Morphology is the study of words and how they are constructed. Earlier, we discussed how phonemes are the smallest unit of sound which is our preferred form. Morphemes are the smallest unit of both form and meaning. For example, /a/ is a very common sound but it also can hold meaning as an article when placed before a noun, meaning one of many. /Puckwudgie/ is also a single morpheme as it refers to a specific creature. If you remove any of the sounds in the stream, it would cease to have meaning.

Words are comprised of multiple morphemes which are grouped together to create new meaning. Words generally have a root (which is an independant/free morpheme) combined with other roots or smaller dependant morphemes.

1. spell+cast+ing --> magic form that is ongoing or general


2. wand+lore --> history of wands


3. dis+enchant+ment --> thing that makes reversed magic

English has a fairly simple morphology, while other languages are much more complex. Latin and other romantic languages have quite extensive morphologies that require much more information at the word level. Words can include morphemes that describe things like gender, case, conjugation. This means we can elicit much more detailed information from a single word rather than an entire sentence, making it ideal for spellcasting.

There are a number of ways to combine morphemes and therefore change or create words.

For example, [s] is a phoneme but when used at the end of a noun in English, we know that this means the noun is plural ie. This is an example of affixation.

Certain affixes have the ability to classify words and therefore can change a word from one class to another. For example , the verb 'Transfigure' can become a noun when attached to the suffix 'ation' → Transfiguration. This is called derivation.

Reduplication refers to when syllables are repeated and/or modified to create a new word or meaning. For example /wada-wasi/ /zig-zag/

Inflection is a change that modifies the grammatical meaning but does not alter the class. This is the most common process in spellcasting as most charms are verbs with grammatical inflection to describe/clarify how, where or to what the action is undertaking.

Internal Modification is a change in the root or feature or a word (like pitch or stress) that changes the meaning. For example nouns like 'pre.sent have initial stress, but when the stress is moved to the second syllable ie. pre.'sent, the word becomes a verb.

Compounding refers to the combination of two individual morphemes that form a new meaning when used together eg. {bane+berry} {butter+beer} {gilly+weed}

Sometimes acronyms or short-hand can be take on meaning of their own, making longer or more technical terms redundant eg. O.W.L.S or N.E.W.T.S. This is called suppletion or abbreviation.

Syntax

Syntax refers to the relationships between words and the structure of sentences. You will not need to worry as much about this as most spells are Single-Word or Two-Word phrases, but I do wish to highlight some valuable principles.

The most basic elements of the sentence are the Subject, Verb and Object. These can also be referred to more generally as the Agent-Event-Patient, but more on that later.

For languages like English and Chinese that have simple morphology, you may expect more complex syntax and a fixed word order. This helps to establish consistency in the function of each word in the sentence.

Other languages with more complex morphology may have free word order, meaning the word can appear anywhere in the sentence because it already contains information about its purpose in the sentence.

We've previously discussed types of words in the previous chapter. I would now like to highlight the functions of these words and how they work together to build meaning.

• Noun - Thing or entity that can act or be acted upon.


• Adjective - Describes a thing or entity.


• Verb - An action or event.


• Adverb - Describes the action or event.


• Preposition - References spatial relationships, like orientation, distance or direction.


• Conjunction - Combines two similar things.


• Article - Defines specificity of the thing or entity.

Transience is an important trait to understand when it comes to spellcasting. Transience refers to the directionality of an action. Transience is elicited through verbs which are actions or events. Earlier we discussed the Agent-Event-Patient relationship. A spell or charm is objectively an action or event, therefore transience describes who casts the spell and who/what the spell is cast on. The agent refers to the person doing the action, the patient describes the thing or person being acted upon, and sometimes an object may be used as part of the action.

Not all spells are transient. For example 'Incendio' creates flame. The flame needs no particular target. It can simply exist. Lumos similarly intransient. An easy way to identify if the item is intransient is if the object is created by the spell itself.

Meanwhile 'Alohomora' requires a specific target, being a lock or bind of some kind, and this charm would not work any other way. Similarly, 'Arania Exumai' only works on spiders. These spells are transient because there are clear entities that exist independent of the spell, the agent (the witch or wizard) and patient (lock/spider).

In some cases, the spell may be multi-transitive, meaning it targets multiple things at once. Brachiabindo causes branches to grow and bind the target. In this case the witch or wizard is the agent, the target would be the patient, the branches would be an object. Likewise, the Packing Charm assembles clothes and books (objects) to be packed in a trunk (patient).

Understanding how each of these elements work together will help you perform more complex spells with precision and accuracy.