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Difference Between Morphology and Syntax
Difference Between Morphology and Syntax
Department of Education
COURSE OUTLINE
PROGRAMME: BACHELOR OF EDUCATION (ARTS)
YEAR: 2 SEMESTER: 2
UNIT CODE & TITLE : AEN 2220 MORPHOLOGY, SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS
Pre-requisite – AEN 2111: AEN 2210
LECTURE HOURS: 45 Credit hours ;3
LECTURER: Dr. Safari Ntalala.
LECTURER CONTACTS: EMAIL: sntalala@kyu.ac.ke TEL: 0720 580 659
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.
All these examples show how morphology participates in the study of linguistics.
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.
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.
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 withing the structure of a sentence.
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 withing the sentence.
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.
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.
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.