and predicate to more complex
combinations. These different classes of words in syntax are known as parts of
speech. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and so on all define words and the role
they play in sentences. Studies of syntax are based on the sentence and the
minimal portion of study being the clause, with the words that contribute to this
part of language. The sentence can be broken down or analyzed further by a
study of tenses, noun or verb phrases and how they work orally and literally.
Syntax comes from Greek, meaning ‘to arrange together.’ In studying the
sentence construction there are different complexities of words being used to
create the sentences.
A simple sentence is made of a subject and a verb. The boy ran.
A compound sentence is made of a subject, verb, object, conjunction, subject and
verb.
The boy ran a race and his sister did too.
A complex sentence has a dependent clause, subject, verb, object.
Although they were tired after running the race, the boy and his sister decided to
go to the park for their picnic lunch.
In this way studying the parts of the sentence contribute to understanding the
language and the value of words used in these types of sentences.

What part does Syntax play in linguistics?


Syntax is the study of sentences and the words within the sentence.
Syntax breaks down a sentence into clauses and studies words in the sentence
according to their purpose of definition as a part of speech.Whole words are the
smallest part of the study of syntax.
Syntax looks at word order and how words work within the structure of a
sentence.
Differences between Morphology and Syntax
Words
Morphology studies words through the structure of the word and the memes that
make up the words. Syntax studies words through their contribution to the
meaning and order of the whole sentence or in the context of a phrase in a
sentence.
Grammar
Morphology contributes to the understanding of words through the root word or
the suffix and prefix that may be added. Syntax analyzes the meaning of the
words within the sentence structure. Words have roles to play according to the
parts of speech they are defined as and the role they play within the sentence.
Bringing meaning to language
Morphology and syntax enable the linguist to analyze language structure. These
definitions give understanding to word usage and to the breakdown of words
within the development of languages. It is important for the deeper understanding
of a language to know how different words and their order can give different
emphasis to the language and word usage.
Learning syntax and morphology
It is important to be able to understand the laws defining language in order to have
a better grasp of the mechanics of language. How do words work together and
how do words influence the message and meaning of sentences. These are the
‘nuts and bolts’ of any language a linguist will study.

Summary of Morphology vs. Syntax


 Morphology and syntax contribute to the study of linguistics through the
analyzing of words and sentences.
 Although they are both involved with the influence of words in language, one
study looks at the word as its model to be studied, while the other looks at
studying the words within a sentence and how their order and structure influence
the meaning of the sentence.
 The study of syntax involves knowing the different parts of speech to understand
the role that the word or words may be contributing to the sentence. Words can
be used as nouns, verbs, adjectives and other parts of speech. Each individual
word can be studied individually to understand how a suffix or prefix or the use of
a word in a different context can change the meaning of the word.
 Morphology and syntax are tools used by the linguist to understand the way a
language works. Different languages have their own specific word order and the
linguist studies these differences withing the structure of syntax and morphology.
 Basically the simplest way of understanding the two linguistic terms is to look at
morphology as the study of words and syntax as the linguistic study of words in
sentences.

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