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In a recent article I was reading about financial wellbeing, the author used the phrase "a part of incarnate existence." What did she mean by that? How can we piece together the elements in this word to help ascertain its meaning?
This investigation will illustrate several fascinating linguistic concepts. We'll explore how adjectives can appear in unexpected positions, discover why looks can be deceiving when analyzing word structure, and learn the process for finding an English base from a Latin noun using the genitive form. You'll also see how palatalization affects pronunciation and understand the difference between etymological relatives and morphological relatives within a word family.
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Meaning
What is this word's meaning and how does the word function?
I'm reminded of a movie from the early 70s I watched long ago called Carnal Knowledge. The title is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. Could there be a connection?
The entry for incarnate in the Collins Dictionary says that someone who is incarnate "represents a quality in extreme form."
That man is evil incarnate.
A second definition says that incarnate can mean something spiritual in human form.
God incarnate walked the Earth as Jesus Christ.
In these sentences, the word is an adjective. In English, adjectives primarily appear before the noun they modify:
a red apple
the tall man
my angry mother
However, in both these sentences, the adjective appears in post-position, or postpositive. This shows up most often in formal language or certain phrases, like, "the president elect" or "the sum total."
Collins does give us a third definition, a verb form.
God was incarnated on Earth as Jesus Christ.
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Structure
What are the elements that make up this word's structure?
The structure of our word will help us know if there is a connection between carnal and incarnate. And what about carnivore? When students begin to recognize bases, potential word relatives often start coming to mind quickly.
Since we know that
in + carn + ate
However, just because an affix looks like an affix doesn't mean it is. Looks can be deceiving. We need to find etymological evidence for our proposed base
Turning to Etymonline, our entry for incarnate tells us this word came to us in the late 14th century. In the late 14th century, the Roman Catholic Church was dominant in English religion, but challenges were emerging. In 1382, theologian John Wycliffe completed the first English translation of the Bible. Until then, it had been in Latin. The environment was ripe for a word like incarnate to enter our language.
The entry goes on to explain that the word is derived from Latin incarnare, "to make flesh," and then directs us to the link for incarnation. At that entry, we see incarnation came to us much earlier in the century from French. In turn, French derived the word from Latin incarnari, a compound of in and caro.
Do not mistake this for a word sum. We still have to do the work on that second element. In order to get an English base from a Latin noun, we have to know the genitive form. The genitive form is similar to the possessive form in English. When we remove the Latin genitive suffix
One other note, resources may say that there are two inactive or invalid. The other meaning "in," like inject. However this element can stand alone as free base, in. When it is used in this manner, like it is in our word incarnate, "in the flesh," I refer to it as an element.
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Relatives
What are the word's relatives and history?
Now that we know the base and root of our word, we can see if our word is related to carnal or carnivore. If the words share a root, they are etymological relatives. If the words share a root and a base, they are morphological relatives.Morphological relatives may be displayed in a lexical matrix and are said to belong to the same word family.
When I look at the entry for carnal, I can see that word comes from Latin carnalis directly, but ultimately from carnis, the genitive of caro, "flesh; meat." The sensual meaning of the word developed later.
The entry for carnivore tells us this word only came to us from French in 1839. Earlier in Latin it was carnivorus, which became carnivorous in English. So let's journey to that entry.
With a sense of "eating or feeding on flesh," carnivorous joined our lexicon much earlier in the 1640s. We can now see that its root is the same caro/carnis which gives us carnal and incarnate.
I also had questions about carnation and carnival. The term for the flower may be a corruption of coronation, from the resemblance of the petals to a crown. However, some say the pinkness is a "fleshy" color and may actually be related to our family. The origins are unclear. The word carnival, however has a more direct relationship with our family.
Our matrix with carnal, carnivore, and incarnate can include other words like carnage and carnitas. The suffix <-ita> is a diminutive in Spanish.
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Graphemes
What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?
In this word, most of the graphemes are spelling their expected pronunciations. However, there is something going on with the palatalization. In the process of transitioning from the
Palatalization can occur with other graphemes and can have other resulting pronunciations. For example, the musician or the education.
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Next Steps
What concepts from this investigation can we explore next to learn more about the English orthographic system?
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Have you done a study of adjectives and how they function in sentences? What are other examples where they may occur postpositively? |
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The element or prefix illegal is an assimilation of the negativizing prefix |
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Palatalization may be the reason some students spell words like motion like moshun or insert the edjacate. Perhaps gathering examples of this so students become more familiar with the idea that the spelling of the base tends to stay consistent even when pronunciation changes across a family. This is one of the central tenets of scientifically studying words. |
After investigating a word, it's always important to go back with your student and plug it into what you were reading. Now, I realize that "incarnate" existence in that financial article may be referring to our flesh-and-blood reality where money matters actually play out. Money is an abstract thing incarnated in dollar bills and credit cards. Many of us have lots of thoughts wrapped up about money, both the abundance and the scarcity of it. Sometimes our students have lots of thoughts wrapped up about spelling, reading, and writing they bring to our session. By helping them make sense of these abstract concepts, we can help them overcome any trepidation and have more ease about literacy.
Stay curious,
Brad
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P.S. Know a colleague who would be fascinated by postpositive adjectives or would love learning about palatalization? Forward this investigation and start your own word nerd conversation about which concepts surprised them most!
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