Spelling errors in English derivational suffixes reflect morphological boundary strength

Abstract

To what extent do speakers decompose morphologically complex words, such as segmentable , into their morphological constituents? In this article, we argue that spelling errors in English affixes reflect morphological boundary strength and degrees of segmentability. In support of this argument, we present a case study examining the spelling of the suffixes - able/-ible , - ence/-ance , and - ment in an online resource (Tweets), in forms such as,,, and. Based on previous research on morphological productivity and boundary strength ( Hay, 2002 ; Hay & Baayen, 2002 , 2005 ), we hypothesized that morphological segmentability should affect the choice between vs., vs., and vs.. An analysis of roughly 23,000 non-standard spellings is consistent with that hypothesis, underscoring the usefulness of spelling variation as a source of evidence for morphological segmentability and for the role of morphological representations in language production and comprehension.