Language Acquisition Exam 2 Practice 2026 - Free Practice Questions and Study Guide

Morphology is about how words are built from the smallest units of meaning, called morphemes, and how those pieces attach to form different word forms. In early English, morphemes are often suffixes that attach to a base word to change its meaning or part of speech. For example, -ing attaches to verbs to form present participles or gerunds (walking, reading), while the plural -s attaches to nouns to indicate more than one (cats, dogs). These examples show how adding small units to a word changes its form and function, which is at the heart of morphology. The other options point to different areas—syntax (sentence structure), phonology (sound rules), and semantics (meaning of words)—not the study of word structure.