SPANISH MORPHOLOGY

According to Merriam- Webster, morphology is the study of the structure and formation of
words such as inflection, derivation, and compounding when it comes to linguistic. It is also the
mechanism of word formation in a language. There are two classes of words – lexical, also known as
content, and function, which may also be called as grammatical. There are two classes of words: lexical
(or contents) and functional (or grammatical) words. Open-class words include names, verbs, adjectives
and spoken word. This category can be introduced periodically with new terms. Closed words or words
in the function are conjunctions, prepositions, articles or pronouns, and the addition of new words to
this class is unlikely or very seldom. In addition to this, affixes are often the required morpheme. This
category consists of prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and circumfixes. Prefixes are added to the beginning,
suffixes to the end, infixes to other morphemes, and circumfixes at the beginning and end are applied to
a separate morpheme.

Morphology of language essentially refers to the inflections of a language. The sequence of

acquisition of morphologic constructions can vary between languages depending on the linguistic
complexity of the structure in that language (Peña, Bedore & Rappazzo, 2003). For example, Spanish-
speaking children acquire reflexive pronouns early, but these develop later in English-speaking children
(Gutierrez-Clellen et al., 2000).

Spanish was developed from Vulgar Latin, which in the Second Punic War, the Romans
introduced to the Iberian Peninsula from the start of 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages – some
connected to Latin in Indo-European and others not related in any way – have previously been
addressed on the Iberian Peninsula, which was known as Paleo-Hispanic languages. The Basque, Iberian,
Celtiberian, and Gallaecian are still spoken today.

Spanish is known to be a strongly inflected language where nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles,
and pronouns can be affected. The inflection process in linguistic morphology is the creation of words in
order to transmit different categories of grammar, including stress, case, voice, hand, number, gender,
mood, expression and certainty. Verbs may be conjugated in Spanish morphology as regular, irregular,
reflexive, radical or spelling reform. For instance, two verbs in Spanish cannot be interchanged. Estar
suggests a transitional status, while Ser indicates a permanent state with an inherent condition (Kayser,
1995). It is difficult to define morphology and syntax because morphological reflections can affect syntax
structure. In a word sentence or phrase, syntax is a linear order. The structure of the Spanish language is
syntactic and sophisticated.

Since Spanish depends so much on morphology, word order can be flexible in Spanish. English
word order, by contrast, is more important and less flexible in meaning. Another aspect with regard to
the Spanish order is the modification of substantial’s, particularly when description adjectives like color,
size or shape are used in this respect Spanish differs from English. Exceptions to the rule occur, such as
numbers, ordinals, and some adjectives.

Most of the grammatical and typological characteristics of Spanish are common to other
languages of Romance. Spanish is a fusional language.  Two genders and two numbers exist in the noun
and adjective systems. Moreover, papers and a few pronouns and determiners have a special neuter
gender.

There are similarities and differences in the nature of the relationship between morphological
awareness and word reading in Spanish and in English. English has a deep orthography. Morphological
awareness provides insights about the mapping between print and speech in addition to the alphabetic
principle (Kuo & Anderson, 2006; Nagy et al., 2003, 2006). The same cannot be said of Spanish, as most
Spanish words are phonologically transparent. However, both languages have morphologically complex
words, which is another reason that morphological awareness facilitates reading. In fact, we found that
morphological awareness made a larger within language contribution to word reading in Spanish (11%)
than in English (6%), probably because Spanish has a more complex morphological system.

The difference in grammar between English and Spanish will affect the use of morphology and
syntax by bilingual Spanish children in spoken and written English. For an overview of structures which
can be used in a child's language that understands both languages, see the table below.

Spanish English
El carro azul anda rápido. The car that is blue is going fast. The blue car is going fast.

It is important to differentiate between two key types of word classes when considering the
Spanish language: the variable and the invariable. Variable words can vary in sex, number, degree,
individual, stress, mode, and speech. Substances, articles, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, and words
are included. Of all, verb conjugation is the most complex and strongly inflecting, because the Spanish
verb conjugation. Verbs display personal, number, tense, mode, and voice variation.

The Spanish syntax is seen as right-wing, indicating that subordinate or shifting components are
usually positioned after the terms of their heads. Instead of postponing or inflecting names in case, the
language uses preposition and generally, if not always, positions the adjectives after the nominal, much
as most other Romance languages do.

However, as in many Romantic languages, the part order is highly variable and regulated
primarily by actualization and emphasis rather than syntactics. It is a "pro-drop" or "null-subject" — that
is to say, whether they are pragmatically unnecessary, it may eliminate pronouns of the subject. Spanish
is called the "verb-framed" language which means that the direction of motion is
expressed advertising in the verb while the mode of locomotion is expressed adverbially such as to run
up' and to fly out in English, with locomotive mode expressed as verb and direct English, in comparison,
is the language 'satellite-framed.' In questions, no reversal of the subject/verb is required, and thus the
identification of the declarative or questionable can entirely depend on intonation.

Originally, the Spanish phonemic system originated from the Latin vulgar system. Its production
has many features in common with nearby dialects, Leoneseand Aragonese, and other Spanish-speaking
characteristics.

In 20 countries worldwide, Spanish is the main language. The overall combined number of
speakers in Spanish is estimated to range from 470 to 500 million, making them the second most
frequently spoken language in mother-tongue language.
 Spanish is by a total number of speakers the third most spoken language (after Mandarin and
English). Statistics on internet use in 2007 also indicate that after Mandarin and English Spanish is the
third most used on the internet.

REFERENCES:

 Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Morphology. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved December 15,

2020 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morphology
 Serpa. (n.d.) Morphology. ELL Assessment for Linguistic Differences vs. Learning Disabilities.
Retrieved December 15, 2020 from
https://www.ldldproject.net/languages/spanish/spoken/morphology.html
 Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Inflection. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved December 15, 2020
from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inflection
 Wikipedia. (n.d.) Morphology (linguistics). Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved
December 15, 2020 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(linguistics)#Inflection_vs._word_formation
 Ramirez, et. al. (2009). Morphological awareness in Spanish-speaking English language learners.
Research Gate. Retrieved December 15, 2020 from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226385153_Morphological_awareness_in_Spanish-
speaking_English_language_learners
 Wikipedia. (n.d.). Spanish Language. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 15,
2020 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language#History