Far from being a mere technical skill, spelling is now perceived in
psychological and psycholinguistic literature as a window into what an
individual knows about words, and the acquisition of spelling is
regarded as a process of conceptual and linguistic learning. In recent
years linguists and psychologists have shown growing interest in the
linguistic nature of alphabetic orthographic systems, in their
psycholinguistic representation in adults and in their developmental
history in children learning to read and write.
The question of orthographic depth - to what extent an orthographic
system fully and systematically reflects the phonology of the language
it represents - has been studied extensively, and is critical in the
learning to read and write in many languages. However, less attention
has been paid to the role morphology (word structure) plays in
orthographic representation: Orthographies often reflect morphological
units, such as past-tense -ed. Thus a systematic link has to be
established between meaningful and consistent grammatical behavior and
spelling units in spelling learners.
The role of morphological knowledge in learning to spell is related to
the degree of morphological wealth in the language system and to its
prominence in the orthography. In other words, developing spelling
perception is mediated by typological traits of the language being
learned. Modern Hebrew - a century-old language that still carries with
it the traces of its 4,000-year-old past - is a highly synthetic Semitic
language with a rich morphology. The wealth of morphological structures
in Hebrew is reflected in its written form, promoting morphological
perception and strategies in Hebrew speakers / readers / writers.
Anchored in a cross-linguistic, typological framework, Spelling
Morphology: Psycholinguistic, Typological and Crosslinguistic
Perspectives on Spelling Acquisition in Hebrew provides for the first
time an in-depth account of the relationship between morphological
knowledge and spelling acquisition. It analyzes Hebrew morphological
structures and meanings and their expression in spelling from a
psycholinguistic developmental perspective, and shows to what extent
this model is applicable to other languages.
Spelling Morphology: Psycholinguistic, Typological and Crosslinguistic
Perspectives on Spelling Acquisition in Hebrew will be of special
interest to psychologists, psycholinguists, linguists and educators
working on morphology, morphological processing, orthographic systems,
reading and writing, the development of spelling, or emergent literacy.
Speech-language pathologists specializing in literacy development and
remedial reading, writing and spelling as well as Semitic specialists
working on Hebrew and Arabic morphology and syntax and their
orthographies will also benefit from this research.
