All words are pegs to hang ideas on.
--Henry Ward Beecher
When the mind is thinking, it is talking to itself.
--Plato
The limits of my language are the limits of my
mind.
--Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
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"The greatest benefit from
instructional time spent on
word study can be gained
from exploring roots, prefixes,
suffixes, and networks
of related words"
--Henry,1997
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MORPH OLOGY
Gr. form, structure
Gr. study of
Morphology is the study of the structure
of words as it relates to meaning. It is
structural analysis. Morphology may
also include the study of word history:
etymology.
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Basic Terms
morpheme: smallest unit of meaning in a word
Ex: biographers: 4 morphemes: bio-graph-er-s
Types of Morphemes:
root or combining form: inspector, thermal
base word: unlikely
prefix: re-, un-, dissuffix: -able, -ive, -ly
} affixes
derivation-a word formed from an existing word,
root, or affix: electric,
electricity
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Ebbers 2005
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Are these real words?
What might they mean?
•ugsome
•malductive
•triskaidekaphobia
•hydronauts
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Research Confirms
Structural Analysis
•Content Area Reading
•English Language Learners
•Spelling Skills
•Vocabulary Acquisition
•Fluency and Rapid Word Recognition
•Comprehension
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Singson, Mahony, and Mann studied upper elementary
students and found that their understanding of
morphemes contributes to both decoding and spelling
ability (2000).
Abbott and Berninger concluded from their studies that
older struggling readers benefit from learning the
composition of English words, which includes their
basic structure of
prefix, root, suffix, syllable
formation, and morpheme patterns (1999).
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Sally Shaywitz, M.D. has determined that "Knowing the
etymology or the roots of a word is a very powerful aid
to reading, shedding light on a word's pronunciation,
its spelling, and its meaning Shaywitz, 2003, p. 207
Arnbak and Elbro determined that morphological
awareness training (learning prefixes, roots, and
suffixes) significantly increased both comprehension
and spelling of complex words in dyslexic readers in
fourth and fifth grade.
In a second study with older secondary students, they
found that "dyslexic adolescents use recognition of
root morphemes as a compensatory strategy in
reading both single words and coherent texts.”
1996, 2000
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Another entry point for adding words
to the environment is morphological
relationships. For example, challenge
students to compare Tyrannosaurus
and tyrant; pedestrian and pedal;
duplicate and duplicity….
Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002, p. 128
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The mind analyzes every
stretch of language as some
mixture of memorized chunks
and rule-governed assemblies
--Steven Pinker, 1999
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ALL MIXED UP
You know this language that we speak,
is part German, part Latin, and part Greek
--Peter, Paul, and Mary
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French
Anglo-Saxon
Greek
Latin
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Anglo-Saxon: Germanic Indo-European Origins
common words: love,
child, house, heart
(often one syllable)
vowel teams: teeth, foot
r-controlled: farm, star,
storm, shirt
wh-what, sh-ship,
th-thumb, ch-church,
ng-king, nk-thank
prepositions, articles,
conjunctions: with, to,
for, and, the, but…
compound words:
mankind, blackbird
words with silent letters:
knee, night, comb,
wrinkle, could, thought
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"Silent letter patterns such as
kn-, wr-, -ough, -ould, and -igh
are remnants of Anglo-Saxon,
in which those "silent" letters
were sounded."
McCardle & Chhabra, 2004
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**The brain needs to be prepared for the
transition from Anglo-Saxon to Latinate words
for three reasons.
1. Students speak Anglo-Saxon but begin to read
and write Latin-based derivatives
2. Spelling patterns change: /sh/ -- ci, ti, si; /f/ -- ph, etc.
3. Structural changes: Latin prefix-root-suffix,Greek
combining forms, multisyllabic words with schwa
Without this preparation for a change in word
structure the brain may be perplexed.
Berninger & Richards, 2002, p. 233-234
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LATIN STRUCTURE
• Latin words follow a strict structure
• Prefixes, if used, must be placed before the root
and suffixes must follow the root
• Latin roots (spect, vis, ject, rupt) are unlikely to
stand alone as an English word
• The Latin root usually receives the accent or stress:
•e ject'
•port' ability
•in script' ion
•at tract' ive
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Latin: Some Common Roots
trans
dis
pre
re
inter
pro
de
con
dis
sub
port
rupt
script
tract
cept
ject
struct
duct
miss
vers
e
dict
able
ion
ion
or
ion
ile
ion
or
al
ive
Susan Ebbers 2005
to carry
to break
to write
to pull
to take
to throw
to build
to lead
to send
to turn
to speak
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White, Sowell, and Yanagihara (1989) found
that third-graders who were given training on
the nine most common prefixes and a strategy
for decomposing words into roots and suffixes
outperformed a control group on several
measures of word meaning.
They concluded that teaching at least the top
nine (if not all twenty) to middle school
students would pay dividends in increased
vocabulary learning.
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20 Most Frequent Prefixes in School Texts
1.
unable
2.
review
inedible (impotent, illegal,
irresponsible)
distrust
enlighten
(empower)
nonsense
inside,
implant
overcome
misguided
submarine
prefix
interrupt
forewarn
derail
transfer
supersonic
semicircle
antitrust
midterm
underfed
Susan Ebbers 2005
Analysis: White, Sowell,
and Yanagihara 1989
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Prefixes: Meaning and Connotation
Often Negative
Somewhat Positive
dis-,
de-
non-
sub-
pro-
co-
bene-
in-
un-
mis-
super-
com-
be-
mal-
anti,
contra
a-
en-,
em-
ad-
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report
reporter
support
supporter
supportive
unsupportive
supportively
deport
deportee
deportation
import
importer
importation
portfolio
portable
transport
transporter
transportation
portability
port: to carry (L.)
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Word Webs or Spoke Diagrams
Create networks of related words. Make a word
web, spoke diagram, or root tree for the Latin
stem script or scrib, meaning to write
describe
scribble
prescription
scripture
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Joanne Carlisle's studies suggest that
proficient readers and spellers use knowledge
of affixes and roots as they read and spell,
while poor readers and spellers "lack
awareness of the presence of base forms
within derived counterparts, and they lack
specific knowledge about how to spell suffixes
and how to attach suffixes to base words
correctly”
1987, pp. 106-107
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GREEK WORD ORIGINS
•a y for /i/ as in symphony and typhoid
•a ch for /k/ as in chorus and chaos
•a ps for /s/ and in pseudonym and psychology
•a ph for /f/ as in sphere and epitaph
•the letter x as in xylophone, dyslexia, xenophobe
Greek morphemes have no strict structure:
•graph
•biography
•graphic
•mimeograph
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Greek Combining Forms
hydro
graph
geo
pyro
polis
neuro
ortho
scope
photo
therm
crat
psych
chron
phobe
pseud
onym
crypt
helio
logy
sphere
the, theo
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Counting in Greek and Latin
mono
uni
di
bi
du, duo
tri
tetra
quadri
penta
hexa
sept
oct
nove
deca
deci
cent
milli
poly
multi
semi
hemi
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Developing content-specific,
academic vocabulary
depends on a basic
understanding of Greek
and Latin
Sixty percent of the words
in English texts are of Latin
and Greek origin
Bear et al., 1996; Henry, 1997
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grammar school
grammar books
rules of grammar
grammatical
grammatically
ungrammatical
ungrammatically
grammatology
grammar
photograph
polygraph
mimeograph
phonograph
telegraph
paragraph
gram, graph
to write,
written
Greek
graph
telegram
mammogram
histogram
gram
anagram
cryptogram
monogram
electrocardiogram
graphite
grapheme
graphologist
graphic
graphically
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photographer
cartographer
geographer
cryptographer
autobiographer
xylographer
paleographer
biographer
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Look Inside—Look Outside
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
1. Look inside the word for known word parts:
prefixes, roots or combining forms, suffixes.
2. Use the analogy strategy—“I don’t know this word,
but I know pneumonia and I know volcano, so by
analogy, this word might have something to do with
lungs and heat.”
3. Look outside the word at context clues, visuals
The coal miners, coughing and wheezing, suffered
from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
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SO MANY ENGLISH WORDS
Oxford English Dictionary
~615,000 words
Webster's Third New International English Dictionary
~450,000 words
~200,000 words in common use
Millions with technical and scientific terms
(Bryson, 1990; King, 2000)
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SO MANY SYNONYMS
ANGLO-SAXON, FRENCH, LATIN, and GREEK
Anglo-Saxon French
Latin or
Greek
cook
sauté
concoct
holy
sacred
consecrated
kingly
royal
regal
wreck
sabotage
subvert
hearten
encourage
inspire
show
cinema
theater
See also Bryson, 1990; Lederer, 1991; King, 2000
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ENGLISH: A RICH VOCABULARY
SO MANY SHADES OF MEANING
“A Positive Emotion”
GLAD
PLEASED
DELIGHTED
OVERJOYED
HAPPY
CAREFREE
LIGHTHEARTED
MERRY
JOYOUS
JOYFUL
CHEERY
CHEERFUL
CONTENT
BLITHE
BLISSFUL
SATISFIED
BOUYANT
BEATIFIC
ECSTATIC
EUPHORIC
EUPEPSIC
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Man does not live by words alone,
despite the fact that sometimes
he has to eat them!
--Adlai Stevenson
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THANK YOU
Merci
Danke
Gratias
ευχαριστώ
/efharisto/
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