Morphology is the study of how words are put together. A lively introduction to the subject, this textbook is intended for undergraduates with relatively little background in linguistics. Providing data from a wide variety of languages, it includes hands-on activities such as 'challenge' boxes, designed to encourage students to gather their own data and analyze it, work with data on websites, perform simple experiments, and discuss topics with each other. There is also an extensive introduction to the terms and concepts necessary for analyzing words.

Unlike other textbooks it anticipates the question 'is it a real word?' and tackles it head on by looking at the distinction between dictionaries and the mental lexicon.

This second edition has been thoroughly updated, including new examples and exercises as well as a detailed introduction to using linguistic corpora to find and analyze morphological data.

Review

Review of previous edition:
"… strikes just the right balance between explaining morphology and encouraging the student to discover what it's about. Its hands-on approach is well suited to getting undergraduates interested in the subject."
S. J. Hannahs, Newcastle University

Review of previous edition:
"The ideal textbook, pedagogically sound, taking beginning students all the way from the basics to advanced theoretical questions. The 'how-to' sections, the 'challenges' and the end-of-chapter exercises are all designed to encourage students to do morphology for themselves."
Laurie Bauer, Victoria University of Wellington

Book Description

A lively introduction to morphology, this second edition textbook has been thoroughly updated, including new examples and exercises.

About the Author

Rochelle Lieber is Professor of Linguistics in the English Department at the University of New Hampshire. She is the recipient of the Bloomfield Award given by the Linguistic Society of America for the Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology (with Laurie Bauer and Ingo Plag, 2015).