Rizal Technological University

Pasig Campus

The implication of the study of Semantics

Submitted by:
Casiple, Russell G.

Submitted to:
Prof. Lyn M. Besa

PCED-02-101A
W- 7:30-10:00
 October 23, 2019

As like what have been discussed in the Introduction of Linguistics,

Semantics is defined as the study of meaning of the human language.
It is the study of the meaning of a word, a phrase, a sentence, or a text. The
aim of semantics is to discover why meaning is more complex than simply the words
form in a sentence. It is the central to the study of communication which in turn, is an
important factor in how society is organized. There are words with the same spelling,
but sometimes has a different meanings. The study of semantics helps people to
understand the exact content or meaning of the given words. Another importance is
that, the study of semantics is very important in the field of psychology for they uses
different terms that can be sometimes critical. Semantics determine how language
serves to model ourselves in the world. It adds meaning content to syntactic forms
and structures. The discipline studies the interpretation of individual words, the
construction of sentences, and the literal interpretation of text the way it is written.
Proper understanding of semantics relates to all academic disciplines in all
languages, as a clear understanding allows students and teachers to communicate
their messages clearly without fear of misinterpretation. Semantics explain the
various types of meaning that exist within a language, granting insights into how a
person builds ability and understanding with the language. The true power of
semantics is that it is less structured than syntax and easier way to communicate
information.
Applying semantics knowledge will also improve a person’s language skills,
such as listening, reading and writing. If a person doesn’t know the meaning of a
word, how can they identify it sentence by sentence, it will be difficult for them. Next
in writing, the importance of semantics is that it helps a person to write sentences or
paragraphs in good construction, in order to produce a good writing. A person must
know how to choose or what word is suitable for the text. Last is when it comes to
listening, a person should know many of the vocabulary and how to pronounce the
word correctly, because in English, there are many words that have the same sound,
that needs more explanation. A strong understanding of words helps us convey clear
messages, decipher, and interpret messages, and make our speech interesting,
fluent and setting-appropriate. Semantics is essential for expressing ideas and
understanding`messages.

Morphology is defined as the study of the internal structure of words. It is the

core part of linguistic study today. Studying Morphology gives an impact to everyone
who studies it. Understanding the meaning of prefixes, suffixes, and roots
enhances the comprehension of text being read. The manipulation of affixes can
impact the part of speech that a word denotes. Having this knowledge enhances
text comprehension as well. Direct instruction of morphology is an effective means
to help with understanding and applying word structure for decoding, spelling, and
vocabulary study (Wilson, 2005). Specifically, students can be taught strategies to
segment or manipulate words according to their affixes and roots. As a result,
students may be able to recognize an unfamiliar word simply by identifying the
affixes and the remaining base word or root (Carreker, 2005). Students who
understand how words are formed by combining prefixes, suffixes, and roots tend
to have larger vocabularies and better reading comprehension than peers without
such knowledge and skills (Prince, 2009). Nagy, 2007, proposed that teaching
morphological awareness, and decoding in school may be the way to narrow the
achievement gap for children whose families differ in education and income levels,
and ethnic or racial backgrounds. A deep and full knowledge of understanding of
vocabulary will improve outcomes for students who struggle. Students who
understand morphologically complex words have an easier thriving in subjects such
as reading, comprehension, oral language and writing. Children who are capable of
understanding morphology are better able to understand the meaning and spelling
of words. Learning morphology helps students break down the morphemes and
decode the meaning and increases their vocabulary. Understanding morphology
helps prepare students to move unto the next level and increase their reading and
writing levels. The ability to learn languages can be affected by morphology.
Morphological analysis can help anybody to infer the meaning of some words, and
at the same time, to learn new words easier than without it. Hence the importance
of being used to affixes and suffixes and the role they play in words. It helps us see
the flexibility of language. With morphological knowledge, students can take the
notion of the meaning in the word “like” and transform it into a number of possibilities
(unlike, likely, unlikely, likable, unlikable, likeness, unlikeness) to express their
message more accurately and precisely. Eventually, morphological awareness can
help language students to familiarize with lexical derivations and with the meaning or
morphemes. They will be able to distinguish, for instance, that the suffixes “-ment” or
“-ness” form a noun, or that the suffix “-ly” forms an adverb. Ultimately, they will be
able to realize that, at some extent, the English language has a certain
morphological logic people follow to know and produce new words. These new
words, reminds us of what we could call, in Chomsky’s words, the transformational-
generative morphology, on the ability that we humans would have to perfectly
produce and understand words we’ve never hear before if we already understand
the roots. Another utility of morphology is that it helps us to have better writings skills.
Being aware that there are certain morphological irregularities in English language is
important to seek the language properly, and in addition, it may even have a
beneficial effect in auditory skills, in so far, as the phonological aspect is related with
morphology in spoken language.
 Rizal Technological University
Pasig Campus

Implication of Morphology in Pedagogy

Submitted by:
Casiple, Russell G.

Submitted to:
Prof. Lyn M. Besa

PCED-02-101A
W- 7:30-10:00
October 23, 2019