Teach Suffixes -Logy and -Graph
Ways of Teaching Suffixes for English Class Writing Activities
Mar 23, 2008
A suffix is a linguistic element attached to the end of a word or root to produce a derived or inflected form of the word. Commonly used suffixes include -ed, -ly, -ing, -ment.
Suffix Writing Activities
Some suffixes have a particular meaning. For example, -logy is the science/study of a subject; or writing, discourse or a body of writing. -Graph is an instrument that writes or records; a writing, record or drawing.
Provide students with a list of suffixes with particular meanings (or ask the students to look them up in a dictionary). Ask students to list as many words as they can think of that use each suffix.
Give students a list of words using a specific suffix. Ask them to write definitions for the words in the list after looking up only the meaning of the suffix.
Ask students to create new words using the given suffix. For example, nintendology: the study of hand held electronic games.
Finding Suffix Examples
It is not easy for students to find numerous examples for a specific suffix, as it is the ending and not the beginning of the word that is known. The following lists provide some common and unusual examples of words using the -logy and -graph suffixes.
-logy Suffix Examples
- Archaeology: study of man’s past by scientific analysis of the material remains of his cultures
- Biology: study of living organisms
- Cardiology: study of heart function and diseases
- Craniology: study of skulls
- Epistemology: study of nature of knowledge
- Etymology: study of word origins
- Genealogy: direct descent of an individual/group from an ancestor; study of the evolutionary development of animals and plants from earlier forms
- Geology: study of the origin, composition and structure of the earth
- Herpetology: study of reptiles and amphibians
- Horology: the art or science of making timepieces or measuring time
- Lexicology: study of vocabulary
- Meteorology: study of weather
- Musicology: scholarly study of music
- Neurology: study of the nervous system
- Oology: branch of ornithology concerned with the study of birds’ eggs
- Ornithology: study of birds
- Phraseology: the manner in which words and phrases are used
- Physiology: study of life processes, functioning of organisms
- Pteridology: study of ferns
- Rhinology: branch of medical science concerned with the nose
- Seismology: study of earthquakes
- Trilogy: a series of three related works, especially in literature
-Graph and –Graphy Suffix Examples
- Autograph: a handwritten signature, especially of a famous person
- Cartography: map-making
- Choreography: dancing, composing ballets
- Chorography: mapping of regions
- Demography: population statistics
- Geography: study of the natural features of the earth’s surface
- Lexicography: the process or profession of writing or compiling dictionaries
- Lexigraphy: a system of writing in which each word is represented by a sign
- Lipography: the accidental omission of words or letters in writing
- Lithography: a method of printing from a metal or stone surface on which the printing areas are not raised but made ink-receptive as opposed to ink-repellent
- Metallography: branch of metallurgy concerned with the composition and structure of metals and alloys
- Palaeography: old manuscripts
- Photograph: image of an object, person, scene etc in the form of a print or slide recorded by a camera
- Selenography: description and mapping of the surface features of the moon
- Stereograph: two almost identical images or one special picture that when viewed through special glasses or a stereoscope for a single 3D image.
- Telegraph: device, system or process by which information can be transmitted over a long distance
- Topography: surface features of a region
- Uranography: mapping of stars and galaxies
References
The Reader’s Digest Reverse Dictionary (Reader’s Digest, 2004)
The Collins Australian Internet-linked Dictonary (Collins, 2004)
