morphologize

morpholog(y), morpholog(ical) +‎ -ize

morphologize (third-person singular simple present morphologizes, present participle morphologizing, simple past and past participle morphologized)

1. (transitive, uncommon) To make (something) morphological (structural).
   • 2002, Valerie Traub, The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England, →ISBN, page 209:

     By morphologizing the tribade, anatomy paradoxically moves her closer to home: the erotic excess that was attributed to foreign women now can be found on the Christian bodies of "Lasses" and "young Wenches" who handle themselves as well as each other.

2. (transitive, intransitive, linguistic morphology) To become, or cause (e.g. a phonetic feature) to become, (re)interpreted morphologically.
   • 1996, Bernhard Hurch, Richard A. Rhodes, Natural Phonology, →ISBN, page 85:

     […] and, moreover, it is subject to syntagmatic segmental processes which can morphologize the prosodic accent location (vowel lengthening as in the first three examples and rearticulation of the secondary stressed vowel as in the fourth).

3. (transitive, intransitive, linguistic morphology) To decompose into morphemes (as).
   • 1993, Roy H. Ogawa, Gary B. Palmer, “Langacker semantics for three Coeur d'Alene prefixes”, in Issues in Cognitive Linguistics: 1993, page 172:

     In the word chlekʼwnts 'he broiled it (salmon)' which morphologizes as /č - lekʼʷ - ənts/ 'on - piece - 3.s.sub.3.s.obj.TRANS.-PAST', we have the processual 'pierce' as trajector, […]

• morphologization