Pinker says that it is good to base spelling of related words on the spelling of the root word. For example, the word 'national' retains the spelling of 'nation' even though the pronunciation has changed. And 'muscle' and 'muscular' are both spelt with a 'c', since this is part of the root word. (And the same thing applies with 'condemn' and 'condemnation', and with 'sign' and 'signature').
Pinker refers to this way of spelling as the method which is based on the same root word, or "morpheme" (a "morpheme" is the most basic unit of language - for example a complete word may consist of a root morpheme and a suffix morpheme).
Pinker maintains that a morphemic writing system is desirable. He says for example that a spelling based on morphemes would help to distinguish between words that sound the same but have different meanings - like 'meet' and 'mete'. But we have shown in Section 13 that it is not necessary or even desirable to spell words that sound the same differently. To do so just results in a spelling system that is illogical, inconsistent and hard to learn.
Pinker also says that a spelling system based on morphemes can show how one word contains another - for example 'overcome' contains 'come', so its past tense must be 'overcame'; whereas 'succumb' does not contain 'come', so its past tense must be 'succumbed', rather than 'succame'.
This is clearly wrong. We don't depend on the pattern of a word to tell us its origin at all. When we are speaking (and listening) we don't have the advantage of being able to see the spelling of the words, and yet we can achieve correct syntax (for example, deriving the past tense of a word) with very great ease and accuracy.
So Pinker and other critics of spelling reform are perhaps making up excuses to satisfy their own
prejudices of how words should be spelt – they have been very effectively brainwashed by their teachers.
But their arguments seem very empty when compared with the great advantages of a simplified, logical
and consistent spelling system.
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