Universidad técnica particular de loja la universidad Técnica Particular de Loja

BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
According to the Center of applied linguistics (CAL), the field of 
Linguistics divides itself into four big groups. This division can be 
summarized in the following chart:
Sub division
Areas of study
Formal Linguistics
Phonetics
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Sociolinguistics
Language variation
Language and 
Social interactions
Sub - areas
Pragmatics
Discourse analysis
Ethnography of 
communication
Language Attitudes
Language Planning

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Psycholinguistics
Language Acquisition
Language Processing
Applied Linguistics
No division
For the purposes of this study, we are only going to focus on 
certain areas of study and their definitions.
MORPHOLOGY
The term “morphology” is generally attributed to Johann Wolfgang 
von Goethe (1749-1832) who used the term based on a biological 
concept. The term’s etymology is Greek: morph- means ‘shape, form’ and 
morphology is the study of form or forms. This biological term was then 
expanded in order to be used in the linguistics field. 
According to Aronoff-Fudeman (2005), “Morphology refers to the 
mental system in word formation or to the branch of linguistics that 
deals with words, their internal structure, and how are they formed”.
Spencer and Zwicky share this main view of morphology when they say 
that morphology is the study of word structure, but they also conclude 
that this main focus of morphology (the study of word structure) makes 
it to locate itself at the conceptual centre of linguistics for it is the link 
between phonology syntax and semantics.
Matthews (2001) states a complete definition of morphology which 
doesn’t move too apart from the other concepts presented previously 

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when he says that morphology is simply a term used to define that 
branch of linguistics which is concerned with the ‘forms of words’ in 
different uses and constructions.