Morphology is the treatise on the forms that matter can take. From the Greek “morphe” (morph = shape) and (logos = study).
Plant morphology is the part of Botany that studies the forms and structures of plant organisms.
In biology, morphology is the study of the shape of an organism or parts of it.
Social morphology is the part of sociology that studies and classifies the structures or forms of social life.
Morphology in Portuguese language
In the context of the Portuguese language, morphology is the part of grammar that studies the words observed in isolation. It is the study of the structure and formation of words, their inflections and their classification. These elements that form the word are called morphic elements or morphemes. Are they:
- Radical - is the element common to words from the same family: ironO, ironhey, ironact.
- Ending – are elements that are added to the stem to indicate grammatical aspects. They can be: nominal – menin (a)(s), verbal – sings (va)(mos).
- Affixes – are elements that are added to the root in order to form new words. They are: prefix – comes before the stem – (dis)loyal, suffix – comes after the stem – loyal (deity).
- Thematic vowel – is the vowel that appears right after the stem and indicates the conjugation. They are: (a, e, i) – cant (a) va, vend (e) ra, part (i) sse.
- Theme – is the radical plus the thematic vowel, that is: sing, sell, parted.
Morphology and Syntax
While morphology studies the structure of the word, observed in isolation, Syntax deals with the logical relationship of the words in the sentence. Syntactically analyzing a sentence means studying each element that constitutes it (subject, predicate, object, adjuncts, etc.), in order to verify the logical relationship between these elements.
see the meaning of definite and indefinite article.
