MORPHOLOGY

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

Parts of speech 1. What is a part of speech?part of speech 1. Traditional grammar classifies words based on eight parts of speech: the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection. Each part of speech explains not what the word is, but how the word is used. 2. “They heard high pitched cries in the middle of the night.” 1. In this sentence, "cries" is a noun acting as the direct object of the verb "heard." 3. “The baby cries all night long and all day long.” 1. But here "cries" is a verb that describes the actions of the subject of the sentence, the baby.

The word(s) 1. What is a word? How do we recognize one when we see one? 2. What is the difference between spoken word and written word? 3. Humans describe their world by naming objects and actions. They also use words to modify those objects and actions. 4. Words and syntax (p. 175) – The hungry linguist… 5. Content word vs. function word (p ) 1. Content words carry the main meaning in a sentence (open-class words) 2. Function words provide grammatical connection between content words (closed-class words)

The morpheme 1. Meaningful parts that make up a word 2. Free (stand alone) vs. Bound morpheme (attached to, affix) 1. Tree vs. Trees 2. Bound morphemes in English are present either as prefixes or suffixes but not as infixes 3. Inflectional vs. derivational morphemes 1. Inflectional: add to a word without changing the part of speech, only exist as suffix in English (p. 167). 1. Bottle, bottles/ Big, bigger 2. Derivational: change meaning, exist as either prefix or suffix 1. Tie, untie/ work, worker

More on inflection and derivation 1. Derivational prefixes carry meaning, and are thus easier to define. 1. Trans-form 2. Derivational suffixes do not carry semantic meaning and are harder to define. 1. Trans-form-er/ 3. Derivational and inflectional suffixes can exist in the same word but the inflectional suffix comes last. 1. Workers, considerations

Types of languages: Morphologically speaking  Language will likely have attributes from a variety of these categories.  Analytic: One morpheme per word (Chinese)  Synthetic: Multiple morphemes can make up one word (escribiéndomelo)  Agglutinative: Synthetic language with no variation in morphemes (Korean, German?)  Polysynthetic: Super- synthetic, Mohawk: Washakotya'tawitsherahetkvhta'se means "He ruined her dress"

Word formations  English bound morphemes English bound morphemes  Choose some morphemes and search for them in an online text. Try to identify the following for each morpheme/word you find.  Base word (root)  Part of speech (category change)  Meaning change

How can this help?  How can a study of morphology help you as an educator? (TPS)

Part 2

Structural analysis  Prefix- carries semantic weight  Suffix- carries grammatical weight  Implication: Invite students to think morphologically when they encounter a new word. Instead of thinking immediately of a dictionary, encourage an analysis of the word parts first.  This level of investigation can be frustrating for students. Employ structural analysis as an additional technique to encourage linguistic curiosity in students but it should not replace other strategies like reading for context.

Little words big words  Sometimes, little words found in big words are separate morphemes-  Necktie  Sometime they’re not  Hotel/mosquito  Implication: Make sure that students know that using the little/big word system is not a 100% dependable system

Schema theory and reading  Schema- the mental file system that organizes information in the brain  Write down the first 5 things that come to mind when you see the following word:  Sand  Home  Implication: Helping students to be aware of their own schemas can lead to an increased reading comprehension. Activating background knowledge.

Vocabulary  Vocabulary size as evidence for learning vs. acquisition hypothesis (p. 200)  Vocabulary learning through A Clockwork Orange – exposure to text  What does it mean to know a word? Having phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic knowledge of the word.

Part 3

Conversational vs. academic  “Many students who appear to speak and understand English quite well still struggle in reading academic texts or passing standardized assessments.”  Academic English vocabulary is made up of words borrowed mostly from Latin and Greek. Conversational English vocabulary comes form a variety of borrowings.