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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Whether you are reading this passage in the Bible or have chills from Linus's recitation in A Charlie Brown Christmas, you may have spotted the word multitude and become curious. I became curious listening to an episode of Alanis Morissette's podcast, Conversations with Alanis, where she often talks about mental health with psychological leaders. Throughout the podcast episodes, she frequently refers to humans as "multitudinous" beings, meaning we possess many facets, such as being a mother, wife, teacher, artist, etc. We should embrace this complexity and the expression.
I've looked at attitude before. Is it a similar situation here? there's also solitude, which seems to be the antonym of this word. Are all three of these words related? And if
In our exploration, we'll look at a way that adjectives can be classified as attributive or predicative. We will also clarify our definition of morpheme to allow for elements like connecting vowel letters. We will learn about interfixes and syncope. And our old friend schwa will make several appearances.
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Meaning
What is this word's meaning and how does the word function?
The entry for multitudinous in the Collins dictionary says it means "very numerous." Our word is an adjective. We often define adjectives as "describing words." Whereas it is true that adjectives modify nouns, that semantic definition doesn't tell us much about how adjectives function in context.
Adjectives usually appear right before the noun they modify:
- The tall man sat right in front of me at the movies.
- The sun sets in the western sky.
The adjective tall appears before the noun man. The adjective western appears right before its noun sky. Even though it appears in the predicate of the sentence, it is in the noun phrase "the western sky." Some adjectives are strictly attributive, meaning they can only appear before the noun they modify. Attributive-only adjectives include countless, former, and the word western above.
Some adjectives appear after linking verbs. These are predicative adjectives.
- Her idea is ridiculous.
- The baby seems sleepy.
Again, there are some adjectives that are strictly predicative: asleep, alive, and glad. We don't say, "an asleep baby." We say, "The baby is asleep."
What about multitudinous?
- The canvas was covered in multitudinous details.
- The challenges faced by our group were multitudinous.
Like most adjectives, multitudinous can be both attributive and predicative.
But what about our question about the base of this word...?
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Structure
What are the elements that make up this word's structure?
The suffix
multitudin + ous
We know we have a word multitude, as appears in the Bible verse above.
multitude/ + in + ous
What is that
I'm thinking multitude can be analyzed further. We know multigrain and in recent movies, multiverse. But is is connecting vowel letter ? Connecting vowel letters are structural elements that have no meaning; they are there to assist with the ease of pronunciation.
Connecting vowel letters are the reason I don't like using "smallest units of meaning" to define morphemes. Morphemes are abstract units first of all; their realization I refer to as elements. In addition, some affixes have little meaning. How do you explain the meaning of the suffix <-ion>? Do you say "the state of?" What exactly does that mean?
Instead I refer to morphemes as "the smallest distinctive units of structure in word formation." Bases, prefixes, suffixes, and connecting vowel letters are all units of structure in the formation of words.
But I'm getting sidetracked. Let's get back to looking at the bases, prefixes, and suffixes that might be present in multitudinous.
Our entry in Etymonline tells us it is from Latin multitudin-, a stem of multitudo. It then tells us to see the word multitude. Let's think about stem for a moment. A stem is part of a word that you can add affixes to for creating new words. For example, we cannot add <-ment> to the base enjoy to create enjoyment. A base cannot be further analyzed; sometimes a stem can. We can analyze enjoy into en + joy.
(We also see in the Etymonline entry that multitudinous may be one of the many words we can attribute to Shakespeare.)
When we click on the link for multitude, that entry explains an earlier attestation (14th century) that comes from the Latin multus, "many" and a suffix -tudo. Both have even more links to explore. Let's visit multi- first.
The entry tells us that before vowels, there is another form, or allomorph, of
The entry for <-tude> says it is "the syllable formed when the suffix <-ude> is attached to a base or element ending in
mult + i + tude + in + ous
I'm still curious about the element entry, I see that the interfix. An interfix is inserted between elements instead of before, like a prefix, or after, like a suffix. They are mostly found in other languages, like here in Latin. The interfix
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Relatives
What are the word's relatives and history?
So is multitudinous related to solitude and attitude? It appears only that they share a common suffix of <-tude>. Words are related in families according to their base. Words are formed from bases, not affixes. Bases form the foundation of the word; therefore they form the foundation of the family.
So what other words contain
We could use multimedia, multicultural, or multicolored. We could also find multilayered, multifaceted, and multimillionaire in our matrix. All of these words are compounds and could appear in another matrix with their other bases. We could throw multiply in there as well.
Etymological relatives are those relatives that share a common root, but it goes back further than a generation. For example, produce and reduce share a root, Latin ducere, "lead." However, multitude and ameliorate do not share the common ancestor of multus, "much." The word ameliorate is from Latin melior, "better." If we go back to Proto-Indo-European (PIE), though, they share a root. Therefore, multitudinous and ameliorate are etymological relatives.
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Graphemes
What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?
The schwa is a common source of spelling mistakes. A schwa is the unstressed vowel sound in many English words. Spelling mistakes frequently surround schwa because any vowel grapheme can be used to spell it, including a digraph. In fact, the final schwa in this word is spelled with a digraph. The vowel sound in our suffix, <-ous>, is spelled with the vowel digraph
The first schwa is spelled with connecting vowel letter . The second schwa occurs in the element syncope. Syncope also occurs with the second chocolate and the second vegetable.
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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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Studying the functions of adjectives might make for a good next study. |
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What are other numerical "prefixes?" What about the unicorn or the tricycle? Are those really prefixes? Can you find words where they might be the base? |
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Syncope is a common feature in English that can also trip up spellers. They often leave out the syllable, because it's not "heard," and many are taught to "sound out and spell something for each sound you hear." It might be fun to collect a list of these words with students as you find them. Often, they have relatives where the "dropped" syllable can clearly be heard like vegetable/vegetarian. |
Just as we are multitudinous beings, English spelling is multitudinous. There's far more to it than sounds and letters. There's meaning, structure, history, and relatives, each one like a star in the night sky, forming a constellation of concepts to spark wonder and curiosity for you and your students about the English orthographic system.
Stay curious,
Brad
Join the community!
PS. My favorite thing ever is reading replies to these investigations when someone shares something they learned. Or better yet, something they already knew but appreciated being reminded of. Best? Stories of students the investigation triggered. So reply to this email and let me know, eh?
P.P.S. If you're interested in how to investigate English spelling yourself, check out the book I co-wrote with Dr. Jen Petrich: Investigating English Spelling: An Interactive Guide to Understanding How English Spelling Works.
P.P.P.S. I guess I have a multitude of things to say this week. So I wanted to add that the suffix <-tude> may be an allomorph of <-itude>. However, the only example of just <-tude> I could find was on mansuetude, which is a word that means "gentleness." In fact, although not etymologically related, the suffixes <-tude> and <-ness> function similarly.
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