Morphology

Morphology

Introduction

• Morphology is the study of word parts and word structure.
• Base words were briefly introduced in week one in the section on vocabulary.

Morphemes

• Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in a language.
• Three broad types of morphemes:
  • Bases (aka roots or stems): The main meaning-carrying units in a word.
    • Example: In "removable", "move" is the base because the word relates to moving.
  • Prefixes: Word parts added to the beginning of a word or base.
  • Suffixes: Word parts added to the end of a word or base.
• Morphemes can be combined to form new words.

Word Knowledge

• Knowing a word involves:
  • Meaning
  • Phonology (how it sounds)
  • Orthography (spelling)
  • Implicit knowledge of word structure or morphology
• Morphology acts as a binding agent for all aspects of word knowledge.
• A word's morphology is intricately tied to its meaning, pronunciation, and spelling.

Awareness of Morphological Parts

• If we are aware of the morphological parts of a word, we can:
  • Understand how it relates to other words.
  • Decipher the meanings of words in the same morphological family.

Importance for Reading and Spelling

• Knowledge of morphology is important for reading and spelling.
• English is a morphophonemic language; both phonological and morphemic relationships are preserved in spelling.
• Morphological information can be preserved in spelling even over and above spelling-sound regularity.
• Past tense -ed suffix example:
  • Words: rushed, kicked, and blamed.
  • Phonemes: /t/ sound at the end of "rushed" and "kicked", /d/ sound at the end of "blamed".
  • Spelling: All spelled with "ed" to indicate past tense.
  • Morphological regularity is preserved in spelling, even if it means the spelling is not perfectly aligned with sounds.