Research Scholar, Department of English, RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur, India
Linguistics is the scientific study of a language. Morphology is the branch of linguistics and the study of words and their structures. The term ‘morphology’ was first used by German linguist August Schleicher in 1859 for linguistic purposes though this term was already used by scientists in biology. Morphology refers to the study of the internal structures of words and the systematic form-meaning correspondence between words.
Morphology is essential sub-field of linguistics. It describes the structures of words and patterns of word formation in a language. It aims to pin down the principles for relating the form and meaning of morphological expressions and explain how the morphological units are integrated and show how these units are organized in the lexicon in terms of affinity and contrast. The distinction between words and lexemes provides the basis for the division of morphology as inflectional morphology and lexical word formation.
English has become a global language and this is the only language taught and used around the world mostly. Morphology in English is being taught and discussed every where to understand the structures of words and their usage. Every teacher and student need to focus on morphology, besides phonetics and syntax and other sub-fields of linguistics, to use words and their structures in English properly in sentences both in speaking and writing. This paper attempts to familiarize the structures of words and the correspondence between form-meaning of words particularly to the learners of English language.
Morphology, linguistics, morphemes, words, affix, root, lexeme, allomorphs, compounds, spelling, pronunciation, grammar, structure, inflection, derivation
