Dictionary

morphologize en · VERB

Etymology

From morpholog(y), morpholog(ical) + -ize.

Meanings

1. (transitive, uncommon) To make (something) morphological (structural).
   • By morphologizing the tribade, anatomy paradoxically moves her closer to home: the erotic excess that was attributed to foreign women now can be found on the Christian bodies of "Lasses" and "young Wenches" who handle themselves as well as each other. 2002, Valerie Traub, The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England, →ISBN, page 209:
2. (ambitransitive) To become, or cause (e.g. a phonetic feature) to become, (re)interpreted morphologically.
   • […] and, moreover, it is subject to syntagmatic segmental processes which can morphologize the prosodic accent location (vowel lengthening as in the first three examples and rearticulation of the secondary stressed vowel as in the fourth). 1996, Bernhard Hurch, Richard A. Rhodes, Natural Phonology, →ISBN, page 85:
3. (ambitransitive) To decompose into morphemes (as).
   • In the word chlekʼwnts 'he broiled it (salmon)' which morphologizes as /č - lekʼʷ - ənts/ 'on - piece - 3.s.sub.3.s.obj.TRANS.-PAST', we have the processual 'pierce' as trajector, […] 1993, Roy H. Ogawa, Gary B. Palmer, “Langacker semantics for three Coeur d'Alene prefixes”, in Issues in Cognitive Linguistics: 1993, page 172:

Forms

Relateds

morphologization