Happy #morphememonday everyone!

Alright, now back to this week’s morphemes. As a reminder, a morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in the English language.

 

A prefix is a morpheme found at the beginning of a word.

 

A root is a morpheme that provides the basis for the word’s meaning.

 

A suffix is a morpheme found at the end of the word.

 

Origin: Old English

Definition: not, do the opposite

Examples: unknown, unhappy, untie, unaffected, unspoken, unbelieving

<un> + <think>  + <able> = unthinkable

<un> + <bend> = unbend

<un> + <made> = unmade

<un> + <said> = unsaid

<un> + <invite> + <ed> = uninvited

<un> + <affect> + <ed> = unaffected

  • The prefix <un> is consistently pronounced with a short /u/ vowel sound
  • This prefix is suitable to teach younger children. They can have a lot of fun with coming up with their own words!

Origin: Latin

Definition: to hear or listen

Examples: audiotape, audiophilic, inaudible, auditor, audition, auditorily

<aud> + <i>  + <ence> = audience

<aud> + <ile> = audile

<aud> + <i>  + <ology> =audiology

<aud> + <i> + <phone>= audiphone

<aud> + <ible> = audible

  • The root <aud> is consistently pronounced with an /aw/ vowel sound like found in law or hawk
  • This root is frequently followed by the letter ‘i’ before a suffix is added (as seen in the examples above)
  • This root is best for students who have developed a foundation of the common morphemes found in the English language but would be suitable for students in middle school.

Origin: Latin

Definition: state of, result of

Examples: diction, expression, junction, progression, injection, exhaustion

<con> + <vict> + <ion> = conviction

<in> + <fuse> + <ion> = infusion

<ex> <haust> + <ion> = exhaustion

<sect> + <ion> = section

<sub> + <mers> + <ion> = submersion

<fract> + <ion> = fraction

 

  • The suffix <ion> pronounciation is typically dictated by what procede’s it.
    • if the syllable before it has a short vowel sound, it is usually pronounced as /shǝn/; example: admission, confusion, tension
    • if the syllable before it has a long vowel sound, it is usually pronounced as /zhǝn/; example: erosion, abrasion, infusion
    • if the base word before it ends in a ‘t’, it is usually pronounced as /shǝn/; example: probation, intention, exception
  • This suffix is noun forming, for example, in mathematics the word ‘add’ is a verb with a complimentary noun form of ‘addition’
  • This suffix should be taught when students are starting to come across words that containing it in their reading and spelling vocabulary.
  • In many tutoring programs, this suffix is taught as the spelling patterns -tion and -sion.
  • This suffix was commonly misspelled in a spelling error analysis I conducted on students who were English Language learners with a Chinese first language. This study concluded that students with a Chinese first language background would benefit from morphological instruction.

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Last week, July 29, 2019, we focused on the prefix <sub>, the root <min> and the suffix <s>/<es>.

 

Next week, August 12, 2019, we will be focusing on the prefix <mis>, the root <aster>, and the suffix <ness>.