They look similar, but they are different: reading two morphological structures of Hebrew nouns

Abstract

This study examined the influence of two specific Hebrew nominal morphological structures on the accurate reading of Hebrew nouns. The study also analysed and categorized the reading errors within each nominal structure. All 24 nouns in this study looked similar, inasmuch as they were all four-lettered and ended with the final vowel letter [H]. Yet they were of two different morphological structures. Twelve were feminine nominal derivations, and 12 were feminine possessive optional inflections. The focus of the study was to discern if this difference was reflected in the respondents' reading accuracy and whether grade level had any effects. In addition, error types were analysed by morphology and grade level. The results of this study show that both reading accuracy and the type of errors are affected by morphological complexity and grade level. Thus, even in a shallow orthography such as vocalized Hebrew, morphological complexity seems to play an integral role in reading accuracy and error types at different grade levels.