LING329 Morphology

Answer:

a. The mass and count noun distinction has attracted lots of discussion among scholars and psycholinguists, as it denotes an apparent split between grammar and words (Bale & Barner, 2009). Mass and count distinction is the difference between nouns that can be explicitly counted by use of numeral modifiers like girls, as well as those that cannot be counted like mud. Examples include two girls, two muds, two buckets of mud. In these examples, girls can be modified and counted by a modifier two; thus, it’s called a countable noun (Barner & Snedeker, 2005). Regarding mud, it can be counted through a classifier expression like a bucket or kilo, and it is called a mass noun. Classifiers can be individuating/non-individuating phrases of measure. On a pure bucket measure reading, two buckets of mud represent a quantity of mud which is the same as two bucketful’s of dirt (Rothstein, 2010). This is different from the individuating use where two buckets of mud are the same as two real buckets filled with mud. The distinction shown in two girls is a real distinction but it has some linguistic implications. Overall, count nouns are linked with a number of diverse syntactic as well as morphological properties (Wisniewski, Lamb & Middleton, 2003).

Awareness of morphological concepts affects the learner’s ability to speak as well as converse fluently in English. Ideally, there is a connection between students understanding of the base form of the words as well as the ability to identify vocabularies efficiently to be able to converse coherently. Provided that morphology plays a crucial part in helping people efficiently chose words, a deep understanding of derivational morphemes can assist them to improve both their art of speaking and listening. Language conflict usually benefits from the morphology usage to know texts meaning which are vital in boosting the above mentioned skills. Besides, Morphological awareness helps learners identify semantic irregularities hence have a higher comprehension of the meaning linked to different English words thus impacting on pronunciation skills(Berninger, Abbott, Nagy & Carlisle, 2010).

There is a range of strategies employed to uphold Morphological awareness. They include one, morphology education as a tool of word instruction. Two, developing student’s awareness as a cognitive technique via plain phase where students realize that they don’t understand the phrase or text, analyse the vocabulary in morphemes and lastly is to inspect the meaning of meaning of the text against the context (Berninger, Abbott, Nagy & Carlisle, 2010). Helping people to identify the usage of suffixes, prefixes, plus roots including how texts are changed can also be used as a strategy to promote Morphological awareness.

Lastly, educating the student's true cognates that is words with similar spelling as well as meanings in both English plus their local language can help improve on reading comprehension of learners. When these and other strategies are introduced to learning, learners can be able to put their morphology knowledge in texts they have not come across (McBride-Chang et al., 2008). To boost student’s Morphological awareness, language tutors need to put into use a range of activities that can be made to fit in all age groups. For instance, they can commence on morphology instruction to pupils with abstract texts followed by complex ones.

Morphological awareness entails the learner’s comprehension of deviations as well as inflections in language altogether. Language learners that can identify how texts are created by joining prefixes, suffixes, as well as roots are in a better position of creating more vocabularies, understand texts better, and ultimately become expert in writing.  Researchers have shown that derived words when used can help ensure that learners can comprehend as well as practice vocabulary. Therefore, language tutors should take the teaching of Morphological awareness in a class as a clear language teaching through embracing some of the approaches stated above. In summary, implications for education as well as learning are fundamental as research shows that people with Morphological awareness have an excellent language performance, vocabulary and comprehension.

References

Bale, A. C., & Barner, D. (2009). The interpretation of functional heads: Using comparatives to explore the mass/count distinction. Journal of Semantics, 26(3), 217-252.

Barner, D., & Snedeker, J. (2005). Quantity judgments and individuation: Evidence that mass nouns count. Cognition, 97(1), 41-66.

Berninger, V. W., Abbott, R. D., Nagy, W., & Carlisle, J. (2010). Growth in phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness in grades 1 to 6. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 39(2), 141-163.

Deacon, S. H., & Kirby, J. R. (2004). Morphological awareness: Just “more phonological”? The roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading development. Applied psycholinguistics, 25(2), 223-238.

Kuo, L. J., & Anderson, R. C. (2006). Morphological awareness and learning to read: A cross-language perspective. Educational Psychologist, 41(3), 161-180.

McBride-Chang, C., Tardif, T., Cho, J. R., Shu, H. U. A., Fletcher, P., Stokes, S. F., & Leung, K. (2008). What's in a word? Morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in three languages. Applied psycholinguistics, 29(3), 437-462.

Rothstein, S. (2010). Counting and the mass/count distinction. Journal of semantics, 27(3), 343-397.

Wisniewski, E., Lamb, C., & Middleton, E. (2003). On the conceptual basis for the count and mass noun distinction. Language and cognitive processes, 18(5-6), 583-624.