Morphology

The study of the forms of words

 What is Morphology?
 In linguistics, morphology is the study of the
forms of words, how they are formed and their
relationship to other words.
 Morphology analyzes the structure of words
and parts of words such as stems, root words,
prefixes and suffixes.
 Morphology also looks at more subtle parts of
speech such as intonation and stress, and how
context can change a word’s pronunciation and
meaning.
 What is Morphemic Analysis?
 A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning
or grammatical function and can be a root word,
a prefix or a suffix. A morpheme cannot be
broken down further…kind of like a prime
number.
 Morphemic analysis breaks down a word into
those meaningful parts and allows the reader to
correctly assess the meaning of the word.
 Morphemes in the word “unlikely” are the
prefix “un”, the root “like” and the suffix “ly.”
 Morphemes (Continued)…
 “There are “free” morphemes that can stand alone,
such as “cat”, and “bound” morphemes such
as “ty” that can only be part of larger expression,
like “cat”, the resulting combination forming the
word “catty.”
 And bound morphemes can be “derivational” or
“inflectional”, inflectional morphemes changing
tense, possession, number or comparison,
while derivational morphemes can change the
grammatical category of a word but not always.
 Confusing? As Skylar in the comic “Shoe” says, “If
a vegetarian is someone who eats vegetables,
what does that make a humanitarian?”
 Greek and Latin Roots
 A root word is called such because it forms the
basis of a new word, and prior knowledge of
Greek and Latin roots within the study of
morphology can help students come to
understand the meaning of new words.
 A common Latin root is “aqua”, meaning
“water”, hence the word “aquarium”, and a
common Greek root is “bio”, meaning “life”,
hence “biology.”
 So when a common prefix, “inter”, is added to a
Latin root, “rupt”, it becomes “interrupt”, and
when a common suffix, “s”, is added to a Greek
root, “meter”, it becomes “meters.” Remember,
both additions are bound morphemes!
 Activating Prior Knowledge
 So if students have prior knowledge of, say, Greek
and Latin roots, what are strategies to help
them with language development?
 Providing students with preparatory texts or
videos in their native language is one way of
promoting background knowledge. So, too, are
K-W-L charts (What I Know, What I Want to Know
and What I Learned) which allow students to share
what they already know about a topic. And graphic
organizers can aid ELLs through their visual
nature.
 Finally, brain research has confirmed it’s easier to
learn something new when we relate it to something
already familiar.
 Strategies to Determine Student
Needs Regarding Morphology
 Formative assessments such as drawing a
concept map to represent student
understanding of a topic can identify
morphological hindrances and needs.
 Observation of student activity during in-class
activity can also identify needs, as can
observation of student non-verbal feedback
during lecture.
 Presenting unfamiliar words in both strong and
weak contexts can identify student difficulties in
using morphological and contextual clues to
define those words.
 Student Skills for Fluency
 The basic student morphological skills that can
help them achieve fluency in reading and writing
are, first and foremost, an understanding of the
correct structure of a words as demonstrated by
the appropriate use of root words, prefixes and
suffixes, also the understanding of how to break
words down into those parts, or morphemes.
 More complex, but also necessary, is the
understanding that prefixes and suffixes can be
added or taken away to change the meaning of the
root word.
 Applying prior knowledge, as mentioned before, is
also critical in the learning process.
 Conclusion
 According to Oxford Languages, an English
morpheme is “a meaningful unit of a language that
cannot be further divided (think prime numbers),
and morphology is “the study of those units” or
forms.
 It is crucial to correctly determine, through
assessments and observations, student needs
regarding the understanding of morphology.
 The encouragement and growth of student skills
in morphology, such as the identification of
individual morphemes and the understanding of
context, is equally crucial.