Morphology, in linguistics, study of the internal construction of words.

Languages vary
widely in the degree to which words can be analyzed into word elements, or morphemes
(q.v.). In English there are numerous examples, such as “replacement,” which is composed
of re-, “place,” and -ment, and “walked,” from the elements “walk” and -ed. Many American
Indian languages have a highly complex morphology; other languages, such as Vietnamese
or Chinese, have very little or none. Morphology includes the grammatical processes
of inflection (q.v.) and derivation. Inflection marks categories such as person, tense, and
case; e.g., “sings” contains a final -s, marker of the 3rd person singular, and the
German Mannes consists of the stem Mann and the genitive singular inflection -es. Derivation
is the formation of new words from existing words; e.g., “singer” from “sing” and “acceptable”
from “accept.” Derived words can also be inflected: “singers” from “singer.”

Phonetics, the study of speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic
qualities. It deals with the configurations of the vocal tract used to produce speech sounds
(articulatory phonetics), the acoustic properties of speech sounds (acoustic phonetics), and
the manner of combining sounds so Phonology, study of the sound patterns that occur within
languages. Some linguists include phonetics, the study of the production and description of
speech sounds, within the study of phonology.as to make syllables, words, and sentences
(linguistic phonetics).

Semantics, also called semiotics, semology, or semasiology, the philosophical and

scientific study of meaning in natural and artificial languages. The term is one of a group of
English words formed from the various derivatives of the Greek verb sēmainō (“to mean” or
“to signify”). The noun semantics and the adjective semantic are derived
from sēmantikos (“significant”); semiotics (adjective and noun) comes
from sēmeiōtikos (“pertaining to signs”); semiology from sēma (“sign”) + logos (“account”);
and semasiology from sēmasia (“signification”) + logos.

Syntax, the arrangement of words in sentences, clauses, and phrases, and the study of the
formation of sentences and the relationship of their component parts. In a language such as
English, the main device for showing the relationship among words is word order; e.g., in
“The girl loves the boy,” the subject is in initial position, and the object follows the verb.
Transposing them changes the meaning. In many other languages, case markers indicate the
grammatical relationships. In Latin, for example, “The girl loves the boy” may be puella
puerum amat with “the girl” in initial position, or puerum puella amat with “the boy” in initial
position, or amat puella puerum, amat puerum puella, or puella amat puerum. The meaning
remains constant because the -um ending on the form for “boy” indicates the object of the
verb, regardless of its position in the sentence.