THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX TO THE STUDY AND

USE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

The contributions of morphology and syntax to the study of language, particularly English, can never be
over-emphasized. Halliday and Matthiessen (2014), in broad terms, contend that language is used to carry
out interpersonal functions in speech and writing. This paper, therefore, carefully explores these
contributions, taking into considerations the roles played by these variables in the study and use of the
English language. The corpora for the study were collected from relevant texts, journals and the internet
and subjected to a more careful review. It is found that morphology and syntax play significant roles in
reading comprehension, formation of English words, language learning, formation of phrases, clauses and
sentences; clear and affective communication and Literature-in English. The paper concludes that syntax
and morphology provide a solid foundation for the study of language without which language study goes
into extinction.

1. Introduction

The roles of syntax and morphology in the study and use of English cannot be fully discussed without

falling back to linguistics. The term, linguistics, according to Lyon in Agbedo (2015: 14), is the

scientific study of language. Language in itself is seen as a system of rules and principles of human

communication. This definition seems to be complicated because many linguists tend to have their

different perceptions of what language is. However, language is generally seen as a ‘human system of

communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.’ It is

therefore right to assert that language is an umbrella term that houses all levels of linguistic analysis:

Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics. Linguistics in general will be incomplete if

Morphology and Syntax are excluded from language.

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 English language is among many natural languages in the world that uses morphology and

syntax to coordinate coherence and clarity in both speech and writing. That is, when there are

morphological and syntactic misrepresentations in either speech or writing, there are bounds for

incoherence in such piece of talk. It is also observed that when a reader struggles to make out

meaning from a poor assemblage of word strings in a passage, then he will begin to appreciate the

contributions of syntax in language. The imaginary beauty that underlies a word that has under gone

word formation process according to the application of a set of rule; is overtly seen as the immense

work of morphology. Scholars in linguistics can never be grateful enough to early scholars who had

made this wonderful contribution. It is therefore worthy to say that morphology and syntax play a

leading role in the development, study and use of language.

Morphology as one of the levels of linguistic analysis, seeks to study the internal structure of a

word. In other words, morphology is a branch of linguistics which studies word structure and how

words change their forms when they change grammatical function. Similarly, syntax deals with the

study of how these words are arranged into phrases and sentences. In the light of the above definitions,

language can be said to be vague if morphological and syntactic principles are neglected. In fact, what

said to constitute language will just be a leftover of unnamed piece of unstructured vocal utterances.

1.1 Overview of Morphology

As it is clearly but briefly defined in the introductory part of this work, morphology studies the

internal structure of word. Morphology therefore studies the ways morphemes organize themselves to

form words.

1.2 The Concept of the Morpheme

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The term morphology is generally attributed to the German poet, novelist, playwright, and

philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), who coined it early in the nineteenth century

in a biological context. Its etymology is Greek: morph- means ‘shape, form’, and morphology is the

study of form or forms. In Biology, morphology refers to the study of the form and structure of

organisms, and in geology it refers to the study of the configuration and evolution of land forms. In

linguistics morphology refers to the mental system involved in word formation or to the branch of

linguistics that deals with words, their internal structure, and how they are formed.

Morpheme is a unit of morphology. The word ‘morpheme’ is used to refer to the smallest

indivisible form which has a specific grammatical function. Agbedo (2015) also sees morpheme as the

smallest unit of meaning which cannot be further broken into meaningful grammatical analysis. For

example, the English word ‘worked’ contains two bits of meaningful units. WORK plus PAST

TENSE. Generally speaking, WORK plus PAST TENSE are called morphemes. In the word ‘birds’,

two morphemes BIRD and PLURAL MARKER are present. It is however pertinent to note that when

words are determinate with respect to segmentation, then the segmented parts are referred as morphs.

The word ‘buyer’ for instance is analyzable into two morphs, which is represented by as ‘buy’ and

‘er’. All the morphological elements, that is, ‘buy’ and ‘er’ contribute the building block of the word

‘buyer’.

It is evident that morpheme takes two forms: the Free and Bound morpheme. A Free morpheme

is one that can stand on its own in an utterance, usually a full word as man, fan, table etc. on the other

hand a Bound morpheme is one that cannot stand alone in an utterance. For example, ‘in-’, ’un-’, ‘-ly’

are bound morphemes. They are forms that possess meanings but which crucially have grammatical

functions in the grammar.

1.3 Morph and Allomorph

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The term ‘morph’ is sometimes used to refer specifically to the phonological realization of a

morpheme. For example, the English past tense morpheme that we spell -ed has various morphs. It is

realized as [t] after the voiceless [p] of jump (jumped), as [d] after the voiced [l] of repel (repelled),

and as [id] after the voiceless [t] of root or the voiced [d] of wed (cf. rooted and wedded). We can also

call these morphs allomorphs or variants. The appearance of one morph over another in this case is

determined by voicing and the place of articulation of the final consonant of the verb stem. Now

consider the word reconsideration. We can break it into three morphemes: re-, consider, and -ation.

Consider is called the stem. A stem is a base morpheme to which another morphological piece is

attached. The stem can be simple, made up of only one part, or complex, itself made up of more than

one piece. Here it is best to consider a simple stem. Although it consists historically of more than one

part, most present-day speakers would treat it as an unanalyzable form. We could also call consider

the root. A root is like a stem in constituting the core of the word to which other pieces attach, but the

term refers only to morphologically simple units. For example, disagree is the stem of disagreement;

because it is the base to which -ment attaches, but agree is the root. Taking disagree now, agree is

both the stem to which dis attaches and the root of the entire word. Returning now to reconsideration,

re- and -ation are both affixes, which mean that they are attached to the stem. Affixes like re- that go

before the stem, are prefixes, and those like -ation that go after are suffixes. The diagram below

illustrates further the types and sub-types of morphemes in English:

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1.4 Types and Sub-Types of Morphemes

In summary, the English plural morpheme {-s} can be expressed by three different but

clearly related phonemic forms /iz/ or /z/, and /s/. These three have in common not only their meaning,

but also the fact that each contains an alveolar fricative phoneme, either /s/ or /z/. The three forms are

in complementary distribution, because each occurs where the others cannot, and it is possible to

predict just where each occurs: /iz/ after sibilants, /z/ after voiced segments, and /s/ everywhere else.

Given the semantic and phonological similarities between the three forms and the fact that they are in

complementary distribution, it is reasonable to view them as contextual pronunciation variants of a

single entity. In parallel with phonology, we will refer to the entity of which the three are variant

representations as a morpheme, and the variant forms of a given morpheme as its allomorphs. When

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we wish to refer to a minimal grammatical form merely as a form, we will use the term morph.

Compare these terms and the concepts behind them with phoneme, allophone, and phone

1.5 Overview of Syntax

Syntax in linguistics can refer either to the study of the structural rule of a language or the bodies of

rules themselves. The word Syntax is derived from the Greek syntaxis, which means “arrangement.”

This therefore implies that syntax deals with rules of word order and word combinations in order to

form phrases and sentences. Syntax in linguistics deals with the ways the element of a sentence or

phrase can be arranged and rearranged to express different meanings. For example, in spoken and

written English, sentences can often been constructed following a subject with a verb and direct

object. The position of the words conveys the subject-object relationship. For example, a sentence

such as “The dog bit the cat” conveys a meaning that is different from “The cat bit the dog,” even

though they contain exactly the same words.

1.6 The Discovery of Syntax

The birth of syntax as a quasi-autonomous branch of study has a fascinating beginning. Two reasons

account for this type of beginning. The first is that just as many other independent fields of study

today. It began from an arguable different discipline; it originated from Philosophy. Even though it is

controvertible that the Greek started the study of syntax, it is undoubtedly the Greek who started the

formal study. And this form of language discovery is what linguist called Traditional Grammar.

Secondly, the recognition of the theoretical importance of syntax in human language arose from two

sources during the 1950’s. Computers had a dual influence. On one hand the development of high

level programming language entailed the increasing complex syntactic processors; on the other, the

availability of these machines fueled the hope of devising an automatic language translator that could

translate from one language into another. For example from Russia to English. These developments

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were not unrelated. Chomsky’s work (1959a, 1959b) on formal Grammar was recognized as an

important contribution to the growing field of computational linguistics while Chomsky himself was

connected for a time with machine translation project directed by Victor Yngve at M.I.T. Both

computer applications and Chomsky continued to have a powerful impact on the psychological study

of language processes, and syntax in particular. Chomsky not only constructed a formal theory of

human language structure, but he argued persuasively that linguistics actually was part of Psychology.

In addition, he effectively challenged the relevance to the study of human language of the dominant

Behaviorist paradigm.

2. The Roles of Morphology in the Study and Use of English

English is a language that modeled after Latin. Latin in itself is a highly inflectional language. That is,

it uses morphological principles in describing and analyzing language. Bearing this in mind, it will not

be out of place to say that morphology is the central factor in the study and the use of English. It is

quite unimaginable that language will be a success without the morphological aspects. In fact,

morphology plays a vital role in language analysis. Undoubtedly to say that, language is comprised

sounds, words, phrases and sentences. At all these levels, language is rule-based. At the sound level,

phonology refers to the rules of sound combination. At the word level, morphology refers to the

structure and construction of words. Interestingly, morphological skills require an understanding and

the use of the appropriate structure of words, such as word roots, and affixes called morphemes.

Strong knowledge of grammatical morphemes, such as use of –ing for a present progressive verb, /s/

to indicate plural form and correct use of verb tense, is necessary in order to have well developed

morphology skills.

Morphological principles allow a speaker of English to have a general view in the field of

morphology and to understand its relationship with the other level of grammar. It also introduces a

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language learner to the nature of morphemes, word, and its various formation process in English. Also,

a language learner is at the advantage of achieving through comprehension and practice, skills and

attitudes in analyzing different type of word structures in English.

3. The Role of Morphology in Reading and Reading Comprehension

Morphology as a branch of linguistics plays an important role in reading skills. Many would ask of

what relevance is morphology to reading. It is important however to note that, the knowledge of

morpheme is a prerequisite in learning how to read. It is not out of place to ask whether morphological

representations play a vital role in learning to read. Learning to read in an alphabetic orthography

involves the acquisition of mappings between phonemes and graphemes. Clear research evidence

shows that word identification in learning to read requires a phonological mechanism that generates

phonological word forms. A phonological constituent applies as soon as the child begins to treat the

letters of a word as having speech associated with them. However, the role of morphology in learning

to read is less well understood. How children learn to recognize more complex words on the basis of

their constituent parts remains to be established. Although children perceive speech and recognize

words, there is nothing in that ability that makes visible the composition of the speech in terms of

morphological constituents. Some morphological awareness seems to be required for children to be

successful in reading. Progress in reading acquisition requires gaining knowledge of morphemes as

abstract linguistic units. The relationship between awareness of morphology and progress in reading

acquisition can also be seen as reciprocal and mutually facilitative in that morphological awareness

develops as a consequence of reading instruction. Alphabetic orthographies differ in the degree to

which they adhere to a consistent representation of phonemes, or alternatively, the degree to which

they deviate in a principled way from representing the phonetic level to preserve deeper linguistic or

lexical information. In comparative studies on learning to read and write in different languages, cross-

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linguistic differences in orthographic regularity are usually expressed along the continuum deep versus

shallow. In shallow orthographies like Italian, Finnish, or Serbo-Croatian, for example, morphemes are

said to be represented by the graphemes in a direct and unequivocal manner. In deeper orthographies,

such as English and French, on the other hand, the relationship between spelling and the basic “sub-

word sounds” that make meaningful contrasts in the spoken language are more opaque. Although the

lack of grapheme consistency in these languages has many sources (especially in English), one source

is that pronunciation changes with morphological variation, but spelling tends not to change—for

example, library–librarian, human–humanity. In learning to read, children learn that word parts that

are related in meaning are usually spelled consistently, despite changes in pronunciation. Thus, they

learn the Isomorphism Principle, which assigns similar spellings to similar (parts of) words, as long as

pronunciation allows this. Given the fact that in many cases spelling rules are not directly governed by

the phonological syllable structure, the learner must convert sounds to an underlying spelling

representation with orthographic syllables reflecting morphemes (Treiman, 1992, pp. 259–272).

4. The Role of Morphology in Formation of English Words

Morphology is saddled with the sole responsibility of forming words in every language. Particularly,

morphology plays an indispensible role in the formation of words in English language. It is no longer

news that words are formed through the word formation process of every language. There are rules

governing the formation of words in all languages and particularly in English. The process helps to

build up the lexicons of a language thereby making that particular language unique. Morphology plays

considerably role in producing and building thousands of English words. English derives a huge

number of words on a daily bases from all the languages of the world and morphology gives you the

idea about the source of the words with rules and regulations on how to form new words. In English,

there are quite a number or types of word formation process. These include:

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 I. AFFIXATION: This is the process by which bound morphemes are added before, within or after

the root/free morphemes. In other words, it is the process of word formation by prefixation. Infixation

and suffixation. Through this process, lexical and grammatical information is added to the sense of the

root. For example, the word ‘logic’ can undergo this morphological process. logic- illogic

(prefixation) and logical (suffixation)

II. COMPOUNDING: This involves the combination of two or more words. The combined words

can be with a hyphen or without it. For example grandchild, frame-up, half-truth, classroom etc.

III. CONVERSION: This is the process of forming a new word from an existing word merely by

changing the grammatical class of the latter word. Conversion may or may not involve the change of

stress pattern. The same assumes a different class in conversion. For example, man (n), man (v), pencil

(n), pencil (v) etc.

IV. BLENDING: in blending, two words are brought together to form a new word. It is a process

that involves collapsing one form into the other. Examples of blends are transistor (transfer + resistor),

forex (foreign + exchange), telecast (television + broadcast) etc.

V. CLIPPING: this is a morphological process of word shortening to the effect that words retain

their original meanings. Clipping is done by removing the initial or the final syllable. For example

‘advertisement (advert), refrigerator (fridge), examination (exam) etc.

VI. REDUPLICATION: this is the process of repeating words, a form of compounding.

Reduplicatives are either partial or total. Examples of partial reduplication are nitty-gritty, tit-tat,

helter-skelter etc. Total reduplications are goody-goody, bye-bye, eye-eye etc.

VII. Others include acronyms, back-formation, coinage, Neologism, Borrowing and host of others.

5. The Role of Morphology in Language Learning

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Morphological awareness can help English Language students to familiarize with derivations and with

the meaning or morphemes. They will able to distinguish, for instance, that the suffixes “-ment” or “-

ness” form noun, or that the suffix ‘-ly’ forms an adverb. Ultimately, they will be able to realize that,

at some extent, the English language has a certain morphological logic people follow and produce new

words. These new words, remind us of what call, in Chomsky’s word, Transformational Generative

Morphology. Humans generally have the ability of perfectly producing and understanding words that

have never been produced or generated before as a result of the understanding of their root words.

Conclusively, the study of morphology is not only an option but a “must” for any language

student, provided that it is indispensible to fulfill adequate abilities to understand the target language,

and to be able to communicate successfully.

6. The Roles of Syntax in Study and Use of English

It was highlighted in the introduction, the roles of syntax in the study and use of English can never be

over emphasized. In fact, syntax cannot be separated from the study of any natural language. This is

because, the arrangement of words into group, groups into clause and clauses into sentences, is said to

be in the field of sentence. It is true that, all that we say consists of words and their structural

arrangement into meaningful sentences. Syntax therefore stands as coordinator of utterances into

semantically implied discreet. It is however pertinent to note that syntax plays important roles in

English at various levels. Some which are outlined below:

7. The Role of Syntax in the Formation of Phrases, Clauses and Sentences

Traditionally, syntax is the study of the structure of sentences. In other words, it is a branch of

linguistics that studies the internal structure of a sentence and how words come together to form

phrases, clauses and sentences respectively. It is therefore right to say that syntax is concerned

primarily with word order in a sentence and with the agreement of words when they are used together.

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So it is a kind of ‘police officer’ for the way in which sentences are constructed. English is language

that has a structure SVO. That is Subject, Verb and Object. For example, ‘The cat (subject) washes

(verb) its paw (object). This is the correct word order and also there is agreement. If there were no

agreement, it could read, ‘The cat washes their paw.’ In this case, the verb does not agree with the

pronoun.

The formation of phrases, clauses and sentences is the primary work of syntax in linguistics.

Without this aspect of linguistics, the study of language, be it English or any other language is

baseless. This is because our speeches and utterance must fall within the three syntactic formations.

That is the phrasal, clausal or sentential groups. A phrase is a word group that does not contain a finite

verb for instance, THE MAN, BEAUTIFUL GREEN SNAKE, ON THE RUN, is phrases. A clause is

a group that contains a subject and a finite verb and also expresses meaning at the same time. For

example, OLU IS THE MAN WHO I INVITED. A sentence is an independent unit of thought. For

example, JOHN KILLED THE SNAKE. Syntax therefore plays a vital role in this regard.

8. The Role of Syntax in Clear and Effective Communication

In English, knowing the basic grammatical rules can assist a listener or reader to understand the

direction of communication. The proper assemblage of words in the right order facilitates the

understanding of the intended meaning of an utterance. But if a sentence or utterance has a poor

assemblage of word order, then, understanding becomes difficult. In short, at times, there is no

understanding of any sort because the words do not follow the rules of syntax. Communication is as

important as language itself. However, the aim of communication, be it written or oral, can be

defeated if it fails to be interpreted the way it should. For example, in Phrase Structure Grammar, any

sentence which does not follow the PSG rule may be ill formed. Some of the rules include:

SENTENCE__________ NOUN PHRASE-VERB PHRASE

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NOUN PHRASE________ NOUN

NOUN PHRASE________ DETERNINER-NOUN

NOUN PHRASE________ ADJECTIVE NOUN

NOUN PHRASE________ DETERMINER-ADJECTIVE NOUN

VERB PHRASE________ VERB

VERB PHRASE________ VERB-NOUN PHRASE

VERB PHRASE________VERB- NOUN PHRAS-PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE,

“The man killed the cat” is syntactical and acceptable in English

“Kill man the cat” is syntactically unacceptable in English. These are finites rules used in generating

infinite number of well-formed sentences. In the light of this, the role of syntax in clear and effective

communication is to a large extent, appreciated.

9. The Role of Syntax in Reading Comprehension

The term “Reading Comprehension” simply means the reader’s ability to decode or understand the

central message of a given passage or excerpt through reading. This comprehension can hardly take

place if the reader does not have a firm knowledge of syntax. Syntactic abilities enable the reader to

adequately grasp the message that is organized in meaningful word-order. The reader, as a matter of

fact, must be firmly rooted in syntax before comprehension in reading can ensue. Thus the rules that

govern how a language is spoken must be strictly adhered to, before language will begin to make

meaning to the speaker or hearer. Reading, just as speaking, is productive in nature though the former

deals with the interpretation of the author’s ideas and message through text while the latter deals with

the oral production of meaning syntactic structures. From the foregoing, one can say that the syntactic

ability of a learner aids his or her reading comprehension.

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 Prior to actual reading, readers equip themselves with the previous knowledge of well- formed

syntactic structures. These structures are already built in their sub-consciousness. Whenever they come

across them in a passage, they rush over them speedily because the residual knowledge is at work.

Syntax and reading are in mutual relationship though; the knowledge of syntax facilitates the

understanding of a given excerpt. For instance, most good readers are aware that article precedes a

noun and not a pronoun so whenever they come across the phrase “the man”, in a sentence, they will

not waste time in grasping the conceptual meaning. However, a structure like this “they man” is

ungrammatical and good readers will identify them as a structure that has a syntactic problem. That is,

a pronoun, ordinarily, does precede a noun.

10. The Role of Syntax in Literature-in- English

Syntax and literature are so important and dependent upon each other that the two cannot be separated.

Syntax in Literature gives the sum of the word meaning in a way that simply listing words never

would. Syntax influences literature a big way, because without proper syntax, literature would not

exist, nor would many of the subtleties that the academics and casual readers alike love to ponder. In

looking at syntax in literature, writers can use it in numerous ways to convey different meanings and

provoke certain responses.

In order to look at the role of syntax in literature, it is first necessary to understand exactly what

syntax is. Syntax is defined as the structure and placement of words for the purpose of creating

sentences. By following the rules of language, syntax in literature helps convey meaning. Wording can

help the readers determine who is speaking, and the overall mood the author wishes to convey, in a

logical fashion. Readers typically expect a certain syntax flow. In some cases, such as E.E. Cummings,

syntax provided a figurative canvas for poetic expression that intentionally broke the rule of English

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 language in order to create a unique look and feel. So without proper syntax, literature would simply

be a list of words that conveyed no particular meaning.

Syntax in literature, the structure mostly begins with the typical construction of subject and verb.

The subject and verb must agree, or be conjugated properly. In English, this is usually involves putting

an “s” or “ed” at the end of the verb, or simply leaving it alone. Syntax therefore plays a very

important role in organizing and ordering words properly for the convenience of readers.

11. Summary

The individual roles of morphology and syntax in the study and use of English have been extensively

discussed in chapter two and three, respectively. However, it will not be out of place to bring the roles

played by morphology and syntax together in this chapter for better comprehension. Comparatively,

morphology and syntax play the following roles in English:

 Morphology studies the internal structure of words and how words are actually formed in a

language. Syntax on the other hand, studies the internal structure of sentences and how words are

combined to form phrases, clauses and sentences. From the foregoing, it is right to assert that

morphology and syntax are complementary in the sense that, morphology builds words that syntax

uses in formation of longer grammatical constructions. Undoubtedly, syntax cannot successfully

operate without the morphological complements. For example, the words “boys”, “snake’, “was”,

“killed” and “by” are morphological functionality however, the assemblage of the words in the right

order is syntactic functionality. “ the snake was killed by the boys.” In English, words most be both

morphologically and syntactically correct before they are grammatical and acceptable. The

illustrations above are perfect examples.

 Both morphology and syntax play important roles on reading comprehension. The works

morphology and syntax are more explicit in writing than speech. This is because, the orthographic

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 representations are plausible. A passage that contains morphological blunders and poor syntax are

more often than not, illegible. Readers cannot make meaning out of it easily as a result of these errors.

It is therefore worthwhile to know that morphology and syntax are necessary prerequisite to reading

and reading comprehension.

 Morphology and syntax play important roles in language learning. This is a fact that is

indispensible as far as language learning is concerned. A child begins learning by individually

pronouncing free morphemes, then words, phrases to a full blown sentence. This is act is in stages.

And each stage complements the other in order to fully complete the circle of language learning. For

instance, a child may start with the morpheme “mum”, then “I”… after some time, he may add

“hungry”. When these words are put in the right order, it will read ‘I am hungry.’ Now the role of

morphology and syntax is glaring.

 Morphology, through word formation process, builds millions of words and phrases in English

lexicon. Syntax on the other hand, provides the rules that must be applied to these words and phrase in

order to generate well-formed sentences. The English dictionary provides an insight on these words

and their usages.

12. Conclusion

Syntax and morphology provide bedrock for the study of language without which language study goes

into extinction. It is true to say that other levels of linguistics analysis such as phonology, semantics

and pragmatics are important in language study, but it is equally true, that, syntax and morphology are

of importance in language, especially in English. The roles of morphology and syntax have

highlighted in almost all the chapters. That is to say, syntax and morphology are paramount in

Linguistics.

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 A student who studied English at a higher Institution and he/she was not introduced to syntax

and morphology, then, a greater part of language study was omitted. Syntax and morphology cannot

be separated from language. As it was discussed in the previous chapters, morphology builds words

and phrases into a language lexicon while syntax provides the rules for the realization of well-formed

strings. This is in no small measure, a big contribution to language (English). Syntax and morphology

play paramount role in reading comprehension of English excerpt. Their roles in ensuring clear and

perfect communication cannot be over emphasized. Also, the role of syntax and morphology in writing

of Literature-in- English is worth appreciating. With all these in mind, one can say that syntax and

morphological are inseparable as far as language study is concerned. But may or may not be true

because syntax and morphology are independent levels of linguistic analysis. While morphology

studies word structures; syntax studies sentence structures. Both syntax and morphology are, however,

important in study and use of the English language.

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