> From: suzmccarth [mailto:suzmccarth@...]
> Sent: Monday, July 05, 2004 2:14 PM
> > > What is meant by the term morphophonemic?
> >
> > You ask me? I think this is the first time ever I see this term!
> - morpho-phonemic, a term usually used in studies of childrens'
> ability to transfer literacy skills from one language to another in
> bilingual education programs.
This does not explain the meaning of the term "morphphonemic". The term
arose in the mid-20th century within the context of a model to account
for phonological contrasts that are morphologically determined; for
instance, the contrast between the pair "knife" and "knives". There are
no purely phonological contexts that can determine an /f/ ~ /v/
alternation; a grammatical context such as this is required. For some,
this led to an analysis involving an underlying segment that is not
fully specified, {F}, which some referred to as an "archiphoneme"; and
some adopted a model in which morphophonemics was considered a distinct
level of description, separate from phonology and grammar (morphology).
From there, we get to the notion of "morphophonemic spelling", i.e. a
spelling convention in which a word is written in terms of its
underlying (morpho)phonemic representation rather than its
pronunciation. Hence "cats" but "dogs", not "dogz".
Only then do we make the logical connection to studies of children's
ability to transfer literacy skills.
Peter Constable