On the surface, the rules of English language spelling and grammar can seem confusing, strange, and even random. However, a deeper look at the structure of English words reveals a morphological method to the madness!

What Are Morphemes?

Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in language. Every word we use is built from one or more morphemes. For example, the word “morphology” contains two morphemes: “morph,” meaning form, and “ology” meaning science of, branch of knowledge concerning. Together, these morphemes create the word “morphology,” meaning the science of word formation. A robust knowledge of these word parts and their meanings helps students unlock a deeper understanding of complex vocabulary words.

Some morphemes, referred to as free morphemes, can stand alone as full words. For example, the word “water” contains only one morpheme. The morpheme “water” can stand on its own, or it can be combined with other morphemes to make words such as “watered” or “watering.”

Free morphemes can further be divided into content words and function words. Content words are words that communicate meaning, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. On the other hand, function words serve a primarily grammatical role, and their meaning is often less transparent. They include conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, articles, and auxiliary verbs.

Unlike free morphemes, bound morphemes cannot stand alone as words. This category includes both affixes and roots. 

Roots are bound morphemes that hold the core meaning of a word. Many English-language roots are derived from Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon vocabulary. For example, the words “telephone,” “symphony,” and “phonograph” all contain the Greek root “phon,” which means sound or voice. When you understand the meaning of the root, you can infer that all three words have something to do with sound. 

Affixes are bound morphemes that are attached to either the beginning of a word (prefixes) or the end of a word (suffixes). There are two types of affixes in the English language: derivational affixes and inflectional affixes.

Derivational affixes affect the meaning of a word. They can also change a word’s part of speech — for example, changing an adjective to a verb (“modern” to “modernize”) or a verb to a noun (“teach” to “teacher”). Derivational affixes can be prefixes, such as “pre-,” “re-,” and “ultra,” or suffixes, such as “iness,” “ly,” and “tion.”

Inflectional affixes change the grammatical function of a word. There are only eight inflectional affixes, all of which are suffixes:

• -‘s (possessive)
• -s (plural)
• -s (third-person singular)
• -ed (past tense)
• -ing (progressive)
• -en (past participle)
• -er (comparative)
• -est (superlative)

We can combine different types of morphemes to create new words. For example, the word “inscription” contains three morphemes: a prefix, a root, and a suffix. The prefix “in” means in, on, toward; the Latin root “scrib” means to write; and the suffix “tion” means the act or state of. Combining these three morphemes, we get “inscription,” meaning the act or state of writing or being written upon.

Why Morphemes Matter

Morphological ability involves using morphemes to produce or understand written or oral language. Understanding morphology can help students develop reading and writing skills (Bowers et al., 2010; Carlisle, 2000; Sparks & Deacon, 2015). To better understand the connection between morphology and literacy development, consider the Simple View of Reading.

The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) says that there are two primary components of skilled reading comprehension: word recognition and language comprehension. Word recognition involves recognizing printed words accurately and efficiently. This includes both familiar and unfamiliar words. Language comprehension involves understanding spoken and written language. As word recognition skills are applied more efficiently, and language comprehension skills are applied more strategically, students read more fluently and better comprehend the words they are reading. 

Morphological ability is unique because it supports both word recognition and language comprehension processes. This is because morphemes are rich sources of phonological, orthographic, syntactic, and semantic information students can use in reading, writing, speaking, and listening (Nagy et al., 2014). 

For example, consider the word “geographer.” This is a morphologically complex word comprised of three morphemes: “geo” + “graph” + “er.” If a reader sees this word in print and knows its morphemes, they can quickly segment, or break apart, the word into the morphemes and retrieve the pronunciations of each, then combine these parts to correctly identify the whole pronunciation of the word. As a result, the “chunkability” of morphemes may contribute to more accurate and automatic word recognition, a critical component of fluency and comprehension (Ehri, 2005; Nunes et al., 2012; Rastle, 2019). 

Furthermore, each morphemic “chunk” has meaning, which helps students connect the word’s orthography, or spelling, to its semantic and syntactic function (Levesque et al., 2021; Nagy et al.. 2014).  By combining their knowledge of the meaning of the roots “geo” (earth) and “graph” (to write or draw) with the grammatical function of the suffix –er (a person who does _____), students can infer the meaning of this complex vocabulary word from its orthography: A geographer a person who writes or draws about the earth.”

The Value of Explicit Instruction

For many students, developing morphological ability requires explicit, systematic  instruction. Explicit instruction provides students with clear and structured practice in reading and spelling words that contain the taught morpheme while reinforcing the connection between spelling, pronunciation, and meaning. This practice ensures that students learn to notice and identify useful word patterns, preparing them for later lessons in using morphemes to break down unfamiliar words and to form and produce new words. While all students benefit from explicit morphology instruction, it is especially helpful for students who need additional support to tackle complex, multisyllabic words that appear frequently in secondary texts (e.g., students with word reading difficulties, multilingual learners; Goodwin & Ahn, 2010; Kieffer & Lesaux, 2012).

Furthermore, morphological ability is not only useful in the context of English Language Arts (ELA) learning. Students can use their knowledge of high-utility morphemes to unlock meaning in texts across content areas (Lane et al., 2019). High-utility morphemes appear frequently in academic texts in various subjects, including ELA, social studies, science, and math. For example, consider the root “gen,” meaning “race, kind, or birth.” This high-utility morpheme occurs in words across content areas, including “genre,” “homogeneity,” “antigen,” and “genealogy.” As another example, the root “graph,” meaning “to write or draw,” occurs in academic words like “holographic,” “cartographer,” “biography,” and “pictograph.” Thus, explicit instruction in high-utility morphemes has the potential to increase students’ academic outcomes across learning disciplines.

Fortunately, the Iowa Reading Research Center provides a number of resources to support explicit morphology instruction across content areas. To dive deeper into instructional strategies and methods, take our Effective Morphology Instruction for Secondary Students Across Content Areas eLearning module. Or, visit the IRRC Morpheme Lab to explore online applications like our new Word Dissector Tool, related blog posts and articles, a professional development toolkit, and more!

When students are explicitly taught to identify and understand high-utility morphemes in English words, they are equipped with the tools they need to independently and accurately decode, comprehend, and apply complex vocabulary words across subjects. In this way, morphological ability is like a reading superpower, granting students the ability to make meaning out of words and soar to new literacy learning heights!

References

Bowers, P. N., Kirby, J. R., & Deacon, S. H. (2010). The effects of morphological instruction on literacy skills: A systematic review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 80(2), 144–179. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654309359353 

Carlisle, J. F. (2000). Awareness of the structure and meaning of morphologically complex words: Impact on reading. Reading and Writing, 12(2), 169–190. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1023/A:1008131926604

Ehri, L. C. (2005). Learning to read words: Theory, findings, and issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9, 167–188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s1532799xssr0902_4

Goodwin, A. P., & Ahn, S. (2010). A meta-analysis of morphological interventions: Effects on literacy achievement of children with literacy difficulties. Annals of Dyslexia, 60(2), 183–208. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s11881-010-0041-x

Gough, P. B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. RASE: Remedial & Special Education, 7(1), 6–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/074193258600700104