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Roots and patterns in Hebrew language development: evidence from written morphological analogies

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Abstract

Morphology is one of the organizing principles of the mental lexicon. It is especially important in Hebrew, where word structure expresses a rich array of semantic notions. This study investigated the ability of Hebrew-speaking children to solve written morphological analogies by reading and completing two sets of real and invented root- and pattern-related nouns using a closed set of responses. In the first experiment, 152 gradeschoolers (2nd–6th grade) were administered an analogy task with real words, where they had to read written stimuli and elicit root and pattern components from them. In the second experiment, 148 gradeschoolers were administered a similar reading task with pseudowords. In both experiments, the results clearly indicate an early and robust ability of Hebrew-speaking children to perform morphological analogies using both roots and patterns. Most errors involved the root morpheme rather than the pattern morpheme, but pseudowords elicited more pattern errors. These results are discussed in view of models of morphological processing and morpho-lexical development in Hebrew.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Constantiner School of Education and the Department of Communications Disorders, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Dorit Ravid

  2. School of Education, Haddad Center for Research in Dyslexia and Reading Disorders, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Rachel Schiff

Authors
  1. Dorit Ravid
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  2. Rachel Schiff
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dorit Ravid.

Appendices

Appendix I: Structure of the MAT stimulus and response sets.

(i) MAT: Stimulus set

Orthographic format

Vertical Pair I

Vertical Pair II

SYBWK TSBWKT

Related by pattern CiCuC

Related by pattern tiCCoCet

PYZWR ? (TPZWRT )

Horizontal Pair I

sibux ‘complexity’

tisboxet ‘complication’

Related by Root SBK

 

PATTERN SOURCE

Horizontal Pair II

pizur ‘scatteting’

TARGET

Related by Root PZR

ROOT SOURCE

Missing noun tifzoret ‘piecemeal’

(ii) MAT: Response set

  1. 1.

    tifzóret – correct response sharing root p-z-r with root source, and pattern tiCCóCet with pattern source.

  2. 2.

    pazran ‘big spender’ – main root distracter, related to root source by correct root p-z-r, but not by correct pattern tiCCóCet.

  3. 3.

    tilbóšet ‘costume’ – pattern distracter, related to pattern source by correct pattern tiCCóCet but not by correct root p-z-r.

  4. 4.

    mesubax ‘complicated’ – secondary root distracter s-b-x, related to top pair.

  5. 5.

    saviv ‘around’ – semantic distracter, related in meaning to word pizur ‘scattering’ (root source).

Appendix II: Structure of the P-MAT stimulus and response sets.

(i) P-MAT: Stimulus set

Orthographic format

Vertical Pair I

Vertical Pair II

DGWB DGBT Å NWZ ? (Å NZT)

Related by pattern CaCuC

Related by pattern CaCéCet

Horizontal Pair I

daguv

dagévet

Related by pseudo root

 

PATTERN SOURCE

d-g-v

Horizontal Pair II

shanuz

TARGET

Related by pseudo root

ROOT SOURCE

Missing noun

š-n-z

 

shanézet

(ii) P-MAT: Response set

  1. 1.

    shanézet – correct response sharing pseudoroot š-n-z with root source and pattern CaCéCet with pattern source.

  2. 2.

    mishnaz – main root distracter, related to root source by correct pseudo root š-n-z, but not by correct pattern CaCéCet.

  3. 3.

    radévet – pattern distracter, related to pattern source by correct pattern CaCéCet but not by correct pseudo root š-n-z.

  4. 4.

    dgiva ‘complicated’ – secondary (pseudo) root distracter d-g-v, related to top pair.

Appendix III

(i) Hebrew examples of the MAT

Reading

Reader/textbook

The washing

?

launderess   .4 restriction   .3 laundry   .2 reader (person)   .1

cleanliness   .5

Long

Length

Tender

?

pleasure   .5 elongated   .4 pleasant   .3 delight   .2 wall   .1.

(ii) Hebrew examples of the P-MAT (target nouns, set members and responses are all pseudowords)

   
Full size table

  .4   .3   .2   .1

   
Full size table

  5.   .3   .2   .1

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Ravid, D., Schiff, R. Roots and patterns in Hebrew language development: evidence from written morphological analogies. Read Writ 19, 789–818 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-006-9004-3

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