Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Morphology |
MorphologyNoun1. The branch of biology that deals with the structure of animals and plants. 2. Studies of the rules for forming admissible words. 3. The admissible arrangement of sounds in words. 4. The branch of geology that studies the characteristics and configuration and evolution of rocks and land forms. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "morphology" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
Etymology: Morphology \Mor*phol"o*gy\, noun. [Greek expression form -logy: compare to the French expression morphologie.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Food & Agriculture | The physical constitution of the soil including the texture, structure, porosity, consistency and colour of the various soil horizons, their thickness and their arrangement in the soil profil e. Source: European Union. (references) |
Geological | The study of shape or form. See geomorphology. (references) |
Health | The science of the form and structure of organisms (plants, animals, and other forms of life). (references) |
Language | The science and study of the smallest meaningful units of a language, and of their formation into words. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | A. The observation of the form of lands b. The study of the form and structure of organisms c. The form or shape of a crystal or mineral aggregate. Adj.morphological. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In biology, morphology refers to the form or shape or an organism or part thereof.
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Morphology as a subdiscipline of linguistics studies word structure. Words are at the interface between phonology, syntax and semantics (Spencer / Zwicky)
Fields and subfields withinlinguistics. |
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The components of a word form are called morphemes. Word formation rules describe how to select morphemes from the lexicon and to combine them.
Important concepts:
Inflection occurs when a word has different forms but essentially the same meaning, and there is only a grammatical difference between them: for example, "make" and "makes". The "-s" is an inflectional morpheme.
In contrast, derivation makes a word with a clearly different meaning: such as "unhappy" or "happiness", both from "happy". The "un-" and "-ness" are derivational morphemes. Normally a dictionary would list derived words, but there is no need to list "makes" in a dictionary as well as "make".
These examples also illustrate the other two kinds of morphemes, unbound (which are meaningful on their own) and bound (which have meaning when combined with another morpheme). Thus, the word "schoolyard" consists of two unbound morphemes ("school" and "yard"), while the word "makes" has one unbound ("make") and one bound, and "unhappiness" has one unbound and two bound.
A word may consist of two bound morphemes: the word "morpheme" itself illustrates this, since it consists, or traditionally consisted, of two bound morphemes ("morph" and "eme"). But as the example of "morpheme" reveals, bound morphemes may become unbound ones: "morph" has been adopted in linguistics for the phonological realization of a morpheme, and the verb "morph" was coined to describe a type of visual effect done with computers. A more familiar example is if we adopt the suffix "-ish" as a separate word, and use "ish" by itself to mean "somewhat, a bit, so-so".
A morpheme may have different realizations (morphs) in different contexts. For example, the verb morpheme "do" of English has three quite distinct pronunciations in the words "do", "does" (with suffix "-s"), and "don't" (with "-n't"). Such alternating morphs of a morpheme are called its allomorphs. Other examples are in past tenses of verbs: "I have walked", "I have eaten", "I have drunk": one verb has a regular "-ed" allomorph, one has a less common "-en" allomorph, and one changes the vowel inside the verb. This last case is a problem for description, because you can't separate the morpheme "drink" from the morpheme for past tense. The two appear fused.
In some languages, of which Latin forms a prime example, several inflections are often fused into one phonetic form. These are called fusional languages. For example, dominus "master" has plural domini, while domina "mistress" has plural dominae. The ending -us contains the ideas of masculine and singular, and in addition is only used in the nominative case. In the accusative singular it is dominum, and in the genitive plural it is dominorum. It is impossible to isolate separate morphemes for case, or gender, or number. In contrast to fusional languages, agglutinative languages such as Turkish use multiple morphemes in the one word but they are all phonetically separable.
The Semitic languages show an extreme of fusion, in that word roots are represented by fixed consonants, usually three, and their inflection and derivation is done with internal vowel patterns as well as affixes. For example, in Arabic we find kataba "he wrote", yaktubu "he writes", kaatibun "writer", kitaabun "book", maktuubun "office". All these form utilise the consonant cluster KTB.
Suppletion is the replacement of a regular form by an unrelated word. In English "go" has the past tense "went", and "be" has various unrelated parts such as "am" and "was".
A cranberry morpheme is one that exists only in one bound form, such as the "cran-" of "cranberry". It is unrelated to the word "cran" meaning a case of herrings, and though it actually comes from "crane" the bird, it is not at all clear why. Phonetically, the first morphemes of "gooseberry" and "raspberry" also count as cranberry morphemes, as they don't occur by themselves, but the spelling gives an obscure clue to their origin. Compare these to "blackberry", which has two obvious unbound morphemes.
See also: inflected language; noun case; uninflected word.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Morphology."
Synonyms: MorphologySynonyms: geomorphology (n), sound structure (n), syllable structure (n), word structure (n). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: morphemic (language). |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Organization | Morphology, taxonomy. |
Zoology | Noun: zoology, zoonomy, zoography, zootomy; anatomy; comparative anatomy; animal physiology, comparative physiology; morphology; mammalogy. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Morphology |
| English words defined with "morphology": anatomic, anatomical, anatomy ♦ inflectional ♦ Latino sine flexione ♦ morphologic, morphological, morphologically, Morphologist ♦ Organology ♦ Promorphology ♦ structural ♦ Tectology. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "morphology": Abnormalities, Radiation-Induced, annual growth ring, Atypical Bacterial Forms ♦ Badnavirus, botanical anomaly ♦ chromosome aberration ♦ Geminiviridae, geobotanical prospecting ♦ Hemidesmosomes, histologis, HISTOPATHOLOGIST ♦ Islands of Calleja ♦ Leukemia, Nonlymphocytic, Acute, Lymphoma, T-Cell, Peripheral ♦ Macrophage Activation, MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIST, metasomatic microtexture, mutation of chromosomes ♦ physical geology ♦ Retroviruses Type C, Avian ♦ skeletal soil, soil consisting of stone, soil science ♦ year ring. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "morphology": Promorphology. (references) |
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Periodicals |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Six-step sequence of the death of a cancer cell. A cancer cell has migrated through the holes of a matrix coated membrane from the top to the bottom, simulating natural migration of a invading cancer cell between, and sometimes through, the vascular endothelium. Notice the spikes or pseudopodia that are characteristic of an invading cancer cell (1). A buffy coat containing red blood cells, lymphocytes and macrophages is added to the bottom of the membrane. A group of macrophages identify the cancer cell as foreign matter and start to stick to the cancer cell, which still has its spikes (2). Macrophages begin to fuse with, and inject its toxins into, the cancer cell. The cell starts rounding up and loses its spikes (3). As the macrophage cell becomes smooth (4). The cancer cell appears lumpy in the last stage before it dies. These lumps are actually the macrophages fused within the cancer cell (5). The cancer cell then loses its morphology, shrinks up and dies (6). Photo magnification: 1: x12,000; 2: x4,000; 3: x8,000; 4: x26,000; 5: x56,000; 6: x14,000. Credit: Susan Arnold (photographer). |  | This lesion has a dark brown, "pebbly" elevated surface against a lighter tan, macular background. The irregular, indistinct margin of the nevus helps to distinguish it from the small congenital-pattern nevus, which some dysplastic nevi closely resemble clinically. Its distinctive morphology, not its size (6 by 6 mm), identifies it as a dysplastic nevus. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |
 | From a lateral view, one is able to identify the cellular components along the length of a T. pallidum bacterium, which give this spiral bacterium (spirochete) a unique cellular morphology, and mode of motility. Credit: CDC. |  | Thioglycollate broth culture. Morphology is rod-like with chains when cultured on broth. Can cause subacute bacterial endocarditis and dental caries. Streptococci. Credit: CDC. |
 | Yersinia pestis grows well on most standard laboratory media, after 48-72 hours, grey-white to slightly yellow opaque raised, irregular "fried egg" morphology; alternatively colonies may have a "hammered copper" shiny surface. Credit: CDC. |  | Burkholderia pseudomallei is a Gram-negative aerobic bacteria, and is the causative agent of melioidosis. The organism's colonial morphology changes somewhat as the incubation is extended. Credit: CDC. |
 | Blood agar plate culture yields coccal-like morphology without chains. The S. mutans organism can cause subacute bacterial endocarditis and dental caries. Streptococci. Credit: CDC. |  | The Lassa virus can cause altered liver morphology with hemorrhagic necrosis and inflammation. The virus, a member of the virus family Arenaviridae, is a single-stranded RNA virus and is zoonotic, or animal-borne. Credit: CDC. |
 | As the parasite increases in size, the ring morphology disappears, and becomes what is referred to as a mature trophozoite. The trophozoite of P. vivax is ameboid in shape, and the enlarged infected erythrocyte contains numerous Schuffner's dots. Credit: CDC. |  | Pl. LXI. 221. Grammicolepis brachiusculus, Poey. Copied from Shufeldt, Journal of Morphology, Vol. II. 222. Centrolophus. Credit: National Marine Fisheries Historical Image Collection. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The many kinds of cataract are classified by their morphology (size, shape, location) or etiology (cause and time of occurrence). (references) | |
Furthermore, it is not known how UVR interactions with light-absorbing molecules within the keratinocytes (e.g., DNA, keratins, lipids) correlate with the changes in morphology. (references) | ||
In Naegleria infections, the diagnosis can be made by microscopic examination of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). A wet mount may detect motile trophozoites, and a Giemsa-stained smear will show trophozoites with typical morphology. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Morphology" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Morphology" is used about 250 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 250 | 18,796 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "morphology": compound morphology ♦ derivational morphology ♦ fluvial morphology ♦ inflectional morphology ♦ river morphology ♦ soil morphology. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "morphology"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaans | morfologie (accidence). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | morfologji (accidence). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | علم التشكل المورفولوجيا. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | морфология (accidence). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 形态学. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | morfologie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | morfologi (morphemics, soil morphology). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | morfologie (accidence). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | morfemscienco. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | تاریخ تحولات لغوی , ریخت شناسی . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | morfologia (soil morphology), maaperän morfologia (soil morphology). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | morphologie (morphemics, soil morphology). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | formenlehre, morphologie (morphemics, soil morphology). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μορφολογία (morphemics). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מורפולו'י", תורת "צורות. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | morfológia, alaktan (accidence). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | tata kata, tata bentuk. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | morfologia (accidence). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 形態論 , 形態学 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | けいたいがく, けいたいろ". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 형태학. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | jalloo-oaylleeaght. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | orphologymay morfologia (accidence). (various references) morfologie (accidence). (various references) морфология (accidence). (various references) morfologija. (various references) morfología (morphemics, soil morphology). (various references) morfologi. (various references) morfoloji (accidence), şekilbilim. (various references) морфологія. (various references) hình thái học. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "morphology": geomorphology, micromorphology. (additional references) | |
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"Morphology" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: morphalogy, morpholgy, morphologie, morpholoy. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "morphology" (pronounced môrfÄ"lujē) |
| 7 | -r f Ä" l u j ē | geomorphology. |
| 6 | -f Ä" l u j ē | graphology. |
| 5 | -Ä" l u j ē | anesthesiology, anthology, anthropology, apology, archaeology, archeology, astrology, bacteriology, biology, biotechnology, cardiology, chronology, cosmetology, criminology, cytology, dendrochronology, dermatology, doxology, ecology, embryology, endocrinology, entomology, epidemiology, epistemology, ethnology, ethology, etiology, etymology, genealogy, geology, gerontology, gynecology, histology, Hymnology, ideology, immunology, kinesiology, limnology, meteorology, methodology, microbiology, micropaleontology, mineralogy, mycology, mythology, neurology, numerology, oncology, ontology, ophthalmology, ornithology, otology, paleontology, pathology, penology, petrology, pharmacology, physiology, Pomology, psychology, radiology, rheumatology, seismology, serology, sociology, terminology, theology, toxicology, urology, virology, zoology. |
| 4 | -l u j ē | analogy, cosmology, elegy, eulogy, trilogy. |
| 3 | -u j ē | prodigy, strategy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "g-h-l-m-o-o-o-p-r-y" | |
-2 letters: homology, horology, pomology. | |
-3 letters: homolog, orology. | |
-4 letters: gloomy, morpho, oology, pogrom, poorly, prolog. | |
-5 letters: gloom, glory, glyph, goopy, groom, hooly, loopy, lymph, moory, morph, ology, oomph, orlop, porgy, promo, roomy. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-h-l-m-o-o-o-p-r-y" | |
+3 letters: geomorphology. | |
+5 letters: micromorphology, morphologically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4D 6F 72 70 68 6F 6C 6F 67 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-- --- .-. .--. .... --- .-.. --- --. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001101 01101111 01110010 01110000 01101000 01101111 01101100 01101111 01100111 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)M o r p h o l o g y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004D 006F 0072 0070 0068 006F 006C 006F 0067 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)47818482748178817391 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Orthography 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
