Morphology?  What is it?  Why do I even need to know about it?  Morphology is what most native born speakers of English use without knowing it or paying attention to it.  It allows us to claim that saying something one way “sounds” more right than saying it another way.  All of this is another way of saying that morphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of a given language.

Morphology is important to teachers and students not so much as a stand-alone study, but more as a resource for generating additional vocabulary.  It can be very helpful for students preparing for standardized tests and/or college entrance exams, as the knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes may assist in decoding and comprehending unfamiliar words.

Morphology is the study of patterns of word formations in a particular language.  No matter the language, morphology may be approached from the following directions:

1)  oral language focuses on inflection

2)  derivation of language focuses on the history of words and/or their meaning

3)  the study of the composition of words zeroes in on root words, prefixes and suffixes.