1. Morphology and syntax

2. DEFINITION OF MORPHOLOGY
Morph is a Greek word for form or shape and –ology means the study of.
Morphology is the study of the basic building blocks of meaning in language.
These building blocks are called morphemes.
Morphemes are the smallest units of form that bear meaning or have a grammatical function.
Morphologists study not only the meanings of various morphemes, but also the patterns of distribution and the structures they are capable of forming.
This knowledge is part of linguistic competence.

3. ALLORMORPHS
It frequently happens that a particular morpheme is not represented everywhere by the same morph, but by different morphs in different environments.
The alternative phonological manifestations or representations of such a morpheme are called allomorphs.
An allomorph is described as a variant of a morpheme which occurs in certain definable environments
It refers to different sounds of the same morpheme.
Morphemes can also be defined as the differrent realizations of the basic morpheme e.g.
mu -mw
se -so
ne -no

4. Morphemes
Smallest meaningful units of grammar which are meaningful and indivisible.
Morphemes are constituents because they are parts of constructions.
They may be defined as the minimal linguistic sign.
Morphemes constitutes the basis of the study of morphology in grammar.
The study of morphemes is mainly concerned with the grammatical structure of Shona

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It deals with the units of grammar and their combinations ,according to regular patterns into grammatical construction.
They are the basic units of grammatical structure.
they are observed by comparing word forms with one another and we note the recurrent piece that compose them and every word is wholly analysable into one or more morphemes.
Morphemes may also correspond to syllables e.g mu-+-rume, ru is a syllable as well as a morpheme.

6. Characteristics of morphemes.
1. They are meaningful e.g munhu we have two morphemes or units of grammatical structure mu and nhu.
They are both meaningful. To prove this one needs to compare munhu with other similar constructions to see that the two morphemes are meaningful e.g Munhu with vanhu and mukadzi which can be divided or analyzed because they are constructions.
2.Morphemes are indivisible-kadzi in mukadzi can not be divided into meaningful parts whose meaning is related to its own meaning. Morphemes may therefore be defined as the smallest meaningful units in the structure of a language. They cannot be divided into smaller parts without destroying or altering meaning. It is a formal phonological unit because it has a phonetic shape in other words you can produce a phonetic or phonemic transcription of any morpheme.

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3. Morphemes are composed of units of sounds e.g mu consists of a consonant and a vowel and these are called phones.
Some morphemes consists of a single phoneme e.g u- in the construction uri pano.
4. A morpheme has a syntactic role to play in the construction of larger grammatical units such as words, phrases, clauses, sentences e.t.c

8. Distribution of morphemes
Morphemes differ among themselves in the contexts in which they occur. To understand morphemes one need to know its distribution and meaning.
Morphemes can either be substantival verbal or ideophonic.

9. Identification of morphemes.
They are established and delimited in a language by comparing forms with one another and noting the recurrent pieces that compose them.
Every word can be analyzed into one or more morphemes .
Morphemes are identified only by comparing forms which are partly alike and partly different both in phonemic form and meaning.

10. Functions of morphemes
1. They function as concords
They can function as subject concords and as object concords. e.g auya vamurova
-mu- in vamurova is the object concord and va- is subject concord
2.Suppletion-They can be used for supplementation e.g vanhu and wanhu, mupewo and mupevo
Suppletion is described as the use of alternative lexical items to represent the same component of meaning in different grammatical circumstances
3. prefixes- they are neither noun prefixes or adjectival prefixes

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4. They function as substantiatives e.g. baba, Fungai, tema.
5. they function as words ideophones e.g. svetu, paru, kukutu.
6. they are stems in verbal and substantival constructions e.g. –tamb,-penzi
7. they also function as inflections. Substantival inflections e.g ownership, copulative, possessive and adverbial. Verbal inflections e.g tense sign, subject prefix, terminal vowel, negative signs.
They also function as suffixes e.g endawo