---
name: "morph"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "wordnet-dev"
version: "1.7-6"
release: "Debian 3.0 (Woody)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/morph/3"
---

# morph(3)

## NAME

morphinit, re\_morphinit, morphstr, morphword

## SYNOPSIS

**#include "wn.h"**

**int morphinit(void);**

**int re\_morphinit(void);**

**char \*morphstr(char \*origstr, int pos);**

**char \*morphword(char \*word, int pos);**

## DESCRIPTION

The WordNet morphological processor, Morphy, is accessed through these functions:

**morphinit()** is used to open the exception list files.  It returns **0** if successful, **-1** otherwise.  The exception list files must be opened before **morphstr()** or **morphword(** are called.

**re\_morphinit()** is used to close the exception list files and reopen them, and is used exclusively for WordNet development.  Return codes are as described above.

**morphstr()** is the basic user interface to Morphy.  It tries to find the base form (lemma) of the word or collocation *origstr* in the specified *pos*.  The first call (with *origstr* specified) returns a pointer to the first base form found.  Subsequent calls requesting base forms of the same string must be made with the first argument of **NULL.** When no more base forms for *origstr* can be found, **NULL** is returned.

**morphword()** tries to find the base form of *word* in the specified *pos*. This function is called by **morphstr()** for each individual word in a collocation.

## NOTES

**morphinit()** is called by  **wninit()** and is not intended to be called directly by an application. Applications wishing to use WordNet and/or the morphological functions must call **wninit()** at the start of the program.  See **wnutil**(3WN) for more information.

*origstr* may be either a word or a collocation formed by joining individual words with underscore characters (**\_**).

Usually only **morphstr()** is called from applications, as it works on both words and collocations.

*pos* must be one of the following:

```
1	NOUN
2	VERB
3	ADJECTIVE
4	ADVERB
5	ADJECTIVE SATELLITE
```

If  **ADJECTIVE SATELLITE** is passed, it is treated by **morphstr()** as **ADJECTIVE.**

## SEE ALSO

**wnsearch**(3WN), **wndb**(5WN), **morphy**(7WN).

## WARNINGS

Passing an invalid part of speech will result in a core dump.

The WordNet database files must be open to use **morphstr()** or **morphword().**