Structural Analysis

- Exercise 3 Script -

Directions: Using the lists of common prefixes, roots, and suffixes, complete the words

below so that they maintain the correct meanings in the sentences.

ex anti able ology eu de tri auto hypo homo ism

1. In my geo__________ class, we study the structure of the earth.

(Answer: ology)

2. At her funeral, the kindly old woman was __________logized by her close family

and friends because they believed she was a good, kind person who would be

missed dearly.

(Answer: eu)

3. A __________nym is a word with the same sound and spelling as another word

but different in meaning.

(Answer: homo)

4. I must __________cline your invitation as I have another commitment that

evening.

(Answer: de)

5. The judge has ordered that the body be __________humed. After the body is

taken out of the grave, an autopsy will be performed.

(Answer: ex)

6. People who have abnormally low level of glucose in the blood suffer from a

condition known as __________glycemia.

(Answer: hypo)

Structural Analysis

- Exercise 2 Script -

Directions: Using the lists of common prefixes, roots, and suffixes, complete the words

below so that they maintain the correct meanings in the sentences.

micro multi bio ist post non semi trans bi sub kilo phobia
1. A pharmac__________ is a person who dispenses medication.

(Answer: ist)

2. After the birth of her baby, Meredith experienced __________partum depression

for several weeks.

(Answer: post)

3. The engineering company had a reputation for high quality work; therefore, when

Frank’s work became __________standard, he was fired from the firm.

(Answer: sub)

4. Verbal communication can be very powerful; however, __________verbal

communication can be equally strong.

(Answer: non)

5. Canada is a __________cultural society because its people originate from many

different backgrounds.

(Answer: multi)

6. Over the past few years, several __________graphies have been written about the

life of Princess Diana.

(Answer: bio)

7. Paul suffers from agora__________; therefore, he lives alone and never goes into

crowds of people.

(Answer: phobia)

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8. Jello is a good example of a __________-solid substance.

(Answer: semi)

9. Even though mammals are very large creatures, scientists can still learn a great
deal about them by studying the animals’ tiny cells under __________scopes.

(Answer: micro)

10. Canada has a good __________continental highway which can take you all the

way from Eastern Canada to Western Canada.

(Answer: trans)

11. Leaving her training wheels behind, the confident little girl pedaled her new

__________cycle around the block.

(Answer: bi)

12. The track athletes running in the one thousand metre race are running the

equivalent of one __________metre.

(Answer: kilo)

Structural Analysis

- Exercise 1 Script -

Directions: Using the lists of common prefixes, roots, and suffixes, complete the words

below so that they maintain the correct meanings in the sentences.

phono retro re path aud syn im spec inter pre circum

1. All union members will be given a raise which is __________active to last July.

(Answer: retro)

2. Early explorers were constantly looking for ways to __________navigate the

globe.

(Answer: circum)

3. The performer in the musical production was barely __________ible; perhaps he

should use a microphone next time.

(Answer: aud)

4. It was kind of neat to hear the scratchy, rustic sound of my grandmother’s

__________graph as it played the old tune.

(Answer: phono)

5. The jury felt that the defense lawyer’s arguments in the trial seemed

__________plausible after hearing all the testimony presented against his client.
(Answer: im)

6. The streaker made a real __________tacle of himself when he ran across the

stage during the Academy Awards ceremony. After all, besides the in-house

audience, millions of people around the world were watching the show on

television.

(Answer: spec)

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7. I was amazed by the __________chronous movements of the grandfather clock. I

wondered how the parts were made to move so accurately at the same time.

(Answer: syn)

8. Some day __________planetary travel may be possible, but we must first increase

our technology if we hope to journey between the planets in our universe.

(Answer: inter)

9. The best way to __________vent financial troubles is to pay all your bills on time.

There are very few other ways around the problem.

(Answer: pre)

10. Have they identified the __________ogen which caused her disease to worsen?

(Answer: path)

11. Victims of Alzheimer’s disease often experience __________gression in which they

move back to less advanced stages of development in their skills.

(Answer: re)

al Analysis: Prefixes, Suffixes & Roots

By Anonymous (not verified) 10 / Dec / 2008

Structural Analysis (aka Morphemic Analysis)

Students need strategies to independently acquire new words. Teaching students to use word parts to
figure out the meanings of words in text can be beneficial to their vocabulary development. "Knowing
some common prefixes and suffixes (affixes), base words, and root words can help students learn the
meanings of many new words" (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001). Morphemic analysis uses roots and
affixes to derive meaning from an unknown word. Researchers suggest that teachers explicitly teach
common roots and affixes, including inflectional and derivational suffixes (Baumann & Kame’enui,
2004).

The meaningful parts of a word are called morphemes, which are the smallest units of meaning in a
word. A morpheme may be a word or only part of a word, but it may be more than one syllable. A
morpheme that can stand alone as a word is a free morpheme, but bound morphemes must be
attached to other morphemes in order to form a complete word.

The word cats has two morphemes: cat and s . Cat is a free morpheme, and s is a bound morpheme that
means more than one.

There are two types of suffixes .

Inflectional suffixes change number, tense or degree.

Number: dog à dogs

Tense: jump à jumping, jumped

Degree: happy à happier (comparative), funny à funniest (superlative)

Derivational suffixes change the part of speech.

fame (noun) à famous (adjective)

celebrate (verb) à celebration (noun)

Prefixes have three functions: specify negation, direction or intensity.

Negation: uncooperative, noncompliant, antithesis

Direction: eject (throw out), reject (throw back), inject (throw in), project

(throw forward), subject (throw under), dejected (throw down)

Intensity: intense, extreme (in these words i n- and ex- mean very)

Words of Anglo-Saxon origin attach prefixes and suffixes to base words (free morphemes that can
stand alone as words) while words derived from Latin attach prefixes and suffixes to root words (bound
morphemes that cannot stand alone as words). The Greek layer of our language uses combining forms,
which are also bound morphemes.

Anglo-Saxon: wooden = wood (base word) + en (suffix)

kingdom = king (base word) + dom (suffix)

Latin: invisible = in (prefix) + vis (root) + ible (suffix)

construction = con (prefix) + struc (root) + tion (suffix)

photograph = photo + graph (both combining forms)

Affix: a meaningful part of a word (morpheme) that is attached before or after a root to modify its
meaning (prefixes and suffixes).

Base word: a free morpheme (can stand alone as a word) to which affixes can be added, usually Anglo-
Saxon in origin.

Combining form: morphemes that can be arranged and attached in a variety of ways without strict
adherence to order within the word

Derivational suffix: a bound morpheme added to the end of a root or base word that changes the part
of speech of the word.

Inflectional suffix: a bound morpheme that is a grammatical ending for a base word; it does not change
the part of speech of the word but marks the number, tense or degree in English.

Morphology: the study of the meaningful units in a language and how they are combined in word
formation.

Prefix: a bound morpheme that precedes a root or base word and modifies its meaning.

Root: a bound morpheme that cannot stand alone but that is used to form a family of words with
related meanings, usually of Latin origin.

Structural analysis: the study of affixes, base words, and roots.

Suffix: a grammatical ending added to a root or base word that modifies its meaning.