Word Microscope allows you to focus on the smallest meaningful linguistic units in a word called morphemes. These include base elements and the prefixes and suffixes that attach to them. When the context is clear, we refer to a base element simply as a 'base'.
Words are essentially built from morphemes. Morphemes are the elements of the language that carry meaning. They enable written words to be understood not as a string of letters but as a structured sequence of meaningful elements.
Each word contains at least one base element that holds the core of its meaning. It may also contain prefixes or suffixes which attach to a base.
Words containing the same base elements generally have connected meanings, though sometimes the connection can be obscured over time.
For example the word <discussion> :
dis + cuss + ion -> discussion
prefix + base + suffix -> target word
Once the base element has been identified, words can then be linked to other living words. In our current example the word family for <discussion> includes:
discussing concussion percussion repercussion
A word's relationship with its past and origins can also be determined using a good dictionary with etymologies. You can use Word Microscope to look up such references on the Web.
An exploration of the word <discussion> for example would lead you to the meaning of the base element <cuss> as denoting to knock or beat. This would readily explain <percussion> and <concussion> while <discussion>, it would appear, comes from the idea of a verbal knockabout!
This example illustrates how the meaning of the base element might shift from what it literally denotes to a broader connotational interpretation, depending on how the words in its family have been used over time.
In Word Microscope once you have chosen your specimen word (perhaps one you find hard to spell or a suggestion by a teacher), your next step is often to identify the base element.
If you start with the word <concussion> then you could deduce that it has a prefix <con>, (as in consider or confuse), and a suffix <ion> (as in action or confusion) leaving you with <cuss> as the base.
The Ideas Probe can help identify base elements.
Here's an extract from our on-line glossary.
A free base element is capable of standing as a word on its own, eg. the free base elements <state>, <red> and <dream> are all complete words.
A bound base element typically requires a prefix or suffix to form a word. Because they're not words in their own right, bound base elements can be harder to spot at first, but they're useful building blocks once you do start recognising them.
For example, the bound base <struct> isn't a word on its own. Adding the prefix <con−> creates the word <construct>; or adding suffix <−ure> creates the word <structure>.
Some words have more than one base element. For example, the compound word <railway> has two bases <rail> and <way>.
When you have a word with more than one base element in Word Microscope, you choose one of them to be your working base. The working base is then used as the foundation for new words in the same word family.