Morphological Complexity in Arabic Spelling and Its Implication for Cognitive Processing.

Publisher: Springer Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0333506 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1573-6555 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00906905 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Psycholinguist Res Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: Sept. 2004- : New York : Springer
Original Publication: New York, Plenum Press

Knowledge* ; Language*; Humans ; Child ; Jordan ; Schools ; Cognition

Spelling poses a challenge to Arabic-speaking learners due to the complexity of the morphological and orthographic systems in Arabic. Arabic morphology has been argued to play a critical role in spelling since its morphological operations are built on a system consisting of a root that is interlocking into different patterns of vowels to form different categories of words. This study made a detailed classification of spelling errors in a word dictation task, based on morphological structures, undertaken by 107 Typically-developing learners (TD) and learners with learning disabilities (LD) attending the same schools in Jordan. All participants ranged in age from 7 years, 3 months to 15 years, 2 months (grades 2 to 8). The spelling task was made up of 400 common words representing most morphological forms in different conjugations and grammatical classes. The results indicated that TD and LD learners follow a similar pattern of complexity even though the LD group produced more errors than the TD group. Both groups encountered more difficulties in passive voice forms followed by active voice forms. Furthermore, both groups spelled nouns, verbal nouns and derivations more accurately than verbal forms (active and passive voice). The results provide additional evidence for the nonlinear growth of morphological knowledge in spelling. In addition, spelling errors suggested that the spelling process goes in a hierarchical way where words can be accessed and processed either according to the root or according to the stem. Therefore, roots or stems are firstly accessed and attached to basic word patterns (the grapheme without diacritics and affixes). Thereafter, prefixes and, then, suffixes are attached to the word pattern and, finally, diacritics are accessed and attached to the word pattern.
(© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Erratum in: J Psycholinguist Res. 2022 Oct;51(5):1199-1201. (PMID: 35895168)

Abu-Hamour, B. (2013). Arabic spelling and curriculum based measurement. The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist Journal, 30, 140–156. (PMID: 10.1017/edp.2013.10)
Abu-Rabia, S. (1996). The role of vowels & context in the reading of highly skilled Arabic readers. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 25, 629–641. (PMID: 10.1007/BF01712413)
Abu-Rabia, S. (1997). Reading in Arabic orthography: The effect of vowels and context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary, 9, 65–78. (PMID: 10.1023/A:1007962408827)
Abu- Rabia, S., & Taha, H. (2004). Reading and spelling error analysis of native Arabic dyslexic readers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 17, 651–689. (PMID: 10.1007/s11145-004-2657-x)
Abu-Rabia, S., & Taha, H. (2006). Phonological errors predominate in Arabic spelling across grades 1–9. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 35, 167–188. (PMID: 1653854810.1007/s10936-005-9010-7)
Abu Rabia, S., & Sammour, R. (2013). Spelling errors’ analysis of regular and dyslexic bilingual Arabic-English students. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 3, 58–68. (PMID: 10.4236/ojml.2013.31007)
AL-Harahshe, I. M. (1990). التراكيب اللغوية في كتابي القراءة للصفين الأول والثاني من المرحلة الأساسية في الأردن linguistic structures in first and second grades text book of Arabic in Jordan. Master's Thesis. Yarmouk University (in Arabic).
Alrabaa, S. (1986). Diglossia in the classroom: The Arabic case. Anthropological Linguistics, 28, 73–79.
Amayreh, M. M., & Dyson, A. T. (1998). The acquisition of Arabic consonants. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 41(3), 642–653. (PMID: 963892810.1044/jslhr.4103.642)
Amayreh, M. (2003). Completion of the consonant inventory of Arabic. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 517–529. (PMID: 1469698310.1044/1092-4388(2003/042))
Apel, K., Masterson, J., & Niessen, N. (2004). Spelling assessment frameworks. In A. Stone, E. Silliman, B. Ehren, & K. Apel (Eds.), Handbook of language and literacy: Development and disorders (pp. 644–660). Guilford Press.
Asadi, I., Ibrahim, R., & Khateb, A. (2017). What contributes to spelling in Arabic? A cross-sectional study from first to sixth grade. Writing Systems Research, 9, 60–81. (PMID: 10.1080/17586801.2016.1218748)
Azzam, R. (1989). Orthography and reading in the Arabic language. In P. G. Aaron (Ed.), Reading and writing disorders in different orthographic systems. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Azzam, Ri. (1993). The nature of Arabic reading and spelling errors of young children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 5, 355–385. (PMID: 10.1007/BF01043112)
Bahr, R., Silliman, E., Berninger, V. W., & Dowa, M. (2012). Linguistic pattern analysis of misspellings of typically developing writers in grades 1–9. Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 55, 1587–1599. (PMID: 10.1044/1092-4388(2012/10-0335))
Bat-El, O. (1994). Stem modification and cluster transfer in modern Hebrew. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 12, 571–596. (PMID: 10.1007/BF00992928)
Benmamoun, E. (1999). Arabic morphology: The central role of the imperfective. Lingua, 108, 175–201. (PMID: 10.1016/S0024-3841(98)00045-X)
Benmamoun, E. (2003). The role of the imperfective template in Arabic morphology. In J. Shimron (Ed.), Language processing and acquisition in languages of Semitic, root-based, morphology (pp. 99–114). John Benjamins. (PMID: 10.1075/lald.28.05ben)
Berg, T., & Abd-El-Jawad, H. (1996). The unfolding of suprasegmental representations: A cross-linguistic perspective1. Journal of Linguistics, 32(2), 291–324. (PMID: 10.1017/S0022226700015905)
Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Reppen, R. (1998). Corpus linguistics: Investigating language structure and use. Cambridge University Press. (PMID: 10.1017/CBO9780511804489)
Boudelaa, S. (2014). Is the Arabic mental lexicon morpheme-based or stem-based? Implications for spoken and written word recognition. In E. Saiegh-Haddad & R. M. Joshi (Eds.), Handbook of Arabic literacy, literacy studies (Vol. 9, pp. 31–54). Springer Science. (PMID: 10.1007/978-94-017-8545-7_2)
Boudelaa, S., & Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (2001). Morphological units in the Arabic mental lexicon. Cognition, 81, 65–92. (PMID: 1152548210.1016/S0010-0277(01)00119-6)
Boudelaa, S., & Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (2004). Allomorphic variation in Arabic: Implications for lexical processing and representation. Brain and Language, 90, 106–116. (PMID: 1517252910.1016/S0093-934X(03)00424-3)
Bourassa, D., Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2006). Use of morphology in spelling by children with dyslexia and typically developing children. Memory and Cognition, 34(3), 703–714. (PMID: 1693377510.3758/BF03193589)
Butterworth, B. (1983). Lexical representation. In B. Butterworth (Ed.), Language production (pp. 257–294). Academic Press.
Caramazza, A., Laudanna, A., & Romani, C. (1988). Lexical access and infectonal morphology. Cognition, 28, 297–332. (PMID: 335975510.1016/0010-0277(88)90017-0)
Carlisle, J. (1987). The use of morphological knowledge in spelling derived forms by learning-disabled and normal students. Annals of Dyslexia, 37(1), 90–108. (PMID: 2423498910.1007/BF02648061)
Chua, S. M., & Liow, S. (2014). The locus of word frequency effects in skilled spelling-to-dictation. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67, 1720–1741. (PMID: 2430387110.1080/17470218.2013.868915)
Coulmas, F. (1996). The Blackwell encyclopedia of writing systems. Blackwell.
Curtin, S., Manis, F. R., & Seidenberg, M. S. (2001). Parallels between the reading and spelling deficits of two subgroups of developmental dyslexics. Reading and Writing, 14(5), 515–547. (PMID: 10.1023/A:1011122219046)
Davis, S., & Zawaydeh, B. A. (2001). Arabic hypocoristics and the status of the consonantal root. Linguistic Inquiry, 32(3), 512–520. (PMID: 10.1162/002438901750372540)
Diamanti, V., Goulandris, N., Stuart, M., & Campbell, R. (2014). Spelling of derivational and inflectional suffixes by Greek-speaking children with and without dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 27, 337–358. (PMID: 10.1007/s11145-013-9447-2)
Elbeheri, G., Everatt, J., Mahfoudhi, A., Al-diyar, M., & Taibah, N. (2011). Orthographic processing and reading comprehension among Arabic speaking mainstream and LD children. Dyslexia, 17, 123–142. (PMID: 2150032010.1002/dys.430)
Hamdan, J., & Amayreh, M. (2007). Consonant profile of arabic-speaking school-age children in Jordan. Folia Phoniatrica Et Logopaedica, 59, 55–64. (PMID: 1733789510.1159/000098338)
Idrissi, A., & Kehayia, E. (2004). Morphological units in the Arabic mental lexicon: Evidence from an individual with deep dyslexia. Brain and Language, 90, 183–197. (PMID: 1517253610.1016/S0093-934X(03)00431-0)
Issa, I. (2020). The impact of morphological awareness versus phonological awareness on Arabic spelling. Psychology and Education, 57, 211–231.
Issa, I. (2006). Mental representation of Arabic morphology: Evidence from Arabic hypocoristic. Master's Thesis. Unpublished Thesis, University of Potsdam, Germany.
Jiménez, J. E. (2008). Spelling development in the Spanish language. Psicothema, 20, 786–794. (PMID: 18940084)
Ministry of Education. (2017). 1 12 2017. http://www.moe.gov.jo/Departments/DepartmentsMenuDetails.aspx?MenuID=687&DepartmentID=30 .
Marslen-Wilson, W., Tyler, L. K., Waksler, R., & Older, L. (1994). Morphology and meaning in the English mental lexicon. Psychological Review, 101, 3–33. (PMID: 10.1037/0033-295X.101.1.3)
Mohammad, A. M. (2000). Word order, agreement and pronominaization in standard and Palestinian Arabic. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Nagy, W. E., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). The number of words printed in school English. Reading Research Quarterly, 19, 304–330. (PMID: 10.2307/747823)
Nevins, A. (2011). Phonologically-conditioned allomorph selection. The Companion to Phonology, 4, 2357–2382.
Nunes, T., Bryant, P., & Bindman, M. (1997). Morphological spelling strategies: Developmental stages and processes. Developmental Psychology, 33, 637–649. (PMID: 923237910.1037/0012-1649.33.4.637)
Omar, M. (1973). The acquisition of Egyptian Arabic as a native language. Mouton. (PMID: 10.1515/9783110819335)
Prunet, J.-F., Beland, R., & Idrissi, A. (2000). The mental representation of semitic words. Linguistic Inquiry, 31, 609–648. (PMID: 10.1162/002438900554497)
Ratcliffe, R. (1997). Prosodic templates in a word-based morphologicl analysis of Arabic. In M. Eid & R. R. Ratcliffe (Eds.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics (pp. 147–171). John Benjamins. (PMID: 10.1075/cilt.153.10rat)
Ravid, D. (2012). Spelling Hebrew: The psycholinguistic of Hebrew spelling. Springer.
Reece, C., & Treiman, R. (2001). Children’s spelling of syllabic /r/ and of letter-name vowels: Broadening the study of spelling development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 22, 139–165. (PMID: 10.1017/S0142716401002016)
Ryding, K. (2005). A reference grammar of Modern Standard Arabic. Cambridge University Press. (PMID: 10.1017/CBO9780511486975)
Safi-Stagni, S. (1995). Morphological structure and lexical processing: Evide from Arabic. In M. Eid (Ed.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics VΙI (pp. 93–106). John Benjamin. (PMID: 10.1075/cilt.130.09saf)
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2013). A tale of one letter: Morphological processing in early Arabic spelling. Writting Systems Research, 5, 169–188. (PMID: 10.1080/17586801.2013.857586)
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2005). Correlates of reading fluency in Arabic: Diglossic and orthographic factors. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 18, 559–582. (PMID: 10.1007/s11145-005-3180-4)
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2004). The impact of phonemic and lexical distance on the phonological analysis of words and pseudowords in a diglossic context. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 495–512. (PMID: 10.1017/S0142716404001249)
Sandra, D. (1994). The morphology of the mental lexicon: Internal word structure viewed from a psycholinguistic perspective. Language and Cognitive Processes, 9(3), 227–269. (PMID: 10.1080/01690969408402119)
Sawalha, M., & Atwell, E. (2013). A standard tag set expounding traditional morphological features for Arabic language part-of-speech tagging. Word Structure, 6(1), 43–99. (PMID: 10.3366/word.2013.0035)
Schreuder, R., & Baayen, R. H. (1995). Modeling morphological processing. Morphological Aspects of Language Processing, 2, 257–294.
Silliman, E., Bahr, R., & Peters, M. (2006). Spelling patterns in preadolescents with atypical language skills: Phonological, morphological, and orthographic factors. Developmental Neuropsychology, 29, 93–123. (PMID: 1639029010.1207/s15326942dn2901_6)
Simonsen, F., & Gunter, L. (2001). Best practices in spelling instruction: A research summary. Journal of Direct Instruction, 1, 97–105.
Steffler, D. J. (2001). Implicit cognition and spelling development. Developmental Review, 21, 168–204. (PMID: 10.1006/drev.2000.0517)
Sulzby, E. (1996). Roles of oral and written language as children approach conventional literacy. In C. E. Pontecorvo (Ed.), Early text construction in children (pp. 25–46). Erbaum.
Taft, M., & Ardasinski, S. (2006). Obligatory decomposition in reading. The Mental Lexicon, 1, 183–199. (PMID: 10.1075/ml.1.2.02taf)
Taft, M. (2004). Morphological decomposition and the reverse base frequency effect. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 745–765. (PMID: 1520413110.1080/02724980343000477)
Taft, M., & Forster, K. (1975). Lexical storage and retrieval of prefixed words. Verbal Learning and Verbal Behviour, 14, 638–647. (PMID: 10.1016/S0022-5371(75)80051-X)
Taha, H. (2013). Reading and spelling in Arabic: Linguistic and orthographic complexity. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3, 721–727. (PMID: 10.4304/tpls.3.5.721-727)
Taha, H., & Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2017). Morphology and spelling in Arabic: Development and interface. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 46, 27–38. (PMID: 2700080810.1007/s10936-016-9425-3)
Treiman, R., Cassar, M., & Zukowski, A. (1994). What types of linguistic information do children use in spelling? The case of flaps. Child Development, 65, 1318–1337. (PMID: 798235210.2307/1131501)
Treiman, R., & Cassar, M. (1996). Effects of morphology on children's spelling of final consonant clusters. Experimental Child Psychology, 63, 141–170. (PMID: 10.1006/jecp.1996.0045)
Ussishkin, A. (1999). The inadequacy of the consonantal root: Modern Hebrew denominal verbs and output–output correspondence. Phonology, 16, 401–442. (PMID: 10.1017/S0952675799003796)

Keywords: Arabic; Dual-route hypothesis; Learning disabilities; Morphographs; Morphological complexity; Morphological processing; Root; Semitic languages; Spelling errors; The morpheme-based theory; The stem/ word-based theory; Word pattern

Date Created: 20220624 Date Completed: 20230323 Latest Revision: 20230323

20230323

10.1007/s10936-022-09896-2

35750982