= Linguistic morphology
<Linguistic morphology> studies how words are structured from <morphemes> and how their forms relate to grammatical functions and meaning. It distinguishes reusable patterns from merely splitting a spelling into arbitrary pieces. Spoken and signed <languages> can both have morphological structure.<Essentials of Linguistics (2nd edition) by Catherine Anderson and others>[§5.1, word structure, morphemes and grammatical function]{ref}
For example, `replayed` can be analyzed as `re-` plus `play` plus `-ed`: repetition and past marking combine with a lexical base. The segmentation predicts relationships with `play`, `replay` and `played`, rather than only describing one isolated word. <Inflection> marks grammatical alternatives, while <derivational morphology> can form new lexical items. A computational analyzer can represent permitted combinations with a <finite-state machine>; an analysis is useful when it generalizes to new forms while rejecting combinations outside the specified grammar.
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