2. A. Brief History of Morphology
B. Importance of Studying Morphology
3. August Schleicher
The German linguist who
coined the term
“morphology” which was
derived from the Greek
words μορφή ("form") and
λόγος ("explanation,
account").
His great work was A
Compendium of the
Comparative Grammar of
the Indo-European
Languages, in which he
attempted to reconstruct
the Proto-Indo-European
language.
4. Ancient Indian linguist Panini in 6th century BC
who formulated the 3,959 rules of Sanskrit
language morphology in the text Aṣṭādhyāyī.
Studies in Arabic morphology, conducted by
Marāḥ al-Arwāḥ and Aḥmad B. ‘Alī Mas‘ūd,
date back to at least 1200 CE.
The Greco-Roman grammatical tradition also
took interest in morphological analysis, as
well as studies in Arabic morphology.
5. In 1786, Sir William Jones claimed that
Sanskrit, Latin, Persian and Germanic
languages were descended from a common
ancestor.
In 1899, under the influence of Darwinian
Theory of evolution, Max Muller delivered his
lectures in Oxford that the study of the evolution
of words illuminated the evolution of language
just as in biology morphology.
6. Muller’s specific claim was that the study of the
400-500 basic roots of the Indo-European
ancestors of many of the languages of Europe
and Asia was the key to understanding the
origin of human language.
7. Decoding – Readers who recognize morphemes read
more quickly and accurately.
Vocabulary – Knowledge of meaning of word parts
expands reader’s vocabulary.
Comprehension - Knowledge of morphemes helps to
make meaning understood from text.
Spelling - Morphemes are units that can be
predictably spelled.
