Brooklyn College BIOL 1010 : Thinking Scientifically

The Language of Biology

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• Word Analysis   • Spelling and Formation of Plurals   • Definitions

 

Word Analysis

You should learn to recognize word parts since they often give you a clue to the meaning of the word.  The word form bio- will refer to life whenever it is used.  We have such words as biology, the study of life; biometry, the measurement of life or statistics as applied to life sciences and biota, the animals and plants of a region.

Some of our word can be broken down into parts; some are not subject to analysis of this sort and are called root words.  Upon analysis the word zoology is broken down into zoo- and -logy.  Zoo comes from the Greek zoion, animal; -logy is derived from the Greek logos, discourse.  Zoology literally means animal discourse or, as we commonly say, the study of animals.  On the other hand, the word cell cannot be analysis in this way.  Cell is derived from the Latin cella, little room.

Word analysis will be a very useful tool because it will often give you a good idea of the meaning of words.  But it will not always do so.  Perhaps the main reason for this is that words generally tend to change their meanings, pronunciations and spellings with the passage of time.   Uncommon words may defy analysis and sometimes words have the same root but different meanings.

 

Spelling and Formation of Plurals

Spelling is a sore point with many student.  It need not be.  Some people have a greater facility with words than others, but certainly any collgege study can learn to spell.  For some it will be easy; for others it will require considerable time and effort; but it can be done and is very much worthwhile.  Educated society expects good spelling, not only of the more common words but of technical terms as well.  Perhaps it is a rather superficial criterion, but a person's eduaction is often evaluated to a great extent on the basis of your spelling ability.  English is a difficlut language to spell, but if you follow the outline below you can improve your spelling.

1. You must recognize the fact that proper spelling is not only a social necessity but is also essential to accurate scientific expression.
2. Assume the reponsibility for your own improvement. Do not simply study prepared lists of words. Work on words that trouble you.
3. Realize that biological words are really easier to spell than many more common words. This is true because pronunciation is much more closely related to spelling then in other words.  In biological terms, nearly all letters are sounded. Try to pronounce the words. You may not get the pronunciation and accent exaxtly right, but this will help you to learn the letter order of the words.
4. It is important to recognize the owrd as a whole, but it also is important, especially with longer words, to learn to break words into syllables. To do this you must really look at a word, not merely glance at it.
5. Use the words in sentences so that you can gain a good conception of what the word means and how they are used.
6. Write the words over and over again to help fix them in your mind.
7. Make friends with your dictionary.
8. Do not hesitate to work at your spelling. You will be amply repaid for your spelling.

The formation of plurals of biological terms is a thorny problem.  Some words take the usual English plurals, but some take the plural form of the language from which they were derived.  There is an area of disagreement among biologists concerning plural formatios of terms derived from foreign languages.  Most biologists prefer to use the foreign plurals, but some will use to English plural forms.  For example, most biologists would use the Latin form, antennae for the plural of antenna, but some would use the English form antennas.

These are the most common singular and plural endings for foreign words:

singular		plural
-us		-i
-a		-ae
-um		-a
-ix, -ex		-ices
-is		-es

These endings are added to the word stem to form the singular or plural:

stem		singular		plural
nucle-		nucleus		nuclei
lamell-		lamella		lamellae
pseudopodi		pseudopodium		pseudopodia
append-		appendix		appendices
vert-		vertex		vertices
bas-		basis		bases

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Definitions

Science attempts to define its terms and concepts as precisely as possible.  The easiest and simplest way to define anything is to use a synonym, that is, another word with the same meaning.  Unicellular can be defined as one-celled; fission means splitting; apterous means wingless.

Some definitions must be rather complex, but most biological terms can be defined rather simply.  A definition consists of two parts, the classification and the differentiation.  The classification indicates the general class of item to be defined; the differentiation indicates how the item is different from related items.

Here are some examples of what is meant by classification and differentiation:

1. Genetics is the study of inheritance.

   The word defined is genetics; study is the classification; of inheritance is the differentiation.  There are. of course, many different sorts of studies.  Genetics differs from the others.  Specifically, it is the study of inheritance.

2. A thallus is a plant body lacking roots, stems, leaves and flowers.

   In this example the word defines ss thallus, plant body is the classification; lacking roots, stems, leaves and flowers is the differentiation.  There are many kinds of plant bodies, but not the kind lacking roots, stems, leaves and flowers is a thallus.

There are several common errors committed in the formation of definations. These errors are listed below.

1. Lack of the same grammatical structure in the word defined and the classification.

   This is a very common mistake.  It most often appears in calling a noun a "where" or a "when". For example; excretion is not "when metabolic wastes are eliminated."  Excretion is not "when" anything. Excretion is the elimination of metabolic wastes.

2. Classification is too wide.

   To classify a deer as an animal is essentially correct but not very helpful as a classification since there are a great many things that can be called animal.  To say that a deer in a ruminant animal would be a better and narrower classification.

3. A derivative of the word or the word itself is in the definition.

   It does not define tree very well to state that a tree is "a tree-like plant.".  It would be a poor definition to say that a biologist is "a person who studies biology."

4. Differentiation is not accurate or complete enough.

   To say that a spider is "an eight-legged arthropod" does not exclude scorpions, ticks, and mites.  We would have a better defination if we were to define a spider as an eight-legged arthropod which has spinnerets at the end of its abdomen from which silk used in making snares, webs, nests or cocoons is discharged.

5. Definition is too technical or "bookish"

   This ia a common student error.  With scientific terms it is often necessary to use technical terms of definitions.  If we were to define an analgesis as "an anodyne", we would be correct.  But what is an anodyne? An anodyne is a medicine that relives pain.  It would be a much more useful definition if we simply defines an analgesic as a medicine that relieves pain.

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