Strand 2/Morphology - Part 8: Verbal Affixes Follow-Up (an -ate problem)

Beth’s astute students may have noticed when making this fine chart that there were some inconsistencies with the -ate suffixes. I have noted in previous posts that, in general, affixes attach to one part of speech and result in another part of speech. -Ate, however, complicates that claim.

Let’s see what they found. They discovered that -ate attaches to adjectives and results in verbs.

activate: active (A) + ate = activate (V)
validate: valid (A) + ate = validate (V)

Oh, but -ate also seems to attach to nouns to make verbs.

motivate: motive (N) + ate = motivate (V)
originate: origin (N) + ate = originate (V)

And mostly, it seems to attach to non-words (bound roots) to make verbs.

frustrate
dominate
emaciate
integrate
legislate
educate
saturate

And then there are these which are all adjectives, not verbs. And the -ate in this set attaches to nouns (fortune), verbs (consider), and bound roots:

fortunate
considerate
desolate
separate
desperate

Notice the pronunciation of the -ate is different in these, with a reduced, schwa vowel.

So what’s going on? Dictionary.com has this to say about the affix –ate:

a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin. The form originated as a suffix added to a certain class of Latin verbs to form adjectives (fortunate). The resulting word could also be used independently as a nouns (advocate) and came to be used as a stem on which a could be formed (separate, advocate, agitate). In English the use as a verbal suffix has been extended to stems of non-Latin origin: calibrate.

But try to have your students figure out the various patterns first. A rough lesson plan for this is here with some answers provided here. It includes heading to the dictionary to find out more about the history of this suffix. The Online Etymology Dictionary has this to say about -ate:

a word-forming element used in forming nouns from Latin words ending in -atus, -atum (e.g. estate, primate, senate). Those that came to English via Old and Middle French often arrived with -at, but an -e was added after c.1400 to indicate the long vowel.

The suffix also can mark adjectives, formed from Latin past participles in -atus, -ata (e.g. desolate, moderate, separate), again, they often were adopted in Middle English as -at, with an -e appended after c.1400

So, many of those that attach to roots were just a past participial marker on a word, like these (all from Online Etymology Dictionary):

educate: from Latin educatus, past participle of educare "bring up, rear, educate".

confiscate: from Latin confiscatus, past participle of confiscare, from com- "together" (see com-) + fiscus "public treasury," literally "money basket".

saturate: from Latin saturatus, past participle of saturare "to fill full, sate, drench," from satur "sated, full," from PIE root *sa- "to satisfy".

And some are faux suffixes, such as legislate, which is a backformation from legislation.

An investigation of this affix is a good example of why we should trust our instincts and when they tip us off that something is up, we should be prepared to conduct some analysis. That is, when there are differing answers and students express doubt about their choices (about a part of speech or something else), that’s a superb indicator that there is something to be investigated. When Beth’s students were going through this, perhaps they hesitated on labeling the part of speech of valid (which they labeled as a noun) because motive was the word preceding, which they had correctly labeled as a noun. They were working under the assumption that affixes always attach to the same part of speech, so they labeled valid as a noun as well. But I’d bet that there was some hesitation in doing so. And that’s because it’s in fact an adjective, and that, as we’ve seen above, -ate attaches to all kinds of things.

So thanks for the fabulous chart, Beth’s class, and I look forward to seeing your adjective one!

Strand 2/Morphology - Part 6: Analysis Reveals Verbs and Adjectives

A conscious understanding of the other main parts of speech will come along naturally as we discuss various words. Students will see when creating nouns, for example, that many of them are built on either adjectives or verbs. Take these examples; the affix will attach to the same kind of word to make a new word:

run + er = runner
V + er = N

happy + ness = happiness
A + ness = N

So students discover that -er will always attach to verbs (V) to make nouns (N). And -ness will always attach to adjectives (A) to make Ns. You can also have students figure out the meaning of the affixes. What does -er mean here? And -ness? How do you know?

They will see that all of these pieces (morphemes) have meanings of their own even though they aren’t words.

This kind of word analysis reveals that we already know parts of speech categories very well since we use them appropriately to make words all the time. You never mess up and say, for example,

happyful

attaching the –ful suffix to an adjective like happy. What does –ful attach to? Think of words that end in –ful: wonderful, meaningful, careful. Can you figure out the part of speech of wonder, meaning, and care?

There's a lesson plan here. It allows students to explore the categories noun, verb, and adjective by attaching and detaching suffixes. They will see that certain suffixes attach to certain kinds of words, and that they make use of that knowledge unconsciously all the time. They will also discover some quick "tests" to identify parts of speech.

Strand 1/Grammar - Lesson 4 Charting Noun Morph and Syn

A useful next step in your classrooms is to have students come up with lists of the morphological and syntactic rules of and cues for nouns. You can see an example here, modeled on one made in Dana Smith’s high school class (10th grade, Dana?), in collaboration with Anne Lobeck. (And you can see a presentation called “Teaching Teachers to Teach Scientifically” from the AAAS last year in Vancouver that includes a similar wall chart and some other context and explanation of this kind of approach to parts of speech. Also, Anne Lobeck, who organized the panel, and David Lightfoot, who presented "Language Puzzles: What They Tell Us About Biology, Experience, and Explanation" have a draft of an article "Teaching Science through Language" that grew out of that.) Oh, and TeachLing has a few lessons that approach parts of speech this way.

With something like this chart hanging in your classrooms or posted in students’ notebooks or whatever, students will have a handy way to identify a noun.

Happy nouning.