the study of word structures

• A. Morphology
• B. Etymology
• C. Orthography
• D. Phonology

Answer: (A)

Word structures focuses on how words are built from meaningful units. This area looks at morphemes—the smallest units of meaning like “book,” the plural suffix “-s,” or the past tense suffix “-ed.” Morphology examines how these pieces combine and change to form different words and to signal grammatical information such as number, tense, or part of speech. For instance, adding a prefix or suffix can shift meaning or create new forms, and even a root can take on different forms through affixes in different contexts.

This helps explain why words vary like “book” and “books,” or “talk” and “talked”—the changes are about word form and structure, not about where the word came from or how it’s spelled, or about its sounds. The other areas focus on etymology (word origins), orthography (spelling), and phonology (sound systems).