Words and morphemes

Languages differ more in morphology than in syntax. The variety is so great that no simple scheme will classify languages as to their morphology. One such scheme distinguishes analytic languages, which use few bound forms, from synthetic, which use many. At one extreme is a completely analytic language, like modern Chinese, where each word is a one-syllable morpheme or compound word or phrase-word; at the other, a highly synthetic language like Eskimo, which unites long strings into single words (…) This distinction, however, except for cases at the former extreme, is relative; any one language may be in some respects more analytic, but in other respects more synthetic, than some other language.’