morphology

English

Etymology

From morpho- +‎ -logy.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɔːˈfɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /mɔɹˈfɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /moːˈfɔl.ə.d͡ʒi/

Noun

morphology (countable and uncountable, plural morphologies)

1. (uncountable) A scientific study of form and structure, usually without regard to function. Especially:
   1. (linguistics) The study of the internal structure of morphemes (words and their semantic building blocks).
      • 2001, Yehuda Falk, “Lexical-Functional Grammar”, in CSLI Publications‎^[1], retrieved 2014-02-25:

        There are many ways to show that word structure is different from phrase and sentence structure. We will mention two here. First, free constituent order in syntax is common cross-linguistically; many languages lack fixed order of the kind that one finds in English. In morphology, on the other hand, order is always fixed. There is no such thing as free morpheme order. Even languages with wildly free word order, such as the Pama-Nyungan (Australian) language Warlpiri (Simpson 1991), have a fixed order of morphemes within the word. Second, syntactic and morphological patterns can differ within the same language. For example, note the difference in English in the positioning of head and complement between syntax and morphology.

   3. (biology) The study of the form and structure of animals and plants.
   4. (geology) The study of the structure of rocks and landforms.
   5. (mathematics) Mathematical morphology.
2. (countable) The form and structure of something.
3. (countable) A description of the form and structure of something.

Derived terms

• agromorphology
• biomorphology
• cytomorphology
• dysmorphology
• ecomorphology
• exomorphology
• extramorphology
• geomorphology
• histomorphology
• hydromorphology
• ichnomorphology
• immunomorphology
• inflectional morphology
• macromorphology
• mathematical morphology
• micromorphology
• mitomorphology
• morphologic
• morphological
• morphologist
• morphologize
• morphosyntax
• nanomorphology
• neuromorphology
• osteomorphology
• pathomorphology
• pedomorphology
• photomorphology
• phytomorphology
• plant morphology
• promorphology
• psychomorphology
• radiomorphology
• sonomorphology
• submorphology
• tonomorphology
• ultramorphology
• xenomorphology
• zoomorphology

 

Related terms

• isomorph
• morpheme
• morphotactics

 

Translations

a scientific study of form and structure

• Afrikaans: morfologie (af)
• Albanian: morfologji (sq) f
• Arabic: مُورْفُولُوجِيَا f (morfolōjyā)
• Armenian: ձևաբանություն (hy) (jewabanutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: morfologiya
• Balinese: ᬭᬸᬧᬯᬶᬤ᭄ᬬ (rupawidya)
• Belarusian: марфало́гія f (marfalóhija), марфалёгія f (marfaljóhija)
• Bulgarian: морфоло́гия f (morfológija)
• Catalan: morfologia (ca) f
• Cebuano: morpolohiya
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 形態學／形态学 (zh) (xíngtàixué)

• Czech: tvarosloví n, morfologie (cs) f
• Danish: morfologi c
• Dutch: morfologie (nl) f, vormleer (nl)
• Estonian: morfoloogia
• Finnish: morfologia (fi), muoto-oppi (fi)
• French: morphologie (fr) f
• Galician: morfoloxía (gl) f
• Georgian: მორფოლოგია (morpologia)
• German: Morphologie (de) f, Formenlehre (de) f
• Greek: μορφολογία (el) f (morfología)
• Hebrew: מוֹרְפוֹלוֹגְיָה (he) f (morfológya)
• Ido: morfologio (io)
• Italian: morfologia (it) f
• Japanese: 形態学 (ja) (けいたいがく, keitaigaku)
• Kazakh: морфология (morfologiä)
• Korean: 형태학(形態學) (ko) (hyeongtaehak)
• Kyrgyz: морфология (ky) (morfologiya)
• Latin: morphologia f
• Latvian: morfoloģija (lv) f
• Lithuanian: morfologija (lt) f
• Macedonian: морфологија f (morfologija)
• Malay: morfologi (ms)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: morfologi (no) m

• Persian: مرفولوژی (morfoloži), ریختشناسی (rixtšenāsi)
• Polish: morfologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: morfologia (pt) f
• Romanian: morfologie (ro) f
• Russian: морфоло́гия (ru) f (morfológija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: морфоло̀гија f

  Roman: morfològija (sh) f

• Slovak: tvaroslovie n, morfológia f
• Slovene: oblikoslovje (sl) n
• Spanish: morfología (es) f
• Swahili: mofolojia (sw)
• Swedish: morfologi (sv) c
• Tajik: морфология (morfologiya)
• Tatar: морфология (morfoloğiyä)
• Telugu: రూపనిర్మాణశాస్త్రము (rūpanirmāṇaśāstramu)
• Turkish: biçimbilim (tr), morfoloji (tr), biçim bilimi (tr)
• Turkmen: morfologiýa
• Ukrainian: морфоло́гія (uk) f (morfolóhija)
• Uzbek: morfologiya (uz)

the form and structure of something

• Belarusian: марфало́гія f (marfalóhija)
• Catalan: morfologia (ca) f
• Cebuano: morpolohiya
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 形態／形态 (zh) (xíngtài)

• Dutch: morfologie (nl) f
• Finnish: muoto (fi), morfologia (fi)
• Italian: morfologia (it) f
• Japanese: 形態 (ja) (けいたい, keitai)
• Korean: 형태(形態) (ko) (hyeongtae)
• Malay: morfologi (ms)
• Polish: morfologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: morfologia (pt) f
• Romanian: morfologie (ro) f
• Russian: морфоло́гия (ru) f (morfológija)
• Ukrainian: морфоло́гія (uk) f (morfolóhija)

a description of the form and structure of something

• Belarusian: марфало́гія f (marfalóhija)
• Catalan: morfologia (ca) f
• Cebuano: morpolohiya
• Dutch: morfologie (nl) f
• Finnish: morfologia (fi)
• Italian: morfologia (it)
• Malay: morfologi (ms)
• Polish: morfologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: morfologia (pt) f
• Romanian: morfologie (ro) f
• Russian: морфоло́гия (ru) f (morfológija)
• Ukrainian: морфоло́гія (uk) f (morfolóhija)

biological study of the form and structure

• Balinese: ᬭᬸᬧᬯᬶᬤ᭄ᬬ (rupawidya)
• Belarusian: марфало́гія f (marfalóhija)
• Catalan: morfologia (ca) f
• Cebuano: morpolohiya
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 形態學／形态学 (zh) (xíngtàixué)

• Dutch: morfologie (nl) f, vormleer (nl)
• Finnish: morfologia (fi)
• French: morphologie (fr)
• Hindi: स्वरूपशास्त्र (svarūpśāstra)
• Hungarian: morfológia (hu)
• Italian: morfologia (it) f
• Japanese: 形態学 (ja) (けいたいがく, keitaigaku)
• Khmer: សណ្ឋានវិទ្យា (km) (sɑnthaan vityiə)
• Korean: 형태학(形態學) (ko) (hyeongtaehak)
• Malay: morfologi (ms)
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: морфологий (morfologij)

• Polish: morfologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: morfologia (pt) f
• Romanian: morfologie (ro) f
• Russian: морфоло́гия (ru) f (morfológija)
• Spanish: morfología (es) f
• Tagalog: palaanyuan
• Telugu: స్వరూపశాస్త్రము (svarūpaśāstramu)
• Ukrainian: морфоло́гія (uk) f (morfolóhija)
• Vietnamese: hình thái học

geological study of the form and structure

• Belarusian: марфало́гія f (marfalóhija)
• Catalan: morfologia (ca) f
• Cebuano: morpolohiya
• Dutch: morfologie (nl) f, vormleer (nl)
• Finnish: morfologia (fi)
• Hungarian: morfológia (hu)
• Italian: morfologia (it)
• Malay: morfologi (ms)
• Polish: morfologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: morfologia (pt) f
• Romanian: morfologie (ro) f
• Russian: морфоло́гия (ru) f (morfológija)
• Ukrainian: морфоло́гія (uk) f (morfolóhija)

linguistic study of the form and structure

• Albanian: morfologji (sq) f
• Arabic: صَرْف (ar) m (ṣarf), مُورْفُولُوجِيَا f (murfulūjiyā), تَصْرِيف m (taṣrīf)
• Aragonese: morfolochía f
• Armenian: ձեւաբանություն (hy) (jewabanutʻyun)
• Balinese: ᬭᬸᬧᬯᬶᬤ᭄ᬬ (rupawidya)
• Belarusian: марфало́гія f (marfalóhija)
• Catalan: morfologia (ca) f
• Cebuano: morpolohiya
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 形態學／形态学 (zh) (xíngtàixué), 構詞學／构词学 (zh) (gòucíxué), 詞型變化／词型变化 (cíxíngbiànhuà), 語形學／语形学 (yǔxíngxué), 詞法學／词法学

• Czech: morfologie (cs) f, tvarosloví n
• Dutch: morfologie (nl) f, vormleer (nl)
• Faroese: formlæra f
• Finnish: morfologia (fi), muoto-oppi (fi)
• French: morphologie (fr) f
• Galician: morfoloxía (gl) f
• German: Morphologie (de) f, Wortbildung (de) f, Formenlehre (de) f
• Greek: μορφολογία (el) f (morfología)
• Hungarian: alaktan (hu), morfológia (hu)
• Icelandic: orðhlutafræði f
• Ido: morfologio (io)
• Irish: moirfeolaíocht f
• Italian: morfologia (it) f
• Japanese: 形態論 (ja) (けいたいろん, keitairon)
• Khmer: រូបសព្ទ (km) (ruup sap)
• Korean: 형태론 (hyeongtaeron)
• Lower Sorbian: słowoskład m, morfologija f
• Malay: nahu bentuk, morfologi (ms)
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: морфологий (morfologij), мутлончыш (mutlončyš)

• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: үг зүй (üg züj)

  Mongolian: ᠦᠭᠡ
  ᠵᠦᠢ (üge ǰüi)

• Northern Sami: morfologiija, hápmeoahppa
• Occitan: morfologia (oc) f
• Persian: صرف (fa) (sarf)
• Polish: morfologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: morfologia (pt) f
• Romanian: morfologie (ro) f
• Russian: морфоло́гия (ru) f (morfológija), словообразова́ние (ru) n (slovoobrazovánije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: о̏бликосло̄вље n, морфоло̀гија f

  Roman: ȍblikoslōvlje (sh) n, morfològija (sh) f

• Spanish: morfología (es) f
• Swahili: mofolojia (sw)
• Swedish: morfologi (sv), formlära (sv) c
• Tagalog: palaturingan, palaanyuan
• Turkish: biçim bilimi (tr), morfoloji (tr)
• Ukrainian: морфоло́гія (uk) f (morfolóhija)
• Urdu: صَرْف m (sarf)
• Vietnamese: hình thái học (形態學)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} morphologia
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} morphologia
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} sandara f (1), ^{(please verify)} morfologija (lt) f (2,3)
• Sindhi: ^{(please verify)} صرفيات (sd) f (Sarfiaat) (3,3)
• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} oblikoslovje (sl)

See also

• Wikipedia article on morphology in linguistics.
• Category:Linguistic morphology
• Appendix:Morphology

Further reading

• “morphology”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “morphology”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• morphology in Britannica Dictionary