Word forms, classification, and family trees of languages—Why morphology is crucial for linguistics

‘Morphology’ in linguistics is the study of the structure and function of word forms. In this paper, Sections “the structure of word forms: elements and relations” and “the function of word forms: values and systems” will give an insight into the basic notions and subfields of linguistic morphology to illustrate the linguistic approach to structure and function. It will then proceed to identify the position of morphology within linguistics and the repeated conjunctions between biology and linguistics by glancing at the theoretical foundations (Section “foundations”) and the history (Section “contributions of morphology to the language sciences”) of morphology in linguistics as well as today’s theoretical and methodological challenges (Section “modern challenges”). The paper will conclude with some deliberations on the relevance of morphological studies as part of the academic canon.