Page 16 - ABCTE Study Guide_Neat

Morphology

Morphology is a close cousin of etymology. You re already familiar with the root of the word,
{morph}, which refers to change or derivation. The morpheme {-ology} refers specifically to the
science or study of something, in this case, changes or derivatives of words with reference to the
relationships among roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

When discussing morphology, it is important to note that a morpheme can be as little as a single
letter, provided that the letter contains or imparts meaning. For instance, in the word morphemes, the
{morph} has its own meaning, as noted above. The {-eme} also contains its own meaning, “a discrete
unit of linguistic structure,” a la morpheme, phoneme, grapheme, etc. The morpheme {-s}, as
attached to the end of a word, is the Great Pluralizer. This single letter imparts meaning, namely
“more than one.”

Let’s take another look at exophthalmic, this time adding some annotations:

Our facility with the English language steers us toward morphology automatically. By teaching students
how words are structured, we can give them powerful tools for comprehension.

Orthography
Let’s use two disciplines that we’ve discussed previously (morphology and analytic phonics) to
investigate the meaning of orthography.

The Morphology of Orthography

The morpheme {ortho} means “correct,” and the morpheme {-graphy} means something to the effect
of “to write.” Put them together, and you get the meaning “to write correctly.” However, orthography
isn’t about the physical act of writing; it’s about spelling and the conventions that govern how we
spell.