What is morphology

--
What is Morphology?
Morphology - the internal structure of words
Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words and forms a core part of linguistic study today.
The term morphology is Greek and is a makeup of morph- meaning shape, form, and -ology which means the study of something.
Morphology as a sub-discipline of linguistics was named for the first time in 1859 by the German linguist August Schleicherwho used the term for the study of the form of words. 1
What is a word?
Smallest independent units of language
Independent:
1. do not depend on other words.
2. can be separated from other units
3. can change position. 2
Example:
The man looked at the horses.
s is the plural marker, dependent on the noun horse to receive meaning
Horses is a word: can occur in other positions or stand on its own
EG:
The horses looked at the man.
- What is the man looking at? - Horses.
Words are thus both independent since they can be separated from other words and move around in sentences, and the smallest units of language since they are the only units of language for which this is possible.
Morphemes - the building blocks of morphology
Words have internal structure: built of even smaller pieces
1. SIMPLE WORDS: Dont have internal structure (only consist of one morpheme) eg work, build, run. They cant be split into smaller parts which carry meaning or function.
2. COMPLEX WORDS: Have internal structure (consist of two or more morphemes) eg worker: affix -er added to the root work to form a noun.
Morphemes are the smallest meaning-bearing units of language. 3
FREE VS BOUND MORPHEMES
Free morpheme: a simple word, consisting of one morpheme eg house, w