ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a fairly basic level of morphological concepts; but it is important to be aware of the fact that morphological variation can be approached from a number of different angles. The simplest type of variation in form of morphemes relates to phonological conditioning. Phonological conditioning is one common factor determining the form that morphemes taken in particular contexts. A language in which every morpheme was free would not have any morphology proper: such languages are called isolating, or analytic. One thing appears to be clear, however; there is much information about words which cannot be meaningfully transferred to the morpheme, and this includes the existence of the word itself. Notice that, even if words were to be universally accepted as morphological primes, it would still be undeniable that most words are structurally analysable into smaller units or morphemes, and that such an analysis is advantageous to linguists and learners alike.
