* Morph-linguistics is not a distinct field: "Morph" refers to morphemes, the smallest meaningful units in language. Linguistics is the study of language as a whole. So, "morph-linguistics" is redundant as it implies studying morphemes within the broader field of linguistics.
* "Empty" is not a typical linguistic term: "Empty" in this context could refer to the absence of morphemes, but that would be an unusual and potentially confusing way to describe something.
It's possible that the phrase is a misinterpretation of other concepts in linguistics, such as:
* Empty categories: These are syntactic positions that are not filled by a lexical item (a word) but are still grammatically relevant. For example, in the sentence "I saw someone," the word "someone" is a placeholder for a specific person, but we don't know who that person is.
* Zero morphemes: These are morphemes that have meaning but are not overtly expressed in the written or spoken form. For example, the plural in "cats" is marked by a zero morpheme, while "dogs" has a visible "-s" morpheme.
To understand what is meant by "empty morph-linguistics," you'd need more context. Perhaps the phrase was used in a specific theoretical framework or discussion, and the meaning is specific to that context.
If you can provide more information about where you encountered this phrase, I might be able to give you a more precise answer.