Spelling Morphology: The Psycholinguistics of Hebrew Spelling PDF
Preview Spelling Morphology: The Psycholinguistics of Hebrew Spelling
Spelling Morphology LITERACYSTUDIES VOLUME3 SeriesEditor: R.MalateshaJoshi,TexasA&MUniversity,USA EditorialBoard: LinneaEhri,CUNYGraduateSchool,USA GeorgeHynd,PurdueUniversity,USA RichardOlson,UniversityofColorado,USA PieterReitsma,VrijeUniversityAmsterdam,theNetherlands RebeccaTreiman,WashingtonUniversityinSt.Louis,USA UshaGoswami,UniversityofCambridge,UK JaneOakhill,UniversityofSussex,Brighton,UK PhilipSeymour,UniversityofDundee,UK GuinevereEden,GeorgetownUniversityMedicalCenter,USA CatherineMcBrideChang,ChineseUniversityofHongKong,China While language defines humanity, literacy defines civilization. Understandably, illiteracyordifficultiesinacquiringliteracyskillshavebecomeamajorconcernof our technological society. A conservative estimate of the prevalence of literacy problemswouldputthefigureatmorethanabillionpeopleintheworld.Because of the seriousness of the problem, research in literacy acquisition and its break- down is pursued with enormous vigor and persistence by experts from diverse backgrounds such as cognitive psychology, neuroscience, linguistics and educa- tion. This, ofcourse, hasresulted in a plethora ofdata, and consequently ithas becomedifficulttointegratethisabundanceofinformationintoacoherentbody becauseoftheartificialbarriersthatexistamongdifferentprofessionalspecialties. The purpose of the proposed series is to bring together the available research studiesintoacoherentbodyofknowledge.Publicationsinthisseriesareintended for use by educators, clinicians and research scientists in the above-mentioned specialties. Some of the titles suitable for the Series are: fMRI, brain imaging techniquesandreadingskills,orthographyandliteracy;andresearchbasedtech- niquesforimprovingdecoding,vocabulary,spelling,andcomprehensionskills. AcompletelistoftitlespublishedinthisseriescanbeviewedbygoingtothefollowingURL: http://www.springer.com/series/7206 Dorit Diskin Ravid Spelling Morphology The Psycholinguistics of Hebrew Spelling 1 3 DoritDiskinRavid ConstantinerSchoolofEducation TelAvivUniversity TelAviv,69978 Israel [email protected] ISBN978-1-4419-0587-1 e-ISBN978-1-4419-0588-8 DOI10.1007/978-1-4419-0588-8 SpringerNewYorkDordrechtHeidelbergLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011935141 #SpringerScienceþBusinessMedia,LLC2012 Allrightsreserved.Thisworkmaynotbetranslatedorcopiedinwholeorinpartwithoutthewritten permissionofthepublisher(SpringerScienceþBusinessMedia,LLC,233SpringStreet,NewYork, NY10013,USA),exceptforbriefexcerptsinconnectionwithreviewsorscholarlyanalysis.Usein connectionwithanyformofinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computer software,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdevelopedisforbidden. Theuseinthispublicationoftradenames,trademarks,servicemarks,andsimilarterms,evenifthey arenotidentifiedassuch,isnottobetakenasanexpressionofopinionastowhetherornottheyare subjecttoproprietaryrights. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScienceþBusinessMedia(www.springer.com) This book is dedicated to the memory of my beloved father, Yehoshua Diskin (1924–2002), who loved his children and loved Language. v Preface Thisbookstartedoutasanexpositionofmyworkfromthelastdecadeonthe acquisitionofHebrewspellingbygradeschoolchildren.WhenIfirstenvisioned it,Ithoughtthebookwouldstartwithatheoreticalpartontheunderpinnings of Hebrew spelling from a psycholinguistic perspective, to be followed by a second section summarizing my empirical work on spelling development and acquisitionwhichwouldshowhowthetheoreticalpredictionswereborneout byactualexperimentation. But rather early on the book itself sort of ‘‘took over’’ and found its own vocation. I realized I had much more to say about Hebrew spelling and its theoretical embedding than could be contained by a few chapters. I found I wished to embed and contextualize Hebrew spelling within an explanatory psycholinguistic framework of written language and current models of lan- guageacquisitionandprocessing,writingandreading.Theresultisthisbook, which presents a theoretical psycholinguistic account of Hebrew spelling as a linguisticsystemlearnedandprocessedbygeneralcognitivemechanisms,onthe onehand,whileundertheparticularimpactofHebrewtypology,ontheother. The protagonists of this book are thus Hebrew morphology, the Hebrew lexicon, and the phono-morpho-orthographic junction which underlies the construalofspellingHebrewwords.Thebookisallabouttheory:Myempirical studies,whichbearouteachofthepredictionspresentedandexplainedinthese chapters,awaitthenextbook. vii Contents 1 Introduction:ALinguist’sJourneyTowardsWrittenLanguage...... 1 EarlyLanguageAcquisition:TheOralTradition................ 2 AcquiringtheLanguageofLiteracy.......................... 3 LearningtoThinkforWriting .............................. 5 LearningtheScript-as-Model............................... 7 LevelsofRepresentation:Phonology,Morphology andOrthography......................................... 10 Phonology............................................ 11 Morphology .......................................... 13 Orthography .......................................... 14 Notes.................................................. 17 References............................................... 17 2 ThePsycholinguisticsofSpelling:PhonologyandBeyond.......... 21 SpellinginPsychologicalandCognitiveScience ................ 22 SpellingasLanguage...................................... 25 ATypologicalViewofSpellingDevelopment .................. 26 Phonology.............................................. 28 OrthographicProperties................................... 29 Notes.................................................. 34 References............................................... 35 3 MorphologicalScaffoldinginLearningtoSpell:ACross-Linguistic Review ................................................. 41 References............................................... 52 4 Spelling,LexiconandMorphology............................ 57 PhonologyandtheLexicon ................................ 57 OrthographyandtheLexicon............................... 58 TheTypologicalImpactofMorphology ...................... 59 MorphologicalRichness:Semantics.......................... 61 MorphologicalRichness:Systems ........................... 63 MorphologicalRichness:Morpho-PhonologyandAllomorphy.... 67 ix x Contents SpellingHebrewMorphology............................... 69 Notes.................................................. 70 References............................................... 70 5 HistoricalandSociolinguisticPerspectivesonHebrew............. 73 RootsofModernHebrew.................................. 73 References............................................... 78 6 TheHebrewPhonology-OrthographyInterface.................. 81 CurrentOrthographicVersions ............................. 81 VowelRepresentation:AHistoricalReview ................... 83 OrthographicChanges .................................... 86 SourcesofHebrewSpellingErrors........................... 88 Summary............................................... 92 LetterFrequencies........................................ 94 Notes.................................................. 95 References............................................... 95 7 Morpho-OrthographicInfrastructure.......................... 97 SpellingNon-linearMorphology ............................ 99 SpellingLinearMorphology................................ 105 ComplexMorphologyinSpelling............................ 107 ExtendingWrittenWordBoundaries......................... 109 WordorBox? ......................................... 113 Summary............................................... 113 Notes.................................................. 113 References............................................... 114 8 RootandFunctionLetters.................................. 115 DemarcatingCorefromEnvelopeLetters ..................... 116 HomophonyandMorphology .............................. 117 SpellingRootLetters ..................................... 118 Morpho-PhonologicalCuestoRootSpelling .................. 121 SpellingFunction(Affix)Letters ............................ 122 MappingMorphologicalRolesofFunctionLetters.............. 125 Summary............................................... 127 Notes.................................................. 128 References............................................... 128 9 ThePhono-Morpho-OrthographicAHWYיוהאJuncture .......... 129 BlurringtheConsonant-VowelDistinction .................... 130 Phono-Morpho-OrthographicFeaturesofVowelAHWY ........ 134 Summary............................................... 138 Notes.................................................. 139 References............................................... 139 Contents xi 10 SpellingCuesinNominals ................................. 141 DataMiningintheNominalLexicon........................ 142 SpellingCuesinNominalMorphology ...................... 144 BeyondTransparentNouns ............................... 145 CuesinCompoundStructures ............................. 146 CuesinOpaqueNominals ................................ 148 Summary.............................................. 151 Notes................................................. 151 References.............................................. 151 11 SpellingCuesinNominalInflection.......................... 153 Gender................................................ 153 Number............................................... 156 Incorporation .......................................... 158 SpellingInflectionalMorphology........................... 161 Notes................................................. 163 References.............................................. 163 12 SpellingCuesinVerbFormation ............................ 165 CompositeVerbStructure ................................ 166 TemporalBinyanConfigurations........................... 167 ModalStems........................................... 169 InterimSummary ....................................... 170 AgreementSuffixes...................................... 171 SpellingVerbStructure................................... 172 OptionalAccusativeInflection............................. 177 Summary.............................................. 177 Notes................................................. 178 References.............................................. 178 13 Conclusion:ThePsycholinguisticsofHebrewSpelling............ 179 FinalWord ............................................ 183 Notes................................................. 183 References.............................................. 183 Index..................................................... 185
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