Morphology is the study of word formation. The analysis of word formation, and the positing of generative rules to govern word formation, held a central role in the Indian tradition. At least in part, this was likely due to the highly inflectional nature of Sanskrit.

The Indian approach to morphology, originating with (the tradition that led to) Pāṇini and never challenged within India, is fundamentally a morpheme-based approach. It was by encountering the Indian approach to morphology that the notion of morphemes entered the Western tradition (see e.g. Alfieri 2014).