The study of the internal structure of words and how they change to form new words is called?

The study of the internal structure of words and how they change to form new words is called?

• A. Morphology
• B. Parsing
• C. Syntax
• D. Idiom

Answer: (A)

Studying how words are built from smaller meaningful units and how those units change to form new words is morphology. Words are made from morphemes, the smallest units of meaning or grammatical function. By adding prefixes or suffixes you can shift meaning, tense, number, or part of speech, and by combining words you create compounds. For example, from a root like act you can form actions like action, actor, active, activist, and the forms run, runs, ran, running show how verbs change to fit different contexts. Morphology covers inflection (changing form for tense, number, or aspect) and derivation (creating new words with related meanings) as well as how words are built into larger words. This focus is different from parsing (analyzing sentence structure), syntax (the rules that govern word order in sentences), and idioms (fixed expressions whose meaning isn’t predictable from the individual words). So the term that best describes the study of the internal structure of words and how they change to form new words is morphology.

Studying how words are built from smaller meaningful units and how those units change to form new words is morphology. Words are made from morphemes, the smallest units of meaning or grammatical function. By adding prefixes or suffixes you can shift meaning, tense, number, or part of speech, and by combining words you create compounds. For example, from a root like act you can form actions like action, actor, active, activist, and the forms run, runs, ran, running show how verbs change to fit different contexts. Morphology covers inflection (changing form for tense, number, or aspect) and derivation (creating new words with related meanings) as well as how words are built into larger words. This focus is different from parsing (analyzing sentence structure), syntax (the rules that govern word order in sentences), and idioms (fixed expressions whose meaning isn’t predictable from the individual words). So the term that best describes the study of the internal structure of words and how they change to form new words is morphology.