FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

What aspect of language does morphology particularly focus on?

1. Vocabulary selection

2. Word structure and formation

3. Spoken sounds

4. Sentence arrangement

The correct answer is: Word structure and formation

Morphology specifically focuses on the structure and formation of words. It investigates how words are built from smaller units known as morphemes, which are the smallest grammatical units in a language that carry meaning. Morphology examines various aspects such as prefixes, suffixes, and root words, and how these components combine to form new words or alter the meanings of existing ones. Contrasting with the other aspects mentioned, vocabulary selection relates to the choice of words used in communication, rather than their internal structure. Spoken sounds are the realm of phonetics and phonology, which deal with the auditory aspects of language rather than word construction. Sentence arrangement pertains to syntax, the set of rules that governs how words combine to form sentences. Each of these areas is crucial in linguistics, but morphology is distinctly concerned with the makeup and formation of individual words.