The experience of having taught English language and morphology - syntax in particular - for
more than seven years convinced the author that students of linguistics and translation mostly
need a solid grounding in the course of morphology and syntax. Once they have a basic
understanding of these two important areas they have little trouble mastering English language
as a whole. Hence both morphology and syntax are important parts of linguistic knowledge and
constitute a component of student's mental grammar. Of Course the more courses are required of
students within their discipline the more they can benefit from the fields inside their major.
Such factors often help students develop a positive attitude towards linguistics to be
sensitized to the morphological and syntactic system of the language while being exposed to
both morphology and syntax and especially in an unfamiliar area. Obviously an introductory
book such as this has several limitations. First there are entire subbranches of morphology
and syntax that are not included. In terms of content this book delimits both its scope and
audience by shedding new light on a subject the problems and obscurities of which look
inexhaustible. A book of this kind is therefore an attempt to on the one hand to make
morphology and syntax - which usually appear to be incredible complicated at first glance -
easier and on the other hand keep the standard high so that even postgraduate students can
benefit from it because the author strongly believes that students learn best by doing
exercises and to this end he has added dozens of practice exercises. In general these
require more research or analysis beyond what can be accomplished within a single classroom
period. These exploratory exercises can also form the basis for short papers. Therefore the
book can be of immense help not only to students of linguistics and translation but also to
professors of linguistics and translation and research supervisors as well as advisors around
the globe and in the Arab world in particular.
