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The Effect of Morphological and Syntactic Knowledge on Incidental Derived Word Learning

Kneile, Lynn A.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1387454514

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Speech-Language Science (Health Sciences and Professions).
Vocabulary is an important component of literacy, and its development is widely believed to be due to incidental encounters with unfamiliar words during reading. The extent to which incidental encounters contribute to overall vocabulary growth is an area in need of further exploration. Because derived words are common in academic contexts, the present study examined how children in grade 5 acquired semantic and syntactic knowledge of unfamiliar derived words in incidental reading contexts. The present study also explored the relationship and contribution of morphological knowledge (relational, syntactic, and distributional) and general syntactic knowledge to incidental derived word learning. Children were administered three measures of morphological knowledge, a standardized measure of general syntactic knowledge, and an incidental word learning measure. The incidental word learning measure required the children to read short stories containing a stimulus word and then identify the correct semantic and syntactic usage of the stimulus word within four new contexts. The results supported the theory that children learn new words in incidental encounters during reading. Although there were greater semantic gains in word knowledge overall, there was evidence that suffix knowledge provided an advantage to syntactic knowledge of an unfamiliar word. Furthermore, relational and syntactic knowledge had a relationship with and predicted incidental word learning. No relationship between distributional knowledge and incidental derived word learning was found. While there was a relationship between general syntactic knowledge and derived word learning, general syntactic knowledge did not predict derived word learning beyond the contributions of relational and distributional knowledge.
Sally Marinellie (Advisor)
Education; Language; Literacy
vocabulary; morphology; incidental word learning; derived words; syntax; literacy

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kneile, L. A. (2014). The Effect of Morphological and Syntactic Knowledge on Incidental Derived Word Learning [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1387454514

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kneile, Lynn. The Effect of Morphological and Syntactic Knowledge on Incidental Derived Word Learning. 2014. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1387454514.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kneile, Lynn. "The Effect of Morphological and Syntactic Knowledge on Incidental Derived Word Learning." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1387454514

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1387454514
492
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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.