Image
Image caption
SF Fig. 1.1.1. Ichthyology is the scientific study of fishes. Crocodilefish (Cymbacephalus beauforti)
Image copyright and source
Image courtesy of Nick Hobgood, Wikimedia Commons
Title
Practices of Science: The Language of Science
Table of Contents
At first glance, the language of science has lots of long words that look foreign and unfamiliar. But a closer look at scientific language can reveal that many long words are made of smaller, recognizable parts. And although they come from foreign languages—Greek and Latin for the most part—the words are more familiar than a first glance might reveal.
Let’s look at an example word, biology.
Biology can be broken into two parts, or morphemes: bio- and -logy.
The morpheme bio- refers to life, and the morpheme -logy refers to the study of something. So, taken together, the word biology refers to the study of life.
These morphemes can be combined with other morphemes to create new words. Below are some words that use the morphemes bio- and –logy. Check out the list of words you made using these two morphemes:
| bio- | -logy |
|---|---|
| biography | geology |
| biochemistry | cardiology |
| biodegradable | anthropology |
| biopsy | virology |
| biodiversity | zoology |
What do these words mean? Use the grid of morphemes below to understand the words.
| bio- | -logy |
|---|---|
| -graphy = writing | geo- = earth |
| -chemistry = study of chemicals | cardio- = heart |
| -degradable = capable of decomposition | anthropo- = human |
| -opsy = sight; seeing | viro- = virus |
| -diversity = variety of forms | zoo- = animal |
What does the word morpheme mean? Work with a group to come up with a definition for this word.
Most words that refer to science concepts come from Latin. Some of the Latin words originally came from Greek or from Arabic, but it is the more modern Latin forms that we use today. Science words tend to stay in Latin regardless of what language is used. For example, this text is written in English, but even if it was written in Spanish, the science words would stay the same because they are in Latin.
Break these words from Module 3 Biological Science into their smaller morphemes. (Remember that the words will not always break cleanly into the exact letters shown here. For example, the word cylindrical is made up of cylinder and -ical).
| Vocabulary word | Morpheme + definition | Morpheme + definition |
|---|---|---|
| ecology | ||
| ichthyology | ||
| extremophile | ||
| autotroph | ||
| heterotroph | ||
| euphotic | ||
| gastropod | ||
| bivalve | ||
| echinoderm | ||
| epidermis | ||
| pericardial | ||
| intertidal |
Question Set
- Complete the empty cells of SF Table 1.0.1.
- How many of the morphemes do you already know the meaning of?
- How many can you guess?
- Are any of the morphemes from English instead of Latin? List your examples.
- Look up any morphemes you don’t know and fill in their meanings.
