Spelling Morphology The Psycholinguistics of Hebrew Spelling [Hardcover]

Modern Hebrew is a highly synthetic Semitic languageits lexicon is rich in morphemes. This volume supplies the first in-depth psycholinguistic analysis of the interaction between morphological knowledge and spelling in Hebrew. It also examines how far this model can be applied to other languages. Anchored to a connectionist, cognitive, cross-linguistic and typological framework, the study accords with todays perception of spelling as being much more than a mere technical skill. Contemporary psycholinguistic literature views spelling as a window on what people know about words and their structure. The strong correlation between orthographies and morphological units makes linking consistent grammatical and lexical representation and spelling units in speaker-writers a key research goal. Hebrews wealth of morphological structures, reflected in its written form, promotes morphological perception and strategies in those who speak and write it, adding vitality and relevance to this work.

Modern Hebrew, a highly synthetic Semitic language, is rich in morphemes. This volume supplies the first in-depth psycholinguistic analysis of the interaction between morphological knowledge and spelling in Hebrew as anchored in current general models of learning and literacy.

Far from being a mere technical skill, spelling is now perceived in psychological and psycholinguistic literature as a window into what an individual knows about words, and the acquisition of spelling is regarded as a process of conceptual and linguistic learning. In recent years linguists and psychologists have shown growing interest in the linguistic nature of alphabetic orthographic systems, in their psycholinguistic representation in adults and in their developmental history in children learning to read and write.

The question of orthographic depth - to what extent an orthographic system fully and systematically reflects the phonology of l