One Step Now Education
November 15, 2024
disqualified
This word came to my attention during a conversation with a student. She had been “DQed” from an event at a swim meet, and I asked her what that means. (I already knew, as all three of my children were on swim team for a few years) Amusingly, I prompted her with Dairy Queen. She laughed and said it meant disqualified. I noted the word, as I typically do, in my little notepad, but we never got back around to it. I decided to investigate it on my own in case it ever comes around again.
Meaning
What is this word’s meaning and how does the word function?
When words are inflected to show pluralization, tense, or degree, they are often included in the same dictionary entry as the stem or base upon which they are built. When I looked at disqualified in the Collins CoBuild Dictionary, I was directed to look at disqualify, the stem upon which disqualified has been built. I already know now that this word is built with the suffix <-ed>. I’ve referred to disqualify as a stem, because I’m hypothesizing it can be broken down further; a base cannot.
The entry in Collins says that if you are disqualified, “they are officially stopped from participating in an event…usually because they have done something wrong.”
My student and I discussed what was the reason for their DQ. After all, if you are unsure what you did incorrectly, it’s difficult to correct it.
If I say:
The judges disqualified me from the long jump event.
The word disqualified is the verb in my sentence.
However, if I say:
The disqualified swimmer challenged the judges.
The word disqualified is a past participle modifying swimmer.
In English, we often use past participle forms as modifiers.
Understanding how a word functions in context is part of understanding the first question of “meaning.” Otherwise, we risk supplying students with a bank of words that they can’t actually apply when speaking or writing.
Structure
What are the elements that make up this word’s structure?
As I mentioned previously, we have an <-ed> suffix on the word:
disqualify (i) + ed
I’m showing that <i> in parentheses to indicate the suffixing convention of toggling a final <y> to an <i> when no longer needed at the end of the word.
However, I also suspect that disqualify can be analyzed further. I do not have to. If I had a student in the earlier stages of learning how to analyze words, we might move forward with the above word sum. We might concentrate on that toggling suffix change in other words. However, we will press on with the following hypothesis:
dis + qual + i + fy (i) + ed
My student would have definitely spotted the prefix <dis->, and possibly even that <ify>. We’ve been working together for quite some time. Many resources will list an <ify> or an <fy> as a suffix. However, I know it is a form of the Latin verb facere. I’m finding less and less need for things to be definitively a “prefix” or “suffix,” and mostly refer to affixes as “elements.” Affixes are different from bases, as they are always bound; whereas, a base is sometimes bound. Affixes often do not have much lexical content, or weight, usually; they can be more functional.
All of this is for naught, however, if I just rely on my own instinct or feelings and plow forward, no matter how confident I feel. I can check in the Online Etymology Dictionary to see the history of this word and get an idea of the root.
The entry at Etymonline lets me know of the prefix on this word. There is then a link to the entry for qualify, so let’s go there. This word has been with us since the early Modern English period, the 1500s. We got it from French who got it from Latin qualis, an adjective meaning “of what sort.” We also see the element that is a “combining form of facere.”
We can obtain the English base by removing the Latin suffix <-is> from our adjective to obtain <qual> and then add that <e> I mentioned earlier.
Relatives
What are the word’s relatives and history?
We can include forms like qualifying, qualifier, and qualification in a lexical matrix. A matrix may contain members of a word family. Word families are composed of words that share a base and a root. Also in this word family, we can add quality and qualities. We could also add qualitative.
We cannot include equal which is from the Latin root aequus, and thus results in the word sum equ + al. I will often throw words like these in with students to demonstrate that you cannot rely on looks alone to determine the elements that make up a word.
Graphemes
What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?
Can we talk about the <a> in this word? When I was younger, I learned about “short” and “long” <a>, but no one ever really taught me about this <a>. And yet, it’s fairly ubiquitous in words that are in picture books: father, water, garden, Mama, etc.
I’ve even seen and heard of inane schemes such as “welded sounds” and “phonogram <all>” to explain this “sound” for <a>.
Why?
Welded sounds and phonograms and other non-linguistic names are just additional things for my struggling students to memorize.
An <a> can spell /ɑ/.
Isn’t that enough?
How about <qu>? In this word, it spells /kw/. It, too, may spell other sounds, such as the /k/ in liquor.
Graphemes have many functions. (Including not spelling “sounds”).
Next Steps
What can we learn next about the English orthographic system?
The prefix <dis-> may be assimilated in some words. What are its other forms?
You may want to go deeper into all of the forms that have derived from the Latin verb facere, including <fy>.
What are other words where <a> can spell /ɑ/? Do you notice any patterns in these words? Where does the grapheme <a> appear? What other graphemes are in its immediate environment? Is there a particular language of origin? These are questions that can be used to determine grapheme choice in a word’s spelling.
I hope I’ve been clear in my investigation, but you can always reply if anything further needs qualified.
Stay curious,
Brad
P.S. Forward this to a friend who would enjoy it.
P.P.S. If you were sent this word investigation by a friend, click here to get them delivered to you weekly: one step now education
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