Pennington Publishing Blog

Morphology & Etymology

Having served as a reading specialist over multiple decades, I’ve seen plenty of changes in instructional emphasis. Such is the case with morphology and etymology. Teachers tend to be a trendy sort, and I, too, have certainly joined in on several ill-advised bandwagons over the years. Looking back, I would argue that many of the instructional trends had some merit; however, devotees would probably agree with me that in hindsight, spending inordinate amounts of time on the latest reading fad was not warranted. Also, almost always overlooked is the reductive consequence of emphasizing one aspect of reading instruction. Other just as valuable (or more so) teaching practices are diminished or eliminated to make room for the latest and greatest.

Most veteran teachers share the same musing at some point: “I wonder why I stopped teaching such and such. It really used to work.”

Let’s face it. We educators are influenced. By the latest research study. By our literacy hero. By the subject of our last conference, book, or hmmm… blog article. And, there is value behind these influences. Those teachers set in their ways don’t experience the joy of learning and trying new pedagogies. After all, the best teachers are learners.

A preamble to the point of this article: morphology and etymology are not the miracle drugs some would advocate. Now I need to quickly backtrack and assure teachers that I value word study, and studying morphemes and word origins are certainly important. However, they are not the panacea promised by some. Five arguments against an over-emphasis of morphological and etymological instruction might be considered to reign in the bandwagoners:

1. Although Latin and classical Greek morphemes and spellings are remarkably consistent over time, there are plenty of exceptions e.g., logos originally meant word or reason, but evolved to mean principle. A hypocrite originally meant a theater actor, but came to mean someone claiming to have virtues they lack. The latter example brings up the point that not only denotative, but also connotative meanings have changed as they do in all languages.
2. Greek and Latin languages, especially the former, have so many assimilated prefixes e.g. ad, as and homonyms e.g. non, un, a, an, il. Not to mention homographs e.g. im, meaning not or into, homo meaning same or human. Yes I checked https://www.etymonline.com/.
3. Derivatives (combinations of morphemes or inflections) often require considerable grammatical expertise. For example, the Latin suffix, erant, is not uncommon in multi-syllabic English words, but digging into the pluperfect Latin tense would be less than useful. Plus, plenty of hybrid words combine different language words e.g. Greek auto (self) and Latin mobilis (movable). Plus, expecting students to connect what the multi-syllabic Greek and/or Latin derivatives to simple English or literal English definitions can often be an unconvincing stretch to most students. Take disaster for example. Getting the simple and useful English definition of adding dis, meaning bad or away from aster, meaning stars takes a lot of manipulation to be useful to students. Or try explaining how working with the language origins of muscle (musculus), originally meaning little mouse. Interesting to word nerds (like me), but a good expenditure of instructional minutes?
4. Morphology advocates focus on morphemes as the keys to spelling acquisition, and some argue that studying meaningful word parts is essential to multi-syllabic decoding. Although, helpful to a certain extent, morphology simply can’t replace spelling pattern study, syllable rules, and sound-by-sound decoding.
5. “If you add this, you’ll have to take away that.” Specifically, within the Common Core State Standards L. 4, 5, and 6, morphology is only one component:

• • Multiple Meanings (L.4.a.)
  • Greek and Latin Morphology (L.4.a.) 
  • Language Resources (L.4.c.d.)
  • Figures of Speech (L.5.a.)
  • Word Relationships (L.5.b.)
  • Connotations (L.5.c.)
  • Academic Language (Tier 2) Words (L.6.0)
    

To reiterate, morphology and etymology (especially the former) is a critically important component of word study; however, a balanced approach is essential.

Check out the author’s grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Comprehensive Vocabulary programs, including robust morphological study.

Greek and Latin Morphology

Covers All Grade-Level Standards

Grammar/Mechanics etymology, Greek and Latin, morphology, vocabulary