Quantum mechanics

Root (linguistics)

Linguistics

Philosophy

Vocabulary

Comparative linguistics

Gender studies

Feminism

Basis (linear algebra)

Morpheme

Computer science

Prefix

Allomorph

Physics

Mathematics

Epistemology

Suffix

Sociology

Geometry

Term (time)

Meaning (existential)

Affix

Philology

Morphology

This paper makes a terminological proposal: that the old term morph can be used for a minimal linguistic form. Many linguists (not only morphologists) need such a term, because we often refer to minimal linguistic forms, but the various terms used by linguists in roughly this meaning are either unclear or do not refer to forms. The term "morpheme" has three rather different meanings, and other terms such as "vocabulary item" are too abstract. The term "morph" can be used as the basis for defining other widely used terms such as "root", "prefix", and "suffix", which are currently often defined as kinds of "morphemes". It can also serve as the basis for a clearer definition of suppletion (involving suppletive morph sets) and morph variants, thus avoiding the confusions surrounding the term "allomorph(y)".

The morph as a minimal linguistic form